McHenry County Blog

The sky was a beautiful yellow (any corrections anyone want to make to my somewhat color blind eyes?) while I was waiting for this Metra train was moving across East Crystal Lake Avenue toward the Crystal Lake station.

Labels: East Crystal Lake Avenue, Metra, Sunset

When the Regional Transportation Authority took control of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, the first change I noticed was the free drinking water and cups disappeared. A steel plate covered up the hole.

Then, the last bar car was retired.

Hey, why should there be any pleasure in commuting.

Having commuted from Woodstock for six months, I can tell you it is a l-o-n-g and b-o-r-i-n-g trip.

It's impossible to get to sleep because the backs of the seats don't go back far enough.

Ironically, one could sleep on the train when my father first took it to Chicago in 1958. The cars were probably put in service in the 1930's and the seats were dust covered. But they reclined.

And, anyone in a wheel chair could roll right into them.

They were replaced by double-deckers, inaccessible

Having taken out the free water and paper cups thirty-some years ago and, now, the bar car, RTA's Metra is taking out 23% of its bathrooms.

If you can't get anything to drink, I guess one can predict that one won't have to go to the bathroom as much.

I guess no one should be surprised because Democrats in the Illinois General Assembly increased our RTA sales taxes 75% from one-quarter of a percent to three-quarters of a percent.

Increase taxes.

Decrease service.

Sounds like government.

Labels: Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, Metra, Regional Transportation Authority, RTA

More pork for the Chicago White Sox.

The new stadium wasn't enough.

Now folks like Congressman Bobby Rush was a Metra train station.

The Daily Southtown's Guy Tridgell is reporting that Rush garnered $4.2 million to subsidize such a stop on the Rock Island Line.

That's old news. It's a 2005 appropriation. More money is needed, but expected from state and federal pockets.

The new news is that it will be open for the 2009 season. Construction starts this summer.

In the spirit of telling more of the story, the station will also serve the Illinois Institute of Technology, so it's not just Sox pork. There is will connect to the CTA's Red and Green lines.

So, maybe it's well placed pork.

The fans using Metra, however, will be able to drink more of the absurdly overpriced beer sold at Sox Park and not have to worry about getting a DUI citation.

And it will be perfect, if Chicago lands the Olympics.

And, there is even a McHenry County connection.

The story relates the opposition of former Metra Chairman Jeff Ladd:

“For years, the push for a station catering to baseball fans and IIT faced big resistance from Metra and its longtime chairman Jeff Ladd, who derided the concept, saying the station would only be used 81 days out of the year — the number of home games at the ballpark at 35th Street and Shields Avenue.

“Ladd resigned from the Metra board in 2006. Four months later, Metra hired an architectural firm for $800,000 to design the station.

“'Jeff Ladd was the one who absolutely opposed it,' (IIT VP David) Baker said. 'He is gone.'”

Labels: David Baker, IIT, Illinois Institute of Technology, Jeff Ladd, Metra, White Sox

The Chicago Sun-Times not only focused on State Rep. Jack Franks' recall bill and hearing on the details of the $1 million for the Pilgrim Baptist Church that went awry, but dipped into former Metra Chairman Jeff Ladd's grant of immunity.

The comments on Ladd were a small part of the Wednesday article.

Here's what was said:

“Jeff Ladd

“A former Metra board chairman and longtime friend of Beck, Ladd, 66, of Woodstock, lost a bid for the Republican Party's nomination for Illinois attorney general in 1994. He served as an attorney for Centegra Health Care System, which opposed the Mercy deal. To counter Rezko's influence over the health board, Ladd testified he hired Ed Kelly -- Beck's relative -- to try to kill it. Ladd's clients paid Kelly $80,000, but Mercy's project was approved anyway.

“Ladd's attorney, James Streicker, said prosecutors gave Ladd immunity, but it might not have been necessary.

"You ask for immunity to make sure your client is fully protected," says Streicker. "I don't think he testified to anything that was illegal. As far as his testimony is concerned, he probably didn't need the immunity.''

Left unsaid was whether in his interviews with federal agents/attorneys Ladd said anything about local politicians like fellow Metra Board member and now convicted felon, former Crystal Laker Don Udsteun, and maybe even other friends and associates.

You know, things that might lead to further investigations.

Labels: Jack Franks, Jeff Ladd, Metra, Pilgrim Baptist Church

At Thursday's session of the government's case against Rod Blagojevich fund raiser and influence peddler Tony Rezko concluded, McHenry County's own Jeff Ladd was on the stand being led through his political history.

Monday morning when the trial resumes, the former Metra Board chairman and 1994 unsuccessful (even in his home county) primary aspirant to carry the Republican banner for Attorney General, will be back on the stand.

He has been granted immunity from prosecution.

Labels: Immunity from Prosecution, Jeff Ladd, Metra, Rod Blagojevich, Tony Rezko

Part 1 of this article can be found here.

The Wednesday before last, when I was computer-impaired because of Microsoft's Vista, Governor Rod Blagojevich agreed to the suggestion of the NIU president to use $40 million to tear down and replace Cole Hall, where the massacre took place, and build another lecture hall and an on-campus memorial in its place.

Maybe it is because I was on the House Appropriations Committee through which big capital expenditures flowed in the 1990's, but I immediately thought of how much $40 million would buy.

It would have been bought 40 right-turn lanes back at the turn of the century.

It would go a long way toward re-building and widening Route 31 between Crystal Lake and McHenry, surely the most needed road improvement in McHenry County. (And, yes, leaves have been on the trees sometime in the distant past before Narnia's White Witch turned our area into what seems like a perpetual winter.)

Then, Sunday morning, I woke up thinking of how $40 million (or, maybe it was only $20 million in the late 1990's) would have paid for an underpass in Fox River Grove. Fox River Grove is the only town on the Union Pacific main northwest line without any underpasses or overpasses.

Even though the state managed to come up with money for an overpass for Cary in the 1990's when Route 14 was widened, as you can see above, and Metra officials discussed an overpass in Fox River Grove, it was apparently too much money.

Despite the tragedy.

That would have been an appropriate memorial, it seemed to me.

Instead Fox River Grove residents did what they always do. They did what they could with what they had.

There is a rock with bronze plaques on two sides at the accident site that this little girl is looking at with her mother watching her.

There is also a small plaza in front of the library a block away built with donations and some legislative initiative money, otherwise, known as “pork,” from my allotment.

Five innocents died in DeKalb.

Seven died as a result of the Fox River Grove school bus-Metra train crash.

I think most of the $40 million the NIU president and Governor Blagojevich propose spending tearing down and replacing Cole Hall and building a memorial could be spent better elsewhere.

Instead, in addition to a memorial on campus, why doesn't Governor Blagojevich build a memorial sign over the tollway before the NIU exit (built on land I have been was owned by former Republican State Senator Dennis “Denny” Collins)?

One something like the one you can see to the left of the photograph at the O'Hare Oasis above.

Each Blagojevich sign cost about $15,000.

Then people off campus could be reminded of the tragedy, too.

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All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Labels: Cary-Grove High School, Cole Hall, Crystal Lake High School District 155, Fox River Grove, Mass Murder, Massacre, Metra, NIU, Northern Illinois University, Rod Blagojevich, Route 31, School Bus

I haven't written anything on the Northern Illinois massacre beyond my being astounded by NIU's president and police chief assertion of satisfaction with the way things went after the mass murder and how my grandfather helped stop an early 1940's crime spree in Elkton, Maryland, by serving as one of fifty "secret deputies."

But, today let's compare tragedies and what was done to commemorate them.

DeKalb is not only place around here where young people have needlessly lost their lives.

One only has to think of the horrible October 25, 1995, Fox River Grove school bus-Metra train collusion in 1995.

Mercifully, I remained blissfully ignorant of the morning crash until about noon.

Meanwhile, my brother-in-law, Dr. Joe Giangrasso, was treating the victims in Good Shepherd Hospital's Emergency Room and my lab manager wife was running a reporter out of hospital bathroom where he were hiding, among other things.

In any event, the Fox River Grove tragedy was reported nationwide, just like NIU's.

Millions of people could identify with the District 155 Cary-Grove High School victims, just as they can with the murdered and injured NIU students.

I introduced a resolution which I have put below this story. The resolution designated the railroad crossing “Seven Angels Crossing,” using a Cary-Grove High Schooler's terminology.

The Daily Herald printed it in full, prompting a local resident to give me a short course in angels. He patiently told me that the dead children were not angels, that that was not Biblical.

Of course, upon reflection, I realized he was correct.

Before I got the call, I had envisioned a sign saying "Seven Angels Crossing" arching over the street where the accident occurred. Of course, that was left up to those in Fox River Grove.

Tomorrow, back to NIU.

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All pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them.

The sign at the top and the close-up here reminds us of Governor Rod Blagojevich, oops, I mean Governor Blagojevich's "Open Road Tolling" initiative. The arch was, of course, financed by tolls paid by motorists. The little girl by her bicycle is looking at the small rock with two brass plaques near where the bus in the picture below sat. The Fox River Grove bus crash photo comes from the National Traffic Safety Board report on the accident.

The Illinois House Joint Resolution follows:

House Joint Resolution 63

WHEREAS, This Body joins with the nation and the world in offering support and sympathy to the grieving citizens of Fox River Grove and the Cary-Grove High School; and

WHEREAS, The entire country was shocked at the tragedy that occurred on Wednesday, October 25, when the Cary-Grove High School bus was struck by a Metra train in Fox River Grove; and

WHEREAS, The accident claimed the lives of seven innocent students: Jeffrey J. Clark, Stephanie Lynn Fulham, Susana Guzman, Michael Bennett, Joseph Kaite, Shawn Robinson, and Tiffany Schneider; and

WHEREAS, Our heartfelt sympathy goes to the families of these young people; classmates and neighbors sign the praises of these bright lights, extinguished too soon; and

WHEREAS, We offer our moral support to the survivors of the accident and their families and friends and our empathy to the bus driver, Patricia Catencamp, an the train engineer, Ford Dotson, with the hope they all will find comfort and peace; and

WHEREAS, House Rule 3-6(a) generally prohibits memorial resolutions; the House has waived this rule and made an exception in order to allow the consideration and adoption of this resolution as an expression of our deep concern for all involved in this tragedy' and

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE EIGHTY-NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE SENATE CONCURRING THEREIN, that we extend our deepest sympathy to the victims and families of the injured and deceased; and be it further

RESOLVED, That the railroad crossing in Fox River Grove be designated “Seven Angels Crossing” and that the Illinois Department of Transportation be directed to erect an appropriate marker in recognition of this designation and be it further

RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be presented to the parents of Jeffrey J. Clark, Stephanie Lynn Fulham, Susana Guzman, Michael Bennett, Joseph Kaite, Shawn Robinson, and Tiffany Schneider, to the principal of Cary-Grove High School on behalf of the students, to Patricia Calencamp, to Ford Dotson, and to the Secretary of the Illinois Department of Transporation.

Labels: Cary-Grove High School, Cole Hall, Elkton, Fox River Grove, Good Shepherd Hospital, Joe Giangrasso, Mass Murder, Massacre, Metra, NIU, Northern Illinois University, School Bus

The Chicago Tribune wrote yesterday that

the U.S. Attorney’s Office is seeking “to compel Jeffrey Ladd, a heavyweight lawyer for health-care companies who has dealt with the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board, one of two boards (Ron Blagojevich rune raiser Tony) Rezko has been accused of illegally influencing.”

Ladd, who lives between Crystal Lake and Woodstock and who was House Republican Speaker and Minority Leader Lee Daniels’ boss at his law firm, also chaired the Metra board while Crystal Lake Metra board member Don Udstuen was accepting bribes from former State Rep. Roger Stanley.

McHenry County Blog has been told that Udstuen, who served as head of Centegra, kept a journal of illegal activities for 10-12 years before he was cornered by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Friday, the Tribune reports, Ladd was granted immunity from prosecution in return for his testimony. He had previously filed a motion saying he would “invoke his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination if called to the witness stand.”

Ladd’s attorney said he wasn’t under investigation.

Until recently, legal practice before the Health Facilities Planning Board was concentrated among lawyers who were close to the administration of former Jim Thompson.

Efforts to abolish the board, which was designed to limit competition among hospitals, has been fought by the industry and its representatives.

When Janesville’s Mercy Health System sought approval for a hospital in Crystal Lake, which would compete with Centegra’s hospitals in McHenry and Woodstock, Ladd represented Centegra. Mercy’s pproval was allegedly obtained by Rezko’s manipulation of the board. More here.

Rezko’s attorney said Ladd was known as a reputable person, the Tribune says.

Mentioned in Rezko’s indictment, according to his hometown paper, was Springfield Republican biggie Bill Cellini. Cellini appeared at a Crystal Lake City Council meeting when developers for the Vulcan Lakes Tax Increment Financing district were being interviewed. You can see part of that appearance in a link in this article; more here. Cellini's group won the contract. After the Rezko indictment came down, he withdrew his personal involvement in the project. Cellini has not been charged with any offense.

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The picture is of Jeff Ladd and McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler. Ladd is on the left. This photo was found on the McHenry County Republican Party's web site.
All images may be enlarged by clicking on them.

Labels: Bill Cellini, Centegra, Don Udstuen, Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board, Jeff Ladd, Mercy Hospital, Metra, Roger Stanley, Tony Rezko

That was the question that came to mind when I read Friday’s Elgin Courier News.

The headline of Steve Lord’s story was

Empty
seats
at
Metra
hearing

To discuss fare hikes:
Meeting fails to draw
interest of commuters

Is it possible that suburbanites know what a great deal they are getting on their train commutes?

Might they be able to figure out that the price of diesel oil has increased a lot and fare increases are justified?

The suggestion is 5-10% in 2008 and 10% a year the next two years.

Let’s see, how much has the cost of gasoline increased in the last year?

Think the people who didn’t show up have any friends who have to get to and from work by car and have heard them complain about how much the cost of their commutes have gone up in the last year?

What to bet they don’t know that Illinois House Republican Leader Tom Cross wants to take the sales tax that vehicle commuters pay when they purchase motor fuel and use it to subsidize those privileged to be able to take the train to and from work.

Someone will point out this is just a secret RTA gas tax that even takes money out of the pockets of Downstaters. That’s because it comes right off the top of the state’s General Fund.

Downstaters who vote for such a plan can expect someone like me to point out how much their constituents are paying to subsidize the Chicago Transit Authority.

Only that someone could be running against them.

Labels: Metra, Regional Transportation Authority, RTA, RTA Gas Tax, Tom Cross

The first local politician has picked up the issue of more trains through the southern Lake County- Barrington area on the EJ&E Railroad.

That’s because the Canadian National has bought the short line, which basically rings Chicago.

They did so, as explained in this McHenry County Blog article of September 28th, because of the tremendous bottleneck in Chicago.

Quoting CN President Hunter Harrison, the Tribune reported,

”It now takes longer to go from North to South Chicago than it does to go from Winnipeg to Chicago.”

Robert Abboud is village president of Barrington Hills. He is running as the Democratic Party candidate against Republican Don Manzullo.

In a Northwest Herald article by Regan Foster Abboud pointed out that Barrington Hills has 6½ miles of EJ&E track in his community.

From complaints I got from track side homeowners when Metra Chairman Jeff Ladd was pushing passenger service on that line, I can tell you that Abboud will have a lot of very unhappy constituents.

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Both Congressman Don Manzullo, on the left, and his Democratic Party challenger Robert Abboud, on the right, both seem to be talking simultaneously. The photo was taken next to the old Algonquin Village Hall when Manzullo first called out Governor Rod Blagojevich for coming up with money to match the money Manzullo got inserted into the federal budget over the years.

Labels: E J and E Railroad, Elgin Joliet and Eastern, Jeff Ladd, Metra, Robert Abboud

Click on the ad the Chicago Transit Authority spend oodles on in Chicago’s newspapers and you will see what CTA riders will have to pay to get to and from work.

How does it compare with what you have to pay?

It looks like $6 a day on a rapid transit train and $5 per day, if you take a bus.

Get a monthly pass, however, and the cost is $84. With twenty working days a month, that seems to be about $4 a day, assuming one doesn’t use bus or train service any time else during the month.

What do you pay to get to work each month?

When you fill up your motor vehicle with gas, how much does it cost?

Do you have to fill it up at least twice a month?

Do you have car payments?

Even if you don’t, there is obviously depreciation on your car as you use it.

Just wondering.

Is keeping CTA, Metra and Pace fares down worth it to have your RTA sales taxes tripled from one-quarter of one percent to three-quarters of a percent,
even if half of the increase is going to be given to the McHenry County Board to spend improving the roads of its choice?

Just wondering.

It's going to cost the average McHenry County family about $200 a year if the CTA bailout bill is passed.

And for those reading from outside the Chicago metropolitan area in Illinois, part of your share of the sales tax will be ripped off. In that Governor Rod Blagojevich's spokeswoman is correct.

The Metra engine is pulling into Crystal Lake's train station from Chicago. The Pace buses are on Bull Valley Road at the McHenry spur's grade crossing.

Labels: Chicago Transit Authority, CTA, Metra, PACE, RTA

At least $18 million will be picked out the pockets of McHenry County shoppers every 12 months if the General Assembly passes the half percentage point RTA-Road Sales Tax Hike.

To put that in perspective, $207 million was collected in sales taxes throughout the county this past year. So, the proposed sales tax increase would hike sales taxes 8.7%.

(Yesterday, I estimated the increase would be at least 7.6% and pointed out how a local newspaper was helping the RTA to raise taxes with its headline. That calculation was based on using the tax rates. This one
uses actual dollars.)

If only the 89,403 households paid the tax, it would amount to $231 a family. But, since businesses pay some sales tax, the figure per household will actually be less.

Maybe you won’t care.

That’s certainly what the legislators behind this tax hike are hoping.

If the legislation becomes law, the Regional Transportation Authority will get another $9 million. About $100 per McHenry County family.

Almost half of the RTA’s McHenry County $9 million will go to the Chicago Transit Authority, according to Kevin Craver’s Northwest Herald article.

And the county board will get the same amount--$9 million--to spend, apparently as it wishes, on roads it wants to improve. That’s almost twice as much as $4.6 million collected in McHenry County Motor Fuel Taxes this past year.

The county board just decided to borrow $50 million to improve roads. If the $9 million per year were similarly bonded, an extra, what, almost $100 million could be spent on roads.

County board members might not even have to take the heat for raising the taxes…unless the legislators decide to require them to approve the tax hike. (Rockford recently passed a sales tax hike to pay for roads.)

Labels: CTA, Metra, PACE, Regional Transportation Authority, RTA, RTA Sales Tax

There was probably footage of this on some television station when then went into service, but these new Metra engines were the first I have seen.

Certainly, I haven't seen any of them in Crystal Lake.

This picture of the trains was taken on a Friday night a week ago in Fox Lake.

My wife and I had just finished dinner at Incognito, across from the tracks.

And, no, the picture of Incognito was not taken the night we ate there.

If so, you would have seen cars parked outside.

The restaurant photograph was taken at lunch time.

Labels: Fox Lake, Incognito, Metra, Train engine

9/4/6 - Boy, am I glad our family took its train ride to Des Plaines to eat at a restaurant called the Choo-Choo before I read this.

I snapped over a 100 pictures, most of which the Union Pacific would frown upon having been taken.

Naturally, the reason for the photo ban is “security.”

Please tell me how the ones I have posted here will impair security.

Fortunately, the railroad is going to have its own police force enforce the ban.

Have you ever seen a Union Pacific policeman?

Metra says it’s OK to take pictures on its property.

But, maybe, these photos are a threat to the public weal.

Especially, the ones in front of the tracks of the kids blowing the whistles that came on top of the $1.75 cup cakes at the Choo-Choo restaruant and the gandy dancers fixing the tracks in front of the Crystal Lake train station.

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I wrote this story earlier this past week. After the Sun-Times story was published, Union Pacific backed off on its ban. Thursday, the Sun-Times wrote,

Responding to criticism from railroad fans, Union Pacific has rescinded its ban on photography from Metra station platforms. The railroad said the ban was imposed last month because of heightened security concerns. But members of the Railroad Club of Chicago and other rail fans blasted the rule, saying it violated their First Amendment right to free expression. Union Pacific this week issued a clarification of its policy, which allows photography on platforms but gives officers the right to question picture takers. Prior notification will be required for photos taken on Union Pacific property.

So, if you take the train to the Choo-Choo restaurant, you can take photos on the stations' platfroms.

Boy, that permission relieves all sorts of pressure.

Labels: Choo-Choo Restaurant, Metra, Photography Ban, Union Pacific

After sleeping on the story about Jeff Ladd’s pending retirement below, I came to the conclusion that it was too negative. (Photo is of Ladd and McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler.)

That’s probably based on his 1970 political opposition to my family’s goal of locating McHenry County College in Crystal Lake when his family was trying to put it on their land behind McHenry West High School, plus his support of the 1974 RTA.

I imagine that the political broadside that I developed with the cover blast

The Ladd Sight Is a Bad Site
Vote No December 5th

didn’t help the relationship.

Both of us then and in the RTA fight were probably representing our own self-interests.

With regard to RTA, Ladd had, by 1974, left the family home construction firm, where he was treasurer, and become a railroad commuter for law school and his subsequent job.

I got to work by car and could not see the justification for car drivers being forced to subsidize the train commuters from McHenry County, who, at that time, earned about twice the income of the average McHenry County resident.

(You can see how deeply the RTA fight affected me from the above paragraph. I can still call up the arguments and facts I used back then.)

The basic philosophy of the RTA re-structuring, which House Speaker George Ryan and Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne agreed to:

de-centralization was good.

Chicago would get to run the Chicago Transportation Authority--which, of course, it already did--while suburban interests would have control of suburban trains and buses, along with their political patronage.

Selecting Ladd as head of the train division, now call Metra, placed a strong leader in charge of a vital suburban interest.

As an example of the tremendous pressure that Ladd put on Metra’s staff to accomplish the goals he set for the agency, read what WBBM’s Bob Roberts reported Saturday:

Ladd fumed over delays for two consecutive rush hours to riders on Metra's BNSF commuter line, pronouncing the three-hour delays endured by some to be "unacceptable."

And, Roberts continued,

He defended his territory vigorously, and that meant butting heads often, especially in recent years, with leaders of the Chicago area's other transit agencies.

And, beyond.

When Governor Rod Blagojevich wanted to re-centralize the region’s mass transit agencies and put them all under firm Democratic Party control, Ladd led the successful opposition.

For that, Ladd certainly deserves high praise.

Ladd was criticized for ignoring the South Suburbs.

What nonsense!

Ladd’s comment in the WBBM piece:

They shouldn't (feel slighted). They have more service than anybody on the entire system,

brought back one of the anomalies I found in 1974.

While McHenry County’s trains ran only once an hour during non-peak times, the South Shore ran every half an hour.

How unfair was and is that?

Here’s how Ladd summed up his service to the Chicago region to WBBM:

The operations were such when we came into being that I don't leave with anything but a sense of satisfaction and pride in what we have accomplished. We built the finest commuter rail operation in the country.

I see no reason to argue with that conclusion.

here certainly were tons of deferred maintenance and need for new equipment, the money for which Ladd pried out of Springfield and Washington…not always from sources for which I would approve, but he did get the job done.

(One of the reasons Senator Dick Klemm voted for George Ryan’s Illinois FIRST was that money from it would go to rehabilitation the railroad bridge over the Fox River. Jack Franks and I voted against Illinois FIRST, on the other hand, I because it stiffed Chicago area highways. Note well that 8 years later we still don’t have 4 lanes on

· Route 47 through Huntley,
· Algonquin Road from Randall Road to Route 47 or
· 31 north from Crystal Lake to McHenry. )

From a more parochial viewpoint, Ladd had long desired a new McHenry County train station. His favored location was Ridgefield, nearer his almost Bull Valley home than the Crystal Lake station. Instead, we now have the station on Pingree Road, built to European standards. In other words, it allows people to get from one side of the track to the other without actually crossing the tracks, as is the typical situation at Chicagoland stations.

All in all, a job well done.

Labels: Jeff Ladd, MCC, McHenry County College, Metra, Pingree Road Station, Regional Transportation Authority, RTA