This panel appeared in the Sunday, October 7th, B.C. cartoon by the recently deceased cartoonist Johnny Hart.

When I saw the ant on the baseball right after the “BIG GAME TODAY” sign in the first panel, I thought of us McHenry County College taxpayers and those concerned with Crystal Lake’s watershed.

We really are ants on the MCC baseball.

And Tuesday night, at its specially set 5:30 PM meeting the Crystal Lake city council is expected to bat the ball—with us taxpayers and watershed protectors hanging on for dear life—out of the park.

(You can still call city council members. Here are their phone numbers.)

My guess is that no discussion will be allowed by Mayor Aaron Shepley about the financing of the baseball stadium. That wouldn’t be about zoning, would it?

The developer to whom the MCC board has turned over control—Mark Houser–won’t ever have been sworn in or questioned by the council or its planning and zoning commission.

He may be sitting in the back of the room…just in case, but odds are that he will never have to face public or even council questioning. Some MCC trustees are asking questions about whether stadium revenues can pay off $10 million in taxable bonds, plus interest, but no outside expert has double checked Houser’s estimates and assumptions.

Taxpayers will never have seen the assumptions behind why Houser thinks some McHenry County business might pay $250,000 to have its name on the stadium.

Think about that for a while.

Would the Northwest Herald pay $250,000 to have its name on a stadium, the results of whose games would primarily be reported in the NW Herald?

Would the Daily Herald report in its newspaper that games were held at “Northwest Herald Stadium?”

How about Centegra Health Systems?

Centegra already has a health club in Crystal Lake, with a new one rising on Algonquin Road in Huntley.

Does it need to spend $250,000 a year for name ID when a competing health and wellness center is being built next to the stadium?

It might be called the “Advocate Good Shepherd Fitness Center.” After all, Good Shepherd at one point in the late 1990’s cut a deal for a fitness center with the McHenry County YMCA.

So, who else is there with really big advertising pockets?

Maybe a big car dealer.

Maybe what looks like the Northwest Herald’s biggest advertiser—Gary Lang.

But, if Lang decided to go for the naming rights, would that mean less advertising for the NW Herald?

Considering the boosterism exhibited by the NW Herald, there would be a certain irony in that, wouldn’t there be?