This past weekend, Crystal Laker John Coonen unleashed his brain on the Vulcan Lakes development via the 75% Crystal Lake sales tax hike. (No, he didn’t use the “75% sales tax hike” phrase; that’s mine.)

Since then, he has “tightened up” his thinking on the subject.

So, if you are one of the several hundred or so who drop out on the weekend (aren’t you supposed to be working?), here is the revised version:

Even in great financial times, the recent massive sales tax increase approved by Crystal Lake’s city council would be bad for businesses and consumers in Crystal Lake.

Now that we’re clearly entering a recession, it is beyond counterintuitive that the City would add insult to injury, burdening its citizens and businesses with a tax increase.

It’s a brain-dead, lazy business decision.

*The right solution is simple: Sell the “Vulcan Lakes” property.*

I said “simple,” not easy.

Sell it now, and convert the property from a fiscal drain into a financial windfall for the city and its bosses (the taxpayers – remember them?).

Promote growth, don’t penalize those of us who shop in Crystal Lake.

We must rely on the free market to rise the economic tide, not the government.

*But will anyone buy a lake?

*Hey, let’s face it, it’s not a lake; it’s an old gravel pit.

If it is unsellable in its current state, I say (after running the mother of all fishing tournaments) fill in the old gravel pit (perhaps with dredged silt from Crystal Lake, killing two birds with one stone?).

Fill it in, then sell it, zoning it as retail. Imagine access from Rt. 14, Pingree, Rackow and Virgina Roads – a massive, profitable retail development, in one of the country’s most affluent counties.

Imagine the windfall in property taxes, sales taxes and employment.

Just a few other benefits to filling in the Vulcan Gravel Pit:

• Eliminate all erosion to the shoreline, now putting Pingree Road at severe risk
• Reduce water evaporation, retaining vital groundwater for local drinking water supply
• Reduce the risk of changing the water table on Crystal Lake (our namesake lake)
• Reduce a massive financial and safety liability from public’s balance sheet (this is a DANGEROUS gravel pit, folks)
• Make the property 100% taxable, putting the land back into the private sector

Crystal Lake could indeed afford many needed improvements, even after repealing the sales tax increase.

WISE UP CRYSTAL LAKE!

Sell Vulcan Gravel Pit!

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The view is of Vulcan Lakes is from the Pingree Road side. I guess I was standing on the collapsing gravel pit wall.