MCC Easement Policy Not Easy

There have been hours and hours of secret meetings by the McHenry County College Board about easements.

So far, not one sentence about the substance of the broadcast tower proposal in public, as far as I know.

The only clue of what is at stake has appeared on McHenry County Blog.

That resulted in my pictures before MCC President Walt Packard used the American flag to block me from taking more photographs of John McQuire’s power point presentation of his broadcast tower proposal.

The board was apparently discussing easements.

Significant ones, if my non-MCC source is correct about the project’s size.

On the original agenda for Thursday night’s board meeting was “Easement Access, Report #08-111.”

But it was not up for discussion.

It was on the consent agenda.

Obviously, no public involvement wanted.

Sort of like the baseball stadium and its give away of the college property on which it would sit.

One night when the board went into secret session, by chance I offered a suggestion for future leases.

Knowing that the college board failed to ask for those who would benefit from Peter Heitman’s baseball stadium scheme, I suggested that future leasing beneficiaries be put on the public record. This would require period certifications for changes of those benefiting, of course.

This is not a huge leap from current state law under which people selling property to governments have to identify everyone who stands to benefit from the sale.

So, I was anxious to see what the leasing policy would be.

But, it wasn’t in the board packet.

Late Tuesday afternoon, I called the college and asked where it was.

About five a return call told that the item had been withdrawn from the agenda.

Indeed, it has a line drawn through it now.

So, just what is the college board up to in secret now?


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