The introduction to Stimulus Watch, a new web site listing all sorts of “shovel-ready” projects across the country.
It “was built to help the new administration keep its pledge to invest stimulus money smartly, and to hold public officials to account for the taxpayer money they spend.
“We do this by allowing you, citizens around the country with local knowledge about the proposed “shovel-ready” projects in your city, to find, discuss and rate those projects.
“These projects are not part of the stimulus bill. They are candidates for funding by federal grant programs once the bill passes.”
So, go to the page for you town and express your opinion.
Crystal Lake’s page is here.
They include a beach house for Vulcan Lakes, a trunk sewer system into Crystal Lake’s watershed area toward McHenry County College, a parking deck for Downtown Crystal Lake and beautification for Virginia Street.
Vulcan Lakes’ and Virginia Street’s projects improvements were supposed to be paid out of Tax Increment Financing district money, which, of course, would have come out of the pockets of all McHenry County taxpayers.
The cost of the stimulus package projects will be repaid, perhaps by our and everybody else’s grade school children.
Listed are
- $16 million – Northwest Area Trunk Sewer – The project is divided into $14,000,000 for sanitary sewer and $2,000,000 for storm sewer improvements to provide sanitary sewer service for the CityÂ’s northwest area.
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- $9.6 million – Vulcan Lakes Improvements – The first phase of this new public recreation facility includes water and sewer infrastructure, slope stabilization, a public beach house, walking trails, a boathouse, and public road access construction.
- $5.4 million – Virginia Street Corridor Project – The project would add streetscape, overhead utility relocation, repaving, new lighting and other landscape elements improvements to this corridor.
You can click on each of the project’s descriptions to record whether you think it is a worthy project or not. Not many people have voted, but all are showing negative results.
Time for potential contractors to have their employees start puffing up the figures.
Thanks to Illinois Review for the lead.
I see no other McHenry County entity listed on the web site.
I wonder how Crystal Lake got there.
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The Vulcan Lakes Lakehouse can be seen in the first and third photos. The second shows an aerial view of the Lakehouse from out above the main lake.
The bottom image shows what Phase 1, what’s being requested.