Back when I was going through my divorce in the mid-1980’s, I used to refer to the building as the McHenry County Courthouse and Spa. I spent every vacation and personal day there.
I never had a problem finding a place to park.
That is no longer the case.
Because virtually all court cases are scheduled for the same time in the morning although it is obvious that they cannot be processed at the same time, the courthouse parking lot is full every morning.
The street leading to the courthouse parking lot is lined with cars because there is not enough space.
People have to park of the street.
I have even gone so far as to park in the lot of the Country Treasurer’s new building on the corner across the street.
In the lawyer part of Jack Franks' lawyer-politician role, he couldn't find a regular parking space on November 15, 2010.
The parking is so bad that McHenry County State Rep. Jack Franks (D-Marengo) parked in an unauthorized spot.
My First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake ran into parking lot limitation problems ten or so years ago. The solution was to start a service at another time of day.
Scheduling cases in a more realistic way could probably solve the problem.
Instead of telling everyone to be there at 9 AM, tell some people to come at 10. That’s the time some of the spaces are opening up.
There has to be a better way to schedule the cases.
Spots open up after 10am because of the amount of cases that get handled by the overworked judges between 8:30am when TRAFFIC court and NON-JURY crinminal courtrooms open on the first floor (the criminal jury and felony courtrooms on the third floor start at 9am). Also, divorce and civil courts start between 8:30 and 9am, also on the third floor. Monday, Tuesday, and sometimes Wednesday are usually the busiest days. Good luck setting start times any better. Afternoons are just as bad. The jury courtrooms usually start their jury selection then, and the misdemeanor and traffic courts have another full call then also. Also, don’t forget that there could be anywhere close to 150 jurors-in-waiting Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, whom also take up parking spaces. The courthouse is a large campus, but has it’s days where parking is a catch-as-catch can setup.
Was he there in an official capacity or as a lawyer? Shouldn’t he if he is there as an Attorney he should be driving his own car. He needs to lead by example. Cut State costs.
And can’t they afford cheaper cars?
On election day Senator Althoff was at an election poll in her State vehicle. Why is it that the ones that are asking for concessions are guilty of waste themselves.
Jeff, that is Franks’ personal car. He, like all other State Reps, has a personalized license plate. To my knowledge, our electorate do not get state issued vehicles.
The current system allows attys to charge 2-4 clients for the same physical time while waiting to heard by a judge.
This is very wrong but remember that the judges came from the atty pool prior to being judges.