My time has been a little crimped recently by both my participation in the election as a Republican Precinct Committeeman and churning out articles for McHenry County Blog to share what local candidates are up to.

I haven’t gotten around to reporting on the Marengo Chamber of Commerce’s Candidates’ Forum a couple of Monday’s ago.

I was beat that night, but, fortunately, we have the observations of two who attended to share.

Dunham Township GOP Precinct Committeeman candidate Melissa Denker wrote a piece for her blog, MelissaDenker.com, and another person shared reactions to the candidates.

Melissa Denker

Denker covers the answers to the issue of townships versus county government’s doing roads, etc.

“What has the county board currently done that has impressed you and what have they done that has frustrated you?” is another question to which answers from candidates are given.

Here’s a snippet from a couple of candidates:

“Michael Stanard said he was disappointed that the county board doesn’t get down to the real issues. One issue he had was the amount of tax money that goes to the McHenry County Sheriff.Ersel Schuster and Diane Evertsen made sure to state that the farm community needs to be protected.”

Addressing Dunham Township residents she hopes to represent on the McHenry County Republican Central Committee, Denker wrote, “I hope you elect four candidates with strong work ethic, fiscal responsibility and great leadership for McHenry County.”

A friend of McHenry County Blog added the following:

Ersel Schuster

“I was impressed with the responses from Ersel Schuster, Michael Stanard, and Diane Evertsen.

“Stanard came out firing against the board raising property tax rates, not doing enough to help small businesses, and blasted the health department for nitpicking into the private lives of the taxpayers.

“I thought that was the best moment of the night.

“I also thought Shawn Green fared well.

“He mentioned his role on the McHenry School Board and trimming the budget, which was encouraging.

Diane Evertsen

“Scott Summers was the lone Democrat at the forum, and he kept repeating that he would be a fiscal conservative, and blamed our counties problems on Springfield.

“My question for him would be: then why are you a member of the party that has got us into this mess?!

“His main ideas included giving out loans and grants to small businesses, and purchasing Motorola in Havard to sell it, something I’m opposed to.

“If a private firm hasn’t been able to sell Motorola in 10+ years, why would some government officials be able to, and how much would this cost the taxpayers?

“I wasn’t impressed with Rachel Smith. Some of her ideas: mandated car pooling, having each board member open a facebook page, seemed absurd and silly to me.

Michael Stanard

“Her answers didn’t have much substance as well. She seemed unprepared, and borrowed her responses from some of the others.

“Her best idea for keeping the budget streamlined was to limit the amount of county board members, which I think is short sighted and wouldn’t have much of an impact on the overall county budget.

“I noticed in David LaGue’s description that he was the president of the Conservation District, something I am completely opposed to.

“I don’t support a non elected taxing body that asks for more money each year from the taxpayers.

Shawn Green

“He doesn’t have my vote.

“Some of the issues the candidates discussed included constructing a bypass around Marengo for Rt. 20 due to the high volume of semi-trucks, the regulation of horse tracks in rural areas around Marengo and Woodstock, how the board members would vote on the budget and property tax levy, and the size of the board.

“[We] didn’t stay for the whole forum; we left around 8:30.

• “We both were hoping that the candidates would address the excessive regulation and fiscal burdens the various departments of the county have on us, such as the department of environmental education,

Scott Summers

• veterans affairs, and
• workforce development.

“We spent some time talking with Schuster and Evertsen about this before the forum, and they agreed this is a perfect example of overlapping departments at the federal, state, and local levels.”

If you interested in the District 6 race on the western side of McHenry County, this article about the tag team match between Schuster & Evertsen and Mary McCann & Michele Aavang might be of interest. It was put up this weekend.