Sparse Pol Turnout at LITH Parade

I noticed my camera’s battery was low when I got it out before the Lake in the Hills parade.

Catching my attention were the two Algonquin Township Senior Buses ferrying people from one end of the parade to the other

The Algonquin township Senior Bus was pressed into service to transport parade participants.

The Algonquin township Senior Bus was pressed into service to transport parade participants.

Making township government more visible I thought.

(Let me share with you now that Algonquin Township Road Commissioner Bob Miller, at my request, provide such a bus to take young Chinese political leaders around McHenry County in 2007.  See what they saw here.)

There was also a Lake in the Hills bus the same side doing similar duty.

A NISRA bus was also there.

The parade began.

A Lake in the Hills squad car was up front.

People applauded as the Lake in the Hills Police car drove by.

People applauded as the Lake in the Hills Police car drove by.

Policemen were waving out the window and getting applauded.

This Veterans Assistant Commission bus was in the parade.

This Veterans Assistant Commission bus was in the parade.

The Color Guard came next, followed by a McHenry County Veterans Assistance Commission bus.

The Grand Marshal’s car came next.

When I read the sign, I realized it wasn’t a person.

The Grand Marshall's car feature the Run for Lisa King.

The Grand Marshall’s car feature the Run for Lisa King.

It was an event–the Run for Lisa King.

Next came Lake in the Hill’s village officials on a pickup truck.

Most Lake in the Hills Trustees were in the back of the truck tossing candy to the crowd.

Most Lake in the Hills Trustees were in the back of the truck tossing candy to the crowd.  Bob Huckins is next.  Paula Yensen facing the camera.  Russ Ruzanski and Village President Paul Mulcahy are on the other side of the tuck.

In the cab was Trustee Steve Harlfinger.

Steve Harlfinger was in the truck's front seat.

Steve Harlfinger was in the truck’s front seat.

I ran over to the other side of the truck and thought I took a picture, back lit by the sun, but usable, I thought.

But the battery apparently gave its all to capture Harlfinger’s image.

After that, of course, came the guts of the parade.

Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts, karate schools, dance schools Shriners on motorcycles and (would you believe it?) on motorized ice chests.

There were so many young people participating.

No band though.

Algonquin Library District volunteers handed out books to kids.  They seemed delighted to be getting them.

Almost as delighted as those getting candy.

One of the kid-pleasers was Joe Gottmoller, who is running in the at-large election for McHenry County Board Chairman next year.

One of the kid-pleasers was Joe Gottmoller, who is running in the at-large election for McHenry County Board Chairman next year.

Then came McHenry County Board Chairman Joe Gottemoller.

Gott LITH parade reachingI told him about my battery problem and got photos sent almost as soon as I got home.

I’m a bit shaky on the order, but Algonquin Township has a big van with a big sign on the side saying, “I am Algonquin Township.”

Someone handed me a card for Township Trustee Melissa Sanchez with a cube of carmel candy attached.

I took it home and put it in the candy tub which my sister raids every September.

Carolyn Schofield, one of the four candidates running in the Republican Primary Election to replay State Rep. Mike Tryon walked by with about four women and girls (two men in the car).

Here is the yard sign on which I did not see the "for" from my curbside spot.

Here is the yard sign on which I did not see the “for” from my curbside spot.


She had her yard sign on the side of the convertible.

When I first posted this I thought it said, “Carolyn Schofield, State Representative.”

That made me think she was planning on running as an incumbent candidate.  (No criticism implied, although I am not sure this will be a good year for incumbents.  I did the same thing when I ran in 1992 for the first term in my second eight year run.)

Schofield has since corrected me.

The sign says, “Carolyn Schofield for State Representative.”

Strange was the the three guys, Paul Serwatka, Allen Skillicorn and Dan Wilbrandt, were not in the parade.

McHenry County Board member Tina Hill, who represents the western portion of Lake in the Hills, was again in the parad.

LITH Parade 2015 Hill

Tina Hill in the Lake in the Hills parade.

She is running for the GOP nomination for Recorder of Deeds against Joni Smith, who was not in the parade.

Then I saw a big sweeper, which signaled the end of the parade.

This year the Environmental Defenders of McHenry County were not at the end right before the sweeper.

In McHenry, Lakewood Village Trustee Ken Santowski was pushing a trash barrel.

Ken Santowski in the McHenry parade.

Ken Santowski in the McHenry parade.

Neither candidate for Circuit Court Judge was in the parade.

Jim Cowlin was pointed to fill the slot being acated by Gordon Graham.  Assistant State’s Attorney Demeti Tsilmigras is running against him.


Comments

Sparse Pol Turnout at LITH Parade — 19 Comments

  1. Cal, are you sure the van saying “I am Algonquin township” wasn’t millers…Advertising paid for by the taxpayers, of course.

    Also, too bad everet in his letter to the editor didn’t sign it “former township supervisor.”

    Seems like the township people want the general public to think it’s just another citizen voicing an unbiased opinion.

    I believe the word for both was expresses by miller…”self-serving.”.

  2. I would like more than one cube of carmel candy in the candy tub, please!

  3. Cal, just read the whole letter to the editor in the herald. Everet said the county and townships have virtually the same amount of miles. Appx. 780.

    I believe the county has 212.

    Can you or anyone out there verify that or correct me?

  4. Watcher 1940: Road mileage as stated are approximate but they are based on what is published when Motor Fuel Tax is distributed.

    For June distribution the state listed 789.63.

    http://www.idot.illinois.gov/Assets/uploads/files/Transportation-System/Pamphlets-&-Brochures/Local-Roads/MFT/Monthly/2015/May/Report%20-%20County%20Road%20District%20May%202015.PDF

    I wonder where you got the 212 from?

    Yes I am a former Supervisor.

    However, my opinions are generally based on concrete evidence.

  5. Everett, as always, your “concrete evidence” is a little fuzzy and meant to misleading.

    I know it comes naturally as you perfected it while in office.

    I am not an expert on roads but the county report indicates 220 centerline miles (518 lane miles.).

    You mislead people by trying to compare the little township subdivision roads and lightly traveled township roads with the heavily traveled county roads.

    Consolidation isn’t bigger government…just better, more cost effective government.

    Townships as they exist now are not the bargain you say they are but voters are not as stupid as you’d like to think either.

  6. Those little township roads are as important to those people who live on them as any of the county roads .

    In the rural areas they are how our crops are transported out to feed the world.

    They are used daily to get the milk from the farm to be processed .

    Not all the townships are the same as some of you east of 47 seem to think.

  7. Grumpy gramps…you’ve fallen for the township line that service will be cut with consolidation.

    No one pro consolidation has ever indicated that township roads are any less important than county roads.

    They can be done more efficiently and that is the point.

    Township consolidation is not about whose road is important, it’s about saving money and improving efficiency.

    I see you post often but I think you just don’t get it.

  8. Watcher, if this was about saving money and not just some sort of political pay back I would be in favor ,there have been no real facts that it would save anything .

    We as taxpayers are already paying county staff to gather facts for the consolidation group.They should have to pay for their own fact finding .

  9. watcher1940: Re: “Consolidation isn’t bigger government…just better, more cost effective government. ” What country do you live in?

    Since when in the history of the U.S.A. has bigger been proven to be better relative to government?

    Consolidation of townships will result in higher taxes!

  10. watcher1940 said: “I am not an expert on roads”, then watcher1940 goes on to tell us how inefficient Twh’s are?

    Bigger gov has historically cost more than smaller gov it’s a given.

    As you are not an expert on much other than throwing rocks, what else can we expect but personal attacks?

    Run against the Millers watcher1940, or find and expert that will.

    Stop whining about them if you’re unwilling to do what is required.

  11. I realized after a nice conversation with Dianne Klemm that Algonquin Township itself, not the Road District, has not been in a parade in the area-living in LITH I decided that we should be present and I decided to take a whack at it!

    The banner was dug out of a storage closet, a personal vehicle, gas, and time donated.

    I am sorry that the candy was all you received, but additionally we had candy bars, pencils, maps, and at some point towards the end we gave out boxes of cookies.

    If you would like to see a picture of the wonderful group of women and babies who decided to walk with me, I will gladly email it to Cal.

  12. Here is some more info which according to watcher1940 “concrete evidence” (which) is a little fuzzy and meant to misleading.

    Thank you watcher1940!

    You just helped me make my point!

    In my letter to the editor I used the number of miles from the State documents which display road miles relative to Motor Fuel Tax distribution.

    They show: 782.99 road miles for Townships and 789.63 for County distribution.

    However, as you pointed out the 2040 long range plan published by the County clearly shows MCDOT has 218 center line miles of road.

    My LTE included the following:

    “Compare MCDOT’s budget this year which totals $52,437,055 to ALL current McHenry County Township Road district tax levies which total $14,517,026 after you deduct the money Townships collect for the Municipalities.”

    Anyone want to do the math to calculate the average cost per road mile for County versus Township?

  13. Now, let’s take a look at some of the staff employed by MCDOT:

    Construction Engineer II – 1;
    Construction Manager – 1;
    County Engineer – 1;
    Asst County Engineer – 1;
    DOT GIS Specialist – 1;
    Maintenance Tech III – 1;
    Principal Tansportation Planner – 1;
    Township Engineer – 1;
    Construction Engineer I – 2;
    Design Engineer – 2;
    Engineer III – Const Traffic – 2;
    Maintenance Tech II – 4;
    Transportation Spec – 4;
    Maintenance Supervisor – 5; Maintenance Tech I – 6;
    DOT Maint Worker – 27.

    All of the above used up $3,977,035.22 of our tax dollars.

    There are more people employed by MCDOT but that is the total taken from the posted payroll as of Dec. 1, 2014 based on known jobs.

    The 27 DOT maintenance workers averaged over $65,000 each in wages and benefits for 2014.

    Now you know why Township Road District employees are praying the Township Consolidation promoters will be successful!!!

    It is not the employees who are showing up at the County Consolidation task force meetings – it is primarily the responsible elected officials who want to keep your property tax as low as possible for the services people in their Townships want.

    Bigger government equals bigger salaries.

  14. To determine the actual wages and benefits of McHenry County Township Road District employees would require some time and may not be readily forthcoming because not all Townships maintain such distinct numbers which as a result would not be covered by a FOIA request.

    Using some of the numbers recently collected at taxpayer cost by the County staff we can get a total of all the salaries for all the elected officials in townships.

    That number is $2,978,999.

    This includes: Supervisors, Trustees, Clerks, Assessors, Road Commissioners.

    The State of Illinois Comptroller has a ‘data warehouse’ which contains data reported by Townships and all other units of government.

    Some of the numbers are from 2014 and some are from 2015.

    One of those numbers is labeled as:

    What is the total salary paid to all employees?

    Totaling all the Township numbers as presented in the data base 09/07/2015, I get a number of $8,257,199.

    Let’s deduct the salaries of the elected officials and the total is $5,278,200.

    This includes ALL full time and part-time employees: GA employees, Assessor assistants, receptionist, bus drivers, mechanics, truck drivers, office workers and yes, secretaries.

    Using a factor of 50 % for multi-lane highways we will use 327 as the number of road miles for the County the average labor only cost per mile for County Road maintenance is $12,162.19.

    Using 782.99 for Township Road miles as per State MFT, the average labor only cost per road mile for Townships is $6,741.08.

  15. Nice job Evert, but you’d also have to consider the consultants costs when figuring out the Twh’s costs.

    MFT requires a PE to sign for funding, although that consulting cost is not much compared to having a PE on staff like the county does.

  16. Boy…. I wonder what the school districts numbers look like in that detail.

    As a retired taxpayer the school districts are killing me but I guess I will just keep paying until I can’t pay any more.

  17. Practically all of the engineering costs incurred by the County on behalf of the Townships are paid for out of the Township share of the Motor Fuel Tax.

    MFT is not included in any of the numbers I presented.

    BTW you may have noticed that the County has a position with the title: Township Engineer.

    That position was paid $96,588.98 last year.

  18. I Can’t believe it: If you have a heart condition, you may not want to look it up.

    Just monitor the postings by Susan on this blog, she is an excellent resource.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *