McHenry County Blog

The Fox River at the McHenry Dam is now 7.44 feet above flood stage. That’s as of 8:15 AM.

The record flood level is 7.2 feet, according to the National Weather Service.

Meanwhile, the water level at the Algonquin Dam continues to increase.

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Photos were taken by Carolyn Harrison.

If you have photos of the flooding, please email them to calskinnr2@gmail.com.

Here’s the latest results of the gauge at the Algonquin Dam of the Fox River:

If you take Route 31 south into Algonquin and look to the right, you’ll see earth moving equipment where the Western Bypass will take traffic down to Algonquin Road and around Downtown Algonquin.

A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office:

ROUND LAKE BEACH MAN SENTENCED TO MORE THAN 5 YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON FOR ROBBERY OF FIFTH THIRD BANK IN ALGONQUIN

ROCKFORD — A Round Lake Beach, Ill. man was sentenced today in federal court for bank robbery.

The defendant, Mohammed Nusrath Ali Khan, 42, was sentenced before U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Kapala to 62 months in federal prison for the robbery of the Fifth Third Bank, 450 South Randall Road, Algonquin, Ill., on May 23, 2012.

In addition, the court also ordered Khan to pay restitution of $5,211 to Fifth Third Bank.

Khan pled guilty to the charge on Nov. 20, 2012. According to the written plea agreement, On May 23, 2012, at approximately 4:45 p.m., Khan entered the Fifth Third Bank branch on South Randall Road and approached a bank teller. Khan admitted that when he entered the bank, he had a BB gun concealed in the waistband of his pants under his shirt.

Khan handed the Teller a note which stated that this was a robbery and demanded money.

The note further stated Khan was armed with a gun and that the Teller was not to

• make a scene
• give him any “dye packs,” or
• activate any alarms

or the defendant would shoot her.

The Teller gave Khan $5,211 of the bank’s money from her teller drawer. Khan retrieved the note from the teller and then walked out of the bank. Khan has been in federal custody since his arrest by the Skokie Police Department on June 8, 2012.

The sentencing was announced by Gary S. Shapiro, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Thomas R. Trautmann, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of Federal Bureau of Investigation; Russell Laine, Chief of the Algonquin Police Department; and Anthony Scarpelli, Chief of the Skokie Police Department.

The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph C. Pedersen.

All in all, it was a very bad night for traffic.

Route 62 was worse than that part of Algonquin Road east of Route 31, which is a county road. Maybe it was the beet juice mixed with the salt. The county section, however, had a dicey, snow-covered right lane.

The Woodstock Institute, based in Chicago, has analyzed mortgage foreclosures and foreclosure auctions in the metropolitan area and released the results.

The number of real estate auctions in McHenry County doubled.  Most–90%–were purchased by the lender.

The Woodstock Institute’s Spencer Cowan explains the increase this way:

“We saw a precipitous drop in foreclosure auctions while the robosigning scandal was being investigated. Now that the case has been settled with new standards for foreclosure processes in place, servicers are working through the backlog. This will almost certainly lead to an influx of vacant properties on the market.”

Foreclosure filings also increased, but nowhere close to as dramatically.

An eight percent hike was found.

There were breakouts for foreclosures in McHenry County’s largest towns

• Algonquin
• Crystal Lake
• Huntley
• Lake in the Hills
• McHenry
• Woodstock

You can see them below:

Foreclosure activity in Crystal Lake and Lake in the Hills seems to have stabilized.  The increases there are 2.4% and 5%, respectively.

The rates for the other big towns are as high as 45%.  Put in descending order of percentage increase the rates for the municipalities for which date are available follow:

• Woodstock – 45.1%
• Huntley – 43.9%
• McHenry – 31.5%
• Algonquin – 26.4%
• Lake in the Hills- 5%
• Crystal Lake – 2.4%

Elgin’s Daily Courier-News reports that newly-installed Kane County Board Chairman Chris Lauzen is insisting on local voters approving a referendum in 2014 before giving his support to build a toll bridge south of Algonquin.

Pretty much every municipal board, plus McHenry County’s has passed resolutions in support of the toll bridge, but Lauzen wants what Courier-News reporter Matt Brennan characterizes as “hard evidence of public support.”

I guess he doesn’t think village board members’ votes are good enough to provide “hard evidence.”

I would agree.

As an indication that municipal don’t always speak for their constituents, the Crystal Lake City Council voted to endorse the 1974 Regional Transportation Authority referendum, but the voters in McHenry County voted over 90% against the proposal.

My guess is that most local residents don’t even know that local officials might be planning to indenture them with paying toll taxes twenty years (or more, if the tolls are continued after they are paid off–maintenance has to paid for, you know).

$1.50 each way during rush hour, $1 at other times.

The Village President of Algonquin is up for election this coming April, as are three Trustees and the Clerk.

Filing so far are

• President – John Schmitt
• Village Clerk – Gerald Kautz
• Robert (Bob) Smith – Trustee
• Jerry Glogowski – Trustee

The third Trustee whose term expires next spring, Brian Dianis, presented petitions Tuesday.

Filing is open until the close of business on December 26th.

Those thinking about running need to file a Statement of Economic Interest with the County Clerk and attach it with a staple to one’s petitions and Statement of Candidacy. And, be sure to number the pages.

If you live in central Kane County, you get to cross the Fox River on bridges that don’t charge tolls.

Two have been opened in recent years:

• Red Gate Road Bridge (2012)
• Stearns Road Bridge (2010)
• Prairie Street Bridge (1994)

But no new bridges across the Fox River in northern Kane County since the tollway was built 50-60 years ago.

You would think local and state officials would understand that the explosive growth (tenfold population increase west of the Fox River since the 1980′s, Kane County reports) up our way might justify another bridge, wouldn’t you?

So, to ease the pain at getting across the Fox River in southern Algonquin in northern Kane County over the proposed Longmeadow (Bolz Road) Parkway Bridge residents will have to pay tolls.  (Details on the project can be found here.)

No free bridge for us.

We’re apparently second- or third-class citizens.

Elgin’s Daily Courier-News is reporting the Kane County Board is continuing to move toward a toll tax solution (“user fees” for those who aren’t willing to call the new tax by its common name).

And, because of the tolls ($1.50 in rush hours, $1 at other times, the article says), such a new bridge won’t relieve congestion. Read the details of why here.

The toll bridge-road would run from Route 62 over Route s 25 and 31, plus Randall Road to Huntley Road.

But no toll booth.  The collection system would use the I-Pass system.

Area residents should have learned a lesson about tolls.

Even if the local officials at the municipal and Kane and McHenry County level haven’t.

Hey. Everyone’s on board.

The village boards of Algonquin, Barrington Hills, Carpentersville, East Dundee, Gilberts, Hampshire, Huntley, Lake in the Hills, Sleepy Hollow, and West Dundee all have voted for this new tollway.

As far as I can find, motorists have been asked.

“Toll free in 73″ was the slogan when the Illinois Tollway was proposed by Governor Bill Stratton.

Didn’t happen.

The Delaware Memorial Bridge between New Jersey and Delaware was supposed to be toll-free after the bonds were paid off.

Didn’t happen.

Anyone think that once tolls are imposed in Algonquin that they will disappear?

It’s not that it is impossible for a local government to build a bridge over a river and later eliminate tolls.

In Winnebago County, the Bauer Parkway Bridge was built in 1994. 50-cent toll. The bonds will be paid off this month.

The local County Board member Kay Mullins says it’s the only county-operated toll bridge in Illinois.

“’My constituents pay taxes like everybody else, so it’s unfair for them to pay additional funds for’ the bridge, said Mullins D-8,” the Rockford Resister-Star reports.

And, miracle of miracles, the County Board has decided to eliminate the tolls in April.

As I have told you before, when a new bridge across the Mississippi in the Metro-East area was being considered, Missouri wanted it to be a toll bridge.

Rod Blagojevich, pandering as usual to those not wanting to pay their own way, held out for a bridge that will be mainly paid for by Chicago-area Motor Fuel Taxes.

Bridges with spans similar to the one that will be needed to cross the Fox River get built across Downstate interstates. No tolls are charged local residents. And the population trends in the two counties featured in this I-57 overpass story are increasing hardly at all in Coles County and no where near the growth rate in Kane and McHenry Counties in Champaign County.

I would hope that northern Kane County Board members might also argue that their constituents pay local taxes the same way the people who use the three central Kane County bridges mentioned above do.

They have significant representation (4 out of 7) on the Kane County Transportation Committee:

• Maggie Auger (R-Algonquin)
• T.R. Smith (R, Burlington, with district including Huntley’s Sun City)
• freshmen Becky Gillam (R, West Dundee)
• Joseph Haimann (D, Carpentersville).

And, let’s not let the state legislators off the hook:

• State Senator-elect Karen McConnaughay
• State Rep. Tim Schmitz
• State Rep. Mike Tryon
• State Senator Michael Noland
• State Rep. Keith Farnham
• State Senator Dan Duffy
• State Rep.-elect Dave McSweeney

And our congressmen:

• Dick Durbin
• Mark Kirk
• Randy Hultgren (R-14th)
• Peter Roskam (R-6th)
• Tammy Duckworth

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Perhaps the Democrats gerrymandering of this part of Illinois may actually turn out to be a benefit.

A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office:

SUBURBAN CHIROPRACTOR SENTENCED TO 6½ YEARS IN PRISON FOR DEFRAUDING BLUE CROSS OF NEARLY $5.9 MILLION IN FALSE CLAIMS

CHICAGO — A chiropractor who partly owned six suburban clinics was sentenced today to 6½ years in federal prison for intending to defraud a private health insurance company of nearly $5.9 million and causing an actual loss of more than $2 million by submitting false claims for certain services that were not medically necessary or were not provided to patients.

The defendant, BRADLEY MATTSON, pleaded guilty in September to one count of health care fraud, admitting that he engaged in a 10-year scheme to defraud Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois through all six clinics that he owned in combination with two co-defendants.

Mattson, 51, of Lake Forest, was ordered to begin serving his sentence on Jan. 25, 2013, by U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman, who also ordered Mattson to pay restitution totaling $2,097,031.

“This scheme required extensive efforts.” Judge Guzman said.

“Frauds like this all across the country are jacking-up the price of insurance,” he said, adding that Mattson showed “no sensitivity to his patients,” and “put many of them through unnecessary stress.”

Between 1999 and 2009, Mattson co-owned and operated

• Hawthorn Physical Medicine
• Woodfield Physical Medicine
• Stratford Physical Medicine
• Algonquin Physical Medicine
• Northshore Physical Medicine
• Cumberland Physical Medicine

in combination with co-defendants Steven Paul and Neelesh Patel, both chiropractors.

According to his guilty plea and court records, Mattson directed that patients receive an initial x-ray and a pre-set schedule of clinic visits for a period of six months, without regard to the medical necessity.

In addition, he ordered that the clinics’ staff order MRI exams and neurological diagnostic testing performed by others without regard to necessity.

Overall, Mattson directed billings to Blue Cross Blue Shield totaling $5,891,848 for medically unnecessary tests or physical therapy services that were not provided, and his clinics collected $2,097,031 in reimbursement from the insurance company.

During the investigation, an undercover FBI agent visited the Hawthorn clinic in 2008 for treatment of a lower back strain.

Mattson diagnosed the agent with a pinched nerve and put him a preset treatment plan that began with daily visits for two weeks.

Mattson rendered his diagnosis despite the opinion of the clinic’s medical doctor and a physical therapist that the agent did not have a pinched nerve but rather a pulled muscle.

Paul, 41, of Northbrook, is awaiting sentencing after also pleading guilty in September to one count of health care fraud, while the charges against Patel, 37, of Glenview remain pending.

The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Renai S. Rodney.

The sentence was announced by Gary S. Shapiro, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Thomas R. Trautmann, Acting Special- Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and James Vanderberg, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General in Chicago.