McHenry County Blog

Eric Zorn's research of Chicago Tribune archives found that ending Saturday deliver was brought up previously in 1962, 1975, 1977, 1981, 1987, 1992, 2001 and 2009.

You might expect that McHenry County Blog would look at things from a political viewpoint.

Politicians love to have third class mail delivered on the Monday before the election. Anna May Miller must have thought she won the lottery when that happened to her county board mailing in Algonquin.

Why?

It results in their getting the message to constituents as close as to the election as possible…unless one has people standing in front of polling places.

If a campaign could take its last mailing to the post office on the Saturday before the election, Monday delivery could be expected. That’s because for the last two or so weeks of a campaign, political mail, properly red tagged, is treated like first class mail.

Call it a citizenship subsidy.

Or you could think of a more pejorative description, I guess.

The problem is that virtually all bulk mail specialist work from Monday through Friday. It’s one of the perks of the job.

Now, the post office is talking about no deliveries on Saturday.

That means campaign mail posted on Friday will be delivered on Monday in most instances, instead of Saturday.

This past year the only way to make sure your message got delivered on Monday was to put an insert in the Northwest Herald. (Any of you remember when Mark Sweetwood went ballistic when a political insert was delivered in the Cary area under his reign? He vowed it would never be done again. Current management seems to have reversed that revenue-deriving practice.)

If the post office ends Saturday delivery, there will be competition for the NW Herald. I suspect it will be more expensive than the price to insert, but mail certainly would reach more of the target audience.
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In Eric Zorn’s column above, he notes that twice a day delivery ended in 1950.  I’m old enough to remember the postman coming twice a day to our home at 212 South Aurora Street in Easton, Maryland.  I’m not old enough to remember when the seven-day delivery schedule ended in 1912.

Lack of inter-connectivity has always been the problem in delivering bus service to the suburbs.  To get from one town to the next, you had to be able to get from your home to the bus stop.

During the 1974 RTA referendum, proponents promised,

“Public transportation, when and where you need it, throughout the region.”

“Right,” I thought then. “Not in my lifetime.”

Now local officials have forged an agreement to allow those living in Crystal Lake (the city, not the zip codes 60012 and 60014) to get to and from home and McHenry and/or Woodstock or anywhere in Dorr Township, plus all combinations thereof.

Here is the county’s press release on the ribbon cutting:

PACE Ribbon Cutting

WOODSTOCK, IL – A ribbon cutting ceremony was held this morning to commemorate the launch of a program to expand Pace Dial-a-Ride services in McHenry County.

The Program, which officially went into service last Saturday, enables registered users to arrange transit trips between the cities of Crystal Lake, McHenry, and Woodstock, and for seniors and people with disabilities the area also includes all of McHenry Township and unincorporated Dorr Township.

McHenry County Board Chairman speaks at a ceremony announcing the expansion of PACE bus service between Crystal Lake, McHenry and Woodstock.

Near the Vietnam War Memorial at the County Administration building, County Board Chairman Ken Koehler provided a few words for the occasion:

“It would be an understatement to say it’s been a very long journey from planning stage to implementation of these services… This project, funded by the Senior Services Grant Commission and the County Transit Grant Program will have immediate impacts to many with limited mobility in the County and will, in the long-term, create positive social and economic impacts.”

The seeds for this service were first planted in 2005, when the County Board approved a Transit Plan calling for the coordination of transit services.

Pace Board Chairman Richard Kwasneski heralded the new service as an example of the kind of coordination that will be necessary for successful transit systems in the future.

Sandra Salgado, McHenry County Board member and Chair of the County’s Senior Services Grant Commission, expressed how happy the Commission members are to see this service provide new transportation options for McHenry County’s seniors.  In late 2007, the Senior Services Grant Commission awarded funds to the McHenry County Division of Transportation to begin a program of coordinated transit services.

Anna May Miller, also a Board member and Chair of the County’s Transportation Committee, shared her enthusiasm for this first step in coordinated, expanded transit services.  The Transportation Committee authorized a Transit Grant Program that provided funding for the service in 2009 using the County’s RTA Sales Tax.

County Chairman Koehler, Pace Chairman Kwasneski, County Board Member Salgado, County Board Member Miller, and McHenry Township Supervisor Donna Schaefer cut the red ribbon over the door of the Pace bus, officially declaring the service up and running.

Sandra Salgado, Anna May Miller, Donna Schaefer, Ken Koehler, Rick Kwasneski cutting the ribbon.

Other attendees at this event included: County Board members Lyn Orphal, Mary Donner, and Mary McCann; Bob Pierce, Dorr Township Supervisor; Don Kopsell, Nunda Township Road District Commissioner; Mayor Susan Low, City of McHenry; Mayor Brian Sager, City of Woodstock; Pace Executive Director T. J. Ross; McHenry County Engineer/Director of Transportation Joseph Korpalski, Jr.; and Pioneer Center President and CEO Lorraine Kopczynski.

McHenry County Board members Nick Provenzano and John Jung lost their seats two years ago in District 3 and District 5.

Joint sign for Mary Donner and Nick Provenzano for county board showed up for the first time the night before the election around polling places. Provenzano lost the election to Democratic Party challenger, now central committee chair, Kathy Bergan Schmidt.

It wasn’t that Provenzano and Jung didn’t have signs up supporting their re-election.

In retrospect, I believe it was because they did not run joint campaigns with their Republican running mates.

There was nothing but being next to each other on the Republican Party ballot to encourage supporters of their running mates to vote for them as well.

This causation factor hit me the night before the election when I saw this joint yard sign for Mary Donner and Provenzano.

It turned out to be too little, too late,

Provenzano lost to Kathy Bergan Schmidt and Paula Yensen beat Jung.

Yard signs for John Jung running mate Virginia Peschke began showing up two weekends before the election in which Democrat Paula Yensen picked off Jung. Peschke ran first.

Jung’s running mate, Virginia Peschke, put on no discernible campaign until yard signs appeared about two weekends before the fall election.

So, here’s my unsolicited advice to Republican county board candidates.

Convince your running mates to have joint yard signs.

Even if you don’t like them and they don’t like you.

Consider it a self-preservation move.

Right now, most GOP candidates don’t have Democratic Party opponents.

It is legal for the Democratic Party to slate candidates. They’ve done it before.

Certainly, it is difficult to find candidates like Yensen and Schmidt, people who will put shoe leather into a campaign.

Campaigning is boring work.

But, there are personal benefits. Candidates who are serious tend to miss meals and, because of that and the energy required going door-to-door, lose weight.

Nevertheless, odds are good that the Democrats won’t find vigorous candidates and, without “fire in the belly” opponents, Republican ballot holders probably aren’t in much trouble in this year of the backlash to corruption so evident among the Democrats’ high profile politicians.

But, it’s always better to do more, rather than less, in an election campaign.

If I were running for county board, I’d want a joint sign campaign.

And joint literature.

Especially, if I came in second in the primary election.

There were only seven McHenry County Board candidates who did not complete the ethics questionnaire proposed by the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water.

Leading up the list is

• District 2’s representative and McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler, who published a defensive half-page ad in the Northwest Herald Sunday entitled,

“This is the worst possible time to sell property, but…”

Ken Koehler's half-page Sunday Northwest Herald ad.

Someone called it the “starving orphan” ad. I didn’t understand when I heard the characterization. I was told it meant that Koehler was selling the land to feed starving orphans.

He said he was selling the land to settle the estate of his deceased partner Gary Seigmeier, who “left behind a wife, three children and several grandkids.”

In the ad, Koehler mentions the desire by Metra to purchase land he partially owns. (The documents say he owns half interest.)

Below are the lesser known county board members who did not complete the form:

• District 1’s Anna May Miller
• District 4’s Pete Merkel
• District 5’s Jim Kennedy
• District 6’s Dan Ryan

Miller was opposed by challenger Robert Nowak, who also did not reveal his potential conflicts of interest.  To the best of my knowledge, Nowak made no mailing.  His two female, incumbent opponents did.

Merkel and Kennedy were unopposed in their primaries, so will be on the ballot this fall.

Ryan LOST

Running in District 5 was challenger Dave Frederick, who did not fill out the form.

The First Electric Newspaper has some comments from a couple of those who did not file ALAW’s form.

Yvonne Barnes from Cary and Dan Ryan from Huntley’s Sun City are the two McHenry County Board members who are far enough behind before the early and absentee votes are added to the totals for me to conclude have lost.

I’m having a hard time finding a common thread.

Robert Nowak sits along next to empty seats set aside for incumbent District 1 candidates Anna May Miller and Yvonne Barnes. Nowak beat both incumbents in the primary election.

In District 1, Robert Nowak is leading both Anna May Miller by almost 100 votes. Miller is leading Barnes by 200 votes.

I think it unlikely that adding the early and absentee ballots will allow Barnes to pick up almost 300 votes.

I am searching for reasons for Nowak’s victory. Can anyone help me out?

Nowak was the only District 1 candidate to come to the Patriots United County Board Candidate Forum.

But, since the paper of record in McHenry County, the Northwest Herald couldn’t spare a reporter than Friday night, the only story on the event appeared on McHenry County Blog.

Although those interested in politics certainly read this publication, I hardly think Miller’s and Barnes’ missing the event caused them to run behind the challenger who did.

In District 6, it’s time to play “The Girls Are Back in Town.”

Mary McCann led the race. She asked supporters to vote for her exclusively.

Second, running 375 votes behind before the County Clerk’s Office folded in the early and absentee ballots, is newcomer Diane Evertsen.

Fellow newcomer Victor Narusis is 436 votes behind.

Incumbent Dan Ryan trails Narusis by 63 votes at this point in the vote counting. Ryan failed to complete the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water conflict of interest form. He was the only candidate running in District 6 who did not voluntarily fill out the ethics questionniare.

Running last is Wonder Lake’s Richard Draper.

I thought the two women members of the McHenry County Board in District 1 would walk away with the contest over challenger Robert Nowak.

Both incumbents Anna May Miller and Yvonne Barnes made mailings.

If Nowak made one, no one got me a copy of it.

Look at the results with 20 of 39 precincts reporting:

It’s only a a 164 vote lead, but the trend is with Nowak.

If anyone has a clue what is going on beyond a “Let’s kick the incumbents out,” please let me know.

Apparently the advantage incumbency and the advantage that having a woman’s name on the ballot usually brings wasn’t enough to spare District 1 from the expense of a mailing.

Both Yvonne Barnes and Anna May Miller have sent out mailings.

If their challenger Robert Nowak has, no one has shared it with me.

Miller has managed to capture the gold ring.

Hers was delivered today, at least in Algonquin.

The day before the election. Can’t get much better than that.

Miller lists her committee assignments, plus these goals:

• Improved transportation
• Fiscal responsibility
• Managed growth
• Groundwater protection
• Preserving our quality of life

Yvonne Barnes’ piece came last week.

Barnes emphasizes her experience on the Cary Village Board (three terms), her integrity (“caring, honest and dedicated public servant) and professionalism (small business owner, bachelor’s degree in business administration).

If either woman loses, consider it a big upset.

Lurking in the background is the question of filling out the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water’s (ALAW’s) conflict of interest statements.

Only seven of 27 candidates have not yet filed the ethics statements. Interesting that two of those seven are from District 1.

Perhaps that will change if the Democrats slate one of more opponents after the primary election and they make property and business disclosure an issue.

Of the three candidates, only Barnes has sent hers in.

It’s the day before the election and time to do some reviewing of issues that McHenry County Blog has covered on the county level.

McHenry County Board Map

Most attention was given to the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water’s conflict of interest questionnaire.  It is now under consideration by the county board. It has not been voted upon.

Nevertheless, most candidates on the ballot for county board have voluntarily completed it and sent it to ALAW for posting on its web site.

A couple of candidates own significant land in McHenry County and their filings make interesting reading.

One, Victor Narusis, proposes putting his real estate, except for his home “in a blind trust to be managed by an independent third party.”

I consider that a sincere attempt to deal with a problem that other land owners on the current board might follow. He would still know where the land he owned was located when he put  it in the trust, though, so it seems to me he shouldn’t vote on zoning matters concerning it. There may, of course, be other avenues for county board members to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, which I think is what the public expects.

Below are the candidates on the county primary ballot who have NOT voluntarily filled out the ALAW ethics form. Incumbents running for re-election are seen in bold face type.

McHenry County Sheriff

Sheriff Keith Nygren (R)

District 1 County Board Candidates

• Anna May Miller (R)
• Robert Nowak (R)

District 2 County Board Candidates

• McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler (R)

District 3 County Board Candidates

• None (all filed)

District 4 County Board Candidates

• Pete Merkel (R)

District 5 County Board Candidates

• Dave Frederick (R)
  Jim Kennedy (D)

District 6 County Board Candidates

• Dan Ryan (R)

Again, those named above did not volunteer to fill out ALAW’s conflict of interest form.

One, Ken Koehler, seems to tacitly admit his land ownership is an election issue by buying a half-page ad in the Northwest Herald on Sunday.

Ad McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler put in the Northwest Herald two days before the election. Koehler is the only candidate in District 2 to refuse to fill out the ALAW conflict of interest questionnaire. All of his female opponents did so.

There is, of course, significant question as to whether Metra has selected the correct side of the tracks for the Ridgefield station, although I have never suggested that Koehler used his position to influence Metra’s decision.

Maybe it was the $20,000 salary, plus full and generous health coverage, but whatever the motivation, all the incumbents but District 4 incumbents Sandy Salgado and Pete Merkel, both from McHenry, drew challengers.

Twenty-three people are vying for twelve spots on the fall ballot.

Thirteen are women; ten men.

In District 1, incumbents Anna May Miller and Yvonne Barnes are being challenged by Cary’s Bob Nowak.

In District 2, incumbents Ken Koehler and Lyn Orphal will face not only MCC Board member Donna Kurtz, but Crystal Lake City Councilwoman Ellen Brady Mueller, but also Sandra DePaul.

Mueller likes to be last on the ballot, but she didn’t wait long enough this afternoon. DePaul gets the coveted spot, worth an extra 5% in a six-person race, probably less in this five-person race.

In District 3, newly energized entrepreneur Craig Steagall, who lives just north of Crystal Lake will take on incumbent Barb Wheeler, former county board member Nick Provenzano and newcomers Veronica Armstrong and Karen Tynis.

Steagall is known for his full-page ads in the Northwest Herald in opposition to Metra’s purchase of 17 acres next to the old 84 Lumber (new Alexander’s Lumber) on Country Club Road.

Those ads have attacked McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler. Less well known is that he put together the people who built Prairie Ridge High School’s soccer field.

In District 5, Dave Frederick filed his nominating papers. The veterinarian will be running against incumbent Tina Hill and former county board member John Jung. The announced candidacy of John Vrett did not materialize.

In District 6, incumbent Mary McCann filed her petitions Monday. She joins incumbent Dan Ryan and challengers Richard Draper of Wonder Lake, Dianne Evertsen of Hartland Township and Victor Naursis of Woodstock.

You can bet there will be thanks and rejoicing at the Miller household in Cary this Christmas.

That’s because 22nd Judicial District Circuit Court Judge Michael Feetterer dumped the Cary Police charge of obstruction of justice charge. It resulted from David Miller’s dumping a load of gravel Saturday, June 16, 2007, rather than going to a weigh station, as instructed.

Judge Feetterer ruled that the prosecution did not provide that charge beyond a reasonable doubt.

The decision freed Miller from the possibility of serving up to three years in state prison.

Feetterer did not, however, let Miller completely off the hook. He found him guilty of a business offense and fined him $2,000, the maximum amount possible. Miller also has to pay court costs in addition to the $2,000.

According to Josh Stockinger’s Daily Herald story,

“Last week, he testified that he thought the weight check was a ‘waste of time’ and an example of police targeting truckers for revenue. ‘I didn’t think I was doing anything illegal,’ he said.”

The story was featured in the Northwest Herald a month after the arrest.

The paper reported Miller’s brother, Algonquin Township Highway Commissioner Bob Miller, called his friend Judge Mike Chmiel after his brother’s Saturday arrest, which was after the regular Saturday bond hearings. He sought another bond hearing, so his brother would not have to spend the weekend in jail.

Chmiel held such a bond hearing.

The Judicial Inquiry Board got involved, filing a complaint against Chmiel and sent an investigator to interview witnesses in McHenry County.

No action has resulted from what presumably is the resulting report. The next move is by the Illinois Courts Commission, to which any report from the Judicial Inquiry Board would be submitted.

David Miller’s niece (Bob Miller’s daughter) Rebecca Lee was the defense attorney in the case.

Some comments below the Daily Herald article and Northwest Herald story are pretty biting.

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The McHenry County Courthouse is the building you see.

McHenry County Board member Anna Miller and her husband, Algonquin Township Highway Commissioner Bob Miller, are seen behind two unidentified women entering the Illinois Republican Party Convention in Decatur. Judge Michael Chmiel can be seen below.