McHenry County Blog

It was not too long ago (about two years ago) that the minor league baseball team in Joliet was sold.

The team’s name was “The Joliet Jackhammers.”

The new team owners re-named it “The Slammers,” an appropriate enough name for the town the Blues Brothers movie made famous.

When I spotted a Slammers tee shirt in Galena last weekend, I asked to take a photo.

In discussing the team, I was told it won the Frontier League championship this year.

This past week, however, the Chicago Sun-Times that the Slammers may be for sale.

Again I am pleased that I was not one of the taxpayers stuck with paying off over $20 million in baseball stadium bonds that the McHenry County College Board wanted to issue for Mark Houser’s Frontier League team.

For those with short memories, here’s the language that says you and I would have been on the hook for any payments if the minor league baseball team defaults on its lease payments:

“Security

“The Certificates are valid and legally binding upon the District and are payable from any funds lawfully available and annually budget for such purpose. There is no statutory authority for the levy of a separate tax in addition to other taxes or the levy of a special tax unlimited as to rate or amount to pay the principal of or interest on the Certificates. The Certificates are considered debt under Illinois law; are not subject to appropriation risk; are non – cancelable and are not subject to completion risk.”(Emphasis added.)

In Sunday’s Chicago Sun-Times, the City of Zion took a big hit for all the screw-ups from its minor league baseball team.

McHenry County College managed to avoid such a fiasco, but its Board majority censured the two members who led the fight to kill President Walt Packard’s proposal.

Those two were

current McHenry County Board member Donna Kurtz and

former MCC Board President Scott Summer.

Note the clever play on words in the title of this press release from Algonquin resident Joe Sta

ROCKFORD FORESTERS ANNOUNCE SENATORIST NIGHT

Wisconsin Senators who were once tourists in Rockford are invited back on Saturday, July 16

ROCKFORD, IL – March 16, 2011 – The Rockford Foresters Baseball Team, a summer collegiate wood bat team in Rockford, announced this morning “Senatorist Night” where once missing Wisconsin State Senators are invited back to Rockford to once again be tourists on Saturday, July 16 at 6pm at historic Marinelli Field.

As part of Senatorist Night all 14 Wisconsin State Senators, who were once missing, will be invited to each throw out the first pitch at the Rockford Foresters baseball game.

Also part of the festivities, all fans with the first names of the missing Senators (see names below) will get in the game for free.

All union members (teachers, contractors, etc) will also get into the game for free if they present their union card.

Fans who first or last name is Walker, will be asked to pay their “fair share” of the Senator’s ticket prices, which is $86 ($6 average ticket price multiplied by 14 tickets).

“Hosting Senatorist Night on July 16 is a humorous way to invite the once missing Wisconsin State Senators back to Rockford, where most found themselves curious tourists in Rockford visiting such places as the Clock Tower Resort,” said Majority Owner/President Joe Stefani.

An open letter was sent this morning to all once missing Wisconsin State Senators to their offices throughout Wisconsin.

First Names of Missing Wisconsin State Senators:

• Tim/Timothy
• Spencer
• Jon
• Dave
• Jim
• Robert (2 named Robert)
• Chris
• Julie
• Mark
• Fred
• Lena
• Kathleen

For more information, please visit the Rockford Foresters website, www.RockfordForesters.com, or call the Rockford Foresters office at (815) 312-2115.

About the Rockford Foresters:

The Rockford Foresters are a member of the Midwest Collegiate League, which is a summer collegiate wood bat league that is based in Northern Illinois and Indiana. Going into their second season, the team comes off winning the league’s championship. The Rockford Foresters play at the historic 2,250 seat Marinelli Field, which is owned by the Rockford Park District. The Rockford Foresters are owned by majority owner Joe Stefani, who is the youngest majority owner of a sports team in the United States, in addition to a group of shareholders.

The McHenry County Board’s Finance Committee decided to award millions of dollars of Federal Stimulus Bond authority on a “first come, first served” basis.

The first two private entities in line were sports related.

One was Mark Houser’s EquityOne’s baseball stadium, to be located in Woodstock after the McHenry County College Board’s efforts to provide taxpayer-backed bonds failed.

The second was a new proposal for a McHenry County SportsPlex located in Lakewood.

Both received support from the municipalities in question.

But, in taking a “first come, first served” approach, along with the attendant publicity, the county board was telling other potential job creators they need not apply.

Last Friday Lakewood Village President Erin Smith issued a press release announcing that the financing could not be obtained in time to meet the December 31st deadline imposed by Federal law.

And, so, McHenry County lost the opportunity to see the money used for job creation.

While the SportsPlex did not drop out early enough to allow the subsidized interest loans to be re-directed, the baseball stadium did.

Sage Products, a provide job creator, got money to put on a addition.

One can only wonder if there were other successful manufacturers in McHenry County who were deterred from applying by the “First come, first served” loan allocation approach.

I continue to be amazed at how McHenry County Blog is used by people as a research tool. Sometimes comments are left on articles that were written a long time ago. Here’s a commentary from someone who lives on McConnell Road that was found today below this article from a year and a half ago.

It’s about the proposed baseball stadium, the land for which is to be donated after gravel mining is completed on the rest of the property.

It states on the Woodstock City website that, “Woodstock is the kind of city that people fall in love with.”

This can’t be the furtherest from the truth due to the gravel pit (aka baseball stadium, NOT) on Lily Pond Rd.

The noise starting at 7:00 a.m. is horrible and the dust is so bad that you can’t open your windows year round anymore.

We don’t live on Lily Pond but do live on the west side of McConnell Rd. I can’t even imagine what the people on Lily Pond Rd. or closer are going through!!!

I have talked to many people and many can’t wait to leave Woodstock, IL and definitely would not recommend living here.

The local governments lack of support for it’s people and the well being of Woodstock was made clear when they allow this gravel pit to exist.

This brings to question, Can the government here be bought or are they just plain ignorant?

I think we all know the answer to this question!!!!!

My ex-wife Robin Geist and I used to live on Lily Pond Road, so I know the area well.

There was a gravel pit then (the late 1970′s) between Lily Pond Road and the railroad track, but it wasn’t very active.

Algonquin’s Joe Stefani, president and majority owner of the Rockford Foresters, is interested in bringing a amateur college baseball players who would not be paid. The NCAA won’t let college players be paid.

Stefani started a team in Rockford this year called the Rockford Foresters. It plays in a park district-owned stadium on the south side of town.

The JackHammers are not the only minor league team in the Chicago area in financial trouble. So are the Schaumburg Flyers.

“It doesn’t make money. (Teams) almost always lose money,” Stefani told the Chicago Tribune.

Stefani was elected to the Algonquin Library Board and serves as an elected Algonquin Township Republican Precinct Committeeman.

= = = = =

In view of the Joliet and Schaumburg minor league baseball teams being in trouble financially, it is even more curious that the Northwest Herald decided not to endorse Donna Kurtz for McHenry County Board. After all, she and Scott Summers, the Green Party candidate for State Treasurer and, then, the McHenry County College Board President, who deserve a lot of the credit for derailing the MCC baseball stadium. (It would have been financed with 25-year bonds for which the taxpayers would have been responsible, while minor league baseball teams last about five years on the average.)

The Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water has made votes by McHenry County Board members up for election available to the public.

So, if the local newspapers didn’t ask the question you think is important, you might find some direction from actual votes the board members cast in Woodstock.

The weakness, obviously, is that challengers aren’t in the matrix.

Yesterday, land use votes were published on McHenry County Blog.

Today the votes on how the Federal Stimulus Bonds should be allocated.

Three projects are tracked,

• Lakewood’s SportsPlex
• the K-Nines Woodstock minor league baseball stadium and
• dredging Wonder Lake

Strangely, the county board members could not find any manufacturing firms who wanted to borrow money with Federal taxpayers subsidzing 25% of the interest.

Previously on the McHenry County Board, Nick Provenzano and John Jung were not serving when these votes were taken.

In two senses.

If they were an animal, their necks on on the chopping block.

In economic terms, there are for sale.

That’s what the Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday.

Why do I keep bringing up a Will County minor league baseball team?

Just to remind you that most of the current McHenry County College Board members were avid supporters of putting us district taxpayers in debt for 25 years to build a minor league baseball stadium.

There is an election next spring when one of them are up for re-election: George Lowe of Cary.

Appointed to fill out the term of Harvard’s Scott Summers was Bob DeWitt of Crystal Lake.

Both have six-year terms.

Only 50 signatures are needed to get on the ballot. I’d advise getting 100.

Any folks out there willing to run for the board?

When the McHenry County College Board was relieved of its possibility of building a minor league baseball stadium that would be financed by its taxpayers if the team didn’t succeed.

The Board did not do that on its own. It was a result of the Crystal Lake Planning and Zoning Board’s opposition, which required a super-majority to re-zone the watershed property.

The Crystal Lake City Council could not muster that majority.

The Chicago Tribune reported Sunday that current team owners of the Joliet JackHammers may be toast.

I think someone pointed out that the average minor league baseball teams lasts about five years.

The bonds MCC’s Board proposed were for twenty-five years.

As I do in the Matt Murphy piece below, the Algonquin Library Board member is a baseball entrepreneur in Rockford.

Joe Stefani just unveiled the logo for his new team, the Rockford Foresters. You see it here.