McHenry County Blog

The pre-Crystal Lake posts of my father’s biography can be found by looking down on McHenry County Blog.

100 W. Crystal Lake Avenue today. The house is the same, but the intersection is much more functional.

Dad rented a home at 100 W. Crystal Lake Avenue. We started school there (the junior class built its Homecoming float there) as Mother and Dad looked for something that would allow more access to the lake for the 50-horsepower Wolverine outboard boat we bought that summer. The boys of the previous tenants had used the attic as a BB gallery. The BB’s were everywhere.

Soon my parents found a home to rent at 800 West Broadway in Lakewood, but, more importantly in the Country Club Addition Property Owners Association. That gave us the right to keep our boat in the lake.

Dad became the association’s secretary, maintaining up-to-date Address-O-Graph plates for what was probably decades.

Since there was no Rotary Club in town, Dad joined the Crystal Lake Kiwanis, where he became the long-time secretary, doing the tedious record-keeping job of the first service club in Crystal Lake.

After the November election, Dad received a “thank you” letter from the ward committeeman in Chicago where he lived.

My father, a ghost voter in 1958. Who would have believed it?

Having been active in politics in Easton, Maryland, Dad was determined not to become so in Crystal Lake.

Crystal Lake, the reason the Skinners moved to town. In the center, where you see the pontoon boat, Mr. Litzenburger anchored his splendid Chris Craft board.

It took two years for him to break his pledge.

The Crystal Lake High School District was holding a bond referendum during the spring of my senior year. He started writing letters to the weekly Crystal Lake Herald. The next week the school board’s president would reply. My father would offer a rebuttal the next week. (None of the current Northwest Herald nonsense of only allowing one letter a month.) This went on until I knew the teachers were looking at me and pointing out I was the son of the guy trying to defeat the bond issue.

The bond referendum lost. Since it was my last semester and Oberlin College had already accepted me, my grades didn’t matter as much, but I don’t think any of the teachers retaliated. I still remember standing in the study hall while a couple of teachers looked my way from the westerly hall near Ken Tarpley’s speech class room. I wondered if they were saying, “There’s his son.”

Later Dad ended up on some committee to solve whatever space problem was perceived and, when he discovered that the football field had to be moved, he asked if a sidewalk could be built. I suspect that was his major victory on the committee.

Now, too often, I tell my son as we drive on Wallace, “That’s my Dad’s sidewalk.”

”I know, Dad. You’ve already told me,”

my son replies, sometimes in an irritated tone of voice.

When Richard Nixon ran for office in 1960, Dad became head of his local citizens committee. That put him in touch with the Republican precinct committeemen.

At some point in the 1960’s, Dad took over the publication of the Government Improvement League Newsletter, GIL Newsletter, for short. He wrote about assessments and taxes.

Dad’s office at the Barley and Malt Institute was in the Builder’s Building on Wacker Drive when he started work.

After the lease ran out, he convinced his board to move the office to Des Plaines. (“If we ever meet in Chicago, it will be near O’Hare, not Downtown Chicago.” They agreed. It was on the corner of Route 14 near the train station across from the movie theater in an old Masonic Hall.)

When that lease came up, he asked if he could move the office to Crystal Lake, arguing that if the board ever met in Chicago, it would be at a hotel near the airport, not in the Des Plaines office.

He ended up on Brink Street, later on the second floor on the west side of Williams Street, then the tip of “V” in the Crystal Lake Plaza and, finally, at Mike Janek’s old auto dealership on the corner of Woodstock and Brink.

More tomorrow.

= = = = =
Links to all of the articles can be found below:

Biography of Calvin L Skinner – Part 1 – Second Son, School Years

Biography of Calvin L. Skinner – Part 2 – College, Marriage, First Jobs

Biography of Cal Skinner, Sr. – Part 3 – First House, Elected President of the Easton, Maryland, Town Council

Biography of Cal Skinner, Sr. – Part 4 – Storm Sewer Grates, Miles River Yacht Club, Slot Machines, Chesapeake Bay Bridge

Biography of Cal Skinner, Sr. – Part 5 – Switching Parties, Moving to Salt Lake City, Middletown and Crystal Lake

Biography of Cal L Skinner – Part 6 – The Early Crystal Lake Days, Dipping Feet Slowly into Political Arena

Biography of Cal Skinner, Sr. – Part 7 – Running for County Auditor, Precinct Committeeman, Calling the Meeting that Led to McHenry County College

Biography of Cal Skinner – Part 8 – The Star Reporter, Daughter Ellen Bored in High School, Prohibited from Attending MCC Classes

Biography of Cal L Skinner – Part 9 – Responsible Republicans’ Slate, County Board Reapportionment

Biography of Cal Skinner, Sr. – Part 10 – Unsuccessful County Clerk Try, County Airport Fight, Wife’s Death

With the Elgin Courier-News promoting the referendum with this front page endorsement Sunday, it is a wonder that the $178 million bond referendum isn’t passing by more.

But there is that pesky recession, isn’t there?

It must be hitting harder in the McHenry County part of District 509, which is the same as District 300, because 59% of local residents voted it down.

Including slightly incomplete Cook and complete Kane and McHenry County results, however, the “Yes” votes outnumber those voting “No” by about 750 votes.

As with any story written before the absentee and early ballots are included, the results in this story will differ from the final ones.

The measure is doing best in Cook County, gaining 54% approval.

The vote is 3,272 to 2,750 with three precincts still not reporting.

In Kane County, 51% appear to have voted in favor, although, for some unknown reason, County Clerk Jack Cunningham’s web site shows the favorable percentage at 48.59%. How can 13,354 to 12,753 end up with 47.56% voting “Yes?”

In Cook County, the almost complete figures were 3,272 to 2,750.

In McHenry County the opposition was highest.

1,162 to 798.

That’s rejection by over 59% of the voters.

Add up all the votes on the web site and the totals are

• Voting Yes – 17,424
• Voting No – 16,675

If you click on the ad to enlarge it, you will see prominent tax fighter Jack Roeser as one of those who endorsed the referendum.

You have to hand it to the Cary Grade School Board.

It’s majority is holding a tax hike referendum in the middle of the biggest recession since the early 1980’s. Here are the details posted by the elementary school district.

And, here is minority school board member Chris Jenner’s position against the referendum:

Chris Jenner’s Personal Position
on the April 7
Bond Referendum Question

I voted against putting the referendum on the ballot. Excellent schools have sound facilities and current technology – I support that.

With our district already $26 million in debt, and considering the current economic climate, I don’t support asking taxpayers to further increase the D-26 debt load with no clearly defined spending plan.

We must find more efficient and creative financing means than simply enriching the same old folks that cash in every time school bonds are issued.

Significant sums of money are involved in the issuance of school bonds, and the process goes with little scrutiny in most cases. Should the voters approve the referendum, I will work to ensure the bonds are sold as cost-efficiently and as transparently as possible.

I’d like to see the district seek approval for major capital projects individually, and explore whether vendors might work directly with us on financing. The district should also investigate the possibility of obtaining waivers from costly government regulations such as the Prevailing Wage Act.

Here’s what the school administrators gave the District 26 school board members before they voted 4-3 to ask for $17 million in Working Cash bonds. Remember this contains no outside analysis. I made my general comments on my dislike of Working Cash arrangements in this article. I welcome and will publish any comments or analysis anyone wishes to make. (The first one took less than an hour to appear at the bottom of this article.)

Voting to put this tax increase on the ballot were board members

• Board President Craig Loew
• Stephen Bush
• Julie Jette
• Dave Ruelle

Opposed were

* Chris Jenner
* Randy Lawrence
* Julie Lehman

District 26’s explanatory material, which was not posted on its web site prior to the board meeting, follows:

To: Board of Education
From: Brian Coleman, Superintendent
Date: January 20, 2009

Re: Recommendation for Issuing Working Cash Bonds

Our goal in District 26 is to provide a safe and caring educational environment for students with high expectations for learning while striving to remain within the limits of available recourses.

Due to the collaborative work of parents, teachers, administration, and the Board of Education, a high majority of our students continue to meet and exceed District and State expectations for achievement.

District 26 has always made the learning needs of our students the top priority. Through our focus on power standards and the collection of achievement data, we are now, more than ever, able to focus and fine tune our curriculum and instruction to meet the learning needs of each child.

The District maintains safe and secure facilities for students to learn and interact. We have worked to extend the life of many of our facilities so that funding could be used to provide educational services and materials to students. Some buildings are now in need of major improvements in order to maintain the safe and secure environment needed.

The Board and administration have also worked to bring the needs of our programs into alignment with the resources available. The Board adopted a deficit reduction plan to work toward aligning expenditures with revenue in an effort to close the deficit gap. The District has completed an initial analysis in a zero-based budget process to determine the essential activity and funding necessary to sustain program levels and to determine potential savings in the delivery of these programs.

The District has worked to control its expenditures. The revenue available to District 26 for funding educational programs often falls short of what is needed. Due to several factors, including the tax cap and funding shortages of mandated programs from the state, District 26’s revenue has not kept pace with the expenses required to educate its students.

The revenue recommendation which was presented by the administration at the January 20, 2009 Board of Education Meeting, provides the best solution for both the District and the Community. If approved, the District Administration is committed to this plan and to ensuring its effective execution.

We have developed a plan that would provide the District with ongoing funding to support the District’s educational programs and needed facility improvements while having the least amount of impact to the taxpayer.

(See attached Power Point presentation and recommendation)

• Upgrade classroom & District technology to improve curriculum delivery and student achievement.
• Provide a safe learning environment through facility and grounds capital improvements.
• Restructure District finances to move capital expenditures from the operational funds to the Capital fund and establish a sufficient fund reserve to minimize short term borrowing.

• Align classroom technology capabilities with new curriculums to effectively deliver the curriculums to students.
• Staff professional development to use new technology.
• Update District infrastructure in school buildings and administration office.
• Replace outdated equipment and software.

• Replace roofs at Three Oaks and Deerpath Schools.
• Capital projects/ life safety projects including:

parking lot repair or replacement, sidewalk repair or replacement, exterior maintenance of buildings, and building HVAC system updates and replacements.

• Replacement of older busses.
• Early childhood/Preschool center Summary of Outstanding Bond Issues

• Remove capital expenditures from operational funds.
• Provide District a sufficient level of funds on
hand to eliminate/reduce short term borrowing.
Projected savings, using an estimated annual
cost of $130k, of $420k through 2013.
• Utilize savings to provide services/materials to
students rather than paying interest to banks.

With $17 Million Bond Issue

• Working Cash Bond for $17 Million be placed
on the April 7,2009 ballot

• If approved
– $10 for capital improvements.
– $7 Million to remain in Working Cash Fund.

• All uses of funds require Board of Education
action.

0.05 rate structure increase costs an additional $2.4 million in Interest Costs.

Based on a $300,000 house, the 0.05 increase would cost $123 more than the 0.09 for the life of the issue.

(Remember, these images can be enlarged a lot by clicking on them.)

Ballot Question

Shall the Board of Education of Cary Community Consolidated School District Number 26, McHenry and Lake Counties, Illinois, be authorized to issue $17,000,000 bonds for a working cash fund as provided for by Article 20 of the School Code?

Here’s what the school administrators gave the District 26 school board members before they voted 4-3 to ask for $17 million in Working Cash bonds. Remember this contains no outside analysis. I made my general comments on my dislike of Working Cash arrangements in this article. I welcome and will publish any comments or analysis anyone wishes to make. (The first one took less than an hour to appear at the bottom of this article.)

Voting to put this tax increase on the ballot were board members

• Board President Craig Loew
• Stephen Bush
• Julie Jette
• Dave Ruelle

Opposed were

* Chris Jenner
* Randy Lawrence
* Julie Lehman

District 26’s explanatory material, which was not posted on its web site prior to the board meeting, follows:

To: Board of Education
From: Brian Coleman, Superintendent
Date: January 20, 2009

Re: Recommendation for Issuing Working Cash Bonds

Our goal in District 26 is to provide a safe and caring educational environment for students with high expectations for learning while striving to remain within the limits of available recourses.

Due to the collaborative work of parents, teachers, administration, and the Board of Education, a high majority of our students continue to meet and exceed District and State expectations for achievement.

District 26 has always made the learning needs of our students the top priority. Through our focus on power standards and the collection of achievement data, we are now, more than ever, able to focus and fine tune our curriculum and instruction to meet the learning needs of each child.

The District maintains safe and secure facilities for students to learn and interact. We have worked to extend the life of many of our facilities so that funding could be used to provide educational services and materials to students. Some buildings are now in need of major improvements in order to maintain the safe and secure environment needed.

The Board and administration have also worked to bring the needs of our programs into alignment with the resources available. The Board adopted a deficit reduction plan to work toward aligning expenditures with revenue in an effort to close the deficit gap. The District has completed an initial analysis in a zero-based budget process to determine the essential activity and funding necessary to sustain program levels and to determine potential savings in the delivery of these programs.

The District has worked to control its expenditures. The revenue available to District 26 for funding educational programs often falls short of what is needed. Due to several factors, including the tax cap and funding shortages of mandated programs from the state, District 26’s revenue has not kept pace with the expenses required to educate its students.

The revenue recommendation which was presented by the administration at the January 20, 2009 Board of Education Meeting, provides the best solution for both the District and the Community. If approved, the District Administration is committed to this plan and to ensuring its effective execution.

We have developed a plan that would provide the District with ongoing funding to support the District’s educational programs and needed facility improvements while having the least amount of impact to the taxpayer.

(See attached Power Point presentation and recommendation)

• Upgrade classroom & District technology to improve curriculum delivery and student achievement.
• Provide a safe learning environment through facility and grounds capital improvements.
• Restructure District finances to move capital expenditures from the operational funds to the Capital fund and establish a sufficient fund reserve to minimize short term borrowing.

• Align classroom technology capabilities with new curriculums to effectively deliver the curriculums to students.
• Staff professional development to use new technology.
• Update District infrastructure in school buildings and administration office.
• Replace outdated equipment and software.

• Replace roofs at Three Oaks and Deerpath Schools.
• Capital projects/ life safety projects including:

parking lot repair or replacement, sidewalk repair or replacement, exterior maintenance of buildings, and building HVAC system updates and replacements.

• Replacement of older busses.
• Early childhood/Preschool center Summary of Outstanding Bond Issues

• Remove capital expenditures from operational funds.
• Provide District a sufficient level of funds on
hand to eliminate/reduce short term borrowing.
Projected savings, using an estimated annual
cost of $130k, of $420k through 2013.
• Utilize savings to provide services/materials to
students rather than paying interest to banks.

With $17 Million Bond Issue

• Working Cash Bond for $17 Million be placed
on the April 7,2009 ballot

• If approved
– $10 for capital improvements.
– $7 Million to remain in Working Cash Fund.

• All uses of funds require Board of Education
action.

0.05 rate structure increase costs an additional $2.4 million in Interest Costs.

Based on a $300,000 house, the 0.05 increase would cost $123 more than the 0.09 for the life of the issue.

(Remember, these images can be enlarged a lot by clicking on them.)

Ballot Question

Shall the Board of Education of Cary Community Consolidated School District Number 26, McHenry and Lake Counties, Illinois, be authorized to issue $17,000,000 bonds for a working cash fund as provided for by Article 20 of the School Code?

Following up on the renting the Harvard Junior High School to the Mexican Consulate for four days a week ago, Ev and Diane Evertsen went to the Harvard School Board meeting Wednesday night.

Ev Eversen provides this introduction:

“Last night we attended our local school board meeting (the first one after they permitted the Junior High School to become a Mexican Consulate where federal laws were broken).”

Here is his wife Diane’s

FIELD REPORT
Harvard School Bd. Mtg; 7/23/08

A lovely evening for a School Board meeting and a big ‘thank you’ to the other folks who showed up to participate. Seems like citizens would be a little more concerned about how this Harvard School District is spending their $18,000,000.

All in all, the meeting went as we anticipated.

Firm denial on the part of the District that they had been involved in any way with any wrong-doing.

After all, they did contact their lawyers about this lease situation and I’ll bet some expensive correspondence went back and forth over that one.

I believe the phrase was they “believed in their hearts” that they “did the right thing”; followed by a hearty nodding of heads all around the table.

Dr. (Lauri) Tobias went on to claim that she responded via email to those who had contacted her. Seems odd that I never got a response, my husband never got a response, people from Des Plaines never got a response.

Did anyone out there in D-50 get a response from Dr. Tobias? If you did NOT, please let us know.

We’d hate to think that the good Doctor is dealing with a computer system that’s sending emails out into the ozone and she’s functioning under the misbegotten impression that ALL OF US HAVE GOTTEN HER RESPONSES. (Please, let me sit down; my side just hurts like crazy from laughing!)

During my brief allotted three minutes to speak, I pointed out that this administration, which should be so concerned about the safety of our children, allowed unknown foreign nationals (basically) free reign over taxpayer property.

Interestingly enough, later on the agenda came a public safety report and the District’s policy to keep all of the doors locked all the time.

Except, of course, when students are going in or out, or you have, like, a group of foreign nationals operating on the property under the pretext of a consulate. DUH!!

Well away from the public comments portion of the Agenda, Dr. (Richard) Crosby decided to go back to my comments to claim he never denied us access to use the facilities. He claims he has no knowledge of any woman named “Janice” who came out to give us a message from him that we were not allowed in the building.

Perhaps we dreamed this up after being out in the hot sun. Perhaps it’s early onset Alzheimer’s. However shall we solve this great mystery of the unknown woman with the unauthorized message? I bet it won’t be as difficult as the mystery of the pyramids, boys and girls.

All in all, this school board has terrific meetings and I certainly encourage you to attend.

They’re so eager to serve the public properly that there’s about zero discussion of any item (the pop supplier for the coming school year seemed to be the biggy of the evening, followed by the contract for paper). Here’s how it goes:

1. Call the Question,
2. Second to the question,
3. Everyone votes in accord,
4. Move on!

It’s also special when any board member has a brief comment that they keep it soft enough so that the audience won’t be disturbed by hearing them (hopefully we can enhance the voices on the video). We also noticed they rarely look at the audience; I guess that would make the public feel included and we can’t have that.

Well, FOIA requests will flow and we’ll wait to see what the answers are.

For those of you who want to see how the citizens’ eighteen million plus dollars are spent, the monthly meetings will be held on Wednesdays from now on (or until they decide to change them to keep you on your toes).

Oh, yeah, almost forgot we saved the best for last again!

They’re planning for another referendum (emphasis added). After all, with those Matriculas come more, and more, and more . . .

Have a great day! Diane

Following up on the renting the Harvard Junior High School to the Mexican Consulate for four days a week ago, Ev and Diane Evertsen went to the Harvard School Board meeting Wednesday night.

Ev Eversen provides this introduction:

“Last night we attended our local school board meeting (the first one after they permitted the Junior High School to become a Mexican Consulate where federal laws were broken).”

Here is his wife Diane’s

FIELD REPORT
Harvard School Bd. Mtg; 7/23/08

A lovely evening for a School Board meeting and a big ‘thank you’ to the other folks who showed up to participate. Seems like citizens would be a little more concerned about how this Harvard School District is spending their $18,000,000.

All in all, the meeting went as we anticipated.

Firm denial on the part of the District that they had been involved in any way with any wrong-doing.

After all, they did contact their lawyers about this lease situation and I’ll bet some expensive correspondence went back and forth over that one.

I believe the phrase was they “believed in their hearts” that they “did the right thing”; followed by a hearty nodding of heads all around the table.

Dr. (Lauri) Tobias went on to claim that she responded via email to those who had contacted her. Seems odd that I never got a response, my husband never got a response, people from Des Plaines never got a response.

Did anyone out there in D-50 get a response from Dr. Tobias? If you did NOT, please let us know.

We’d hate to think that the good Doctor is dealing with a computer system that’s sending emails out into the ozone and she’s functioning under the misbegotten impression that ALL OF US HAVE GOTTEN HER RESPONSES. (Please, let me sit down; my side just hurts like crazy from laughing!)

During my brief allotted three minutes to speak, I pointed out that this administration, which should be so concerned about the safety of our children, allowed unknown foreign nationals (basically) free reign over taxpayer property.

Interestingly enough, later on the agenda came a public safety report and the District’s policy to keep all of the doors locked all the time.

Except, of course, when students are going in or out, or you have, like, a group of foreign nationals operating on the property under the pretext of a consulate. DUH!!

Well away from the public comments portion of the Agenda, Dr. (Richard) Crosby decided to go back to my comments to claim he never denied us access to use the facilities. He claims he has no knowledge of any woman named “Janice” who came out to give us a message from him that we were not allowed in the building.

Perhaps we dreamed this up after being out in the hot sun. Perhaps it’s early onset Alzheimer’s. However shall we solve this great mystery of the unknown woman with the unauthorized message? I bet it won’t be as difficult as the mystery of the pyramids, boys and girls.

All in all, this school board has terrific meetings and I certainly encourage you to attend.

They’re so eager to serve the public properly that there’s about zero discussion of any item (the pop supplier for the coming school year seemed to be the biggy of the evening, followed by the contract for paper). Here’s how it goes:

1. Call the Question,
2. Second to the question,
3. Everyone votes in accord,
4. Move on!

It’s also special when any board member has a brief comment that they keep it soft enough so that the audience won’t be disturbed by hearing them (hopefully we can enhance the voices on the video). We also noticed they rarely look at the audience; I guess that would make the public feel included and we can’t have that.

Well, FOIA requests will flow and we’ll wait to see what the answers are.

For those of you who want to see how the citizens’ eighteen million plus dollars are spent, the monthly meetings will be held on Wednesdays from now on (or until they decide to change them to keep you on your toes).

Oh, yeah, almost forgot we saved the best for last again!

They’re planning for another referendum (emphasis added). After all, with those Matriculas come more, and more, and more . . .

Have a great day! Diane