McHenry County Blog

Lots of pipelines run throughout McHenry County.

Pipelines running though McHenry County.  One running Northwest to Southeast through Bull Valley is being repaired.

About a week ago, work began in a field two hundred feet north of the Boone Creek Golf Course on Mason Hill Road and about 500 feet from Boone Creek.

There’s a long trench in the cornfield north of the Boone Creek Golf Club.

The problem is located between Bull Valley and Mason Hill Roads.

A close-up of the water at the bottom of the area where an Enbridge pipeline is being repaired in McHenry County.

A friend of McHenry County Blogs reports,

It is “the size of 10 parking spaces.

“It is half full of green water that looks like they pump out everyday as it fills up.”

Where is the pipeline problem?

One can clearly see where the pipeline runs on this Mapquest aerial image. Look at the line running from Northwest to the Southeast. The arrow is approximately where the pipeline repair is occurring.

The red arrow points to the approximate location of the pipeline work.

A part of the U.S. Department of Transportation is the watch dog. Here is what I received from the Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration:

“According to the information you provided, the pipeline you ask about appears to be an Enbridge Energy, Limited Partnership owned/operated line which transports crude oils from Superior, Wisconsin to Griffith, Indiana.

“PHMSA does not require pipeline operators to provide notice to the agency in advance of conducting routine repairs on a pipeline.

“In addition, depending on local laws, notifications may not be required to local authorities for routine repairs unless the operator is required to obtain a permit to conduct excavation activities to impact a roadway or other public owned infrastructure or facility.

“For more information about Enbridge pipelines, including past failures, visit the Operator Information page of our Stakeholder Communications website for Enbridge Energy, Limited Partnership.”

I was referred to the Federal agency by Illinois EPA Emergency Response employee Kendra Dickerson.

She told me, “When companies work on pipelines they don’t have to notify the EPA. They coordinate with the Pipeline Safety and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.”

The crucifix and alter that used to hand in the Chapel at Resurrection Center in Bull Valley. Neither are there now.

Resurrection Center in Bull Valley ran into trouble after state-backed borrowing to build an addition.

The Catholic order that owned it put it up for sale.

After several missteps, Loyola University purchased the property.

It was re-named the Loyola University Retreat and Ecology Campus.

This is the location that the Northern Illinois Emmaus community used to hold its Thursday evening through Sunday afternoon short courses in Christianity.

Based on the Catholic short course called Cursillo. the Walk to Emmaus is sponsored by the Methodist Church, but thoroughly ecumenical.

This weekend and next weekend the Emmaus community is again holding retreats out in Bull Valley.

But, there is a significant change in the chapel.

The crucifix is gone.

Replacing the crucified Christ hanging from the ceiling is a small cross at chest height affixed to the center back wall which would be appropriate for any Protestant church.

Not a crucifix.

Just a cross.

I’ll admit that some Protestants attending retreats at Resurrection Center had problems with worshiping in a chapel with a crucifix, but, considering the weekend’s theme is God’s love for us in sending his son to sacrifice himself for our sins, most overcame any original trepidation.

At Saturday night’s Emmaus service, this Methodist has to admit to missing the representation of Jesus on the cross.

McHenry County Blog ran an article on the Tribune suburban speed trap article.

Attorney Robert Hanlon, known for taking on powerful interests, has pretty much declared war on the Village of Bull Valley.

The immediate motivation is three of his friends getting speeding tickets on the way to his home, which is located just outside the village limits and his having been given a speeding ticket outside the village limits.

In December of 2010, Bull Valley ticket writing police were featured on the front page of the Chicago Tribune.

My headline was,

Bull Valley Residents Can Cheer, “We’re Number 1!”

Hanlon was offering his legal services to those had tickets in the courtroom of newly-appointed Associate Judge Joel Berg early Friday morning.

And he asked for a bench trial for all of them.

I talked to one of his new clients, a Latino man, who had been ticketed for going two miles over the speed limit.

Another man, Eliso Negron, delivers pizzas in Bull Valley.

He was driving a 1996 Ford Escort, a small car, a bit out of place in the tony town.

Noisy muffler the first time around.

Next “I was pulled over, one week later to the hour. I missed my address so I went to the next stop sign. I made a left hand turn after the stop sign and I drove approximately 20-30 feet and I pulled over and, then, he made a left hand turn and turned on the lights.

“I got a ticket for having my windshield cracked.

“I think I was profiled based on my beater car.

“He told me he was very disappointed in me that I did not junk the car yet. He said he had to give me another ticket. That’s when he gave me a ticket for having a spiderweb crack on my windshield.

“I junked the car shortly after he gave me the second ticket.

“I was driving again about two weeks later, but this time I was driving my father-in-law’s minivan and he was sitting on the side of the road. I drove past him and the vehicle has a slight hole in the muffler, but it was not very loud.

“He pulled me over and asked me for my license. I told him, ‘You already took it. You gave me two tickets earlier.’

Bull Valley Officer pulls over a pickup truck driver.

“Then he remembered me.

“I handed him my state ID.

“This time he gave me a warning ticket.

“I thought I should have been given a warning the first time.

“All of that happened on a Thursday nights when I was delivering pizzas.”

Negron may think he was targeted because of his old car, but my brother-in-law, the doctor, wasn’t driving a beater when he got a ticket for failing to turn on his left turn signal prior to turning.

Hanlon puts it this way, “Bull Valley is basically ticketing everyone who goes through that town that doesn’t live in that town.

“The village government is paying the Bull Valley cops to write more tickets than any other police department.

“The Bull Valley Police are predators and I want to bring about social change…for no pecuniary gain on my part,” the successful attorney said.

That’s what the Chicago Tribune is reporting this morning.

So the worst scenario, that some Mexican cartel was involved in the Bull Valley skull incident, apparently wasn’t the case.

The Hollywood mother of the teen who found this skull think it may be a child's.

Still the question remains why someone would toss something of value, probably out the window of a car.

How much were they worth?

I looked at Google Product Search and found skulls for sale for $350.

On the West Coast, however, Huffington Post is reporting a teen found a skull while cleaning up a lake shore.

Sentencing took place in the new Federal Courthouse in Rockford.

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

TENTH NORTHERN ILLINOIS RESIDENT SENTENCED ON FEDERAL DRUG CHARGES

ROCKFORD — A Cary, Ill. man was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Rockford for his role in a drug conspiracy in Northern Illinois from January 1999 through March 2010.

ROBERT S. CAIN, 49, who pled guilty on August 5, 2011, to conspiring to manufacture and distribute marijuana, was sentenced to 140 months in federal prison without parole, 5 years of supervised release following his release from prison, as well as being ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and a $100 assessment by U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Kapala.

According to the written plea agreement, Cain admitted that as early as January 1999 through March 2010, he and his co-defendants conspired to grow and distribute more than 1000 kilograms of marijuana.

Cain admitted that he and his co-defendants would illegally grow and store their supply of marijuana in residences they leased or purchased, then sell the marijuana to drug dealers.

In 1999, Cain and co-defendant Graham Scott McGill rented a house in Bull Valley, Ill. McGill equipped the house to grow the marijuana.

The two defendants recruited others to assist in the marijuana growing operation and McGill had friends sell the marijuana.

The house in Bull Valley was used to grow marijuana for approximately 4 years.

In addition, other homes were rented or purchased by one or more co-defendants and installed with equipment necessary to grow marijuana indoors, including homes in

• Kildeer,
• Union,
• Woodstock, and
• Marengo, Ill.

The conspirators used profits from the illegal sales of marijuana to purchase houses, vehicles and other assets, concealing
their purchases by falsely titling them in other individuals names.

Eight coconspirators previously pled guilty to conspiracy to manufacture and distribute marijuana and were sentenced as follows:

• CHARLES P. PERSICO, 34, of Hoffman Estates, Ill., was sentenced on November 9, 2011, to 135 months in federal prison without parole, 5 years supervised release following his release from prison, and ordered to pay a $100 assessment;
• JONATHAN S. ROMINE, 34, of Lake in the Hills, Ill., was sentenced on October 24, 2011, to 46 months in federal prison without parole, 5 years supervised release following his release from prison, and ordered to pay a $300 fine and a $100 assessment;
• ROBERT STRINGINI, 73, of Schaumburg, Ill, was sentenced on September 27, 2011, to 60 months in federal prison without parole, 3 years supervised release following his release from prison, and ordered to pay a $2,000 fine and a $100 assessment;
• LORETTA CATTANI, 58, of Union, Ill., was sentenced on November 1, 2011, to 22 months in federal prison without parole, 4 years supervised release following his release from prison, and ordered to pay a $100 assessment;
• SAM STRINGINI, 34, of Schaumburg, Ill., was sentenced on October 5, 2011, to 58 months in federal prison without parole, 5 years supervised release following his release from prison, and ordered to pay a $100 assessment;
• ROBERT E. NELSON, 58, of Evanston, Ill., was sentenced on August 31, 2011, to 43 months in federal prison without parole, 5 years supervised release following his release from prison, and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and a $100 assessment;
• CLAUSEN JOHNSON, 46, of Crystal Lake, Ill., was sentenced on October 6, 2011, to 37 months in federal prison without parole, 4 years supervised release following his release from prison, and ordered to pay a $100 assessment; and
• VINCENT FASANO, 49, of Roselle, Ill., was sentenced on October 19, 2011, to 4 months in federal prison without parole, 2 years supervised release following his release from prison, and ordered to pay a $2,500 fine and a $100 assessment. In addition, Fasano was ordered to forfeit property located in Delevan, Wis.
• Also charged in the case is GRAHAM SCOTT McGILL, 59, formerly of Johnsburg, Ill., who remains a fugitive.

In addition to the above defendants, JEFFREY W. ROMINE, 32, of Woodstock, Ill., pled guilty in a related case on May 13, 2011, to use of a communication facility in facilitating the conspiracy to manufacture and distribute marijuana. Jeffrey Romine was sentenced on August 16, 2011, to 48 months in federal prison, one year of supervised release following his release from
prison, and a $100 assessment.

The sentencing was announced by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; John J. Riley, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Drug Enforcement Administration; Alvin Patton, Special Agent-In-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division; Keith Nygren, McHenry County Sheriff; and Larry Lindeman, Director of the Lake County Metropolitan Enforcement Group.

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

The Fleming Road Alliance reveals that 96% of Fleming Road is on private property in this email to county board members:

To: Ken Koehler, Chair, McHenry County Board; County Board Members,

From: Fleming Road Alliance, Re: Update on Fleming Road Alliance Position on Improvements for Fleming Road.,

Dear County Board Representatives:

Natural Heritage Corridor: As you all may know, sixteen homeowners have placed Natural Heritage Corridor easements on their property that extend 60’ into the property from the center of the road (their property line).

Five more easements are in the process of being completed and we expect several more in the near future.

The easements are held jointly by the Land Conservancy and The Village of Bull Valley.

The individual landowner continues to own the land.

This is an opportunity for MCDOT to be a leader in Context Sensitive Solutions by embracing and working with the Natural Heritage Corridor.

We have suggested to MCDOT the benefits of creating a new road classification called Heritage Road to enhance their work into the future.

We ask you to support this progressive concept.

ROW: The topic of right-of-way (ROW) is of particular interest because for the most part, along Fleming Road, there is NO ROW belonging to the County.

The only exception is where the property owner was forced to grant ROW as a requirement for the County’s approval to subdivide.

Everyone else owns to the middle of the road.

Yet MCDOT insists on drawing a line on the design options and labeling it variously as ROW, estimated ROW, existing ROW or estimated-existing ROW.

Simply put, Right-of-Way DOES NOT EXIST for over 96% of Fleming Road.

MCDOT has a prescriptive easement to the road that includes the road bed itself and nothing else.

The insistence on including a ROW line on a map by any name or proclaiming it verbally is insulting because we know better. It could also intimidate some homeowners into conceding right-of way when “the negotiator” knocks on their door with an air of authority, resulting in an unconstitutional “taking” of property. TranSystems agreed they would turn off the ROW line from the design options on display at the upcoming public meeting. That’s a start.

Now we need acknowledgement that there is no ROW.

Fleming Road residents own to the middle of the road. They want the road in the same footprint.

MDOT is constrained by the prescriptive easement and the Heritage Corridor. The Natural Heritage Corridor makes a clear statement that the residents of Fleming Road do not intend to concede ROW.

It is also unconscionable for MCDOT to state that if they do acquire ROW they will just convert the prescriptive easement that is currently the road bed, into a fee simple to “clean up the deed” (without payment). A prescriptive easement is NOT the same as fee simple ownership. It is a very limited right to the specific area – the road bed itself. Converting ownership without negotiated payment also constitutes a taking. Property owners’ taxes are based on ownership of their whole parcel in fee simple, with the property line to the middle of the road.

Fleming Road Alliance Organizing Committee

Ed Bennett, Mary Moltman. Lisa Rhoades, Marti Jadd, Linda Ramsey, Stanley Jarosz, Phyllis Keinz, Kevin Keesee, Emily Berendt, Deb Staley, Bjorn Mattsson

Saturday Fleming Road was dedicated as a Scenic Drive.

First there was a Pledging of Allegiance to the Flag.

At the beginning of the ceremony, the sign was covered. Ray Pensinger is seen on the left. Nick Chirkos, Chairman of the McHenry County Historic Preservation Commission, is on the right.

Speaking at the event was District 5 McHenry County Board member Tina Hill, who read Robert Frost’s “The Road Less Traveled,” as the wind blew her hair and into the microphone.

Tina Hill speaks before the unveiling of the Scenic Drive sign on Fleming Road.

When it came time to uncover the sign, the designated women needed help from one of the tall men.

"Some assistance, please."

Time for the formal shots.

Nancy Jung (left) and Lynn Pensinger (right), co-founders of the Bull Valley Daffodil Project, stand under the unveiled sign.

Now is the time to drive the roads of Bull Valley. The daffodils are blooming beautifully.

Michelle Krenger (left) took the photos of Fleming Road for the Scenic Drive application, and Lisa Halma Rhoades wrote the narrative that indicated the ways in which Fleming Road satisfied all six requirements of historic, architectural, archeology, cultural, scenic, and natural.

After the sign was uncovered, it was off to the Woodstock Country Club for a reception.

Marilyn and John Krenger drown their vintage car to the Woodstock Country Club for a celebratory reception.

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Photos by Mary Moltmann.

This a comparison of city and village tax rates for bills paid last year versus bills that will be due this year. Remember that the tax collection process is always one year behind the assessment process, so taxes on 2010 assessments will be paid this year.

Because Lakewood Village Board members decided to require residents to pay off the last year of the golf course purchased the year before the Property Tax Cap went into effect, Lakewood has the highest percentage tax rate increase of any municipality located in whole or part in McHenry County.

Right behind Lakewood was Port Barrington, another small town that used to be called Fox River Valley Gardens.  Its tax rate is a mere 25 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, while LaLakewood’s is $1.15.

Other double digit increases were seen by

• Harvard – 14.8%
• Huntley – 14.6%
• Barrington Hills – 14.3%
• Lake in the Hills – 13.4%
• Marengo – 11.4%
• Lakemoor – 10%

Only one municipality, Richmond managed a 1.3% cut in its tax rate.

Now, the big question.

Why did the rates increase?

You may remember the salad days when assessed valuation, a proxy for property values, increased more than the Consumer Price Index, which governs the amount of extra money that a tax district can get.

When real estate inflation exceeded the CPA, tax rates were forced down.

The result is that most, if not all, tax districts with statutory tax rates are well below those levels.

That means if the real estate assessment base increases less than the rate of general inflation or–as it the case now–it actually decreases, tax districts can still get what they got last year, plus whatever the CPI went up.

They do that just by asking for the money from the McHenry County Clerk’s Office where the tax rates are determined.

As long as that maximum amount can be obtained by multiplying a tax rate less than the statutory maximum times the assessed valuation equalized by the Illinois Department of Revenue, the tax district gets that amount.

The tax districts do not have to act like families and businesses yet.

They don’t have to cut back.

As has been noted on McHenry County Blog, public officials in at least Grafton Township, Huntley School District 158 and McHenry Grade School District 15 tried to get fellow board members not to ask for an increase.

One further observation.

You may be tempted to compare tax rates for different cities or villages.

For example, you could compare Crystal Lake to Woodstock.

The problem with that is that Crystal Lake’s rate includes fire protection and the city library, while Woodstock has additional tax rates for its fire protection and library districts. Conversely, Woodstock pays for its park system with city taxes, while Crystal Lake residents have a separate park district.

There are problems like this all over the place.

In each of the three instances, the prospective tax cutters lost to the tax hikers.

In one case a school board member was told he just didn’t know enough about school finance, that the district would “lose” millions of dollars if the maximum were not taken this year.

In the case of Grafton Township, the Trustees pointed out that it was just pennies per household, that no one would notice.

No elections until next year and the real taxing districts–the schools have no elections until 2013, but now is as good a time as any to suggest that those who are willing to wave a sign on Route 14, Randall Road or Route 62, need to think about doing some heavy lifting by running for office.

With the low turnouts at elections held on the odd-numbered years, anyone can win…if they start writing down the names, phone numbers and emails of acquaintances who agree with them on spending and tax issues.

If those so inclined do not do that, rest assured the candidates backed by the teacher unions will win every school board, as they probably did this year everywhere but McHenry.

The only way to know for sure, of course, would be for people in the various IEA and IFT locals to share endorsements–formal or informal–for school board.

Lacking that, just assume the vast majority of the winners for school board were backed by the employees of each school district.

You can find school district tax rates here.

It's been twenty-five years since ladies in Bull Valley started planting daffodils along the area's roads.

This is the time of year to take a leisurely drive in Bull Valley.

Obeying the speed limit, if in the village, of course, because traffic tickets are a main source of revenue for the municipality.   In fact Bull Valley is the Chicago metropolitan area’s number one speed trap, according to the Chicago Tribune.   Use your turn signals, too.

Having said that, during the summer I regularly drive up Cherry Valley Road to Wonder Lake.  Parts of it where the tree limbs cover the roadway remind me of stretches of the Talbot County on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where I grew up.

And this time of year, it is worth a special drive in the area just to see the daffodils.

The following press release found in a McHenry County email explains a celebration being held Saturday afternoon by those who don’t want county government to turn Fleming Road into an eastern truck bypass for Woodstock.

Amongst the blooming daffodils on Fleming Road is a sign reading, "Daffodils NOT Asphalt."

The McHenry County Historic Preservation Commission will be dedicating Fleming Road in Bull Valley, IL as McHenry County’s 8th Scenic Road.

When:    Saturday, April 30, 2011 at 1:00 p.m.

Where:   Near the intersection of Fleming and Bull Valley Roads.

Please park park along the shoulders of the road to avoid the grass and plants.

Oaks that would presumably be removed if the County Trasnporation Department's plan to widen Flrming Road is implemented.

Click here to view the dedication ceremony program!

Click here to learn more about McHenry County Scenic Roads and the McHenry County Historic Preservation Commission!

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I am told that the owners of the Right-of-Way, that is the property owners along Fleming Road, have dedicated a conservation easement to a conservation organization.

"Cut Speed NOT Trees" says this partically obscrued yard sign.

But they have done something else, as well.

They have also dedicated the easement to the Village of Bull Valley.

I am told that one governmental unit cannot condemn land within the boundaries of another one.

If so, that would seem to checkmate any county government ambitions to seize property through eminent domain proceedings so as to turn Fleming Road into a thoroughfare wider than residents desire.