A press release from School District 300:

A press release from the Grafton Township Supervisor:

Village of Huntley to Vote on Agreement with Grafton Township for Senior Transportation

Supervisor Linda Moore is pleased to announce that the Village of Huntley will be voting on the Intergovernmental Agreement with Grafton Township that provides a grant of $10,000 towards the Senior Transportation Program which serves residents of Grafton Township and the Village of Huntley.

The Village Attorney has reviewed the agreement and found everything to be in order for consideration at this time.

The Village Staff Analysis Report shows that ridership has increased. [See pages 48-52.]

Rutland Township riders have increased from 1,373 in 2010 to 2,000 in 2011.

Overall rider activity has increased from 3,337 in 2010 to 4,041 in 2011 increasing the overall total ridership revenue from $4,141 in 2010 to $4,770 in 2011.

The amount the Village will pay is the same as the 2011 Intergovernmental Agreement.  [That's $10,000.]

Tonight the Village Board Members will vote on a resolution to approve the execution of the 2012 Agreement.

Supervisor Linda Moore, on behalf of the Grafton Township Board, would like to thank the Village of Huntley for their continued support of the senior transportation program.

To find out more about this transportation program, visit www.graftontownshipsupervisor.us or call the office at 847-669-3328. Registration is required before the first ride can be scheduled.

Not likely a President would give equal billing to a Congressman, but this press release from Joe Walsh did bring a smile to my lips:

Rep. Walsh Invites President Obama to Joint-Town Hall Meeting

McHENRY – Congressman Joe Walsh (IL-08) today issued the following statement in response to President Obama’s three-day bus trip through cities and towns in Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois:

“It has taken President Obama almost three years to focus on job creation – he’s just not serious about it,” said Walsh. “Many Americans for months and even years now have been screaming at the top of their lungs that they are tired of near-double digit unemployment, too much government spending, and an uncertain future for our economy.”

“I have held over 60 town halls since coming to Congress this past January and at each one of them, I hear the same message:

“Americans are fed up with this Administration and its failure to improve our economy.

“They are also sick and tired of all the regulations his Administration has burdened small business with and all the government spending he has burdened us and future generations with.”

“If taxpayers are going to foot the bill for this new $1.1 million bus and all the expenses that come with this trip, the President better not use this tax dollar-funded trip to give just another campaign stump speech.

“It is for this reason that I would like to invite the President to co-host a town hall meeting with me at his earliest convenience.

“This will make certain the President hears the same unfiltered message I hear every day from Illinois residents.”

“President Obama does not understand what makes the American economy tick. He needs to get out and talk to real folks in an open unscripted format. He needs to listen for a change.”

Thursday night, the Grafton Township Trustees rejected Supervisor Linda Moore’s selection of Rockford’s John Nelson as Township Attorney.

Little surprise there, since Nelson’s representation of Moore led to the dismissal of both the Trustees’ favored law firm Ancel Glink, but also Township Administrator Pam Fender, whom the Trustees put in office to perform as much of the Township Supervisor’s duties as possible.

I didn’t look at the agenda and got to the Huntley Park District meeting room too late to get a board packet, so I didn’t know what to expect. In fact, after listening to the tedium of expenditure discussion, I asked someone why I had come.

“Don’t worry. They’ll start shouting at each other.”

And Gerry McMahon certainly lived up to that prediction.

More than once.

The person who was most disturbed for the negative impression made by McMahon’s outbursts is the Trustee who successfully moved to censure him in October of 2009, Barb Murphy.

At one point she said forcefully,

“I’m just telling you to shut the hell up for a few minutes so we can finish this damn meeting!”

The board reversed itself on selecting the 300-seat auditorium at the Huntley Park District headquarters in favor of returning to the Huntley High School gym.

Over 700 registered voters signed in at last year’s Annual Town Meeting.

The vote was 2-2 with Murphy and Moore voting for the move to the high school and Betty Zirk and McMahon voting to stay in the 300-seat venue.

Rob LaPorta abstained.

Moore ruled that abstentions would be counted on the positive side of the motion and moved onto the next item of business. And, my understanding is that under Robert’s Rules of Order, once the next item is taken up (video cameras for the Annual Meeting), it is too late to appeal the decision of the chair.

When I got home I looked up what Robert’s says about how abstention votes should be tallied and found the following on “The Official Robert’s Rules of Order Web Site“:

“In the usual situation, where either a majority vote or a two-thirds vote is required, abstentions have absolutely no effect on the outcome of the vote since what is required is either a majority or two thirds of the votes cast.”

But, as McMahon loudly proclaimed,

“We don’t follow Robert’s Rules!”

LaPorta, who abstained, said,

“I didn’t know about that. Guys from Lake in the Hills, what do you do?”

The reply from a village trustee:

“We follow Robert’s Rules.”

In another dispute, Moore asked permission to have the Electors vote upon trading the township van for a car which would ir easier for seniors to get into.

This was apparently the first time Moore has brought up the subject.

Moore pointed out that both bus drivers and seniors favored the switch.

Of the van. referring to the seniors, she said, “They hate it.”

“Send it to the (Transportation) Committee,” McMahon, a senior himself, said.

“It’ll take another year,” Moore replied.

“We don’t care,” McMahon retorted.

“We can’t be driving the bus all the time. It doesn’t look right to have one or two passengers in a bus.”

Moore pointed out that the bus used more gasoline than would a car and predicted that the price per gallon would exceed $5 this summer.

“I want to remove it from the agenda,” the other senior citizen on the panel said. “This is the first time it’s come up.”

And a majority of the Township Board took action that removes the possibility of trading the van for a car.

The final item I found of interest was that Ancel Glink is still providing legal advice.

A memo from Jeffrey R. Jurgens dated March 3, 2010, was used as the basis for rejecting all of the citizen-initiated resolutions.

Ancel Glink’s services as Grafton Township Attorney were ended by Judge Michael Caldwell.

Afterward, First Electric Newspaper Publisher Pete Gonigam asked about Ancel Glink’s continuing legal advice.

“The judge said we could still go to Ancel Glink at no charge,” LaPorta said.

Not only was there a man following a child home and circling around to drive past the home again in Huntley Wednesday, but on last Friday there was an attempted kidnapping of a girl after she got off a school bus.

The Wonder Lake Police Department apparently faxed the report you see below on Tuesday.

The report says a white man in his late 20′s with brown hair, but bald on top, was driving a black SUV in bad condition (having right front fender damage and scratches on the driver’s side) without a front plate and maybe A10K on the back plate was waiting at the bus stop as the children got off.

After the parents left, he followed a ten-year old girl and asked if she would like a puppy.

She said, “No.”

“Come on, get in.  I’ll show them to you,” he said.

The little girl refused and the guy left the area.

= = = = =
Ellyn Wrzeski informs McHenry County Blog that Greenwood School parents were informed of the incident on Monday.

Here’s a press release from the Huntley Police Department about what sounds like a Huntley High School freshman girl who was lured through the internet to run off with an almost 19-year old boy from Florida.

Charges Filed in Juvenile Run Away Case

On August 3, 2010 the Huntley Police Department began an investigation into an incident involving a 14 year female who was reported to have run away from home.

Information was obtained through police interviews that suggested the juvenile was in the company of 18 year old Ervin Betancourt, whom she had met on the internet. The two had been corresponding via the internet for approximately 4 months.

During this time the two decided that Mr. Betancourt would come to the female’s Huntley home for a visit. Witnesses told police that Betancourt then traveled from Florida to Huntley to meet with the 14 year old female.

At some point a decision was made by Betancourt and the 14 year old female to leave together to travel back to Florida where Betancourt is from.

During the investigation detectives obtained information indicating that the couple was traveling back to Florida via bus and they were possibly in Dalton located in Whitfield County Georgia. Detectives notified the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Department. Sheriff’s Deputies checked the bus stops in that area.

They were able to locate the 14 year old female and Mr. Betancourt on a bus at a bus stop in Dalton.

Both were taken into temporary custody and transported to Whitfield County Sheriff’s headquarters. Subsequent interviews with the 14 year old victim led to charges being filed against Mr. Betancourt.

It is being alleged that Mr. Betancourt engaged in sexual relations with the 14 year old female. It is also being alleged by police that Mr. Betancourt used the internet to seduce, solicit, lure or entice a child under the age of 18 years old to commit or engage in an unlawful sexual conduct.

On August 5, 2010 Mr. Betancourt was charged with:

1. Grooming 720 Act 5 Section 11-25 Class 4 Felony
2. Criminal Sexual Abuse 720 Act 5 Section 12-15(c) Class A Misdemeanor

Arrest warrants were issued with a total bond of $15,000.

Mr. Betancourt was made aware of the charges and the warrants against him while still in custody in Georgia. Mr. Betancourt waived extradition through the Georgia courts.

On Tuesday August 10, 2010 Huntley Police Detectives traveled to Dalton, Georgia where Mr. Betancourt was still in custody and served Mr. Betancourt with the warrants.

Detectives then transported Mr. Betancourt back to Huntley Police Department where he was processed on the charges and transferred to McHenry County Jail.

Mr. Betancourt’s bond was set at $15,000. His next court date is set for August 31, 2010 at 9:00am.

The 14 year old female was released to the custody of her parents.

Suspect Information:

Ervin A. Betancourt DOB 08/22/1991 age 18
6868 SW 21st Street
Miramar, FL 33023

The police department reminds people that charges against Mr. Betancourt are not proof of guilt. A defendant charged is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial in which it is the state’s burden to prove his or her guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

= = = = =
“Grooming involves using the Internet to seduce, solicit, lure or entice a child under the age of 18 to commit or engage in an unlawful sexual conduct,” explains Huntley Police Chief John Perkins.

One might have thought the campaign ended with the Republican primary victory of McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren over Zane Seipler, the deputy Nygren never wants to see in the Sheriff’s Department again.

But Seipler’s blog, McHenry County Sheriff’s Department Exposed, continues to taunt the Sheriff. His most recent post tells of his father Russell Seipler was an NTSB investigator of the devastating Fox River Grove school bus-Metra train crash in the mid-1990′s. (My brother-in-law Dr. Joe Giangrasso was in Good Shepherd’s Emergency Room when the kids were brought in and my wife was chasing reporters out of hospital bathrooms, where at least one was hiding.)

Seipler’s civil suit continues in the deposition stage, as one can glean from reading between the lines on MCSDExposed.blogspot.com.

Seipler has hired an attorney to elaborate on his pro se filing prior to primary election day.

The first allegations read as follows:

“Elected Official Sheriff Nygren has abused his position and continues to violate the law. An emblem of the Sheriff’s department which Sheriff Nygren was supposed to use for the limited purpose of securing his election is now being used publicly by McHenry County. To this end, tax payer dollars are being used to further Sheriff Nygren’s political goals.

“Additionally, Sheriff Nygren failed to report or investigate the illegal conduct by Deputy Michael Cooper, as should be in line with his duties under the General Orders of McHenry County. Given the importance of maintaining the integrity of the State’s Attorney’s office and the significance of these crimes, it is vital for an independent prosecutor to be appointed to investigate these matters.”

It continues,

“Sheriff Nygren is involved in criminal conduct in the following two ways:

1. the illegal usage of the Sheriff’s campaign logo on multiple pieces of government property; and
2. the failure to investigate known criminal activity by Deputy Michael J. Cooper as related to the State’s Attorney Louis Bianchi investigation.”

The legal filing points out that the Sheriff’s Department has a five-pointed star “used on County documentation and can be seen on an emblem…worn by deputies.”

There is also a seven-pointed star, it continues, that was created by Nygren for campaign purposes.

“Without sanction, Sheriff’s Nygren created a campaign logo for political reasons and then illegally continued to use a political logo instead of the official logo on County property,” Seipler charges.

The question is whether the person charged with official misconduct manipulated his public office or employment in order to perform a proscribed act. Id.

“Clearly, Sheriff Nygren exploited his position as the Sheriff by using bus personal political logo on state property to market himself and his campaign.”

Six examples are offered as evidence relating to documents, as I read the legal document.

In addition, Seipler offers nine more examples on “buses, cars, envelope openers, motorcycles and even tanks.”

Such use violates these state laws, the filing continues:

• Official Misconduct, 720 ILCS 5/33-3(b) and (c) and
• Prohibited Political activities, 5 ILCS 430/5-15(a) and (b)

“Clearly, Sheriff Nygren exploited his position as the Sheriff by using bus [his?] personal political logo on state property to market himself and his campaign.

“Additionally, he used the services of the state and therefore used taxpayer dollars for the installation of these logo – patently abusing his power as a public official,”

Seipler’s brief charges.

“The question is whether the person charged with official misconduct manipulated his public office or employment in order to perform a proscribed act. Id. Clearly, Sheriff Nygren exploited his position as the Sheriff by using bus personal political logo on state property to market himself and his campaign.”

Next comes the part about Deputy Michael Cooper and his involvement with Amy Dalby is addressed.

“Dalby gave the USB key drive (from McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi’s office) to Michael J. Cooper, Sheriff Keith Nygren’s deputy and security guard. Deputy Cooper kept the USB key drive with the illegally obtained information in a safety deposit box. He never reported this illegally obtained material to the State Police or any other law enforcement authority.”

Nygren’s lack of investigation of this activity, which Seipler’s brief contends violated the law,

“include, but are not limited to:

(a) Illegal actions;
(b) Dereliction of duty
(c ) Malfeasance
(d) Misfeasance
(e) Conduct that may publicly discredit the Sheriff’s Office.”

The conclusion offered follows:

“Sheriff Nygren failed to report and/or investigate Deputy Michael Cooper’s conduct. While it is not clear if Nygren failed to report the deputy because of his relationship with Dan Regna, it is clear that Michael Cooper’s conduct was illegal and Nygren had a duty to investigate it.”

Next the appointment of a special prosecutor is requested.

Although there seems to be little love lost between McHenry County two chief law enforcement officers, State’s Attorney Bianchi has been representing Nygren, as the law proscribes

If that request for a special prosecutor is granted by Associate Judge Thomas A. Meyer, both Bianchi and Nygren would be facing special prosecutors.

Nygren ally Dan Regna, Bianchi’s Republican primary opponent two years ago, successfully sought a special investigator to probe Bianchi’s alleged political use of his office. Judge Gordon Graham is the associate judge that ruled in Regna’s favor.

Since then, Independent judicial candidate Sally Wiggins has filed to oppose Graham Republican candidacy in the fall election.

Nygren is being opposed by Democrat Mike Mahon and Green Gus Philpott.

The next court date is August 12th at 10 AM.

News today is that a duck (a bus that also acts like a boat or as AP puts it “an amphibious sightseeing boat”) lost power in the Philadelphia harbor, was hit by a city-owned sludge barge and sank. Two passengers remain missing.

I would imagine that barges are pretty hard to maneuver.

When we were in Montreal in June we took a duck tour of the old part of the city and the harbor.

First we went down the street on which the old warehouses faced.

Past old courthouses and the newest “Palais de Justice” that is so ugly that locals call it “the Toaster.”  The architecture of the latter is so totally out of place among its old neighbors that its construction led to rules to prevent future monstrosities.

Of political interest was the parking lot which is located where Canada’s first parliament building was.

Past the famous cathedral.

Then it was off to the harbor.

We went on a road right below what used to block most of the riverfront–grain elevators. All but this one has been torn down.

The road ran next to an old canal.

It led to this ramp.

The sign showed how steep the ramp was.

Unlike Philadelphia, we saw few boats in the harbor.  There was this three mast sailing ship.

A barge was there, too, but it was docked.

The harbor was calm.

The calmness, the guild told us, was a function of this peninsula built of dirt and rock when Montreal’s subway was excavated.

But, at the point the peninsula meets the St. Laurence River, there was much turbulence.

The river was not as swift before the peninsula was created.  My high school physics tells me that the increase in its speed was perfectly predictable. Bernoulli’s principle, right?

Today I wondered what would have happened if our duck had lost power and been drawn into the current and pushed downstream.

As we were heading back to the ramp, the tour guild pointed to a building with holes in its side.

She said there were to make the skyscraper better able to withstand an earthquake.

“But Montreal never has earthquakes,” she added.

The next day, as we were driving south through New York State, Montreal and presumably our car was shaken by an earthquake centered in nearby Ottawa, Quebec.

More photos were taken of the skyline.

It was time to end the tour.

We got a really good view of the end of the canal’s locks.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating the accident.

McHenry County Blog has some thoughtful thinkers.

One has posted the comment below under the last article.

Certainly people are talking about abolishing Grafton Township.   Two trustees have told me that might even favor the idea. I found one at last night’s meeting who had inquired how to do it by petition and referendum.

I asked Road Commissioner Jack Freund how abolishing the township would affect his operation.

His basic answer was that it wouldn’t. That’s because the Road District is a separate municipal corporation.

And the Assessor’s Office?

Well, someone has to do the work. It might end up under county jurisdiction. After all, the County Supervisor of Assessments is charged with assessing all property.

What would happen to Assessor Bill Ottley and his employees?

Since Ottley has the most uniform assessments in McHenry County (the last time I looked), he would undoubtedly head up the operation.

Where would the office be?

Probably right where it is or in some other area space rented by the county. Ottley could probably even find a great deal in this economy.

Another possibility occurs to me.  The bill I sponsored back in the 1970′s to create the office of Multi-Township Assessor could be modified to allow for the election of such an official from a neighboring township, plus Grafton Township.  An analysis by then-Algonquin Township Assessor Forrest Hare convinced me that bad (defined as having a large margin of error) assessments were much, much more likely to occur in townships with less than 5,000 people than those larger.  The reason, I believe, is that larger townships could afford a full-time assessor.  I guess the still existing township board would handle the bill paying and oversight functions.

Then, there’s the other services that Grafton Township provides.

For starters, people should know that virtually all such services were permitted by law at the request of township officials trying to justify their existence.

Townships have only three mandated functions:

• Maintaining some local roads
• Assessing property
• Administering General and Emergency Assistance

All the rest are add-ons.

However, let’s say bus service for seniors and the handicapped is considered by the community to be necessary.

I would note that senior bus service is provided by the Road Commissioner in Algonquin Township. The same could happen in Grafton Township, if Freund were amenable to the idea.

Gus Philpott, in his Woodstock Advocate, suggests there may be a much cheaper way to provide transportation services to seniors and the disabled. Subsidize taxis and handicapped equipped vans. Or subsidize PACE, I would add.

Since most of the service is provided Huntley residents, the village itself could even assume the responsibility.

Bingo can be run by any entity. The same with helping with handicapped vehicle hangers and handing out batteries for hearing aids.

The food pantry is already off on its own. The subsidies of the past are over, if not accounted for.

The General and Emergency Assistance is minimum. I believe one of the last year’s of former Grafton Township Supervisor John Rossi’s administration is was about $12,000. I guess the area would operate the same way the one-third of Illinois counties do now. There are no townships in Southern Illinois.

Compare that to the $16,000 in legal bills for Ancel, Glink last month.

When would the township go out of business if such a referendum were put on the ballot and passed?

I can’t tell you. I think I remember some provision that says elected officials serve out their terms.

Too much from me. Here’s the reader comment:

“Dear” Grafton Township Elected Officials and “Hired” (more like appointed) Employee(s),

The money you are so droolingly intent on spending for Your WANTS not NEEDS is OTHER PEOPLE’S money.  It’s not your private little world and check book.  It doesn’t matter if you are taxing $5 or $200 dollars, you are still taxing.

Stop trying to grow what some people consider a no longer needed layer of govt. BIGGER.  In Grafton, it would make sense to allow other govt. entities to absorb most or all of what Grafton does.

There are plenty of places for bingo, food pantires, meeting rooms, yada yada yada and they are spread across Grafton Township – not just in Huntley.  Certain types of transportation services can be worked out with local Taxi companies eliminating the need to own vehicles/buses, pay for gas, labor, insurance, upkeep, schedulers, etc.

If you absolutely MUST MUST MUST have Grafton Township’s name on such things instead of cooperating with others, then RENT them.  The events would still be called Grafton Township Bingo but it doesn’t require a multi million dollar building and loan interest.  I repeat, it’s far cheaper than a multi-million building and loan interest.

Trying to recreate the wheel and sliced bread in this case sure seems to be  ego driven.  The way it’s being handled reminds me of Washington DC/Chicago tactics.

NOTE:  Huntley isn’t a small place anymore.  Have the elected and “hired” people not noticed? Perhaps when it was small, there was a dream in someone’s mind to make the Township more important, provide missing services, and so on.  That was then.  ”We” aren’t living in “then” anymore.  Grafton Twp. elected officials and “hired” employees, are YOU still living in the “then” in the “dream”?  If so, as one movie character once succinctly said “Snap out of it!”

Is someone looking to have their name engraved on a room, a program, ………….a political ballot?

I made what I thought was a pretty simple request of PACE, the suburban bus company which also runs paratransit in the City of Chicago because the CTA is too incompetent to do so.

Looking for how high the subsidies are in McHenry County, I asked for

“Cost and subsidy per ride per route and Dial-a-Ride service provider covering any part of McHenry County for the latest year available.”

I also asked that

“any charge be waived in the public interest, that public interest being McHenry County residents have a public interest in knowing how their tax dollars are spent.”

This story is about the request for waiver of fees.

When postage was 42 cents per ounce, I got a reply saying that if I would send 25 cents Freedom of Information Officer Thomas Ciecko, who is apparently also the PACE general counsel, would send me the answer to my FOI inquiry.

Does it strike anyone but me a bit weird that a tax-supported agency would spend 42 cents to collect a quarter?

Actually, they would have to use one 42 cent stamp and one 44 cent one.

Cost-benefit analysis seems to be a foreign concept to this RTA subsidiary.

And, it cost more than a 42 cent stamp…unless the general counsel’s secretary has nothing better to do than to send me a letter asking for the quarter.

I thought I sent in the money and, after a month or so, I called to find out where the piece of paper was.

Peggy Sweeney told nothing had been received, so I sent a 25 cent check, wondering how much it costs PACE to process a payment.

I wonder if PACE is asking for more money from the Regional Transportation Authority.

And, my request wasn’t fulfilled, so I’ve left a message with PACE asking why.