McHenry County Blog

The resolution that Councilwoman Carolyn Schofield initiated at the election night meeting two weeks ago was passed unanimously Tuesday night.

The most startling information that I discovered listening to the discussion on the matter was Councilwoman Ellen Brady Mueller’s revelation that county staffers did not realize that the watershed of Crystal Lake extends beyond the city boundaries.

Mayor Aaron Shepley verbalized that opponents of the watershed ordinance’s requirements “may disagree with the parameters of the boundaries of the watershed” being based on the drilling of “four wells.”

City Director of Public Works commented Eric Lecuyer said, ”I think the boundaries are clear with regard to the watershed.”

Carolyn Schofield

At election night’s Crystal Lake City Council meeting, City Councilwoman Carolyn Schofield, elected last year, took the lead in getting a resolution on the agenda at tomorrow night’s meeting asking for recognition of the city’s Watershed Ordinance by county government.

You may remember that both Ellen Brady Mueller and Donna Kurtz made something of that issue during their campaigns for a District 2 slot on the fall county board ballot.

From a resident of the watershed’s perspective, it is so, so difficult to understand that the McHenry County Board has thus far not figured out how important protection of our lake’s watershed is to local residents.

You would think they might have figured that out when a citizen uprising killed the minor league baseball stadium at McHenry County College.

After all, half (that’s right, half) of the entire county board represents parts of Crystal Lake. With all residents of the Crystal Lake Park District having access to the lake, how can one explain why the board has not taken action already.

Ellen Brady Mueller

Donna Kurtz

My prediction is the resolution will pass without dissent Tuesday.

If that doesn’t convince the county board to follow the not-as-strict-as-it-could-be watershed protection ordinance, the next step, it would seem to me would be to invite those twelve county board members to a meeting of the city council.

Who are they?

District 2

• McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler (R)
• McHenry County Board Vice Chairman Jim Heisler (R)
• Lyn Orphal (Lost the primary to Donna Kurtz) Both R’s.
• Former Lakewood Village President and Crystal Lake Park Board President Scott Breeden (R)

Crystal Lake Avenue is the dividing line between District 2 and District 3.

District 3

• Barbara Wheeler (R)
• Kathy Bergan Schmidt (D)
• Ed Dvorak (retiring) (R)
• Mary Donner (R)

District 5

• Tina Hill (R)
• Virginia Peschke (R)
• Jim Kennedy (D)
• Paula Yensen (D)

District 5 comes into the Crystal Lake area from the Northwest (Ridgefield) and the Southeast.

So, what’s the resolution ask for?

“That the Mayor and City Council request the Regional Planning Commission include the Crystal Lake watershed and its regulations in the list of watersheds that exist within McHenry County in the 2030 Comprehensive Plan document.”

The resolution points out that the lake’s watershed is 6.39 square miles of which 3.69 square miles are within the City of Crystal Lake.

Crystal Lake City Councilman Jeff Thorsen

Following in the footsteps of Crystal Lake City Councilwoman Carolyn Schofield is her colleague Jeff Thorsen.

He has filed the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water’s ethics form.

You can find it here.

As with Schofield, Thorsen was elected last year.

I wonder if this signifies that something similar to the ALAW ordinance might be considered by the city council. A motion and a second could put the issue on the floor.

Thorsen has emphasized his support of a strong Crystal Lake Watershed Ordinance, voted against allowing McHenry County College to build a minor league baseball stadium and opposed Mayor Aaron Shepley’s 75% city sales tax hike.

Remember hearing about how forest fires sometimes jump fire breaks that are intended to contain them.

That may have happened late last week with the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water’s conflict of interest ordinance.

Originally presented to the McHenry County Board in December, the draft ordinance was shipped off to the State’s Attorney’s Office for review.

The review came back with some good points, along with some trivial ones.

And the number of county board candidates voluntarily filing the form kept increasing. Here’s who have filed so far:

• District 1 – None
• District 2 – All but Ken Koehler, that is, Sandra DePaul, Donna Kurtz, Ellen Brady Mueller and Lyn Orphal
• District 3 – Everyone of them! Veronica Armstrong, Nick Provenzano, Craig Steagall, Barbara Wheeler and Karen Tynis
• District 4 – Sandra Salgado and Jeff Thirtyacre (Democrat)
• District 5 – Tina Hill, John Jung and Frank Wedig (Green).  Incumbent Jim Kennedy and challenger Dave Frederick have not yet filed the form.
• District 6 – All but incumbent Dan Ryan, that is, Richard Draper, Diane Evertsen, Mary McCann and Vic Narusis.

Since there is no deadline, candidates or public officials can still download the conflict of interest form, fill it out and send it in.

Indeed ALAW did not even ask candidates to fill out the ethics form; it did have a questionnaire on issued of interest, however, the results of which can be found here for the twelve county board candidates who completed it.

As you can see more candidates filled out the ethics statement than filled out the issue questionnaire.

Along the way, every candidate for sheriff has answered the conflict of interest questionnaire.

And, two incumbent county board members not up for election have completed it. One, Republican Virginia Peschke, the other, Democrat Paula Yensen.

Crystal Lake Councilwoman Carolyn Schofield

Late last week, however, the first municipal official sent in answers.

She is Crystal Lake City Councilwoman Carolyn Schofield.

What’s that all about?

She just got elected.

Does this portend an issue in the Crystal Lake city elections next spring?

Will Schofield introduce an ordinance to make completing the conflict of interest form a requirement for elected and appointed city officials, as well as city consultants?

Unlike the County of McHenry, the City of Crystal Lake is a Home Rule unit of government.

What’s that mean?

It means the Crystal Lake City Council and other Home Rule cities have more power than county government.

The standard explanation of what a Home Rule government can do is anything the General Assembly doesn’t say it can’t do.

If Schofield, the newest member of the city council, follows decides to make a variation of the ALAW ordinance mandatory in Crystal Lake, the debate could turn quite interesting.

Since city Councilwoman Ellen Brady Mueller is running for county board in District 2, she might get elected. She certainly is in the top three in the sign war.

If elected, I imagine she would resign from the council. If so, a replacement would have to be selected.

Might the council require applicants for the possible vacancy to answer the conflict of interest questions first?

Whether or not the city council passed such a requirement, any council member could let it be known that he or she would not support a candidate who did not fill out the form.

Yes, ALAW has started something that could get very, very interesting.

And the “IF” was in capital letters.

Metra Executive Director Phil Pagano and Joseph Gottemoller, attorney for Metra, appear before the Crystal Lake City Council seeking permission to proceed with annexation of the land for a Ridgefield commuter station.

Metra Executive Director Phil Pagano returned to his home town city council for a second time seeking permission to proceed with plans seeking approval for a new commuter train station in Ridgefield next to the old 84 and new Alexandra Lumber location.

The proposal debated by city council members basically said that if Metra met all the requirements set by the city council that it could gain annexation to the city.

Mayor Aaron Shepley framed the debate like this:

“The question is solely whether council wishes to assume control of development of this project.”

At the end of the debate, the council voted 5-2 to assume control. Jeff Thorsen and Ralph Dawson voted “No.”

Jeff Thorsen registered his complaint about what he saw as the one-sided nature of the agreement.

Thorsen thought the agreement too one-sided.

“The agreement does not even require they ever annex,” he said. “At the end of the day, we can’t say ‘No.’ You can say ‘No.’”

He worried that if money is needed to enforce Crystal Lake’s Watershed Ordinance that Metra would not have to pay its fair share.

Shepley wondered if Thorsen wanted county government to be the approving governmental entity, as it was for 84 Lumber, which property covers more of the watershed than would be allowed had it been annexed to Crystal Lake.

“If the county wants to be irresponsible about developing it, then it’s not on my shoulders,” Thorsen replied.

Later Councilwoman Ellen Brady Mueller pointed out that the proposed 2030 Plan for county land development does not recognize Crystal Lake’s Watershed Ordinance.

Ralph Dawson views a Ridgefield Metra Station in Crystal Lake as a way to stretch city police forces too thin.

Ralph Dawson worried about extending city police protection still farther, pointing out that the Pingree Road Station had had vandalism problems, which Crystal Lake Police had to handle.

“It’s a far stretch from the city limits,” Dawson said. “I cannot support the City of Crystal Lake annexing the station. I don’t think the city should be obligated to go that far out to give it service.”

Trying to pour water on the fire, Pagano affirmed, “Metra intends to work with the city on the watershed…and traffic.”

Still Dawson concluded,

“I don’t see my taxpayers to benefit on this project.”

Brady Mueller asked,

“Are we out there already?”

Police Chief David Lindner pointed out that his force already served nearby McHenry County College and

“If there is a request from the Sheriff and we’re closer, we go out there.”

Ellen Brady Mueller argued for city control of the Crystal Lake watershed on which the proposed Metra station would be located.

Brady Mueller wanted to know,

“Why in the world would we want to give up a piece of property in the watershed?”

“We want to have the control.”

Cathy Ferguson agreed:

“I want control. I have enormous traffic concerns.”

Both relative newcomers Brett Hopkins and Carolyn Schofield concurred.

“I’d absolutely like to see it under control of the city, rather than the county,” Schofield said.

Summing up, Shepley said,

"If we say, 'No', we're counting on somebody else to do our job," Mayor Aaron Shepley said.

“We have fought like wolverines to control what goes on in the watershed. It’s not just our right; it’s our obligation.

“There is no done deal. Mr. Hopkins said it. The only question is who should we be dealing with.

“The downside for them is if they don’t meet our standards, they still have to go to the county.

“As far as police enforcement goes, Mr. Dawson, I think that is a fair concern. If it should go to the county we’ll still be the first responders.

“The difference is that the benefits will not fall to the Crystal Lake side of the ledger.

“If we say ,’No,’ we’re counting on somebody else to do our job.”

Dawson suggested the county was “in a new era. They’re talking about water, at least they’re making waves in an election year.”

“If the county is good, we’re better,” Shepley stated. “We owe it to the people to protect their interest.”

In one of the first county board fund raisers of the year, McHenry County College Board member Donna Kurtz gathered supporters at The Cottage at the corner of Crystal Lake Avenue and Brink Street Thursday night.

Kurtz is running to replace either incumbent County Board Chairman Ken Koehler or member Lyn Orphal in the early February Republican primary election.

Crystal Lake City Councilman Jeff Thorsen introduced the candidate.

“I am very, very, very enthusiastic supporter of Donna Kurtz,” he said. “We need someone with her honesty and integrity in county board government.”

Kurtz said she was inspired by her mother former State Rep. Rosemary Kurtz’ concern for environmental protection and former State Rep. Cal Skinner’s fiscal conservativeness. Rep. Kurtz defeated Rep. Skinner in the 2000 GOP primary election.

Former State Reps. Rosemary Kurtz and Cal Skinner, plus McHenry County College Board member and County Board candidate Donna Kurtz. (Jeff Thorsen commented that this should be sent to Ripley's Believe It or Not.)

“As many of you know, the world goes full circle.”

Kurtz said she running for the board of directors of a $260 million organization, McHenry County government.

Reflecting on her service on the McHenry County College Board, Kurtz said it had taught her this lesson:

“You gotta do your own research. Everyone’s got their own agenda.”

She didn’t say she was reflecting on her support of building a minor league baseball stadium on college property and, then, changing her mind with the announcement being at the Crystal Lake City Council meeting the night re-zoning was being discussed, but that might be a good guess.

“My courage was driven by my thought I couldn’t stand not to do the right thing,” she stated.

Besides Thorsen, City Council members Carolyn Schofield and Brett Hopkins were in attendance, as were park board members Mike Walkup and Richard Sexton.

McHenry County Recorder of Deeds Phyllis Walters, who actually lives in District 2 in the tiny bit of Algonquin in the district was also in attendance, as was Nunda Township Supervisor John Heisler.

Members of A-LAW, the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water were in attendance. The group recently proposed strict potential conflict disclosure rules for county elected and appointed officials.  The Alden Road Alliance was also represented. District 3 county board candidate Craig Steagall, who actively opposes the location of the proposed Ridgefield Metra station on Country Club Road, also was present.

Touchdown Sponsor

• Tamara Kurtz

Field Goal Sponsors

• Erv & Louise Lecoque
• Dr. Robert & Carol Minkus

Safety Sponsors

• Jeannine Thoms
• Connie Zukowski
• Scott Summers
• Jewel Hahn
• Jill Hartman

Extra Point Sponsors

• Keith & Marge Nygren
• Phyllis Walters
• Bill & Alice Howenstine
• James & Diane Gesler
• Lou Ann & Jerome Majewski
• Jean Plews
• Patricia Floeter
• Brett & Tina Hopkins

Traffic will be a major sticking point on Metra’s proposed Ridgefield commuter station the same was it was for the baseball stadium proposed for McHenry County College.

The Crystal Lake City Council unanimously approved Councilwoman Ellen Brady Mueller’s motion to reject SEC, which used to be called Smith Engineering, as the firm to provide the traffic study for the Ridgefield station which Metra wants annexed into the city.

Council members decided they would rather have one of their already authorized consultants do the study.

Metra preferred SEC because it had been contracted to do a study for a future Lily Pond Road site called East Woodstock, as well as for Ridgefield.

Questions about traffic arose from all quarters.

Carolyn Schofield: “My main concerns will be traffic and the watershed.”

Brett Hopkins: “I’m concerned about traffic”

Jeff Thorsen concurred, “You’re engineer hasn’t addressed the western development we know is going to come…I’d rather go with our pool of traffic consultants. I’m already looking at two studies that are pretty opposite.”

Thorsen also made the same pitch he made in the baseball stadium traffic discussion–that Briarwood and Route 176 be included.  He pointed out that there had been another accident there earlier in the day.

Kathy Ferguson:  “I have some concerns about traffic. You’re going to change the whole tone and tenor of that area.”

Ferguson also told of driving to the courthouse on Country Club Road for jury duty. She commented negatively on the current danger at the curve.

“The line of sight when you’re coming around those corners has to be addressed.”

During extended public comment by Craig Steagall, the owner of land Metra considered buying across the tracks from that which is half-owned by McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler, he bent his arms to demonstrate the intersection problem in Downtown Ridgefield.

Mueller talking about traffic: “I don’t know how to make it work without moving the houses that are out there…I myself cannot support having a traffic consultant not going through the normal process.”

Mayor Aaron Shepley empathized with Metra: “It would be awfully difficult to change (horses in midstream).”

Ralph Dawson took a different approach: “What are we going to get out of it? How long will (it take for) my police cars have to be dispatched out there? Why do we want to annex it? We’re already stretched out. I have a county police department that is more than adequate to police that station.”

Metra attorney Joe Gottemoller explained that he thought Crystal Lake wanted to annex the entire watershed of Crystal Lake. The station is within that watershed.

Mayor Shepley summed up the reason for annexing the property: “With an annexation into Crystal Lake you have a greater control on what the project will look like,” adding the city would have more influence over the traffic problems.”

His conclusion: “The deal breaker here—it’s all about the traffic.”

Shepley specifically mentioned the inadequate Ridgefield railroad crossing.

Both Mueller and Steagall are candidates for a Republican nomination for the McHenry County Board, Mueller in District 2 and Steagall in District 3.

Joining former City Councilman Thomas Hayden on the Crystal Lake Planning and Zoning Commission is former City Councilman Dave Goss.

Goss seemed to have been left out of the “incumbent slate” during last spring’s election.

At least if sign placement is any indication.

Jeff Thorsen’s, Ralph Dawson’s and Carolyn Schofield’s signs regularly appeared together.

Goss seemed like the odd man out.

But Mayor Aaron Shepley, who had a Goss sign on his front year along with Thorsen’s and Dawson’s, has appointed him to the city Planning and Zoning Commission.

I don’t know whether he actually replaced Schofield on the commission, but that ’s what it looks like.

One thing is for sure.

Goss will do his homework. I can’t remember a time he didn’t do so when I attended council meetings.

Two years ago a Crystal Lake Planning and Zoning Commissioner ousted Howie Christensen from his city council seat.

Yesterday another Crystal Lake Planning and Zoning Commissioner defeated incumbent Dave Goss.

When swearing in time comes, Carolyn Schofield will join her former commissioner colleague Brett Hopkins in the council chambers.

This is the second time for this engineer’s name has been on the council ballot.

She ran two years ago and placed sixth out of six candidates.

Schofield ran first, undoubtedly aided by her being first on the ballot and her being a woman.

Second place went to incumbent Jeff Thorsen, while incumbent Ralph Dawson took third.

Goss, who placed fourth, was partially responsible for his loss in that he chose to file in the middle of the week, rather than at the beginning or at the end of filing.

That resulted in a less than ideal ballot position of fifth out of eight for Goss.

He got only 55% of Dawson’s votes.

The top three candidates on the ballot won. I’ve been calling them, perhaps incorrectly, the anti-McHenry County College baseball stadium slate.

Of course, part of Goss’ loss might be attributed to his having voted for the 75% city sales tax increase. But, so did Dawson.

The other five candidates received the indicated votes:

• Kay Stanish – 647
• Mike Shorten – 474
• Sal DiBenedetto – 414
• David Bradford – 399

Now, to the losers, I would suggest you take heart. Re-read the paragraph that says the top vote getter in 2009 was the lowest vote getter two years ago.

If you are a man, you can’t change your gender and get the five percentage point advantage that I am sure exists in this area, but you could get lucky and obtain first ballot position like Schofield did.

And you could be as determined to win as she was.

= = = = =
The winners appear from highest vote on down. Carolyn Schofield is on top, Jeff Thorsen second and Ralph Dawson third.

Three weekends ago I caught signs for three Crystal Lake city council candidates in Jeff Thorsen’s neighborhood.

There were for Thorsen, fellow incumbent Ralph Dawson and CL Planning and Zoning Commissioner Carolyn Schofield.

Driving around after spring break, I saw more of that combination on yards.

Incumbent Dave Goss was clearly the odd man out.

I wondered if his fate would be the same as incumbent Howie Christensen’s two years ago. He was clearly on his own.

He was beaten by Brett Hopkins, a Planning and Zoning Commission member just like Schofield.

But after the mini-vacation, there was a new combination.

It was of the three incumbents.

Although Mayor Aaron Shepley has clearly shown his dislike for the way Thorsen has challenged him in the last two years, he wrote a letter to the Northwest Herald endorsing incumbents Dawson, Goss and Thorsen.

If you doubt his occasional disdain for Thorsen, take a look at this photo of Shepley rolling his eyes while Thorsen was talking. I used red eye reduction, by the way.

The debate was over the Crystal Lake watershed ordinance and Thorsen was clearing asking some questions that Shepley thought were a waste of time.
This photo gets a number of hits on McHenry County Blog because Google’s search engine for images displays it on top of the “rolling eyes” images.

Shepley also has the signs of the three incumbents in his front lawn.

Maybe this is a case of

“the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know.”

Across the street on Donna Kurtz’ front yard is the other combination.

You may remember that Thorsen and Dawson killed the McHenry County College baseball stadium re-zoning, while Schofield oppose the matter on the Planning and Zoning Commission (as did all the other members, which led to the requirement for 5 out of the 7 council members having to approve the rezoning for it to pass).

I am tempted to call this slate the “anti-baseball stadium” slate, but, when I asked one of my neighbors if that was the reason he was supporting the three, he told me it wasn’t.

I know that another precinct resident as deeply involved in the effort to kill the baseball stadium as Kurtz has those same three signs up that are Kurtz’ front yard.

It will be interesting to see the elections for Algonquin 10, where Shepley is the Republican precinct committeeman.

If Goss loses the precinct that either means Shepley wasn’t really supporting him or he did nothing in his precinct.

From their sign placement, I conclude that all the other four city council challengers but Schofield are running on their own.

One, Mike Shorten put together a solid door-to-door campaign, as I mentioned Sunday.

Interestingly, no one ran an ad in the Northwest Herald.