McHenry County Blog

Signs like this would be appropriate late Thursday afternoon on Route 14 in Crystal Lake.

This is income tax day and this sign, while not local, is appropriate because TEA Party demonstrations are going to be held in Crystal Lake on Route 14 at Main Street and on Route 62 in Algonquin.

For the Route 14 location, one group is promoting 3-6 PM; another 3:30-6:30.

In Algonquin, the place to be is in Cornish Park across from Port Edward from noon to 1.

Crystal Lake Police Cars behind the TEA Party demonstrators last April 15th.

Last year there was a large police presence.

Demonstrators on Route 14 a year ago.

Worried about all those middle class folks who are fed up.  All those people paying the 75% higher city sales tax, if they stick around to shop.

I wonder if anyone will bring a sign expressing displeasure about Mayor Aaron Shepley and all of his city council’s having hiked the Crystal Lake city sales tax by 75%.

McHenry’s city council is contemplating a 50% increase.

If there is any criticism of the TEA Party movement I would offer, it is that virtually all of the effort is targeted at the national level.

Mike Hanson understands not all pocketbook threats come from Washington.

In Illinois, with Democrats in the Senate have actually voted to increase income taxes by 67%, I would think that demonstrators would be concerned enough to target Pat Quinn and his Democratic Party tax hiking colleagues.

And, complaints about local tax hikes, such as the Crystal Lake one described above, mainly to build a recreation lakeside resort area in the middle of the biggest recession in all but one of the city council members’ lives, I expect them to be non-existent.

In politics the hardest lesson to learn is that

“All politics is local.”

Democratic Party U.S. House Speaker Tip O’Neill is the man who said it. The Boston pol was right on.

It is easier to scare local officials than national ones.

That doesn’t mean that I am suggesting ignoring the Melissa Bean’s and Bill Foster’s of the world.

What you see here is the table with three Grafton Township Trustees--Betty Zirk, Rob LaPorta and Gerry McMahon--with Township Administrator Pam Fender between Zirk and LaPorta. Seen to the far left is Township Road Commissioner Jack Freund. The meeting has been going on for about a half an hour and the entire audience knows which way the wind is blowing.

It does mean when people get “mad as hell,” as the vast majority were Tuesday night at the Grafton Township meeting, big things can be accomplished.

The margin of victory for the opponents of buying new township offices were at least 5-2, maybe at high as 80%. All votes were by standing or raising hands with the pink paper ballots, which were never cast.

The Township Trustees seemed astounded that over 500 people would come to trash their plans to obtain new township offices.

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Those attending the Route 14 TEA Party Thursday afternoon might want to consider coming early to have penny pancakes at Colonial Cafe.  The restaurant is holding an autism benefit for a local agency.

After eating Mother’s Day brunch at a very crowded Port Edward in Algonquin, we went across Route 62 to Cornish Park along the Fox River.

The river was high, as you can see, but certainly not as high as it has been.

Even so, the dam was wide open.

There were more kids than I have ever seen playing at the park.

A couple were playing in the sandbox.

They had picked some of the plentiful dandelions and arranged the stems in arcs around the hole they had dug.

They placed the flowers in a circular fashion farther away.

It’s not at the flood stage it was in May, but the Algonquin dam is open and there is not much of a drop over the spillway, as you can see in the picture I took yesterday about 11.

Considering the almost 6 inches of rain that fell at McHenry, according to Channel 7 weather, one might think the water level would be higher.

It was high enough for the Fox Waterway Agency to issue a “No Wake” order for the lower Fox River yesterday morning at 8.

I did see at least four egrets on the shore at Algonquin’s Cornish Park.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

It’s not at the flood stage it was in May, but the Algonquin dam is open and there is not much of a drop over the spillway, as you can see in the picture I took yesterday about 11.

Considering the almost 6 inches of rain that fell at McHenry, according to Channel 7 weather, one might think the water level would be higher.

It was high enough for the Fox Waterway Agency to issue a “No Wake” order for the lower Fox River yesterday morning at 8.

I did see at least four egrets on the shore at Algonquin’s Cornish Park.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

I don’t know why tire swings attract my eye.

It happens when there is weird weather.

First during a blinding snow storm across from Crystal Lake’s Dole Mansion.

Last Saturday and the Saturday before last right south of Cornish Park on the Fox River in Algonquin.

While the ones this winter were swaying in the wind, the one in Algonquin wasn’t moving.

But it was suspended above the swiftly running Fox River.

I don’t know why tire swings attract my eye.

It happens when there is weird weather.

First during a blinding snow storm across from Crystal Lake’s Dole Mansion.

Last Saturday and the Saturday before last right south of Cornish Park on the Fox River in Algonquin.

While the ones this winter were swaying in the wind, the one in Algonquin wasn’t moving.

But it was suspended above the swiftly running Fox River.

This fisherman in Cornish Park at Crystal Creek where it enters the Fox River caught a big one before I talked to him and took this picture.

He knew he had hooked something significant.

But the rod was just too light.

I asked if it might have been a big catfish.

He thought it could have been a northern pike.

Never can tell with the river so high.

Like any good fisherman, though, he didn’t give up.

I went to take some pictures of the river and the dam at Algonquin from Route 62 and on the way back saw his reflection in the creek and took this photo.

“Will my picture be in the newspaper?” he asked.

I burst his bubble by introducing myself and telling him I had a “Message of the Day” on my blog and had used fishermen before.

He wasn’t the only one on the Fox.

That’s for sure.

The photo can be enlarged by clicking on it.

This fisherman in Cornish Park at Crystal Creek where it enters the Fox River caught a big one before I talked to him and took this picture.

He knew he had hooked something significant.

But the rod was just too light.

I asked if it might have been a big catfish.

He thought it could have been a northern pike.

Never can tell with the river so high.

Like any good fisherman, though, he didn’t give up.

I went to take some pictures of the river and the dam at Algonquin from Route 62 and on the way back saw his reflection in the creek and took this photo.

“Will my picture be in the newspaper?” he asked.

I burst his bubble by introducing myself and telling him I had a “Message of the Day” on my blog and had used fishermen before.

He wasn’t the only one on the Fox.

That’s for sure.

The photo can be enlarged by clicking on it.