McHenry County Blog

Although you can't tell from this approximately 11 AM photo, the courthouse parking lot has lots of empty spaces.

in my quest to discover what’s happening on the “let’s put a branch courthouse in the population center of McHenry County,” I have received some information from 22nd Circuit Court Administrator Dan Wallis:

“The requirements that we have put together are for an area of about 6,000 square feet to accommodate the courtroom, holding area, clerks, court administration, chambers, etc.

“The largest issue is the required parking which we are estimating around 120 parking spaces or more.

“There are plenty of large buildings in the 60,000 square foot range which have ample parking or there are buildings in the 6,000 foot range which have forty parking spaces.

“It is a difficult combination to find.”

At the suggestion of a reader, I also asked about the possibility of night courts for traffic or other purposes. Wallis’ reply follows:

“There are very few night court models around the country.

“I have discussed that issue with the National Center for State Courts and was told that they work only for a very small group of case types.

“One main issue is that it isn’t just the court that is affected by a night court.

“It involves the

• attorneys,
• litigants,
• security/sheriff’s office,
• court services,
• circuit clerk’s office and
• facilities management.

Because of population grown since the year 2000, McHenry County gets two new associate judges.

The selection process for these $171,000 jobs is in process. Twenty-nine lawyers have applied.

But now the County Board has to find a place to put two new judges.

Space is tight in the courthouse. You know government expands to fill all room available, a variation of Parkinson’s Law, I think.

So, what to do?

It appears that the County Board is about to do something logical, something that is should have done at least a decade ago.

What’s that?

Open branch courthouse in the population center of the county, southeastern McHenry County.

And, while most of Woodstock is in the southeastern McHenry County, the Courthouse is in the northern half of McHenry County. I refer to its inconvenient location as “the Hebron site.”

Crystal Lake City Hall is a potential site for a branch courthouse. One might think cities would be competing for a branch courthouse, hoping those with tickets would stay and do some shopping.

Court is already conducted in Crystal Lake’s City Council Chamber. It’s called Administrative Court and is a way the Home Rule City of Crystal Lake can extract money from people without sharing any with county government.

But that court certainly proves Crystal Lake has an adequate courtroom.

I see no reason that the Algonquin Village Board room wouldn’t work either.

Or the Huntley Village Board room. It was certainly big enough to hold close to 200 folks mainly interested in high tolls to fill their wallets.

So, move traffic court to the cities where the tickets have been written.

When I called the Crystal Lake City Manager’s Office I was told no inquiry has so far been made.

So, if you have an empty room that might work as a courtroom, raise your hand. You might get some rent for a room that otherwise might remain empty.

Oh, yes. Might be good to have plenty of parking.