McHenry County Blog

Woodscreek Park on the south side Ackmann Road in Crystal Lake is set for a makeover.

As described by Planner Ann Viger,

“The grant is for $400,000 toward a $1 million project to renovate Woodscreek Park in 2014.

“It is part of the Open Space Land Acquisition and Development Program administered by IDNR [Illinois Department of Natural Resources] and funded by real estate transfer taxes.

“Components of the project include:

• playground replacement
• addition of a splash pad
• addition of a bocce court
• addition of a baggo court
• installation of a second fishing pier
• installation of a second tennis court
• expansion of the parking lot
• partial shoreline restoration
• pathways
• landscaping
• benches
• signage

“A neighborhood meeting was held two years ago to get input for the master plan.

“A follow up meeting will be held this summer to get into the details now that the grant was approved.

“The park is 40 acres in size and will be 22 years old when the project is started.”

There remain two vacancies on the seven-member Crystal Lake Park Board after write-in candidate Michele Hartwig for only 17 votes.

To win a seat, Hartwig had to get as many votes as signatures she would have had to gather to qualify to be on the ballot.

That’s 103 in the case of the Crystal Lake Park Board.

However, those elected, plus those not up for election could decide to appoint Hartwig or anyone else to the

• four-year and
• two-year

vacancies for which no one was elected.

No one filed as a write-in for the two-year term.

Five seats are up at the Crystal Lake park Board in April’s election.

Terms are expiring for

• Deborah Gallagher
• Jerry Sullivan
• Angel Collins
• Caroline Bachour-Chemaly
• Thomas Aquilina

But there are only three people running for the Park Board:

• Angel Collins
• Caroline Bachour-Chemaly
• Thomas Aquilina

That means two people can gain office through write-in campaigns.

Park District Executive Director Jayson Herbster informs me that it took 103 signatures to get on the ballot.  That means it would take 103 write-in good votes to gain a seat on the Park Board.  103 people would have to put an “X” in the box and write one’s name on the line.

Thursday, February 7th, is the last day a person may file a notarized Declaration of Intent to be a write-in candidate with the proper election authority.

Today we are looking at Park Districts with territory in McHenry County to find out if any are close to their maximum rate limits. The source of this information is the Tax Rate page of the McHenry County Clerk’s web site.

As long as the rates are under the limit enough, districts can continue to obtain the extra tax dollars which the Property Tax Cap allows.

That is a 3% increase for next year.

In such cases, it does not matter that one’s property value has decreased.

Park Districts that had debt outstanding at the end of 1994 or 1995 were granted the ability to sell bonds in perpetuity without voter approval as long as the amount of interest and principal are the same as the amount paid in that benchmark year.

It something like a revolving credit card that never has to be paid off.

Such bonds are undoubtedly financing the new building at Crystal Lake’s West Beach.

There certainly was no referendum passed.

Marengo’s Park District is at the 10 cent limit for its Corporate Fund already. That accounted for just 29% of the tax rate, however. Another fund, the Recreation Fund, is not near its limit. It took up 24% of the tax bill this year.

That, with another 35% of the bill not limited by the Tax Cap means Marengo taxpayers should not hold their breath hoping the Tax Cap will cut their Park District tax bill next year.

The Park District tax bill was cut last year, Heather Shepard told me. because a bond was paid off.

The first park district on the McHenry County Clerk’s list, Barrington Hills, is near its maximum. Its maximum rate is 10 cents per $100 of assessed valuation and it’s rate this year is 9.965589 cents per hundred.

Multiply this year’s rate by the increase in the Consumer Price Index (3%) and you will see that the Barrington Hills’ rate would be 10.25 cents per hundred.

Administering the Tax Cap the McHenry County Clerk’s Office will say, “Sorry,” so to speak, “you can only get 10 cents per hundred.”

The Cary Park District, on the other hand, is at its maximum tax rate for its Corporate Fund right now. That’s 35 cents per hundred.

Thar Corporate fund amounted to 53% of its total tax take this year.

Cary’s Recreation Fund is getting close to the limit, but won’t reach it for about two more years.

When that happens, about 70% of the Park District tax rate will be prohibited from increasing.

Crystal Lake, on the other hand, has about three more years at current rates of inflation before it bumps up against its maximum Corporate Fund rate of 10 cents per hundred.

Almost as large is something called an “Additional Corporate Fund.” It’s maximum is 25 cents per hundred and this year it is only at .4 cents, so there is plenty of room for growth there.

There is also a “Recreation Fund” with a 12 cent per hundred maximum. It is at 8.9 cents.

There are also a couple of other funds under their smaller maximum rates with no limit and all the bond paybacks, including ones issued without referendum approval, so the Tax Cap won’t have much effect on the Crystal Lake Park District for some time.

In any event, from a levy workshop I thought the Crystal Lake Park District is planning to tax to the max in the coming year.  Turns out the Board changed its collective mind in the intervening week and decided only to raise taxes by 0.45%.  See story here.

The Huntley Park District is not close to its maximum tax rate limits.

There is also another factor in play which could cause many more tax districts statutory rate limit problems.

Mandated by the State Revenue Department, assessment levels will decrease by 9%.

Logic tells me that a district less than 12% below its statutory rate limit will not get the maximum amount allowed under PTELL, the acronym of the property tax cap law.

Between this week and last the Crystal Lake Park Board seems to have undergone a collective brain transplant.

After sitting through an explanation of the tax levy process last week, I was convinced that taxpayers were going to be subjected to a “tax to max” vote Thursday night.

So sure was I that the headline on my last week’s article was

Crystal Lake Park District Planning to Tax to the Max

Park President Debbie Gallagher started out the discussion by hoping that the Finance Committee’s recommendation would be followed, otherwise what’s the use of having committees.

Committee Chairman Larry Wheeler, whose opinion last week was that all the money allowed under the Tax Cap should be taken, did not change his opinion, but did recommend a compromise.

The Park District would levy the maximum amount possible for the tax capped funds, but would reduce the Special Recreation Fund levy, which is not subject to the Tax Cap, enough so that the total taxes to be extracted from current taxpayers would be just under a half of one percent (0.45%).

Balances would be drawn down in various funds.

“I’m on the same page,’ Caroline Bachour-Chemaly concurred.

Gallagher noted that the proposal “captures new growth.”

“This is a far cry from what we had on the table [last week],” Mike Walkup, who resigned as of midnight in order not to have a conflict of interest when he takes office as a member of the McHenry County Board.

He later pointed out, “This is virtually a flat line.”

At the levy workshop, a consensus seemed to have been reached to ask for a 4.69% increase in the levy. Because the Consumer Price Index only increased 3% and new growth was estimated at about 3/10 of 1%, there was no chance of such an increase, but it was typical of the balloon levying most tax districts employed in boom times in order to get as much money as possible from the property tax.

Angel Collins, who was absent for the levy workshop said, “The time of just hitting it all the time might be gone for a little while.”

She supported scaling back the amount of taxes requested “in keeping with the understanding that people are having a hard time,” but noted it was “not something we can do all the time.

“We’re not a business where we can go out and raise our prices. We’re a government.”

When it was Paul Meyers’ time to talk, he said, “I know I was the renegade in this.”

As you can see by reading the article about the levy workshop, Meyer was the one who brought up the proposal to freeze the levy.

He pointed out that tax collections had increased 53% over the last ten years.

“I appreciate this is a group of people willing to compromise.”

Executive Director Jason Herbster the levy still captured the new growth and the increase in the CPI for those funds under the Real Estate Tax Cap.

“People shouldn’t be paying anymore than they did last year, except for the bonds.”

Collins observed that the Park District’s share of the tax bill was only about 5%.

“If you want a change, people need to go to the school districts,” she advised.

Gallagher prompted Herbster to tell of employee cutbacks.

He said the full-time staff was “down 9 from 73 to 64″ since he became Executive Director.

Gallagher announced her support for the compromise, but said, “When times are tough like this more people will be using the parks and the library.”

“This isn’t something we can do three, four or five years in a row.”

Jerry Sullivan, one of the most vociferous advocates of not foregoing any of the new tax money allowed under the Tax Cap, was absent.

= = = = =

After the vote I asked if I could speak out of turn and thank the Board.

Multiple sources have told McHenry County Blog that the McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi’s Office is making contact with the three newly-elected members of the County Board to advise them of the conflict of interest that would exist if they did not resign their current posts.

The three and their current positions follow:

• Carolyn Schofield, Crystal Lake City Council
• Mike Skala, Huntley District 158 School Board
• Mike Walkup, Crystal Lake Park District

Of the three, Walkup has resigned as of midnight Thursday, November 15th.

Schofield has announced her intention to resign.

Skala has said that he does not intend to resign until February.

In the article linked above, you can read  1993 opinion from Attorney General Roland Burris that concludes serving on a school board and a county board at the same time is “incompatible, and one person may not serve simultaneously in both offices.”

Delaying his resignation from the School Board until February would allow the remaining members of the Board to appoint his replacement for the next two years.

Resignation prior to being sworn into the County Board would allow people to run to fill the remaining two years of this term.

Pete Gonigam at First Electric Newspaper has details of Skala’s resignation plans.

Thursday night there was a workshop at the Crystal Lake Park Board to discuss the tax levying process.

The presentation assumed that the Board wanted to extract as much money as possible from the taxpayers:

• Take the entire amount allowed under the Property Tax Cap law, that is, 3%
• Take the amount estimated by the County that is new growth

For a home worth $300,000, that’s estimated to cost an extra $40.

Everything was non-controversial until Commissioner Paul Myers said,

“This is probably going to be unpopular. I was going to propose we do one year at the same [amount as last year]. I would be in favor of freezing the levy.

“People’s incomes are going down.

“We want good community rapport,” Myers pointed out, mentioning a community center.”

Jumping to the defense of taking as many tax dollars as possible was Commissioner Jerry Sullivan.

“Everything comes down to your personal situation..not [what's good] for the whole community…I feel you’re missing our mission.

“Are we saying our major job is to save taxes…Our number one [purpose] is to be able to build our community.”

“The quality of life will go down,” added Park Board President Debbie Gallagher. “Without a vibrant and live park district and school districts, our community [won't] be a place people will want to live.”

Commissioner Carolyn Bachour-Chemaly asked, “If we lose that money what we lose?”

Gallagher pointed out that by not allowing for the collection of the maximum amount allowed by law, “We would lose that money every year [in the future].”

Staff estimated that freezing the amount taxed for one year would cost a total of almost $1 million over six years.

Sullivan urged fellow Board members to “be visionaries and stand up. You’re not looking to improve the community if [you're] looking at not capturing [the maximum amount of taxes possible].

“The only [things] people who talk to me about are the facilities and the parks.

“We don’t get surveys saying, ‘We want you to cut taxes.’”

“I don’t think it would be doom and gloom if we froze taxes one year,” Myers replied.

Sullivan insisted the question should be, “Are we doing the best for the parks?”

Myers brought up the reserves the Park District has.

Executive Director Jason Herbster pointed out that the three months in reserve was according to Board Policy.

He suggested that most savings would result in the cutting or delaying of capital projects, but that most of the money for the Park Police could be saved just by turning over the duties to the Crystal Lake Police Department. Out of $400,000, $250,000 might be saved.

He suggested $100,000 could be saved by eliminating the Lake Management money.

“Once it’s goes away, it doesn’t get [put] back,” Gallagher inserted.

Larry Wheeler spoke in favor of approving the staff recommendation.

Commissioner Michael Walkup pointed out that the average family in the country has $3,400 less in income this year as compared to last year. His source was the Presidential campaign.

“It’s a combination of people losing their jobs [and cuts in salary].”

“What is our purpose here?” Sullivan interjected. “We could always cut budgets.”

Herbster announced that the vote would be taken next Thursday night and the ordinance would be up for a vote on December 13th.

Discussing reserves, the Executive Director said he had heard that District 155 had “a full year’s money. We certainly don’t stockpile money like some governments do.”

Commissioner Mike Walkup added that the County has five months of spending in the bank.

Ending the meeting, Gallagher said, “Well, we certainly have food for thought.”

Caroline Bachour-Chemaly for in the last words: “Everybody’s hurting for money.”

Angel Collins was not at the meeting.

Other park districts are expected to do the same.

= = = = =
If you would like to contact the Park District Commissioners, their emails are below:

Commissioner		email
Debbie GallagherPresident		dgallagher@crystallakeparks.org
Paul MyersVice-President		pmyers@crystallakeparks.org
Larry WheelerTreasurer		lwheeler@crystallakeparks.org
Angel CollinsCommissioner		acollins@crystallakeparks.org
Jerry Sullivan,Commissioner		jsullivan@crystallakeparks.org
Michael WalkupCommissioner		mwalkup@crystallakeparks.org
Caroline Bachour-ChemalyCommissioner		cbachourchemaly@crystallakeparks.org

= = = = =
There is one tax, the Special Recreation Tax, which is not capped by the Tax Cap. The Board is not levying the maximum amount it can. That information was contained on the slide you see below:

Two Crystal Lake and one Huntley politician will be giving up their seats on the city council, park and school boards in the near future.

Carolyn Schofield, who is in her second term on the Crystal Lake City Council, and Mike Walkup, who is also in his second term, will tender their resignations prior to being sworn in for the McHenry County Board during the first week in December.

In Huntley, long-time School District 158 Board member Mike Skala will be vacating his seat as well.

The three governmental bodies have the choice of filling the vacancies just prior to elections which will be held next April or not doing so.

Those deciding to appoint someone will be giving such people a leg up on non-incumbents running next spring.

While voting at Crystal Lake’s Main Beach House (thank you Park District officials for putting democracy in front of renting out the room for karati!), a confused young man was pointed to me.

He wanted to know whether the precinct was in the 6th or the 14th Congressional District.

I told him the 6th.

He wanted to know where the 14th began and I told him the boundary was in front of my house, Meridian Street.

He wasn’t the only one confused.

Turnout was good at both my precinct, Algonquin 7, and Algonquin 19, which votes at the same location.

At about 4 this afternoon, there were 212 votes that had been cast in Algonquin 7. In addition, there were 86 early and absentee ballots to be counted.

For Algonquin 19, which has more voters, 230 had voted in person, plus 102 who had voted earlier.

There were handmade signs opposing Jack Franks’ County Executive referendum posted near the polling place.

I don’t know if many of the participants in and spectators of the Chicago Junior Rowing Championships regatta stay overnight in Crystal Lake, but there surely were a lot of cars in the parking lot, plus the overflow flood plain behind the baseball diamond.

I had other things to do most of the morning, but I got a shot of some rowers getting ready to carry their skiff to the Main Beach.

The Loyola crew were at the crosswalk by the time I got back to the Crystal Lake Park District’s Main Beach.

About twelve I headed down to Gate 21 and, as luck would have it, a race was about to begin.

I learned later it was the second heat for Novice Boys 8.  (That undoubtedly means something and maybe someone will enlighten us casual fans in the comment section.)

I took a couple of more photos form the edge of the Beach 21 pier and raced to my car.

Then it was race to the car and drive to Gate 13 Beach.

There were spectators there.

Down the beach a bit are benches at probably the highest points on the rim of Crystal Lake. An adjoining table with seats was empty.

And, it was off to the Beach at Gate 7.

A man with a video recorder was out on at the end of the boat pier. He brought his own chair.

At the other end of the beach there benches held rowing fans.

And off to see the finish of the race at Gate 3.

And the winning crew crosses the finish line.

The arms of the cockswain are thrown up in victory.

The faces on the young men who finished second are not so joyful.

I drove to the Main Beach and caught these young men carrying their skiff up the incline.

I’m not sure if these two crews are coming or going. Maybe one in and one out.

I found out the winner of the race was New Trier’s B Team.

Sweat suits, blankets and coats were the order of the day.

Tomorrow the Women’s 8 Varsity Race.