McHenry County Blog

Crystal Lake's Gate 7 Beach at the Gate 9 end on the morning of March 20, 2010.

The ice disappeared from Crystal Lake on Friday, March 19th.

March 15th, same location. The ice on Crystal Lake was rotten.

That’s what sprang to mind about noon as I was listening to the robo-call from Crystal Lake Grade School Director of Communications Lori Parish.

Read what she said and see if you come to a similar conclusion:

“School administrators have been contacted by Crystal Lake authorities and notified that some middle school students have been engaging in off campus fighting.

Lundahl Middle School serves junior high school students on Crystal Lake's south side.

“We are cooperating fully with the Police Department as they investigate these incidents.

“While the events have occurred outside of school property, the school environment has been disrupted.

“The information is the majority of the students involved in the fighting reside in the south end of town.

“However, we have information that leads us to believe that students form the other D47 middle schools may have been involved.

“It is our expectation that this behavior will stop immediately.

“Fighting can be considered mob action and is punished as a felony.

“The police will determine what, if any, charges may be filed based on the outcome of their investigation.

“Please talk with your child of the inappropriateness of this type of behavior.”

Most children on the south side of town attend Lundahl Middle School.

New McHenry County Blog Masthead which contains a picture of the Norge Ski Jump in Fox River Grove, something unique to McHenry County.

It was October, 2005, when the Vulcan Lakes TIF proposal by the city council spurred me to start McHenry County Blog.

I knew–and knew that most others didn’t–that every dollar that gets poured into a Tax Increment Financing District’s project comes out of your and my pockets.

That’s because local tax districts are not at their maximum tax rates, as governed by state law.

The Property Tax Cap has forced those tax rates down while real estate values increased far faster than the increase in the cost of living.

This is parking attendant building for the Three Oaks Recreation Area. I invite you to compare it to the portable, wooden one used by the Crystal Lake Park District at the Main Beach Parking Lot.

So, if the value of your house went up 10% one year and the CPI increased 3%, the tax rate of each district had to be decreased to make sure its tax take would not exceed the CPI.

A bit complicated, but the result is that no tax district is at its maximum rate limit.

That means when assessed value is stolen from it by a city’s or village’s creation of a TIF district, the other tax district (read school district, park district, county government, you name it) can just increase the tax rate to get the same amount of money it would have otherwise received.

That’s why I called it a “TIF Tax Hike.”

So, with “free money,” you can expect that cities and villages won’t be too careful with it.

Take a look at the new fee collection gate being constructed at Vulcan Lakes…oops, Three Oaks Recreation Area, a place with precious few oaks, I would imagine.  (You can see other pictures here on the city’s web site.)

Compare that to the one used by the Crystal Lake Park District. It’s portable. Made of wood.

Works fine.

Somehow WMAQ-TV broke this story about Prairie Ridge High School wrestlers.

Finally got my hands on Friday’s press release about the investigation of the Prairie Ridge High School wrestlers from the Crystal Lake Police Department.

For the record, it appears below:

On Thursday, February 28, 2010 the Crystal Lake Police Department was notified by Prairie Ridge High School Staff of a possible hazing incident involving a number of students who are members of the school’s wrestling team.

Since first becoming aware of this incident, investigators conducted interviews of the entire wrestling team as well as the school’s coaching staff.

Upon completion of this investigation, the case was presented for Review by the McHenry County State’s Attorney Office.

This review resulted in finding that these reported incidents did not meet the required elements to substantiate felony charges.

Further review by the City’s Attorney led to the filing of misdemeanor charges based on the statements made by the victims as well as witness accounts.

On March 5th, 2010, each of five students were arrested and charged with simple battery.  All five of the cases will be referred to juvenile court.

A person commits battery if he intentionally or knowingly without legal justification and by any means,

(1) causes bodily harm to an individual or

(2) makes any physical contact of an insulting or provoking nature with an individual.

= = = = =
More information can be found in these stories:

District 155 Issues Letter about Prairie Ridge Wrestling Hazing

Additional Statement from High School District 155 on Wrestling Hazing and Intimidation

Prairie Ridge Wrestling Hazing May Have Included Sexual Molestation

Northwest Herald Prohibits Comments on Prairie Ridge Investigation, Former School Board President Characterizes Probe as “Out of Control”

Northwest Herald’s No Comment Policy Not Uniformly Enforced

Locker Room Rules for High School Coaches, Recent Changes in Huntley

Misdemeanor Battery Charges Filed Against Five Prairie Ridge Wrestlers

Crystal Lake’s Reichert’s Chevrolet is waiting for the mailman this morning (assuming the letter didn’t come Saturday).

Will Reichert’s win its arbitration with General Motors and be allowed to keep it franchise or not?

Reichert's Motor Group building on Route 14

Here’s hoping General Motors has the good sense to allow John Reichert and his employees, not to mention Crystal Lake, reason to celebrate.

Out of 1,100 dealerships, six hundred will be throwing parties today.

I pretty nearly jumped out of my chair as the weather alert went off with a “Tornado Warning.”

It was 10:10 AM.

Not until after the sharp

“beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep…”

went off did I hear,

“This is a test tornado warning message.”

“Do not take action based on this message.”

And, that was after I called my wife, who was in her Crystal Lake office today.

She told me she had heard sirens. I hadn’t. I got to the Chicago Tribune’s weather radar screen, but saw nothing like this:

Weather radar when tornado hit Capron on Jan. 7, 2008.

The screen showed no clouds in the whole area.

Then I remembered it was the first Tuesday of the month. That’s when the sirens are tested.

I wonder why a “severe thunderstorm warning” would not have sufficed.

Back in 1965 on Palm Sunday when the tornado swept through Colby’s Subdivision, the Crystal Lake Plaza and the farm where Coventry now is, I was at a friend’s place in Ann Arbor.  I didn’t usually watch TV, but when looking at the news that Sunday night, I saw the Crystal Lake Plaza.

“I know that shopping center,” grad student Skinner exclaimed.

When you drive though Colby’s, odds are good that the two-story houses are the ones the tornado struck.  They were expanded concurrent with their repair.

This shot is taken from the YouTube video below of a Union Pacific train being blown off the tracks near the small northwestern McHenry County village of Capron. A disconnected tank car throws sparks as it heads for a collision with what appears to be the engine, which is still on the tracks.

And, just in case you want a close-up and almost personal encounter with a tornado, take a look at the YouTube video of the Union Pacific train being blown off the tracks in Capron below.

To the tune in “My Fair Lady:”

“They said that they would do it, would do it.

“They said that they would do it, would do it.

“And, indeed they did.”

Web page from which one can find the packet of information to be considered at the council meeting.

I notice on the Crystal Lake City Council has followed in the footsteps of the Huntley and Carpentersville School Districts, McHenry County College and the McHenry County board and posted its board packet.

Crystal Lake City Council

Now citizens and other nosy bodies can find out what the council members will be discussing before the meeting.

The link is on this page right between the board agenda and the searchable city council minutes.

One giant step toward transparency.

McHenry County Undersheriff Gene Lowery, the man selected by Crystal Lake to be its new deputy police chief, will be honored at a retirement party in Union April 9th.

The details, obtained from the McHenry County Republican Central Committee, are below:

Lowery’s county salary is $136,544.

I didn't have a picture of a black hole in space, so this dark funnel my son spotted one morning in a Springfield hotel's hot tub will have to do for an illustration.

Naturally the black hole that wishes to eat a couple thousand dollars of my income originates in Chicago.

Consider he Chicago Sun-Times today.

Look at the cover.  Abraham Lincoln is crying because taxes aren’t higher.

He isn’t crying because people are unemployed.  He’s crying because governments, state and local, haven’t picked enough money out of our pockets.

I figure when the tax rate is hiked by two-thirds from 3% to 5%, the suggestion from years past of Pied Piper Ralph Matire and, more recently, Chicago’s Civic Federation, it will cost me 750 crying Lincoln $5 bills more than the year before.

That’s when my state pension, for which I repeatedly thank taxpayers, drops by 5%.

It won’t just be me, though.

Everyone with retirement income will see a cut in tax home pay, so to speak, of 5%.

I wonder how many people in Sun City will welcome that day, probably sometime during this July.

Wage earners would see their pay checks get cut by “only” 2%.

Don’t worry.

Government won’t waste any of your lost income.

Surely, Crystal Lake Mayor Aaron Shepley and the five city council members who voted with him to hike Crystal Lake’s city sales tax 75% haven’t wasted any, have they?

The end of January Northwest Herald Editor Dan McCaleb got Lakewood Village President Erin Smith to say that “in the future” Lakewood might be willing to discuss returning its fire protection to the Crystal Lake Fire Department. (The link provided is is not a link to the story; it’s a link to a page that will allow you buy the story for $2.95, if you so desire.)

For as long as I can remember (back to 1958 in McHenry County), Lakewood’s fire protection was provided by Crystal Lake.

But a couple of years ago Crystal Lake proposed a pricing structure that would have eventually eaten up Lakewood’s entire budget,.

While fire protection is important, Lakewood residents also value snow removal, road repair and police protection. Some even want a bicycle path and algae removal.

So the village staff and board did some hard-nosed cost-benefit analysis and concluded that it could start its own fire department, run by a private firm, American Emergency Service Corporation, and save money after the second year.

Lakewood now has begun the fourth year of a five-year contract for privatized service. Twenty-two months are left.

The Lakewood Village Board before it went into Executive Session Tuesday night. From left to right, you see Village Trustees Carl Davis, John Pfeuffer and Gene Furey,Village Clerk Janice Hansen and Village President Erin Smith.

But “the future” mentioned in McCaleb’s column is now.

The rest of the Lakewood Village Board before closing doors on the public to discuss litigation and personnel. From left to right are Village Manager Catherine Peterson, Village Attorney Richard Flood and Village Trustees Kenneth Santowsk, Dorothy Pfeuffer and John Burton.

At the Tuesday before last’s closed session to discuss litigation, the Lakewood Village Board talked about settling the suit with Crystal Lake over disputed non-payment for fire protection service and returning to the fire protection umbrella of Crystal Lake.

Crystal Lake has lost about $750,000 in revenue each year because of Lakewood’s pull-out.

On a 6-1 vote (Jeff Thorsen voting “No”), it has raised its city sales tax rate by 75% at Mayor Aaron Shepley’s behest.

Crystal Lake First Station nearest to Lakewood

Empty stores are everywhere.

Clearly Crystal Lake would love to have Lakewood return to its fire protection foal.

But, unlike the headline on McCaleb’s column, it’s more about the money than the good government goal of shared services.

Bryn Mawr subdivision sign on Route 176 near Route 47

(Logic would say that the Lakewood fire station should serve the subdivision in Crystal Lake that is closer to Route 47 than Route 14.

(Likewise, the Crystal Lake Fire station on Bard Road should be protecting Country Club Additions, Turnberry and other nearby Lakewood subdivisions.

(But, logic doesn’t always work in local governmental relations.)

Lakewood Fire Department on Haligus Road near Route 176

Before Crystal Lake wanted to charge Lakewood residents the same tax rate that Crystal Lake residents and businesses paid. Just as Lakewood residents would pay for Crystal Lake library services.

The city would not recognize that the mix of buildings in Lakewood is markedly different from that in Crystal Lake.

Lakewood does not have much business property. No high rise hotels.

Lakewood does not need all of the equipment that Crystal Lake needs to protect its large corporate structures.

In the past, Crystal Lake officials have failed to understand the concepts of marginal costs and marginal revenue.

The marginal cost of providing fire protection to Lakewood is low.

Any extra revenue is almost pure gravy.

Now, it may not seem fair to some city council folks that homeowners in Lakewood would pay less than those in Crystal Lake.

I can tell you it doesn’t seem fair to me that Crystal Lake gets to keep all my sales tax.

So, where one lives has advantages and disadvantages.

But getting “less” than one wants for something may be worth thinking about.

And maybe Crystal Lake is having such thoughts now that it thinks it has a stretched thin budget.

Main Crystal Lake Fire Station

Right not the city budget is getting less than “less,” that is, nothing.

That resulted from a misconception of its bargaining position, of thinking Crystal Lake thought it had all the fire protection marbles in town.

Obviously, Lakewood came up with a satisfactory solution.

But, now the two sides are back at the bargaining table again.

And, it appears serious discussions are taking place.

I can’t imagine more isn’t on the table that fire protection. After all, what Lakewood has in place seems to be working well.

There has to be a third leg to the negotiations. Maybe even a fourth leg.

From left to right, Council members Ellen Brady Mueller, Ralph Dawson, Cathy Ferguson, Attorney John Cowlin, City Manager Gary Mayerhofer, Mayor Aaron Shepley, City Clerk Nick Kachiroubas, and Council members Brett Hopkins, Carolyn Schofield and Jeff Thorsen.

I would observe that if Crystal Lake wants to settle the suit, maybe Crystal Lake is not so sure it can win its collection case against Lakewood.

Likewise, if Lakewood wants to settle the suit, maybe Lakewood is not so sure it can emerge victorious.

It’s been my experience when one side of a lawsuit wants to settle, they are nervous about the outcome of their case.

What will the resolution be?

It certainly will be discussed in public if the contract with American Emergency Service Corporation (Lakewood’s fire protection firm) is to be amended.  I am not aware that contract changes can be kept out of an open meeting.

And, any lawsuit settlement will have to be at least voted upon in public, while it may be discussed in private by both ruling bodies.