With 36 absentee/early votes still to be included, the results from in-person voting for Dorr Township Trustee have been posted on the McHenry County Clerk’s web site. You can see them below:
And the winners are (so far) Jon Sheahan, John Fuller, Mark Anderson and Christian Cantwell.
Note that the candidate edged out is the one with the worst ballot position–next to last.
Those are the votes cast early and absentee.
They will be added to the results you will be able to read here or on the McHenry County Clerk’s election return web site.
To gauge the impact such votes will have take a look at the totals by township:3
I’m informed that Nunda Township Board Commissioner candidate Rob Parrish and Grafton Township Supervisor candidate Linda Moore had absentee ballot campaigns.
This arrived in my email from Dorr Township Assessor Veronica Myers:
“I would like to take this opportunity to personally commend Bill Ottley, Grafton Township Assessor.
“I have been in the assessment profession since 1993. I began working with the McHenry County
Supervisor of Assessments Office Board of Review section. I was then hired at Dorr Township as Chief
Deputy Assessor and am now the current Dorr Township Assessor.
Bill Ottley
“In regard to the assessment system, Illinois statute requires assessed values to be based on three prior
years of sales statistics. For 2013, this means the assessments are to be based on the average market
years of 2010, 2011 and 2012.
“Because of this standard, the assessments will lag behind what the market is doing currently. However,
the three prior year standard changes during the time frame when assessments can be appealed.
During the appeal time frame, assessed values are established using more current sales instead of the
three prior years of sales. Because the market has been in decline, this means that most assessment
appeals will be successful simply due to the change in standard. If during the appeal time frame the
same standards were used, there would be far fewer assessments being reduced. This difference in
assessment standards is a problem with the system, not with Mr. Ottley.
“Bill Ottley has my utmost respect and Grafton Township would be well served by his reelection.”
A couple of weeks ago I went searching for the new Dorr Township Hall.
The old one that Township Supervisor Ed Buckley had built had become too crowded, so the Township Board somehow managed to accumulate enough money to buy another facility and remodel it.
I was told it was near Walmart, so I went looking. No GPS in my old car and I didn’t have an address anyway.
Driving around the streets near Walmart, I came up empty.
The Dorr Township Hall that the Township board concluded was too small.
So, the next time I was in Woodstock, I drove to the old Township Hall and found an address for the new headquarters on the door.
Equipped with the new address–1039 Lake Avenue–I drove past it after crossing Route 47 before I caught a number.
Turning around and finding a kind person who let me get back into the Downtown-bound lane, I drove toward Route 47.
And, there it was on the east side of the road.
Big white facade with “Dorr Township” near the roof line.
The new Dorr Township Hall just southeast of Route 47 at 1039 Lake Avenue.
No sign near the road that I could see. Maybe that’s planned in the future.
Maybe the easiest way to find the place is to find the Red Mill Inn and look across the street.
And I hope you want to go toward Downtown when you leave.
Getting through traffic to turn left was a real challenge.
McHenry County Democratic Party Chairman Mike Bissett informs me that Dorr Township nominated Phil Robertson has been nominate in the Dorr Township Democratic Party Caucus for Township Supervisor.
Robertson is “an attorney and also the county party’s counsel, Bissett informs me.
His McHenry County Bar Association listing says he practices in the following fields:
His office is in Crystal Lake.
Robertson will face off against incumbent Republican Party Supervisor Robert Pierce in April.
From the Democratic Party of McHenry County:
Dorr Township and McHenry Township Democrats are invited to attend a caucus on Tuesday, December 4 at 7:00 p.m. to nominate candidates for the Spring 2013 election for Township offices. If you are a resident of either of these townships, please plan on attending the caucus.
This is an important chance to continue our efforts to break the Republican stranglehold on local government. Your participation is essential.
Visit our website for more information
Dorr Township residents, click here. The meeting will be held December 4, 2012 from 7 to 9 at the Woodstock Public Library, 414 W Judd St.
McHenry Township residents, click here. The caucus will be held at the McHenry Township Hall Tuesday, December 4, 2012 from 7 to 9.
Democratic Party of McHenry County
http://www.mchenrydems.org/
Frank Wedig
When I asked who was running for what in Dorr Township, I failed to ask if all the Trustee candidates were running as Republicans.
My mind was so fixated on the Republican primaries in the townships with over 15,000 population that I forgot that the Green Party could hold a primary, too.
That’s because it is an “Established Party” as a result of having received over 5% of the vote when Gus Philpott ran as its candidate for McHenry County Sheriff two years ago.
And, that is exactly what is happening.
Former County Board candidate and Dorr Township Trustee candidate Frank Wedig is running in the Green Party primary for Trustee.
My manual addition of Wedig’s 2012 County Board results shows his getting 2,192 Dorr Township votes.
That’s a lot more than the 837 he received for Township Trustee in 2009.
He lost that race to Joe Evanoff by 158 votes, as you can see lower in this article.
Frank Wedig’s votes for a District 5 County Board seat in November of 2012. He ran as the Green Party candidate.
Compare his support in the high-turnout Presidential Election with the 2009 low-turnout local election. Below are the 2009 results for Dorr Township Trustee:
The results in 2009 when Green Party candidate Frank Wedig ran against four Republicans for Dorr Township Trustee. Click to enlarge.
To put Wedig’s potential regional strength in perspective, you can see the final District 5 County Board results for 2012 below:
The final election results for McHenry County Board in District 5 shows that the Green Party will have “Established Party” status in the next election.
Democratic Party Chairman Mike Bissett has informed me that Democrats will caucus candidates in Dorr Township.
There will be no primary election for the main Dorr Township offices as the following face no challenger:
But for the four Township Trustee spots, six people filed for office:
= = = = = Correction = = = = =
Due to not asking enough questions, I thought that Green Party Chairman Frank Wedig was running in the GOP Primary. I put that into the original headline from which it has now been removed. He is again running for Township Trustee on the Green Party ticket.
“I ran for Dorr Trustee four years ago and if my memory is correct, I was some 90 votes short of getting elected,” Wedig emailed me. “I received some 500 votes.”
= = = = = Correction = = = = =
Andersen, Cantwell, Evanoff and Sheahan are the incumbent Trustees, but my guess is that Wedig has done the most campaigning in Dorr Township.
My manual addition of Wedig’s County Board results shows him getting 2,192 Dorr Township votes.
Frank Wedig’s votes for a District 5 County Board seat in November of 2012. He ran as the Green Party candidate.
To put Wedig’s potential strength in perspective, you can see the final District 5 County Board results below:
The final election results for McHenry County Board in District 5.
Wedig is the second high-profile Green Party candidate to leave the Third Party movement.
The first was Scott Summers. He ran as a Democrat in District 6 and placed sixth with four to be elected.
Let’s go through the townships in alphabetical order to see how the Real Estate Tax cap affects how much money they can collect.
This information, as with previous articles about the Tax Cap, comes from the McHenry County Clerk’s web site, Tax Rate page.
The township has a maximum tax rate of 24 cents per $100 of assessed valuation in the Town Fund.
While 3% increase is allowed in the Tax Cap allowed next year, Alden Township will only be able to get about half that amount because it is so close to the 25 cent limit right now–24.639.
In fact, when taking into account that overall assessments will be down 9%, as ordered by the Illinois Department of Revenue, Alden may be getting much less than expect.
There is no maximum limit for Public Assistance, so it remains not subject to the Tax Cap.
The Road District, which is a separate taxing entity, can get 3% more because its rates are so far under the statutory maximum.
It was levy night at the Algonquin Township Board last Wednesday.
The Town Fund is well below the maximum rate of 25 cents per hundred.
The Public Assistance Fund is not capped.
As in Alden Township, the Road District in Algonquin Township is well under its maximum tax rates on Tax Capped funds.
For a story about what happened when the levies were passed, click here.
McHenry County’s smallest township in area is no where near its maximum rate in the Town Fund.
The Road District is so far under the statutory limits that taxpayers cannot expect the Tax Cap to give less than a 3% increase, if it is requested by the Road Commissioner.
The township that covers most of Harvard, Chemung Township, also does not have tax rates that are close to the statutory maximum.
The same goes for the Road District’s Road and Bridge Fund.
The Permanent Road Fund is different, however. It is so close to its 25 cents per hundred dollars of assessed valuation, that the Road Commissioner will be able to get less than 1.5% increase, instead of the full 3% that the Tax Cap law would allow.
Coral Township Garage
The township which contains the Village of Union, Coral, is also well under its maximum limit for the Town Fund.
The Road Commissioner’s funds are, too.
The Dorr Township Hall that the Township board has concluded is too small.
Most of Woodstock is in Dorr Township.
Dorr is well below the maximum rates in all funds under the control of both the Supervisor and the Road Commissioner.
The southern part of Harvard is in Dunham Township.
The Town Fund is at 22.9 cents per hundred–close to the 25 cent maximum, but not close enough to limit a 3% increase, if requested by the Town Board.
However, once the 9% lower assessed valuation for the county as a whole works its way through the tax rate setting system, the Town Fund may well bump up against the limit set by law, resulting in next year’s tax take to being about the same as this year’s.
Of the three funds overseen by the Road Commissioner, only the 16.5 cent Road and Bridge Fund is at its maximum. Again the “9% factor” may come into play.
The Permanent Road Fund and the Equipment & Building Fund are not.
3% Tax Cap allowed increases will be the least of the worries for Dunham Township taxpayers, however.
Last fall a bond referendum to finance road building passed 63-37, so taxes will go up.
Grafton Township Board meeting.
Grafton Township is also well below the maximum rates set by State Statute in the funds administered by the Supervisor.
The same is not true of the Township Road Commissioner’s Road and Bridge Fund. It cannot be increase by 3% next year. About as much will be collected next year as was this year.
The Permanent Road Fund, on the other hand, has room for a lot of upside movement.
The township that runs from northern Woodstock on the South to Wonder Lake on the Northeast, is in no danger of reaching the 25 cent Town Fund maximum rate.
The capped funds in the Road District aren’t either.
Hartland Township’s sign.
Northwest of Woodstock running up toward Harvard is Hartland Township.
The Town Fund is about 4 cents short of the maximum set by law and will be able to get an extra 3%, if the Township Board levies it, even if assessments go down 9%.
In the Road District, the Road and Bridge Fund is at its maximum, but the Permanent Road and Building & Equipments Funds are not.
North of Greenwood Township is Hebron Township.
Its Town Fund is in pretty much the same shape as Hartland’s–almost four cents of growth left before State law steps in and stops it. The year after next might be considered a problem from the Road Commissioner’s point of view.
The Road and Bridge Fund is very close to its limit, but, again, the Permanent Road and Building & Equipments Funds are not.
Marengo Township Supervisor Steve Weskerna and Trustee Ray Jones talk to Doug Logan from Huntley.
Not even close to the maximum Town Fund tax rate is Marengo Township.
With two 3% cost-of-living increases, the Marengo Township Road and Bridge Fund will top out and taxpayers will see some relief.
The Permanent Road Fund is well under its 25 cents per $100 of AV limit
The second largest township in McHenry County–McHenry Township–is at about half it maximum tax rate in the Town Fund.
The concentration of commercial and industrial assessed valuation allows the Road District funds to operate well under their maximums as well.
Nunda Township Board meeting ni 2010.
Running from Crystal Lake Avenue north to southern McHenry, Nunda Township’s Town Fund rate is just over one-third of what it could be under State law.
The same goes for the funds under the Road Commissioner.
To the west of tiny Burton Township lies Richmond Township.
The Town Fund tax rate is well under the minimum, as are the Road District rates.
In the southwestern corner of McHenry County is Riley Township. That part of McHenry County through which the Illinois Tollway goes is all in Riley Township.
Rural, except for the southern part of the City of Marengo, but poised for explosive growth if there is ever a Tollway interchange built at Route 23.
The Town Fund in Riley is in similar shape to those in Hartland and Hebron Townships.
The funds in the Road District are well under their maximums.
The western part of Woodstock is in Seneca Township.
It’s where one of my ancestors settled in the 1830′s before deciding to more east to Ypsilanti, Michigan.
Its Town Fund is at a rate that will take a long time to reach the 25 cent maximum.
Its Road District funds are well below their maximums, too.
The Republican Parties in all of the five largest townships in McHenry County seem to have decided or soon will decide to hold primary elections in February, rather than hold caucuses.
Those five are
Paperwork apparently has to be filed first with a local township official, who is supposed to forward it to the McHenry County Clerk’s Office.
According to the County Clerk’s Office as of mid-Friday afternoon, none of the five has jumped through all of the loops yet.
Salaries have to be set prior to the election, before November 21st, according to Algonquin Supervisor Dianne Klemm.
The legislative intent for the law was so that those running would know what they would be paid, plus, if someone won a primary that the incumbents didn’t like, they couldn’t cut the salary.
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