McHenry County Blog

Carolyn Schofield

At election night’s Crystal Lake City Council meeting, City Councilwoman Carolyn Schofield, elected last year, took the lead in getting a resolution on the agenda at tomorrow night’s meeting asking for recognition of the city’s Watershed Ordinance by county government.

You may remember that both Ellen Brady Mueller and Donna Kurtz made something of that issue during their campaigns for a District 2 slot on the fall county board ballot.

From a resident of the watershed’s perspective, it is so, so difficult to understand that the McHenry County Board has thus far not figured out how important protection of our lake’s watershed is to local residents.

You would think they might have figured that out when a citizen uprising killed the minor league baseball stadium at McHenry County College.

After all, half (that’s right, half) of the entire county board represents parts of Crystal Lake. With all residents of the Crystal Lake Park District having access to the lake, how can one explain why the board has not taken action already.

Ellen Brady Mueller

Donna Kurtz

My prediction is the resolution will pass without dissent Tuesday.

If that doesn’t convince the county board to follow the not-as-strict-as-it-could-be watershed protection ordinance, the next step, it would seem to me would be to invite those twelve county board members to a meeting of the city council.

Who are they?

District 2

• McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler (R)
• McHenry County Board Vice Chairman Jim Heisler (R)
• Lyn Orphal (Lost the primary to Donna Kurtz) Both R’s.
• Former Lakewood Village President and Crystal Lake Park Board President Scott Breeden (R)

Crystal Lake Avenue is the dividing line between District 2 and District 3.

District 3

• Barbara Wheeler (R)
• Kathy Bergan Schmidt (D)
• Ed Dvorak (retiring) (R)
• Mary Donner (R)

District 5

• Tina Hill (R)
• Virginia Peschke (R)
• Jim Kennedy (D)
• Paula Yensen (D)

District 5 comes into the Crystal Lake area from the Northwest (Ridgefield) and the Southeast.

So, what’s the resolution ask for?

“That the Mayor and City Council request the Regional Planning Commission include the Crystal Lake watershed and its regulations in the list of watersheds that exist within McHenry County in the 2030 Comprehensive Plan document.”

The resolution points out that the lake’s watershed is 6.39 square miles of which 3.69 square miles are within the City of Crystal Lake.

It’s time to get back to my “Message of the Day” feature. Switching back and forth on computers—NEVER, EVER buy a Hewlett-Packard computer—has made accessing photos difficult to impossible.

At any rate, take a look at the jar opener I found in Crystal Lake.

It’s a campaign gimmick for Veronica Armstrong, who is running in the Republican primary for McHenry County Board in District 3. That’s the one north of Crystal Lake Avenue in Crystal Lake that goes into the southern part of McHenry.

The message on the hand-shaped rubberized friction increaser is provocative.

It says,

Veronica
Armstrong
County Board District 3

Get a grip on your future.
Get rid of the screw offs.

The only incumbent running in District 3 is Barbara Wheeler. (Ed Dvorak is retiring.)

Wheeler was a leader in the successful fight to ban video poker (really slot machines) in unincorporated McHenry County. She also ran unsuccessfully against District 2’s Ken Koehler—also up for re-election—for county board chairman. The punishment was not being named a committeeman.

So, are the “barbs” on the jar opener aimed at Barbara or the county board in general?

It’s been a couple of weeks since the McHenry County Board bucked Chairman Ken Koehler, State Senator Pam Althoff, State Rep. Mike Tryon and those who stand to gain financially from placement of video poker machines in local taverns and restaurants.

It’s time to tell the tale of how McHenry County Establishment got narrowly beaten in that fight.

The vote was close (13-10-1) and my guess is that video poker proponents will try to reverse that vote after new county board members are sworn in, if the people they back defeat anti-gambling incumbents like District 2’s Barbara Wheeler.

Video gambling was the first local issue taken on by Patriots United, the folks who coordinated the Independence Day TEA Party, picketed State Rep. Jack Franks’ office on a cold spring day about his sponsorship of a bill considered pro-abortion and gun control, held a well-attended forum on the Democrats’ health care reform, and co-sponsored with the McHenry County Young Republicans a candidates’ night for 8th congressional district GOP aspirants.

Members attended John Hammerand’s License and Liquor Committee meetings and sponsored a debate between proponents and opponents.

Here are Patriots United video slot machine debate panels, ban proponents on the right, opponents on the left. Opponents, from left to right, are Tom Grey, David Smith and James Blue.

Then, Patriots United had a forum in Woodstock during which video poker machine salesmen debated three social conservatives:

• Tom Grey, the nationally- known Methodist minister who started out in Galena during the time the county board decided to site a riverboat in Jo Davies County and now Field Coordinator and National Spokesman for Stop Predatory Gambling
• Jim Blue, representing Illinois Church Action on Alcoholism and Addiction Problems
• David Smith, Executive Director of the Illinois Family Institute

They urged their members to contact county board members, but that was not what did the trick.

They used this robo call technique I first saw tobacco companies us in lobbying against cigarette tax hikes maybe ten years ago.

Call people, explain the issue and ask if they would like to speak to their county board member.

Since there are four county board members per district, how would that work?

The Illinois Family Institute selected six county board members considered to be approachable on the issue.

They were

• Yvonne Barnes in District 1
• Jim Heisler in District 2
• Ed Dvorak in District 3
• Sue Draffkorn in District 4
• Jim Kennedy in District 5
• Dan Ryan in District 6

From 1,334 to 1,453 calls were made in each district.

From to 649 to 774 of the calls were answered by voters. After the recorded pitch, voters were asked to push a phone button if they wished to be transferred to their county board member.

There were over fifty transfers for all but one district.

From the time my father served on the county board, I can tell you that he never got that many calls on any subject. On some zoning matters, especially the landfill ones, he might have gotten fifty letters. One phone call on a subject was a big number back in the 1980’s.

Getting dozens of calls must have sounded like a tidal wave.

And it was. You can’t find an issue where that many constituents have contacted county board members by phone. Undoubtedly, some of them were friends and supporters of each member.

A little over half of the calls were answered in person; the rest went to answering machines.

Of the six county board members receiving calls, only Huntley’s Ryan, a Sun City resident, voted in favor of allowing video slot machines in establishments serving liquor in unincorporated McHenry County.

Barnes, Kennedy and Ryan are up for election this year. District 6’s Ryan is the only one with GOP primary opposition.

= = = = =
Check out possible targets for the pro-gambling forces in this post.

OK. I was wrong.

I predicted last night that the McHenry County Board would approved what proponents insist on calling video poker.

But, this morning social conservatives on the board pulled off a 13-10-1 victory.

That was with the help of all three Democrats on the county board. (Counting only Republicans, the vote would have been tied 10-10.)

Lake in the Hills member Paula Yensen has personal knowledge of how devastating gambling can be to a family.

Patriots United video slot machine debate panels, ban proponents on the right, opponents on the left.

Perhaps also influencing the vote was the leadership that Democratic Party State Rep. Jack Franks has taken on the issue. He attended a Patriots United debate on the subject after returning from one of this fall’s veto sessions.

All Republicans representing McHenry County in the Illinois General Assembly except State Senator Dan Duffy, that is, State Representatives Mike Tryon and Mark Beaubien, plus State Senator Pam Althoff, voted supported video slot machines.

Voting in favor of a ban of the video gambling machines in unincorporated areas were the following, who are grouped by county board district (those up for election this year are show in bold face type):

District 1

• Yvonne Barnes

District 2

• Jim Heisler

District 3

• Ed Dvorak (retiring)
• Kathy Bergan Schmidt
• Barbara Wheeler

District 4

• Sue Draffkorn
• John Hammerand
• Sandy Salgado

District 5

• Paula Yensen
• Jim Kennedy
• Virginia Peschke

District 6

• Mary McCann
• Ersel Schuster

Voting against the ban, thus in favor of expanding gambling were the following:

District 1

• Anna May Miller
• Bob Bless
• Marc Munaretto

District 2

• Scott Breeden
• Ken Koehler
• Lyn Orphal

District 3

• Mary Donner

District 4

• Pete Merkel

District 5

• Tina Hill

District 6

• Dan Ryan

Abstaining from the vote was District 6 Republican Randy Donley.

A month ago the board voted against holding an advisory referendum on the issue. The vote was 13-11-1.

The thirteen board members who voted against allowing their constituents to vote on the issue follow:

• Yvonne Barnes (R-Cary)

• Sue Draffkorn (R-Wonder Lake)

• Paula Yensen (D-Lake in the Hills)

• Ed Dvorak (R-Crystal Lake)

• Jim Heisler (R-Crystal Lake)

• Ken Koehler (R-Crystal Lake)

• Mary McCann (R-Woodstock)

• Pete Merkel (R-McHenry)

• Virginia Peschke (R-Bull Valley)

• Sandy Salgado (R-McHenry)

• Kathy Bergan Schmidt (D-Crystal Lake)

• Barb Wheeler (R-Crystal Lake)

Voting in favor of an advisory referendum were

• Bob Bless (R-Fox River Grove)

• Scott Breeden (R-Lakewood)

• Mary Donner (R-Crystal Lake)

• John Hammerand (R-Wonder Lake)

• Tina Hill (R-Woodstock)

• Jim Kennedy (D-Lake in the Hills)

• Anna May Miller (R-Cary)

• Marc Munaretto (R-Algonquin)

• Lyn Orphal (R-Crystal Lake)

• Dan Ryan (R-Huntley)

Members of the Operating Engineers Local 150 lobbied vigorously against the gambling ban, arguing for the jobs its proceeds would finance.

Knocked out of his seat by McHenry County Democratic Party Chair Kathy Bergan Schmidt last year, Republican Nick Provenzano is running for the GOP nomination in next February’s primary election.

From the list of those endorsing him found below his press release, one can easily say that he has done his homework in an attempt to preempt other candidacies.

Provenzano spent next to nothing in his fall campaign last year, although he put up previously purchased signs. It was not until the night before the election that I saw any evidence of a joint campaign between him and his successful GOP running mate Mary Donner.

That consisted of a joint sign put in front of polling places.

I think the lack of a joint campaign was a major reason for his loss.

The press release he sent out Saturday is below.

(And, I guess it’s time to remind candidates that I am happy to publish candidates’ press releases the same way the the Crystal Lake Herald and other local papers used to do. Just email them to me. The email address is at the bottom right of this page.)

Nick Provenzano Announces Bid
for County Board Seat

Greetings!

It’s my honor and pleasure to announce my candidacy for McHenry County Board and invite you to join our campaign team as we move forward to victory in 2010.

During my six years on the County Board I had the distinct honor to serve with Ed Dvorak and before that I had the opportunity to fill Ed’s seat on the Nunda Township Board. It was bittersweet news to learn that Ed will be retiring from the McHenry County Board after the completion of his current term.

I am once again honored and humbled to receive Ed’s encouragement and support to run for his seat on the County Board. Ed has a long tenure of distinguished public service including Nunda Highway Commissioner, Nunda Trustee and most recently McHenry County Board. On behalf of the constituents of District 3 and all of McHenry County, I would like to be the first of many to salute Ed’s public service and send a heartfelt thank you for a job well done!

Please take a moment to read through our e-news for information on how together we can begin the journey to keep this important position in Republican hands.

Sincerely,

Nick Provenzano
Candidate for
McHenry County Board
815-355-8540

Ed Dvorak and Barb Wheeler’s terms are expiring. Both Dvorak and Wheeler are listed as supporting him, as are the following:

• Nunda Township Highway Commissioner Don Kopsell
• Nunda Township Assessor Dennis Jagla
• Nunda Township Trustee Joni Smith
• Nunda Township Trustee Lee Jennings
• McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren
• McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler
• McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi
• Irene Napier, McHenry County Pro-Life PAC
• John O’Neill, District 15 School Board & McHenry Library Board
• Rick & Monica Young, 2nd Amendment Activists
• Brent Smith, Team Nunda
• Leo Lexow, 2nd Amendment Activist
• Phil & Marion Weyna, Pro-Life Victory PAC

In addition, the following Republican precinct committeemen are listed as supporters:

• Nunda 1 – Bob Remsing
• Nunda 2 – Bob Borchett
• Nunda 3 – Don Kosell
• Nunda 4 – Jay Jirasek
• Nunda 5 – Howard Parth
• Nunda 6 – John Arient
• Nunda 7 – Lee Jennings
• Nunda 8 – Kathy Corwin
• Nunda 10 – Terry Feddersen
• Nunda 12 – Kathy Reiland
• Nunda 13 – James Becker
• Nunda 14 – Pat Collins
• Nunda 15 – Ed Dvorak
• Nunda 18 – Dick Klemm
• Nunda 20 – Barb Wheeler
• Nunda 21 – Brent Smith
• Nunda 23 – Tom Hughes
• Nunda 27 – Dennis Jagla
• Nunda 28 – Joni Smith
• Nunda 29 – Joe Wheeler
• McHenry 9 – Tom Webb
• McHenry 20 – John O’Neill

August 4 is the first day to pass petitions for the Republican and Democratic Party primary elections.

Dvorak also served as Lakewood Village trustee before moving to the north side of the Crystal Lake area.

Slim advertising have apparently loosened standards for political inserts at the Northwest Herald.

I can’t remember the campaign (one in the Cary area pops into my mind), but a former managing editor pledged that a political insert would no longer be allowed the day before an election.

The Republicans in Nunda Township, labeling themselves “Team Nunda,”
paid for an insert that I didn’t get, but discovered while reading the paper at the First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake. The church is located just north of the Algonquin-Nunda Township line, which is Crystal Lake Avenue.

So, it appears the local GOP candidates didn’t waste their money on the Algonquin part of Crystal Lake.

The Team Nunda sign is reproduced on both sides of the three color campaign piece.

Endorsements from

• former State Senator Dick Klemm
• current State Senator Dan Duffy
• State Rep. Mike Tryon
• McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren
• McHenry County board members Ed Dvorak, Mary Donner and Barb Wheeler

are featured on one side.

The other side has endorsements from

• State Senator Pam Althoff
• McHenry County Treasurer Bill LeFew
• McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler
• McHenry County Auditor Pam Palmer
• McHenry County Coroner Marlene Lantz
• Bryan Javor, Young Republicans Chairman

And there’s a big

on both sides.

For the first time in my memory, two individuals from the same county board district were elected to head the McHenry County Board.

Incumbent County Board Chairman Ken Koehler (R-District 2) easily beat back challenges from District 3 county board member Barb Wheeler and District 1 member Marc Munaretto.

The vote was 16-6-2 for Koehler, Wheeler and Munaretto.

Two contended for the second spot.

Crystal Lake’s Jim Heisler faced off against McHenry’s Sandy Salgado.

Heisler won 15-9.

= = = = =
You can see Ken Koehler and Jim Heisler (from left to right) being sworn in by Judge Michael J. Sullivan. In the background on the first row is Crystal Lake’s Ed Dvorak. On the second row is newly-sworn in Democrat Kathy Bergan Schmidt.

More details tomorrow.

For the first time in my memory, two individuals from the same county board district were elected to head the McHenry County Board.

Incumbent County Board Chairman Ken Koehler (R-District 2) easily beat back challenges from District 3 county board member Barb Wheeler and District 1 member Marc Munaretto.

The vote was 16-6-2 for Koehler, Wheeler and Munaretto.

Two contended for the second spot.

Crystal Lake’s Jim Heisler faced off against McHenry’s Sandy Salgado.

Heisler won 15-9.

= = = = =
You can see Ken Koehler and Jim Heisler (from left to right) being sworn in by Judge Michael J. Sullivan. In the background on the first row is Crystal Lake’s Ed Dvorak. On the second row is newly-sworn in Democrat Kathy Bergan Schmidt.

More details tomorrow.

In 2006 McHenry County Democrats took up the expensive relocation of the McHenry County Animal Shelter to Crystal Lake as a county board issue.

It is safe to predict that one 2008 issue will be incompetent management of Valley Hi, the county nursing home. Of course, the animal shelter may come back as a sequel.

Somehow looking at articles on the internet does not have the same impact as seeing them in the Northwest Herald. Placement and size on the printed page can make a big difference.

I know that reading Reagan Foster’s words,

”The audit stated that there was no sign that funding had been managed in any way, nor were there any indications that managers working to change the increasing reliance on taxpayer support,”

gave me a sense of the enormity of the management failure by the McHenry County Board.

Instead of tossing old NW Herald’s my in-laws save them for me. So, last Sunday, I looked through a pile.

The NW Herald put its

article on its front page last Friday.

You can expect to see that front page of July 27th edition of the NW Herald in Democratic Party literature next year, if county Democrats have good designers.

And, how incompetent was county management?

Not knowing the county was spending almost $184 a day caring for patients, while taking in about $131, shows about as few management controls as one could imagine.

To get an idea how significant blowing through $2 million can be, take a look at the Chicago Tribune’s main article last Sunday. It and others were on Governor Rod Blagojevich’s $2.6 million commitment to purchase flu vaccines which were never used.

That rated the front page on Sunday’s Tribune and all of the editorial page of the Chicago Sun-Times on Wednesday.

State government has over a $50 billion budget. So, $2 million is a very small proportion of the total. Yet it is important because Blagojevich was in his “Let’s create a national image, so I can run for President” mode when he got the flu vaccine.

$2 million to McHenry County is real money. The total 2006 county budget was $180 million. Valley Hi’s share was about $12.5 million. $2 million is 16% of 12.5 million, a bit over 1% of the total county budget.

Just as the governor was trying to get publicity with his vaccine ploy, the county board was in the process of completing a new county nursing home.

Big opportunity for brownie points, wouldn’t you agree?

Blown by mismanagement.

Two NW Herald articles, plus an editorial, to drive home the point:

July 26th – Valley Hi audit says home $2 million in red in ‘06

July 27th – Valley Hi ran in red in ’06

July 28th – Valley Hi’s budget woes

The Valley Hi Administrator did resign, but I’m thinking the Democrats may be looking for some county board member scalps.

Members of the Valley Hi Committee, according to the McHenry County web site, are

Chairman: Mary Lou Zierer
Vice Chair: Ed Dvorak
Members: James Heisler, James P. Kennedy, Mary McCann, Pete Merkel, Dan Shea

= = = = =

I wrote last year of Valley Hi Administrator Howard Nehlig’s having told me a story when I was McHenry County Treasurer in the late 1960’s about the pigs raised at the old county poor farm not having hams. He told me the story three times and I still didn’t get his point. He finally had to tell me that the hams went home in the county board committee members’ trunks.

In the same article, I wrote of a farmer who told me at the County Fair in 2000 of how a long ago poor farm committee chairman tried to shake down a farmer who lived, what was it, 8 miles west of Woodstock on Kishwaukee Valley Road. The farmer was hired to dig a well and did so. Afterwards, the county board member showed up, asking, “Where’s my cut?”

The farmer told him he had worked hard and he wasn’t going to pay him anything.

The county board member told the farmer that he would make sure he never got another county contract. The crooked county board member delivered on his pledge.

Maybe McHenry County taxpayers would be better off with the petty corruption of years past than the massive mismanagement of today.

My article on county home corruption also has a McHenry County syndicate section that might be of interest.

In 2006 McHenry County Democrats took up the expensive relocation of the McHenry County Animal Shelter to Crystal Lake as a county board issue.

It is safe to predict that one 2008 issue will be incompetent management of Valley Hi, the county nursing home. Of course, the animal shelter may come back as a sequel.

Somehow looking at articles on the internet does not have the same impact as seeing them in the Northwest Herald. Placement and size on the printed page can make a big difference.

I know that reading Reagan Foster’s words,

”The audit stated that there was no sign that funding had been managed in any way, nor were there any indications that managers working to change the increasing reliance on taxpayer support,”

gave me a sense of the enormity of the management failure by the McHenry County Board.

Instead of tossing old NW Herald’s my in-laws save them for me. So, last Sunday, I looked through a pile.

The NW Herald put its

article on its front page last Friday.

You can expect to see that front page of July 27th edition of the NW Herald in Democratic Party literature next year, if county Democrats have good designers.

And, how incompetent was county management?

Not knowing the county was spending almost $184 a day caring for patients, while taking in about $131, shows about as few management controls as one could imagine.

To get an idea how significant blowing through $2 million can be, take a look at the Chicago Tribune’s main article last Sunday. It and others were on Governor Rod Blagojevich’s $2.6 million commitment to purchase flu vaccines which were never used.

That rated the front page on Sunday’s Tribune and all of the editorial page of the Chicago Sun-Times on Wednesday.

State government has over a $50 billion budget. So, $2 million is a very small proportion of the total. Yet it is important because Blagojevich was in his “Let’s create a national image, so I can run for President” mode when he got the flu vaccine.

$2 million to McHenry County is real money. The total 2006 county budget was $180 million. Valley Hi’s share was about $12.5 million. $2 million is 16% of 12.5 million, a bit over 1% of the total county budget.

Just as the governor was trying to get publicity with his vaccine ploy, the county board was in the process of completing a new county nursing home.

Big opportunity for brownie points, wouldn’t you agree?

Blown by mismanagement.

Two NW Herald articles, plus an editorial, to drive home the point:

July 26th – Valley Hi audit says home $2 million in red in ‘06

July 27th – Valley Hi ran in red in ’06

July 28th – Valley Hi’s budget woes

The Valley Hi Administrator did resign, but I’m thinking the Democrats may be looking for some county board member scalps.

Members of the Valley Hi Committee, according to the McHenry County web site, are

Chairman: Mary Lou Zierer
Vice Chair: Ed Dvorak
Members: James Heisler, James P. Kennedy, Mary McCann, Pete Merkel, Dan Shea

= = = = =

I wrote last year of Valley Hi Administrator Howard Nehlig’s having told me a story when I was McHenry County Treasurer in the late 1960’s about the pigs raised at the old county poor farm not having hams. He told me the story three times and I still didn’t get his point. He finally had to tell me that the hams went home in the county board committee members’ trunks.

In the same article, I wrote of a farmer who told me at the County Fair in 2000 of how a long ago poor farm committee chairman tried to shake down a farmer who lived, what was it, 8 miles west of Woodstock on Kishwaukee Valley Road. The farmer was hired to dig a well and did so. Afterwards, the county board member showed up, asking, “Where’s my cut?”

The farmer told him he had worked hard and he wasn’t going to pay him anything.

The county board member told the farmer that he would make sure he never got another county contract. The crooked county board member delivered on his pledge.

Maybe McHenry County taxpayers would be better off with the petty corruption of years past than the massive mismanagement of today.

My article on county home corruption also has a McHenry County syndicate section that might be of interest.