McHenry County Blog

I filed a Freedom of Information request with Grafton Township for the checks paid so far for the new township hall. That doesn’t include interest to Harris Bank on the debt certificates.

That’s the $3.5 million ($5 million+, if interest is included) financial transaction on which the Grafton Township Board voted 5-0 to settle up with the Harris Bank last night.

I received the list of expenditures before I went on vacation and will share them with you in descending order.

• Lake in the Hills – $99,429
• MJ Munaretto and Co – $66,000
• Lamp Inc – $57,930.61
• Matuszewich, Kelly LLP – $19,240
• Chapman and Cutler – $15,000
• Heritage Title – $3,386
• O’Brien Law Office – $2,200
• Thomson Surveying Ltd. – $2,000
• Ancel, Glink, Diamond – $1,150

McHenry County Board member Marc Munaretto lists MJ Munaretto and Company’s number as his office number in the McHenry County Year Book. Several weeks ago I emailed him asking,

“I’ve just gotten the Grafton Township Hall expenditures and am curious what services were supplied for (I meant “by”) M.J. Munaretto & Co., Inc. to get $66,000.”

I have received no answer from that email or the telephone call messages I left several weeks ago.

I sent another email late last night and left a message at his office this morning. If I get a reply, I shall share it with you.

The Illinois Secretary of State’s Office reports the company president’s name and address as

There were so many signs in Crystal Lake and Algonquin at the 4th of July TEA Parties.

In view of the Grafton Township Board’s having stopped the $430 a day hemorrhage to the Harris Bank for the $3.5 million loan on a 5-0 vote last night, it seems appropriate to emphasize this placard found on Route 14 in Crystal Lake on Independence Day. (Click to enlarge.)

The upper corners carry the message

NO
New TAX

Below appears

It is held by a man with his wife who understands that “

as Democratic U.S. House Speaker Tip O’Neill once said.

One might fairly surmise that the two supported recently-elected Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore.

The names of the Grafton Township trustees are

• Betty Zirk
• Barbara Murphy
• Gerry McMahon (newly-elected with Moore’s help)
• Robert LaPorta

It also allows me to again observe that trying to make an impact on government is almost always easier the lower the level of government.

I’m still looking at photos that four people provided me of the TEA Parties, but, so far, I have found none protesting Mayor Aaron Shepley’s 75% Crystal Lake city sales tax hike.

I’ve seen nothing to indicate that demonstrators don’t want the Chicago Democrats’ 50% state income tax hike.

Too bad.

What a great opportunity to get through to state and local officials other than those of Grafton Township.

Here’s an all-purpose slogan that could be re-cycled.

Believe it or not, newly-elected Township Supervisor Linda Moore and the four township trustees who resent her having been elected because of the monkey wrench she threw into the $5 million (including interest) new township hall project agreed tonight.

Without discussion, they voted 5-0 to authorize “the return to Harris Bank of the $3,500,000 in loan proceeds with interest to the date of the return in exchange for the cancellation of the Debt Certificates currently outstanding against Grafton Township.”

Of course, Moore didn’t throw the monkey wrench, except by getting elected on the platform that a new township building should not be constructed without voter approval at the ballot box.

After a contentious annual town meeting at which a tie vote to approve the construction of the new building resulted in the motion’s loss, Judge Michael Caldwell ruled in Dan Ziller, Jr., et al’s suit, that, because of inadequate notice, the effort to build the new township building was dead in the water.