McHenry County Blog

Former Island Lake Mayor Chuck Amrich has demolished the chances of incumbent Mayor Debbie Herrmann’s remaining in office.

With apparently all but the early and absentee voting included, the results in both McHenry and Lake Counties show an avalanche win for Amrich.

It is now evident why those behind Herrmann fought so hard to keep Amrich off the ballot.

I’d give odds on one thing.

Ancel Glink won’t be the Island Lake attorney after Amrich takes office.

Incumbent Island Lake Village President Debbie Herrmann’s allies managed to get opponent Chuck Amrich thrown off the ballot.

Apparently two can play the game of Chicago politics.

The local party on whose ballot Amrich was scheduled to appear has now slated him for Mayor.

Might one guess there was gnashing of teeth when the incumbent’s supporters found out the information in the following press release?

Mayoral Candidate Charles R. Amrich fills Vacancy of For The People Slate

On Feb 25th just before 10am Attorney John Fogarty Jr. representing Charles R Amrich along with several candidates of the For The People Slate filed paperwork with the Village of Island Lake Clerk to fill the open Mayoral Vacancy in the For the People Slate.

Paperwork is also being filed with the Lake County Clerk Willard Helander and McHenry County Clerk Katherine Schultz.

Those not in control of Island Lake, but running for office, are meeting tomorrow afternoon for a meet and greet at Sideouts (the bowling alley) from 2-4.

This message from Teresa Ponio, who is running for Village Clerk on the slate of challengers, explains the details:

“I don’t know if you’ve read about the ongoing plight for us to get on with our campaign; the candidate for Mayor, Charlie Amrich, has a hearing scheduled at Lake County Courthouse in Waukegan on February 17th to contest the Village election hearing result.

“Two men have filed objections to Charlie running for Mayor; both have monetary benefit to have Mayor Herrmann win for Mayor again.”

Their campaign piece is below:

Republican County McHenry Board candidate Mary McClellan sent the latest evidence that local Democrats are not confident that Barack Obama will win Illinois.

Below are the pictures she took of two defaced signs at the corner of Route 176 and River Road:

Besides the referendum about establishing the County Executive form of government, McHenry County has one suggested by Wonder Lake’s Bob Anderson asking whether people should be allowed to hold more than one elective office at the same time.

The second referendum is merely advisory.

Two villages that overlap into both Lake and McHenry Counties are also holding referendums.

Fox Lake is asking whether residents want the Village Board to arrange for the purchase of electricity through a bulk contract.

In the Village of Island Lake, voters will be asked in advisory referendum if they want to have a new Village Hall-Police Station.

In a binding referendum a question will be asked whether the Island Lake Village Clerk should be appointed, rather than elected.

Island Lake Connie Mascillino resigned her Trustee position and was appointed Village Clerk by Mayor Debbie Herrmann.

Sam Cicero was appointed the new Trustee.

I found the following information on the Chicago Tribune’s Real Estate page on the internet.

It has an interative map of McHenry County (and all other parts of the six-county Chicago metropolitan area) that tells what has happened to real estate values in municipalies with enough sales from which to pull statistics.

In McHenry County, I was surprised that homes in my village of Lakewood (a suburb of Crystal Lake) have held their value better than anywhere else.

• Lakewood: +17.65% with current median value at $353,250. (Our home is a bit below average.)
• Crystal Lake: -32.98% with median value at $157,500
• Huntley: -39.59%, median at $193,000
• Lake in the Hill: -34.08%, median at $147,000
• Algonquin: -25%, median at $147,000
• Cary: -39.77%, median at $156,000
• Fox River Grove: -42.609%, median at $154,750
• Oakwood Hills: -18&%, median at $164,000
• Island Lake: -30.06, median at $114,000
• Holiday Hills: -100%, but median given at $0, so obviously there is a glitch in the data
• Woodstock: -42.14$, median at $136,000
• McHenry: -31%, median $138,000
• Lakemoor: -29.37%, median $117,250
• Johnsburg: -48.38, median $175,000
• Wonder Lake: -27.13%, median $119,500
• Ringwood: -19,2%, median $201,000
• Richmond: -36.45%, median $197,000
• Spring Grove: -33.52, median $232,500
• Marengo: -42.65%, median $117,000
• Union: -1.59%, median $310,000 (something seems a bit wonky with the median average number)
• Harvard: -50.5%, median $99,000
• Hebron: -31.03%, median $130,000

Other communities have no information.

A press release from State Rep. candidate Danielle Rowe. She is running against State Rep. Kent Gaffney and David McSweeney.

Danielle Rowe’s “We the People” Fundraiser

Please join us at our “We the People” fundraiser to support Danielle Rowe, Republican candidate for State Representative, 52nd District from 6:00PM to 9:00PM on Sunday, February 19 at Sideouts, 4018 Roberts Road, Island Lake, IL.

Tickets are only $20 per person and include a nacho, cheese and chili bar, a dessert bar, soft drinks, and 1 drink ticket for a beer or glass of wine.

We will have big screen TVs, Wii bowling, a raffle, door prizes and more. It will be fun, engaging and interactive, just like Danielle’s campaign.

Danielle Rowe is closer than ever to fighting for us in the General Assembly. You can play a huge role in bringing new, conservative leadership in Springfield.

Your support will help us grow Danielle’s campaign and continue to contact voters by phone, mail, online and in person.

We need to help Danielle get to Springfield to get Illinois moving in the right direction – Rowe’s Roadmap for Economic Revitalization in Illinois includes:

• Repeal the Democrats’ Tax Increase
• Reform Public Sector Pensions
• Reduce Runaway State Spending and Borrowing
• Restore a Business Climate that Respects Entrepeneurs and Creates Jobs

Please RSVP by clicking the green “Register” button above. This will let us know you are coming and you’ll receive a confirmation and and email reminder about the event. You can pay at the door by cash or check or you can buy your tickets online by making a donation at: https://www.danielleforil.com/donation/

If you are unable to attend the event, you can always help by volunteering for the campaign. Click here for more information and to volunteer.

Visit DanielleforIL.com for more information on Danielle and her campaign.

That’s the information I just received in a brief email a half an hour ago, specifically,

“As of 90 minutes ago Charlie Amrich was found not guilty in Lake county court.”

Amrich served as Village President of Island Lake for twenty years before the Democrats took control of the non-partisan government.

As I remember the indictment, he was charged with selling gasoline to village vehicles while heading the village board.

Reporting on the trial, the Chicago Tribune wrote that Amrich testified that village vehicles had been serviced at the station since his father ran in the 1950′s, that he never directed village employees to use his station.

Both Amrich’s successor and his successor’s wife were also indicted. His successor was not convicted and the wife’s trial has not yet been held.

The defense in former Mayor Tom Hyde’s trial throught that one of those commenting on Island Lake stories was a potential witness, so Judge Fred Foreman was asked to order the Daily Herald to reveal that person’s identity.

Yesterday, the Daily Herald revealed the Judge let the paper off the hook.

So Sharon Hyde’s attorneys will have to go without that bit of information.

“Foreman said he would not enforce the subpoena against the newspaper because Smith had not established the information was crucial to Hyde’s defense, and had not exhausted all other means of determining the potential witness’ bias and prejudice against Hyde.”

In more substantive news, the paper reports that “state’s attorney’s office investigators had compared the two sets of documents and discovered ‘changes, alterations and deletions’ had been made to the original time sheets.”