McHenry County Blog

Seen on the bottom row from left to right, are John and Sheri Haselgruber, Paulette Wainberg, Chairman Nunda Republicans Central Committee Brent Smith and Chris Halloway. On the back row, from left to right, are Jim Batastini, Scott Brown, Nunda Trustee Joni Smith, Brian Prather, Patti Pauley, Adam "Moose" Pringle, Nunda Trustee Tom Palmer, Karen Tynis, Wally Tynis, Nick Provenzano, Chairman Republican Party McHenry County Mike Tryon, Dave Gervais, Jake Justen, YR Chairman Bryan Javor, Adam Wallen. Missing from the picture, but attending, are Zachary Smith, Chelsi Smith, Bob Halloway, Mark Daniel, James Jirasek, organization Vice Chairman Jon Heideman.

Under Brent Smith’s leadership, the Nunda Township Republican Central Committee has held the first of its monthly meetings.

There was even a commemorative cake.

Now, Nunda Township Republicans are rolling out a fund raising raffle, the prize for which will be a politician to cook dinner for the winner in his or her home.

I bought my ticket in between getting signatures for the “Fair Map” reapportionment constitutional amendment petition at the Crystal Lake Business Expo.

Workers posing at the Republican Party booth at the Crystal Lake Chamber of Commerce Business Expo. From left to right are Rebecca Lee, Bob Miller, Anna May Miller, Tom McDermott, Brent Smith, Cal Skinner, Bill Miller, Mike Shorten and Jon Heideman.

I figured the only woman on the list, Barb Wheeler probably would provide the best meal, so she’s going to learn where the Lakewood home with the tree house is, if I win.

Below is the flyer for the fundraiser:

Ticket contact email is coonpy@att.net.

Fellow Crystal Lake Planning and Zoning Commissioner Jim Batastini has made me aware of a Saturday fund raiser for Crystal Lake City Council candidate Carolyn Schofield.

Here is his message:

“I am sending this out to make you aware of an upcoming fundraiser for Carolyn Schofield. She is a candidate for Crystal Lake City Council. Carolyn has served on the CL Planning and Zoning Commission for a very long time.

“She would bring some fresh perspective and ideas to our City Council. She is a terrific person and would be a great leader for our city.

“There are many people running for Council, running an election is expensive.

“If you cannot make the fundraiser, please visit her website and contribute if you can. At the very least, please review her qualifications and VOTE on April 7th.”

Here are the details:

Her report is or will be, of course, filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections, 1020 S. Spring St., Springfield, IL 62704, or with the McHenry County Clerk, 2200 N. Seminary, Woodstock, IL 60098.

Tucked away on the last page of the Crystal Lake Council minutes for May 6, 2008, is the report of a 4-3 vote to re- appoint Planning and Zoning Commission Chairman Tom Hayden and outspoken member Jim Batastini.

The council members voting against the two were Ellen Brady Mueller, Cathy Ferguson and Dave Goss.

The council members voting in support of reappointment were Ralph Dawson, Jeff Thorsen, Brett Hopkins.

Breaking the tie was Mayor Aaron Shepley.

Hayden is a former city councilman. Batastini ran for city council against Mueller and Ferguson last time around. The two women and Goss supported bringing a minor league baseball stadium to McHenry County College.

Dawson, Thorsen and Hopkins were on the opposite side of the MCC re-zoning issue, supporting the Planning and Zoning Commission’s unanimous vote to oppose allowing a baseball stadium at MCC. By their vote, the three voting for re-appointment killed the proposal because the Planning and Zoning Commission’s vote triggered an extraordinary majority vote requirement.

Shepley, of course, led city efforts to bring a minor league baseball team to McHenry County College.

Tucked away on the last page of the Crystal Lake Council minutes for May 6, 2008, is the report of a 4-3 vote to re- appoint Planning and Zoning Commission Chairman Tom Hayden and outspoken member Jim Batastini.

The council members voting against the two were Ellen Brady Mueller, Cathy Ferguson and Dave Goss.

The council members voting in support of reappointment were Ralph Dawson, Jeff Thorsen, Brett Hopkins.

Breaking the tie was Mayor Aaron Shepley.

Hayden is a former city councilman. Batastini ran for city council against Mueller and Ferguson last time around. The two women and Goss supported bringing a minor league baseball stadium to McHenry County College.

Dawson, Thorsen and Hopkins were on the opposite side of the MCC re-zoning issue, supporting the Planning and Zoning Commission’s unanimous vote to oppose allowing a baseball stadium at MCC. By their vote, the three voting for re-appointment killed the proposal because the Planning and Zoning Commission’s vote triggered an extraordinary majority vote requirement.

Shepley, of course, led city efforts to bring a minor league baseball team to McHenry County College.

All the newspapers that ever cover Crystal Lake affairs showed up Wednesday night for the MCC baseball stadium zoning meeting.

The Daily Herald’s headline writer put this over Jameel Naqvi’s article:

The story emphasizes the objections about traffic and flooding that surfaced.

When college officials asked the zoning commissioners to trust the engineering, the article reports a skeptical Chairman Tom Hayden said,

“There’s a lot of people that took a ride on the Titanic or the shuttle Challenger, and they didn’t think anything was going to happen, either.”

Almost all the commissioners said they supported expansion of McHenry County College, but…

Here’s a quote the Daily Herald reported in the story after Commissioner Jeff Greenman pointed to the lack of an updated comprehensive plan for the watershed area now that new watershed building rules were about to be adopted by the city council:

“What we’ve got before us is putting the cart before the horse.”

Jim Butts’ Northwest Herald’s story was headlined,

Butts’ first focused on the traffic complaints, citing this Jim Batastini’s quote:

“I think McHenry County is seventh worst in the nation in traffic; I’m worried this is going to move us [up] that list.”

Commissioner James Jouron took on both traffic and flooding, saying he though there was a need to solve downstream capacity problems before more water was pushed into Crystal Lake quicker by watershed development.

His conclusion, cited in the Northwest Herald:

“This is going to be a real burden to the city of Crystal Lake.”

Indicating the desire of Mayor Aaron Shepley and city officials to approve the project in the shortest possible time, the Herald notes that a city council vote may come as early as October 2nd or 16th.

That’s what MCC President Walt Packard apparently said.

Sound like the vote is merely a formality and the decision has already been made?

All the newspapers that ever cover Crystal Lake affairs showed up Wednesday night for the MCC baseball stadium zoning meeting.

The Daily Herald’s headline writer put this over Jameel Naqvi’s article:

The story emphasizes the objections about traffic and flooding that surfaced.

When college officials asked the zoning commissioners to trust the engineering, the article reports a skeptical Chairman Tom Hayden said,

“There’s a lot of people that took a ride on the Titanic or the shuttle Challenger, and they didn’t think anything was going to happen, either.”

Almost all the commissioners said they supported expansion of McHenry County College, but…

Here’s a quote the Daily Herald reported in the story after Commissioner Jeff Greenman pointed to the lack of an updated comprehensive plan for the watershed area now that new watershed building rules were about to be adopted by the city council:

“What we’ve got before us is putting the cart before the horse.”

Jim Butts’ Northwest Herald’s story was headlined,

Butts’ first focused on the traffic complaints, citing this Jim Batastini’s quote:

“I think McHenry County is seventh worst in the nation in traffic; I’m worried this is going to move us [up] that list.”

Commissioner James Jouron took on both traffic and flooding, saying he though there was a need to solve downstream capacity problems before more water was pushed into Crystal Lake quicker by watershed development.

His conclusion, cited in the Northwest Herald:

“This is going to be a real burden to the city of Crystal Lake.”

Indicating the desire of Mayor Aaron Shepley and city officials to approve the project in the shortest possible time, the Herald notes that a city council vote may come as early as October 2nd or 16th.

That’s what MCC President Walt Packard apparently said.

Sound like the vote is merely a formality and the decision has already been made?

The heavy hitters from McHenry County College were at Crystal Lake city hall Wednesday night to make final pitches for their beloved minor league baseball stadium.

They failed to convince even one member of the Planning and Zoning Commission to join their team.

On a motion make by Jim Batastini not a single one of the commission members voted to approve the proposal to put a baseball stadium on Crystal Lake’s watershed.

Now it is up to the city council, where I am told that a super majority vote will be required for approval.

That means 5 votes, instead of 4.

It is blatantly obvious that Mayor Aaron Shepley favors the baseball stadium.

After all, the idea and the promoters’ names came from his city manager.

MCC attorney Sandy Kerrick kept repeating that the college had been working with city staff for 2½ years.

Strange that the public didn’t learn about the baseball stadium until McHenry County Blog published its first story on March 12th.

The college folks would have kept it secret longer had not that article run, but rushed to get a front page article in the Northwest Herald with a more positive spin the very next day.

Suffice is to say that the college board has been super-secretive in trying to bulldoze this project onto Crystal Lake’s fragile watershed.

Kerrick tried the same tactic she used in her first appearance before the commission:

Play ball or will expand MCC somewhere else.

“The trustees of the college cannot use public money to buy Mr. Gilbert’s land if we (can’t build on it),” she said in her closing comments.

“We have to know from the city what it is willing (to allow).”

There were multiple comments concerning how traffic was out of control in Crystal Lake.

Patrick Engineering’s Jarrod Cebulski did his best to convince the commission that traffic would be better most of the time with the $1.5 million in college-financed traffic improvements.

Maybe the college was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Clearly many commissioners thought traffic congestion was a big deal.

Incredible as it seems, Kerrick suggested that folks wanting to get from Algonquin to Woodstock would take Algonquin Road west to Huntley and, then, take Route 47 north, rather than taking the more direct Route 14.

So, it’s off the city council.

Five votes will be needed to pass it.

Three votes to kill the proposal.

I saw two councilmen in the audience last night—Ralph Dawson and Brett Hopkins. Hopkins served on Planning and Zoning before his election this past spring.

Ellen Brady Mueller has attended many of the meetings concerning the watershed.

Two members of Planning and Zoning ran for city council last time and lost. They are Jim Batastini, who made the motion to deny the zoning, and engineer Carolyn Schofield. Member Angel Collins ran for the park board.

All were appointed to the commission by Mayor Shepley.

Any or all of the three former candidates could run for city council in 2009.

It is conceivable that incumbent councilmen who might be up for re-election in 2009 would take the possible candidacies of commission members into consideration when deciding whether to be one of the five necessary votes.

The terms of Dave Goss, Jeff Thorsen and Ralph Dawson are up in 2009.

From the support for college expansion expressed by virtually every member of the commission, I’d venture the guess that making the proposal without the baseball stadium would receive a much more favorable response.

After the vote the college folks talked a bit first in the hall, then, caucused in the parking lot. You can see this part of the meeting was completed by 9:20.

= = = = =
Planning and Zoning Commissioner Jim Batastini is in the top picture. MCC President Walt Packard and college lawyer Sandy Kerrick are seen sitting at the petitioners’ table. Next is commissioner Angel Collins asking a question. Middle right is traffic engineer Jarrod Cebulski. Below left is commissioner Carolyn Schofield.

Twenty-year resident James Jouron, Jeff Greenman, Attorney John Cowlin and Commission Chairman Tom Hayden are in the next photograph. Below to the right is Commissioner Vincent Esposito. To his left is Commissioner Allan Skluzacek.

Below in the hall is EquityOne’s Mark Houser, the construction consultant, conferring with MCC trustee Donna Kurtz. I recognize Packard and MCC trustee George Lowe facing the doors in the hall.

All images may be enlarged by clicking on them.

The heavy hitters from McHenry County College were at Crystal Lake city hall Wednesday night to make final pitches for their beloved minor league baseball stadium.

They failed to convince even one member of the Planning and Zoning Commission to join their team.

On a motion make by Jim Batastini not a single one of the commission members voted to approve the proposal to put a baseball stadium on Crystal Lake’s watershed.

Now it is up to the city council, where I am told that a super majority vote will be required for approval.

That means 5 votes, instead of 4.

It is blatantly obvious that Mayor Aaron Shepley favors the baseball stadium.

After all, the idea and the promoters’ names came from his city manager.

MCC attorney Sandy Kerrick kept repeating that the college had been working with city staff for 2½ years.

Strange that the public didn’t learn about the baseball stadium until McHenry County Blog published its first story on March 12th.

The college folks would have kept it secret longer had not that article run, but rushed to get a front page article in the Northwest Herald with a more positive spin the very next day.

Suffice is to say that the college board has been super-secretive in trying to bulldoze this project onto Crystal Lake’s fragile watershed.

Kerrick tried the same tactic she used in her first appearance before the commission:

Play ball or will expand MCC somewhere else.

“The trustees of the college cannot use public money to buy Mr. Gilbert’s land if we (can’t build on it),” she said in her closing comments.

“We have to know from the city what it is willing (to allow).”

There were multiple comments concerning how traffic was out of control in Crystal Lake.

Patrick Engineering’s Jarrod Cebulski did his best to convince the commission that traffic would be better most of the time with the $1.5 million in college-financed traffic improvements.

Maybe the college was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Clearly many commissioners thought traffic congestion was a big deal.

Incredible as it seems, Kerrick suggested that folks wanting to get from Algonquin to Woodstock would take Algonquin Road west to Huntley and, then, take Route 47 north, rather than taking the more direct Route 14.

So, it’s off the city council.

Five votes will be needed to pass it.

Three votes to kill the proposal.

I saw two councilmen in the audience last night—Ralph Dawson and Brett Hopkins. Hopkins served on Planning and Zoning before his election this past spring.

Ellen Brady Mueller has attended many of the meetings concerning the watershed.

Two members of Planning and Zoning ran for city council last time and lost. They are Jim Batastini, who made the motion to deny the zoning, and engineer Carolyn Schofield. Member Angel Collins ran for the park board.

All were appointed to the commission by Mayor Shepley.

Any or all of the three former candidates could run for city council in 2009.

It is conceivable that incumbent councilmen who might be up for re-election in 2009 would take the possible candidacies of commission members into consideration when deciding whether to be one of the five necessary votes.

The terms of Dave Goss, Jeff Thorsen and Ralph Dawson are up in 2009.

From the support for college expansion expressed by virtually every member of the commission, I’d venture the guess that making the proposal without the baseball stadium would receive a much more favorable response.

After the vote the college folks talked a bit first in the hall, then, caucused in the parking lot. You can see this part of the meeting was completed by 9:20.

= = = = =
Planning and Zoning Commissioner Jim Batastini is in the top picture. MCC President Walt Packard and college lawyer Sandy Kerrick are seen sitting at the petitioners’ table. Next is commissioner Angel Collins asking a question. Middle right is traffic engineer Jarrod Cebulski. Below left is commissioner Carolyn Schofield.

Twenty-year resident James Jouron, Jeff Greenman, Attorney John Cowlin and Commission Chairman Tom Hayden are in the next photograph. Below to the right is Commissioner Vincent Esposito. To his left is Commissioner Allan Skluzacek.

Below in the hall is EquityOne’s Mark Houser, the construction consultant, conferring with MCC trustee Donna Kurtz. I recognize Packard and MCC trustee George Lowe facing the doors in the hall.

All images may be enlarged by clicking on them.

I got home close to 1:30 this morning after the Crystal Lake Planning and Zoning Commission finally adjourned until 7:30 on September 19th.

Those who had not had the opportunity to offer public comment before were given that opportunity last night.

But, there was no opportunity to offer any rebuttals to the written comments McHenry County College officials contained in an August 31st memo to commissioners from Senior Planner James Richter.

That seemed unfair, especially with regard to the comments which did not speak to the points made.

In any event, it was pretty late before the public had finished and the commissioners finally got a chance to ask their pent-up questions.

Traffic was the first topic and the frustration of knowing what the infrastructure problems were without the ability to do much about it was clearly evident.

College traffic consultant Jared Cebwiski of Patrick Engineering was questioned about are called “add lane” projects. He concluded that things would be better overall with the improvements, but various members of the commission thought depending on the Illinois Department of Transportation to widen Route 14 to 4-lanes was pretty much whistling Dixie.

No one brought up the way that Huntley has managed to require those seeking developments to widen Route 47 from the tollway to the old village limits.

I believe developers paid for it all as a condition of development.

In MCC’s case, the city is being asked to bet on the come.

Chief Dave Linder seemed to pretty much convince the commissioners that his force could get the baseball fans in and out without much problem.

Concerns were raised about the effect on residents of West Hillside Avenue and Country Club Road.

Even so, one quite frustrated man who lives at the intersection of Hillside and Country Club in Ridgefield vented before leaving. The Monday before Labor Day, a drunk driver totaled two vehicles in his driveway.

The other topic discussed was the effect of the project on Crystal Lake.

Watershed consultant Gary Schaefer again pointed out his “belief that ultimately, you’re going to see better water quality,” while repeating that there would be more run off.

“It seems like there needs to be a fix before you push more water down here,” Commissioner Jim Batastini observed, reflecting on the August flooding problems.

“The alternative is not to develop at all, even at 20%,” Schaefer replied.

“The effect of MCC will be imperceptible because it’s so small,” he added.

Talking about the need for monitoring what development will do to the watershed, Commissioner Jeff Greenman elicited this comment from Schaefer:

”I think that may have been the same (charge) we were given by the city council (the night before).”

So, two nights in a row meetings have been adjourned in the city council chambers for two weeks.

If you are following the MCC/watershed manual issues, mark your calendars for 7:30 for September 18th, a Tuesday, and Wednesday, September 19th.

Here’s the Northwest Herald’s Jim Butts’ take on the meeting and the Daily Herald’s Jameel Naqvi’s.

I got home close to 1:30 this morning after the Crystal Lake Planning and Zoning Commission finally adjourned until 7:30 on September 19th.

Those who had not had the opportunity to offer public comment before were given that opportunity last night.

But, there was no opportunity to offer any rebuttals to the written comments McHenry County College officials contained in an August 31st memo to commissioners from Senior Planner James Richter.

That seemed unfair, especially with regard to the comments which did not speak to the points made.

In any event, it was pretty late before the public had finished and the commissioners finally got a chance to ask their pent-up questions.

Traffic was the first topic and the frustration of knowing what the infrastructure problems were without the ability to do much about it was clearly evident.

College traffic consultant Jared Cebwiski of Patrick Engineering was questioned about are called “add lane” projects. He concluded that things would be better overall with the improvements, but various members of the commission thought depending on the Illinois Department of Transportation to widen Route 14 to 4-lanes was pretty much whistling Dixie.

No one brought up the way that Huntley has managed to require those seeking developments to widen Route 47 from the tollway to the old village limits.

I believe developers paid for it all as a condition of development.

In MCC’s case, the city is being asked to bet on the come.

Chief Dave Linder seemed to pretty much convince the commissioners that his force could get the baseball fans in and out without much problem.

Concerns were raised about the effect on residents of West Hillside Avenue and Country Club Road.

Even so, one quite frustrated man who lives at the intersection of Hillside and Country Club in Ridgefield vented before leaving. The Monday before Labor Day, a drunk driver totaled two vehicles in his driveway.

The other topic discussed was the effect of the project on Crystal Lake.

Watershed consultant Gary Schaefer again pointed out his “belief that ultimately, you’re going to see better water quality,” while repeating that there would be more run off.

“It seems like there needs to be a fix before you push more water down here,” Commissioner Jim Batastini observed, reflecting on the August flooding problems.

“The alternative is not to develop at all, even at 20%,” Schaefer replied.

“The effect of MCC will be imperceptible because it’s so small,” he added.

Talking about the need for monitoring what development will do to the watershed, Commissioner Jeff Greenman elicited this comment from Schaefer:

”I think that may have been the same (charge) we were given by the city council (the night before).”

So, two nights in a row meetings have been adjourned in the city council chambers for two weeks.

If you are following the MCC/watershed manual issues, mark your calendars for 7:30 for September 18th, a Tuesday, and Wednesday, September 19th.

Here’s the Northwest Herald’s Jim Butts’ take on the meeting and the Daily Herald’s Jameel Naqvi’s.