McHenry County Blog

The Chicago Tribune's front page story on the Emerald Ash Borer.

Last night I wrote that I hadn’t seen Wayne White, the Master Arborist who has been treating my ash tree for the Emerald Ash Borer since 2008.

He’s usually in Crystal Lake at the end of the first week of June, but with the late spring he hasn’t come yet.

I called him at 877-SAVE-ASH (877-728-274) to make sure he hadn’t already been in McHenry County and about the front page Chicago Tribune article.

White told me he was in Northern Illinois and that he’d be here in the next two weeks.

I told him the Tribune story was so, so pessimistic.

Tree-killing pest eludes rising battle to squash it

That’s the headline.

The subhead?

Even newest weapon,
parasitic wasps, could
lose its sting as beetle
munches across cities

White is passionate about saving ash trees.  I liken his emotional involvement to Johnny Appleseed of the early 1800′s.

He treated some trees in St. Charles this year.  As he drove to his clients, dead ash trees lined the street.  His were green.

That’s what northern Illinois will look like soon, he explained.

The Tribune article focuses on Oobius wasps imported from China stopping the ash borer invasion.  Three hundred were released in Chicago and Evanston last year.

Evanston arborist Paul D’Agostino tells the Tribune, “We have not seen any results.  We can’t stop it.”

Such pessimism.

So, an experimental approach isn’t working.

But a proven method is.

And it’s cost-beneficial.

The Daily Herald has written about that aspect.  Just last week.

635 ash trees will be treated at a cost of $27,000 this year.  Piggy-backing on the village contract with White’s Emerald TreeCare, LLC, is the Roselle Park District.  That’s an additional 220 or so trees.

Figure out the cost per year.

$42.50 is what I get.

White tells me it will take 5-7 years for all the untreated trees to die.

So, let me apply the cost-benefit analysis that I learned while a baby Budget Examiner at the United States Bureau of the Budget.

Wayne White sprayed the roots of the ash tree sitting on our property line about five weeks ago. He'll be back for the second treatment of the year within the next two weeks.

About $300 a tree under the contract cut by Roselle with White.  He tells me he is treating trees on private property in Roselle for the same price.  (The pricing is based on size of the tree.)

Removal cost is estimated to be about $1,000 per tree.  More to replace the dead ash with a much smaller tree.

$300 for treatment versus over $1,000 for the chainsaw and replacement approach.

One does not need a master’s degree in public administration to figure out which approach makes sense.

Roselle officials consider the ash trees part of the village’s infrastructure.   And, I would assume they think more shade is better than less shade.  More oxygen-producing leaves preferable to fewer.

In Carol Stream, village officials are cutting down dead and dying ash trees and replacing them.  Crystal Lake’s St. Aubin Nursery on Route 176 is supplying 2,000 replacement trees.

Carol Stream plans to spend $2.25 million on the effort.

Elmhurst is chopping down ash trees that are not even infected.

Compare the treated ash trees with those denuded by the Emerald Ash Borer. The live trees are at the Oakland County International Airport serving Detriot.

Go figure.  One would think a town named after the last tree species to pretty much disappear might have a different approach.

And, strangely, Elmhurst officials think the ash trees can be replaced over a 20-year period.  In seven or so years, they will all be dead, so the village board thinks people will allow dead trees all over town for thirteen years.

Yeah. Right.

The Tribune article reports that the infestation has spread to Deerfield, Gurnee, Hinsdale, Joliet, Lake Zurich, Rolling Meadows and “at least 16 other communities.”

Will they follow the example of Roselle or Carol Stream?

Downers Grove is another town using White’s treatment.

But these villages, the ones that have chosen the treatment approach over the knee-jerk chainsaw massacre approach, are not mentioned in the Tribune article.

Other municipalities mentioned in the article were Highland Park, Oak Park, Orland Park and Schaumburg.

Larry Snow

“While Democrats say Teachers ‘Have Kept Their Part of the Deal?’“

is the title of an April 5, 2011, article by former Huntley School District 158 Board member Larry Snow.  (The quote was in the Chicago Tribune Marcy 31, 2011.  It is from Executive Director Dick Ingram of Teachers’ Retirement System.)

The article was published in “The Champion” with this teaser:

“82,981 of 132,502 Illinois Teachers Pay Nothing or Little into Their Pensions“

That’s 63% of all teachers in Illinois.

The State Journal-Register is reporting that State Rep. Kevin McCarthy (D-Orland Park) is promoting a bill where state and local governments would all pay six percent of payroll toward employee pensions.

In a revealing sentence in reporter Chris Wetterich’s article, he writes,

“What’s unclear is how much more employees themselves would have to pay.“

Because no one has done the research except, I believe, the Illinois Education Association and Snow, how much extra teachers would have to pay if their so-called contribution rate was raised from 9.4% to 13.77% is a really good question.

While not covering every school district in Illinois, Snow did research the teachers’ contracts for all of the large school districts (by law all are supposed to be on the internet) in order to find out how much teachers pay in order to get a “full 75 percent pension after working only 27 years.” He points out, “Most adults work for 27 years before they turn age 50.”

As way of background, Snow notes that teachers are not in the Social Security System and, therefore, are not forced to pay Social Security taxes.

“Ordinary workers get hit with a 6.2 percent deduction for Social Security,” Snow writes. “It’s a deduction they have to pay federal and state income taxes on.

“Democrats gave teachers a huge loophole of not paying income taxes on any of their pension deductions” he continues. “This enormous no-tax handout to teachers amounts to billions of dollars each year.”

Snow’s research leads him to this conclusion:

“Over 51,000 of the total 132,502 teachers in Illinois contribute nothing from their K-12 paychecks into their pensions. Illinois law says it is to be 9.4 percent.

“About an additional 32,000 teachers pay little into their pensions. It is 1.81 percent to be precise for these 31,956 teachers.“

How many teachers pay not a dime toward their retirement?

51,025 teachers in 186 school districts pay nothing for retirement benefits.

They “don’t pay a penny into the 9.4 percent called out by Illinois law.

“There are a total of 868 districts in Illinois.

“The pay-zero teachers listed are 39 percent of all teachers in Illinois,” Snow reveals.

No agency in state government seems to keep track of this information.

Not the Downstate Teachers Retirement Fund, which boldly and incorrectly claims,

“Active TRS members are required to contribute 9.4 percent of their creditable earnings each year…”

The State Board of Education doesn’t keep track either.

My guess is that only the Illinois Education Association has a matrix showing what school districts have given what benefits in contract negotiations.

Snow discovered this about Lockport:

“…on page 14 of the Lockport Township HS 205 teachers contract it reads:

1. The Board will pay the current level of retirement contribution to the Teachers Retirement System of Illinois.”
2. It is expressly understood that figures appearing on this salary schedule include a sum equal to the current level of TRS contribution of the base salary of each Teacher which is, in fact, payable to the Teachers’ Retirement System on the Teacher’s behalf.”

“The ISBE report shows this board paying nothing. A Democrat bureaucracy doesn’t check the teachers contracts to see if what is reported, matches what’s in writing.”

And, if legislation is passed requiring 4.37 percentage points more, how long do you think it will take Lockport taxpayers to pick up the difference?

Given that local teachers’ unions pretty much control school boards wherever they are elected (read everywhere but Chicago), my guess is will be on the top of the collective bargaining list.

Do you wonder if Rep. McCarthy knows that?

Is his proposal just a setting up local taxpayers for an even bigger fall?

Five years from now will 39% of teachers still be paying nothing for their pensions?

Even better for teachers is that this pension payment ups their pension payments.

Take a look at the chart below.  Chances are your school district is on it.

Chart of Pension Contributions by 82,981 District Teachers of 132,502 Total Illinois K-12 Teachers

Name of District	No. of Teachers	Percent of Pension Contributed by Teachers
Thornton Twp 205	428	Zero
Proviso 209	281	Zero
Waukegan 60	1,098	Zero
Morton 201	455	Zero
Kankakee 111	348	Zero
Joliet 204	340	Zero
Round Lake 116	387	Zero
Rockford	1,843	Zero
Decatur 61	454	Zero
Crete Monee	340	Zero
Danville 118	382	Zero
Valley View 365	1,068	Zero
Aurora West 129	706	Zero
East Peoria 309	69	Zero
Galesburg	281	Zero
Bremen 228	313	Zero
Freeport	317	Zero
Leyden 212	219	Zero
Elgin U-46	2,332	Zero
Rock Island	388	Zero
Mattoon	225	Zero
Collinsville	394	Zero
Massac 1	143	Zero
Sterling	219	Zero
Belvidere	531	Zero
Quincy	436	Zero
Dixon	179	Zero
West Chicago	248	Zero
Cook County 130	289	Zero
Cicero 99	738	Zero
Joliet 86	617	Zero
Harvey 152	163	Zero
Crystal Lake 155	412	Zero
Crystal Lake 47	564	Zero
Wheeling 21	489	Zero
Champaign 4	717	Zero
United CUSD 304	68	Zero
Riverdale 100	76	Zero
Reed Custer 255	114	Zero
Wilmington 209U	84	Zero
United Township 30	90	Zero
Summit Hill 161	213	Zero
Plainfield	1,695	Zero
Schiller Park 81	98	Zero
Dolton 149	176	Zero
Township 211 Palatine	799	Zero
Ball Chatham 5	248	Zero
Taylorville 3	152	Zero
Williamsville 15	81	Zero
Harrisburg 3	130	Zero
Belleville 201	281	Zero
Dupo 196	76	Zero
O’Fallon 203	145	Zero
O’Fallon 90	207	Zero
Rochester 3A	142	Zero
Pekin 108	248	Zero
Morton 709	175	Zero
New Lenox 122	287	Zero
Frankfort 157	158	Zero
Marion 2	219	Zero
Carterville 5	110	Zero
Kinnikinnick 131	122	Zero
Tolono 7	116	Zero
Mahomet-Seymour 3	161	Zero
Champaign 4	717	Zero
Urbana	346	Zero
Charleston 1	180	Zero
Park Ridge 64	319	Zero
Evanston 202	222	Zero
Maine HSD 207	508	Zero
Arlington Heights 214	753	Zero
Niles 219	350	Zero
Berkeley 87	165	Zero
Berwyn South	263	Zero
Lyons 204	239	Zero
Lemont 113	144	Zero
Palatine 15	713	Zero
Schaumburg 54	1,003	Zero
Oak Lawn 123	203	Zero
Oak Lawn 229	114	Zero
CHSD 230 Orland Park	519	Zero
Argo 217	111	Zero
Homewood 233	174	Zero
Genoa 424	137	Zero
Sycamore 427	231	Zero
Dekalb 428	362	Zero
Lombard 44	216	Zero
Downers Grove 58	277	Zero
Hinsdale 86	296	Zero
Elmhurst 205	538	Zero
Naperville 203	1,063	Zero
Effingham 40	176	Zero
Canton Union 66	175	Zero
Morris 54	61	Zero
Morris 101	50	Zero
Coal City 1	138	Zero
Jersey 100	164	Zero
Central CUSD 301	224	Zero
Kaneland 302	275	Zero
St. Charles 303	880	Zero
Cahokia	298	0.4
Chicago Public Schools	23,219	2
Peoria 150	988	0.4
Springfield	1,105	0.4
Moline 40	461	0.4
Harvard	149	0.87
Dolton 148	236	1.4
Belleville 118	228	0.4
Pekin 303	125	0.4
Hononegah 207	118	0.4
Arlington Heights 59	444	3
Leyden 212	219	0.4
Summit 104	103	0.4
Palos 118	130	0.4
CHSD 219 Orland Park	519	0.4
Bensenville 2	145	1.4
DuPage 88	266	0.4
CHSD 94	122	0.9
CUSD 300	1,189	4.4
Hawthorn 73	253	1.4
Lake Forest 115	132	0.4
Wauconda 118	273	0.4
Johnsburg 12	158	0.4
Cary 26	192	4.9
Woodstock 200	385	1.4
Keeneyville 20	107	0.4
Winnebago 323	117	0.4
LaSalle-Peru Twp. 120	88	0.7
Prairie-Hills 144	187	0.4
Geneva 304	367	Zero
Herscher 2	126	Zero
Manteno 5	160	Zero
Bourbonnais 53	160	Zero
Bradley 61	103	Zero
Bradley Bourbonnais 307	114	Zero
Momence 1	88	Zero
Yorkville 115	329	Zero
Plano 88	154	Zero
Oswego 308	827	Zero
Streator 44	132	Zero
Ottawa 141	140	Zero
Ottawa 140	102	Zero
Glenview 34	343	Zero
Zion 6	177	Zero
Grayslake 46	266	Zero
Elmwood Park 401	181	Zero
Libertyville 70	159	Zero
North Shore 112	374	Zero
HSD 113 Highland Park	249	Zero
Grant 124	91	Zero
Zion-Benton 126	156	Zero
Evanston 65	547	Zero
Grayslake 127	187	Zero
Meridian 15	64	Zero
Mt. Zion 3	133	Zero
Edwardsville 7	480	Zero
Alton 11	467	Zero
Macomb 185	130	Zero
McHenry 15	282	Zero
McHenry 156	158	Zero
Nippersink 2	92	Zero
Columbia 4	111	Zero
Waterloo 5	166	Zero
Hillsboro 3	114	Zero
Meridian 223	113	Zero
Illinois Valley Central 321	139	Zero
Carbondale 165	76	Zero
Carbondale 95	105	Zero
Riverton 14	85	Zero
Auburn 10	90	Zero
Pawnee 11	47	Zero
Panhandle 2	35	Zero
Sullivan 300	75	Zero
Centralia 135	93	Zero
Litchfield 12	83	Zero
Harlem 122	505	Zero
Granite City 9	617	Zero
Princeton 115	86	Zero
Princeton 500	43	Zero
Bond County 2	120	Zero
Duquoin CUSD 300	101	Zero
Rocton 140	102	Zero
Rochelle Twp. HSD 212	71	Zero
Rochelle CCSD 231	131	Zero
Byron 226	127	Zero
Oregon 220	104	Zero
Farmington Central 265	85	Zero
Porta 202	75	Zero
River Bend 2	71	Zero
Red Bud 132	73	Zero
Sparta 140	105	Zero
Southwestern 9	107	Zero
Staunton 6	87	Zero
Gillespie 7	81	Zero
Hamilton County 10	83	Zero
Midwest Central 191	85	Zero
Tuscola 301	86	Zero
West Carroll 314	99	Zero
Oakwood 76	64	Zero
Hoopeston 11	94	Zero
Westville 2	80	Zero
Beardstown 15	98	Zero
El Paso-Gridley 11	99	Zero
Murphysboro 186	137	Zero
Monticello 25	111	Zero
Paris-Union 95	74	Zero
Mt. Vernon Twp. 210	80	Zero
Mt. Vernon 80	109	Zero
Jasper County 1	101	Zero
Steger 194	128	Zero
Calumet City 155	77	Zero
North Boone 200	116	Zero
CCSD 93 Carol Stream	294	Zero
East Maine SD 63	254	Zero
Lockport Township HS 205	205	Zero
Above Teachers Total	82,981

Joe Stefani being interviewed on Rockford TV in November, 2009.

Algonquin’s Joe Stefani, president and majority owner of the Rockford Foresters, is interested in bringing a amateur college baseball players who would not be paid. The NCAA won’t let college players be paid.

Stefani started a team in Rockford this year called the Rockford Foresters. It plays in a park district-owned stadium on the south side of town.

The JackHammers are not the only minor league team in the Chicago area in financial trouble. So are the Schaumburg Flyers.

“It doesn’t make money. (Teams) almost always lose money,” Stefani told the Chicago Tribune.

Stefani was elected to the Algonquin Library Board and serves as an elected Algonquin Township Republican Precinct Committeeman.

= = = = =

Donna Kurtz

In view of the Joliet and Schaumburg minor league baseball teams being in trouble financially, it is even more curious that the Northwest Herald decided not to endorse Donna Kurtz for McHenry County Board. After all, she and Scott Summers, the Green Party candidate for State Treasurer and, then, the McHenry County College Board President, who deserve a lot of the credit for derailing the MCC baseball stadium. (It would have been financed with 25-year bonds for which the taxpayers would have been responsible, while minor league baseball teams last about five years on the average.)

In two senses.

If they were an animal, their necks on on the chopping block.

In economic terms, there are for sale.

The Chicago Tribune reports the Joliet JackHammers minor league baseball team is about to be sold.

That’s what the Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday.

Why do I keep bringing up a Will County minor league baseball team?

Just to remind you that most of the current McHenry County College Board members were avid supporters of putting us district taxpayers in debt for 25 years to build a minor league baseball stadium.

There is an election next spring when one of them are up for re-election: George Lowe of Cary.

Appointed to fill out the term of Harvard’s Scott Summers was Bob DeWitt of Crystal Lake.

Both have six-year terms.

Only 50 signatures are needed to get on the ballot. I’d advise getting 100.

Any folks out there willing to run for the board?

The Chicago Tribune headline suggests it may be eviction time for the Joliet JackHammedrs minor league baseball team.

When the McHenry County College Board was relieved of its possibility of building a minor league baseball stadium that would be financed by its taxpayers if the team didn’t succeed.

The Board did not do that on its own. It was a result of the Crystal Lake Planning and Zoning Board’s opposition, which required a super-majority to re-zone the watershed property.

The Crystal Lake City Council could not muster that majority.

The Chicago Tribune reported Sunday that current team owners of the Joliet JackHammers may be toast.

I think someone pointed out that the average minor league baseball teams lasts about five years.

The bonds MCC’s Board proposed were for twenty-five years.

JackHammers are behind $195,000 in lease payments for 2009 and 2010, City Manager Tom Thanas told the Chicago Tribune.

Taxpayers are getting hammered by the deal owners of the Joliet Jackhammers cut with the rulers of Joliet.

The team owes vendors, too.

Cost of fixing bad stadium construction is the excuse.

Seven lawsuits have been filed against the team.  Key Outdoor  has been successful in getting paid $4,500 as a result of its court suit.

Sunday, the Chicago Tribune reported on the minor league baseball team’s problems.

Fortunately, no such articles have to be written about McHenry County College’s not getting paid what a contract says is due.

With the Woodstock Planning Commission have approved a minor league baseball stadium within sight on Centegra’s Woodstock hospital even though all the required reports had not been filed, the proposal now moves to the city council.

I missed this Joliet Herald News story the first Friday of December, but it might be of interest:

The Joliet minor league baseball team is behind on its bills.

It’s a “public-private” venture, just as McHenry County College’s was to be.

The JackHammers were supposed to pay $240,000 a year rent for playing in the stadium named after a local hospital, Silver Cross.

The bad economy led to a decline in corporate sponsorships, owner Pete Ferro told reporter Bob Okon.

It took “a dive.”

And, “…minor league baseball gets a large share of its revenue from marketing relations with local and regional companies,” the article says.

And the city is not the only one owed money. Local vendors came up short, too.

The team started playing in 2002.

“Up to now, (JackHammers baseball) has been generating income for the city of Joliet,” (City Manager Thomas) Thanas, according to the paper.

And the team put in $700,000 of improvements to the stadium.

The fortunes of minor league baseball teams traditionally are good for the first five years, my sources tell me.

Then, the novelty wears off.

With the Woodstock Planning Commission have approved a minor league baseball stadium within sight on Centegra’s Woodstock hospital even though all the required reports had not been filed, the proposal now moves to the city council.

I missed this Joliet Herald News story the first Friday of December, but it might be of interest:

The Joliet minor league baseball team is behind on its bills.

It’s a “public-private” venture, just as McHenry County College’s was to be.

The JackHammers were supposed to pay $240,000 a year rent for playing in the stadium named after a local hospital, Silver Cross.

The bad economy led to a decline in corporate sponsorships, owner Pete Ferro told reporter Bob Okon.

It took “a dive.”

And, “…minor league baseball gets a large share of its revenue from marketing relations with local and regional companies,” the article says.

And the city is not the only one owed money. Local vendors came up short, too.

The team started playing in 2002.

“Up to now, (JackHammers baseball) has been generating income for the city of Joliet,” (City Manager Thomas) Thanas, according to the paper.

And the team put in $700,000 of improvements to the stadium.

The fortunes of minor league baseball teams traditionally are good for the first five years, my sources tell me.

Then, the novelty wears off.

Could this Chicago Tribune article about one of the biggest Democratic Party contributors be a clue as to what McHenry County College is up to?

It says that Chicago’s Fred Eychaner, who owns Newsweb, is seeking permission from the Will County Board to “construct a service building and… towers…300 feet high.” He wants six towers.

Dennis Sullivan’s article says,

“Newsweb operates AM stations WNDZ, WCSN, WAIT, WSBC and WCFJ, as well as WRZA-FM in Chicago…”

“‘Do we need six more blinking lights on the horizon?’ asked Community and Economic Development Director Jim Haller.”

This Tribune article plays on the prominent Democrat asking a Republican County Board for zoning permission, rather than a potential applicant secretly asking a junior college board to use public property without letting the public hear the arguments.

= = = = =
The power point slide on top was the first I saw when the McHenry County College board went into its secret session with John Maguire, Tom Zanck, Cindi McDonald and a man whose last name I heard to be Kirchner. The aerials can be seen as they tower above the current MCC campus. This picture was taken from where Route 14 intersects with the north end of Ridgefield Road.

Could this Chicago Tribune article about one of the biggest Democratic Party contributors be a clue as to what McHenry County College is up to?

It says that Chicago’s Fred Eychaner, who owns Newsweb, is seeking permission from the Will County Board to “construct a service building and… towers…300 feet high.” He wants six towers.

Dennis Sullivan’s article says,

“Newsweb operates AM stations WNDZ, WCSN, WAIT, WSBC and WCFJ, as well as WRZA-FM in Chicago…”

“‘Do we need six more blinking lights on the horizon?’ asked Community and Economic Development Director Jim Haller.”

This Tribune article plays on the prominent Democrat asking a Republican County Board for zoning permission, rather than a potential applicant secretly asking a junior college board to use public property without letting the public hear the arguments.

= = = = =
The power point slide on top was the first I saw when the McHenry County College board went into its secret session with John Maguire, Tom Zanck, Cindi McDonald and a man whose last name I heard to be Kirchner. The aerials can be seen as they tower above the current MCC campus. This picture was taken from where Route 14 intersects with the north end of Ridgefield Road.