You’ve just heard a brief overview of the 2030 Comprehensive Plan document, and I’d like to thank  Mr. Eldridge, Mr. Dreher, and Mr. Sandquist for providing you with that overview.

The Defenders have followed the Regional Planning Commission and staff through the hundreds of hours they have dedicated to creating this document for you. We applaud their efforts and commitment to this important process.

The plan, in its current form, represents an honest attempt at balance.

However, it starts from an assumption of preserving the status quo of recent growth, then tries to balance everything else we value within that framework. This will defer difficult problems to our children, as the status quo runs up against our county’s physical limitations of water, food dependence, infrastructure and the inevitable end to easy development. Instead, we have the opportunity to start with a focus on these actual physical realities and work to balance the interests of development within this more prudent framework.

As such, the Defenders will continue to advocate for greater consideration of water resources, agriculture and open space in this document. Our most significant request at this stage is that the existing basic provisions made for environmental concerns be preserved, spared from deletion or dilution.

Our members, along with many other members of the public who commented on the draft plan, overwhelming called for the plan to reflect their desires to protect the water resources, open spaces and agricultural land in McHenry County.

We ask the members of the Planning and Development Committee, as well as the Board as a whole to maintain the current protections provided to our community’s water, food, and natural areas, act upon the general public’s request for greater protection to land and water, and ensure the final plan provides a more equitable vision for the future of McHenry County.

Thank You.

I do find it interesting that the paper’s web site does not have this story on its front page.

Why?

It was the lead story in the local section of the paper.

First a disclaimer. I was not the one fuming. The article says that was Iris Bryan, editor of the Town Crier.

I was more amused at the juvenile behavior of the person inside the room who presumably ordered the expulsion of the people paying his salary.

Here are a couple of paragraphs from the story:

”College officials said it was a mix of misunderstandings and college policy that led to the ejection, while impacted residents said it was a violation of their right to attend a public meeting.

“If they would have asked me [to leave], I would have told them to go fly a kite,’ said George Lowe, chairman of the college board of trustees. ‘It should have not been done. It’s wrong; I didn’t know about it.’”

Maybe…

But after a security guard threatened to take legal action to charge one with trespassing if one didn’t leave?

Here’s what happened to ex-Chicago Alderwoman Dorothy Tillman when she was arrested for trespassing by hospital security guards.

Consider that the man sitting to Lowe’s left, MCC President Walt Packard, had previously communicated to me through newly hired security guard William Schultz.

I’ll admit it is possible Lowe was ignorant as to what Packard was doing when he used his cell phone.

The extremely new public relations person for the college, Christine Haggerty, simply does not know what she is talking about when she intimates in the NW Herald article that it is standard practice to kick citizens waiting in the hall outside the boardroom door out of the building at 10 o’clock.

Just a month before, no attempt was made to kick anyone out of the building, even through the meeting went beyond 10 o’clock, for example. There were other late meetings as well, but for that one, I jotted down the ending time.

Here’s another post-10 PM meeting where the adjournment date is relatively close to the heading showing the date of the meeting:
In all kindness, I would expect a bit of factual research before such easily refutable statements are made to reporters. There is no reason for Haggerty to lose her credibility so early in the game.

Hint: look at the minutes for January 21st and 28th, November 15th, October 25th. And, that covers only the ones still on the web site.

I see in Haggerty’s statement that the new security officer was not aware of state law allowing people to await the ending of a closed session disingenuous at best. If Schultz had not been given explicit instructions to get rid of us, he had a phone and could have talked to Packard again, given what he was told (which you can read here Wednesday).

I just hope Packard does not try to make Schultz the fall guy for what I suspect was his own decision.

As weekend readers of McHenry County Blog know, I didn’t just try to take pictures through the windows, I did take pictures. Some are shown in Saterday’s article about John McGuire’s presentation on FM and television tower(s) on behalf of what I assume is a firm called BMB. Some private company apparently wants to use public land for its private purposes.

“Our bad” is pretty much what the new MCC PR woman wants readers to take away from the NW Herald article.

It’s worse than that.

And I suspect President Packard knows it.

That’s why he’s not talking to the press.

= = = = =
In the top photo is MCC Board President George Lowe. Below is a picture focused on MCC President Walt Packard, with Lowe in the background. Packard’s head again appears blocking part of the power point slide at the bottom of the article. All images can be enlarged by clicking on them, but the contents of the slide have been re-typed in this article.

The room was wrapped up like a son’s Christmas gift to his mom using whatever wrapping material was available.

Shortly thereafter I went to the bathroom.

As we were standing at urinals, the younger of the two security guys informed that I would have to leave the building, that only employees (and, he may have said students) were allowed inside after ten o’clock.

I asked him about the non-employees in the board room and he told me that he had been told they were all college employees.

I informed him that was not the case.

We both made our way out into the hall where Town Crier editor Iris Bryan, Kim Willis and Jane Collins were talking outside the boardroom, waiting for the board to adjourn.

The officer who had previously been securing the visual privacy of the Broadcast Tower Proposers then proceeded to inform us that we would have to leave the building.

“After 10 o’clock everyone who is not an employee has to leave the building…The campus is closed after 10 o’clock to everyone who isn’t an employee,”

he repeated as various of the women pointed out the presence of the non-employees on the other side of the masked windows.

“If you are not a student or employee you can’t be in the meeting,” are what my notes say he said next.

By then we had learned his name was William Schultz.

He was a pleasant enough young man sent to do what whoever called him from inside the room (at least once President Packard) told him to do.

He had been on the job two weeks.

I reminded Schultz that he had told me that all in the board room were college employees. I pointed out that attorney Tom Zanck was certainly not a college employee.

It didn’t matter.

Iris Bryan was livid.

And she should have been.

I have know Iris for over 40 years. At one point she worked for my father’s weekly newspaper, The Star Reporter.

I have never seen her as angry.

As I said, she should have been.

The public cannot be evicted from a hall outside a secret meeting because they have the right to see the board go back into open session and observe any action, even if it is merely to adjourn.

Now, those of you who have been reading McHenry County Blog for a long while will remember my eviction from the Prairie Grove very Grade School during a secret meeting at which I was also taking pictures through the window.

The effort of Karen Bowman, now school board president, to lower the Venetian blinds while in a fit of rage was even funnier than Packard’s moving the American Flag to block my view of the power point presentation by the BMB high tower folks.

At least this time the person who accompanied me to the door This time wasn’t armed. (Considering what happened at NIU, carrying a firearm probably should be a requirement for college security officers.)

That incident led to this memorable wanted poster, a creation of Heck of a Guy blog’s Allan Showalter, who lives north of Crystal Lake.

Iris and I were certainly the only two people in the building who were in on the formation of McHenry County College. Iris was in charge of publicity for the April 1, 1968 referendum campaign and I assisted her. My father called the meeting to organize the committee that successfully proposed the ballot question that was passed. I know I was at the meeting and I’ll bet Iris was also.

So, she and I have as much stake in this college as any of the current board members or employees.

She was angry. Here is what she wrote for her Town Crier.

I was more amused at how the dysfunctional group of people running things behind the blocked windows had managed to negate any good will they achieved when they posted the board packet on the internet so taxpayers, as well as MCC employees could see the material that the board members would consider Thursday night.

Needless to say, I filed a complaint with both the McHenry County State’s Attorney and the Illinois Attorney General.

I do find it interesting that the paper’s web site does not have this story on its front page.

Why?

It was the lead story in the local section of the paper.

First a disclaimer. I was not the one fuming. The article says that was Iris Bryan, editor of the Town Crier.

I was more amused at the juvenile behavior of the person inside the room who presumably ordered the expulsion of the people paying his salary.

Here are a couple of paragraphs from the story:

”College officials said it was a mix of misunderstandings and college policy that led to the ejection, while impacted residents said it was a violation of their right to attend a public meeting.

“If they would have asked me [to leave], I would have told them to go fly a kite,’ said George Lowe, chairman of the college board of trustees. ‘It should have not been done. It’s wrong; I didn’t know about it.’”

Maybe…

But after a security guard threatened to take legal action to charge one with trespassing if one didn’t leave?

Here’s what happened to ex-Chicago Alderwoman Dorothy Tillman when she was arrested for trespassing by hospital security guards.

Consider that the man sitting to Lowe’s left, MCC President Walt Packard, had previously communicated to me through newly hired security guard William Schultz.

I’ll admit it is possible Lowe was ignorant as to what Packard was doing when he used his cell phone.

The extremely new public relations person for the college, Christine Haggerty, simply does not know what she is talking about when she intimates in the NW Herald article that it is standard practice to kick citizens waiting in the hall outside the boardroom door out of the building at 10 o’clock.

Just a month before, no attempt was made to kick anyone out of the building, even through the meeting went beyond 10 o’clock, for example. There were other late meetings as well, but for that one, I jotted down the ending time.

Here’s another post-10 PM meeting where the adjournment date is relatively close to the heading showing the date of the meeting:
In all kindness, I would expect a bit of factual research before such easily refutable statements are made to reporters. There is no reason for Haggerty to lose her credibility so early in the game.

Hint: look at the minutes for January 21st and 28th, November 15th, October 25th. And, that covers only the ones still on the web site.

I see in Haggerty’s statement that the new security officer was not aware of state law allowing people to await the ending of a closed session disingenuous at best. If Schultz had not been given explicit instructions to get rid of us, he had a phone and could have talked to Packard again, given what he was told (which you can read here Wednesday).

I just hope Packard does not try to make Schultz the fall guy for what I suspect was his own decision.

As weekend readers of McHenry County Blog know, I didn’t just try to take pictures through the windows, I did take pictures. Some are shown in Saterday’s article about John McGuire’s presentation on FM and television tower(s) on behalf of what I assume is a firm called BMB. Some private company apparently wants to use public land for its private purposes.

“Our bad” is pretty much what the new MCC PR woman wants readers to take away from the NW Herald article.

It’s worse than that.

And I suspect President Packard knows it.

That’s why he’s not talking to the press.

= = = = =
In the top photo is MCC Board President George Lowe. Below is a picture focused on MCC President Walt Packard, with Lowe in the background. Packard’s head again appears blocking part of the power point slide at the bottom of the article. All images can be enlarged by clicking on them, but the contents of the slide have been re-typed in this article.

The room was wrapped up like a son’s Christmas gift to his mom using whatever wrapping material was available.

Shortly thereafter I went to the bathroom.

As we were standing at urinals, the younger of the two security guys informed that I would have to leave the building, that only employees (and, he may have said students) were allowed inside after ten o’clock.

I asked him about the non-employees in the board room and he told me that he had been told they were all college employees.

I informed him that was not the case.

We both made our way out into the hall where Town Crier editor Iris Bryan, Kim Willis and Jane Collins were talking outside the boardroom, waiting for the board to adjourn.

The officer who had previously been securing the visual privacy of the Broadcast Tower Proposers then proceeded to inform us that we would have to leave the building.

“After 10 o’clock everyone who is not an employee has to leave the building…The campus is closed after 10 o’clock to everyone who isn’t an employee,”

he repeated as various of the women pointed out the presence of the non-employees on the other side of the masked windows.

“If you are not a student or employee you can’t be in the meeting,” are what my notes say he said next.

By then we had learned his name was William Schultz.

He was a pleasant enough young man sent to do what whoever called him from inside the room (at least once President Packard) told him to do.

He had been on the job two weeks.

I reminded Schultz that he had told me that all in the board room were college employees. I pointed out that attorney Tom Zanck was certainly not a college employee.

It didn’t matter.

Iris Bryan was livid.

And she should have been.

I have know Iris for over 40 years. At one point she worked for my father’s weekly newspaper, The Star Reporter.

I have never seen her as angry.

As I said, she should have been.

The public cannot be evicted from a hall outside a secret meeting because they have the right to see the board go back into open session and observe any action, even if it is merely to adjourn.

Now, those of you who have been reading McHenry County Blog for a long while will remember my eviction from the Prairie Grove very Grade School during a secret meeting at which I was also taking pictures through the window.

The effort of Karen Bowman, now school board president, to lower the Venetian blinds while in a fit of rage was even funnier than Packard’s moving the American Flag to block my view of the power point presentation by the BMB high tower folks.

At least this time the person who accompanied me to the door This time wasn’t armed. (Considering what happened at NIU, carrying a firearm probably should be a requirement for college security officers.)

That incident led to this memorable wanted poster, a creation of Heck of a Guy blog’s Allan Showalter, who lives north of Crystal Lake.

Iris and I were certainly the only two people in the building who were in on the formation of McHenry County College. Iris was in charge of publicity for the April 1, 1968 referendum campaign and I assisted her. My father called the meeting to organize the committee that successfully proposed the ballot question that was passed. I know I was at the meeting and I’ll bet Iris was also.

So, she and I have as much stake in this college as any of the current board members or employees.

She was angry. Here is what she wrote for her Town Crier.

I was more amused at how the dysfunctional group of people running things behind the blocked windows had managed to negate any good will they achieved when they posted the board packet on the internet so taxpayers, as well as MCC employees could see the material that the board members would consider Thursday night.

Needless to say, I filed a complaint with both the McHenry County State’s Attorney and the Illinois Attorney General.

“Or less,” Board President George Lowe emphasizes before the public comment period starts last Monday night.

Up stands Kim Willis, a regular attendee of meetings concerning Crystal Lake’s watershed and baseball stadium.

In her most reasonable voice, here is what she said:

Good Evening. Thank you for providing this time to speak to you tonight.

In attending these meetings I have made some observations, and I want to share them with you tonight because I would like to help.

What I have observed of the board is, that during most of the meetings, everyone’s blood pressure is up. I see members fidget with papers and pens or look around to avoid eye contact when others are speaking. I see faces turning red and lips curled in or bitten. I see jaws twitch and eyes roll.

I observe board members exhibit an anxiousness to speak, in order to contradict or undermine another’s statements. I also observe members repeating their statements, because the feedback they received tells them they were not being listened to or understood.

Through these observations I recognize that, for most of the time, none of you appear to be happy, that none of you are feeling particularly satisfied or understood. I have to doubt that you are enjoying these meetings, unless you get your kicks from fighting. I would bet that this whole situation has, and is, probably taking a toll on your health.

I think you could all agree you would rather not feel this way. I think you could all agree you would like this situation to change. But, you all keep doing the same things with the same intentions, and probably wonder why the other guy won’t get with the program.

These behaviors and intentions have very real consequences. By continuing this pattern of increasing animosity and disintegrating cooperation, you put the immediate and long term wellbeing of this college at risk.

This situation will not disappear on its own. No one is up for election until at least 2009. No one is stepping down. These negative and violent behaviors will spread to more matters than your future growth plans. Is this good for anyone?

I hope you are thinking “no”.

Because this conflict has become personal in nature, I offer the idea that having a facilitator come out in the name of “board development” did not, and does not, address the basis of this situation. A different approach is needed. One approach that provides a system for communicating in a way that builds consensus and understanding is the system of Nonviolent Communication or NVC.

If you aren’t familiar, NVC is essentially a tool for expressing reactions and thoughts in both an honest and non-accusatory manor, so that instead of becoming defensive, reacting sarcastically, threatening, or resorting to other negative forms of coercion, individuals can progress on an issue at hand in a non-threatening, non-manipulative way.

There are individuals who specialize in NVC. One example is a gentleman by the name of Allen Rohlf in Chicago who is certified in NVC and works with organizations in resolving personal or organizational difficulties. He or someone like him would be able to assist you.

I bring you this information tonight because I fear that board communication and cooperation will continue to deteriorate, and I would like to see this board genuinely unified in their efforts to ensure a bright and successful future for MCC. Thank you.

It was all I could do not to laugh out loud.

Did you at least smile?

“Or less,” Board President George Lowe emphasizes before the public comment period starts last Monday night.

Up stands Kim Willis, a regular attendee of meetings concerning Crystal Lake’s watershed and baseball stadium.

In her most reasonable voice, here is what she said:

Good Evening. Thank you for providing this time to speak to you tonight.

In attending these meetings I have made some observations, and I want to share them with you tonight because I would like to help.

What I have observed of the board is, that during most of the meetings, everyone’s blood pressure is up. I see members fidget with papers and pens or look around to avoid eye contact when others are speaking. I see faces turning red and lips curled in or bitten. I see jaws twitch and eyes roll.

I observe board members exhibit an anxiousness to speak, in order to contradict or undermine another’s statements. I also observe members repeating their statements, because the feedback they received tells them they were not being listened to or understood.

Through these observations I recognize that, for most of the time, none of you appear to be happy, that none of you are feeling particularly satisfied or understood. I have to doubt that you are enjoying these meetings, unless you get your kicks from fighting. I would bet that this whole situation has, and is, probably taking a toll on your health.

I think you could all agree you would rather not feel this way. I think you could all agree you would like this situation to change. But, you all keep doing the same things with the same intentions, and probably wonder why the other guy won’t get with the program.

These behaviors and intentions have very real consequences. By continuing this pattern of increasing animosity and disintegrating cooperation, you put the immediate and long term wellbeing of this college at risk.

This situation will not disappear on its own. No one is up for election until at least 2009. No one is stepping down. These negative and violent behaviors will spread to more matters than your future growth plans. Is this good for anyone?

I hope you are thinking “no”.

Because this conflict has become personal in nature, I offer the idea that having a facilitator come out in the name of “board development” did not, and does not, address the basis of this situation. A different approach is needed. One approach that provides a system for communicating in a way that builds consensus and understanding is the system of Nonviolent Communication or NVC.

If you aren’t familiar, NVC is essentially a tool for expressing reactions and thoughts in both an honest and non-accusatory manor, so that instead of becoming defensive, reacting sarcastically, threatening, or resorting to other negative forms of coercion, individuals can progress on an issue at hand in a non-threatening, non-manipulative way.

There are individuals who specialize in NVC. One example is a gentleman by the name of Allen Rohlf in Chicago who is certified in NVC and works with organizations in resolving personal or organizational difficulties. He or someone like him would be able to assist you.

I bring you this information tonight because I fear that board communication and cooperation will continue to deteriorate, and I would like to see this board genuinely unified in their efforts to ensure a bright and successful future for MCC. Thank you.

It was all I could do not to laugh out loud.

Did you at least smile?

“Do you anticipate it’s delaying the college?” Board President Mike Zellman asked.

“It does what it does,” Mike Walkup, the maker of the motion, replied.

Zellman told of an hour-long conference call earlier Thursday with McHenry County College President Walt Packard, Donna Kurtz and Scott Summers.

“If we want to hire a 3rd party they would respect and listen to, within reason, anything an outside expert would suggest,” Zellman said. “There are certainly time constraints.”

By telephone, Dave Phelps pointed out, “This will not be done by September 8th.”

While Commissioner Jerry Sullivan had earlier said, “I think the science has been done,” in agreeing to seek additional advice, he added later, “We need to be able to say to the city that we’re not ready until the review is finished.”

Phelps emphasized the strangeness of the city council’s considering granting “a variance to something that’s in process.”

“That’s one of our concerns—that the manual isn’t completed,” Sullivan said.

Seconded by Dave Phelps, with two commissioners absent, the motion passed 5-0.

After deciding to solicit proposals to review the city’s proposed update on its watershed manual, I suggested that if they wanted to slow down the process, they could ask the Illinois Community College Board (ICCB) to “dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s.”

I told them of the letter to the ICCB that would be posted on McHenry County Blog after I got home, which contained legitimate questions.

“Why don’t we draft a letter saying we have environmental concerns?” Sullivan suggested. “Ask them to withhold their approval until we get the results.”

The board agreed to write the state agency, which must approve local college buildings. The letter will address the park board’s environmental concerns and the inability to satisfy them until additional research is performed. Walkup agreed to write the letter.

At one point Zellman said, “The college has been open.”

I guess he hasn’t been a regular reader of McHenry County Blog.

Zellman did say that he would “let Walt know this is going to take place.”

Earlier in the meeting, several members of the McHenry County Defenders spoke.

Linda Gaska of Nash Road presented a case study of overdevelopment in the Catskills that led to degradation of a pure water supply for New York City.

The main speaker for the Defenders, Kim Willis, complained that the proposed zoning recommendations are “based on a manual, which has not yet been approved.”

She said the watershed manual contained “radical” changes.

Zellman pretty much pounced on the word “radical,” asking for examples.

I jotted down four:

• The manual does address the quantity of recharge, but the Defenders are not satisfied with the best management practices on the quality side.
• The Defenders are seeing things being taken out of the 2005 manual that are not in the proposed 2007 manual.
• The locations of the filtration areas in the MCC proposal are inadequate.
• The college is not treating water as it falls, which is generally better than collecting the runoff and treating it centrally.

Willis asked the board to “hire your own consultant to review this manual.”

Former State Rep. Rosemary Kurtz pointed out that there’s “another 1000 to 1500 acres out there that’s going to fall to development.”

She said the watershed ordinance has been in effect for 30 years and the city’s “staff hasn’t implemented it.”

Kurtz pointed to the last page of the second appendix, where an important change could go unnoticed. While the current ordinance states, “Impervious surface to be limited to 20 percent,” the proposal says,

“This whole thing is getting back-doored,” Walkup added. “This is all being rushed through the back door.”

Superintendent of Parks Dennis Jahnke, who monitors the district’s wells daily, worried about “the volume of water running through Lippold Park.”

“Will it continue that way?” he wondered.

“The bike paths are all covered over,” Commission Candy Reedy observed.

District Director Kirk Reimer called the skateboard park at Lippold
”a wakeboard Park.”

The city’s technical advisory committee will be held August 28th.

= = = = =
Crystal Lake Park Commissioner Mike Walkup is seen upper left. Commissioner Dave Phelps’ name sign is shown before a speaker phone above a picture of Commissioner Jerry Sullivan gesturing with his hands.

Two of the CCAPOA’s boy kids were swimming at Gate 7 Beach for two hours Thursday afternoon. You can see that Crystal Lake is unusually clear for this time in August.

Linda Gaska, Kim Willis and Rosemary Kurtz are shown below on the left hand side of the page.

Below them is Crystal Lake Park Commissioner Candy Reedy.

The final photo is of three bike-riding teens who were repeatedly driving from the Gate 7 raft on Thursday before they decided just hanging out on the grass was enough exercise. Just another reminder of what keeping Crystal Lake clean is all about.

“Do you anticipate it’s delaying the college?” Board President Mike Zellman asked.

“It does what it does,” Mike Walkup, the maker of the motion, replied.

Zellman told of an hour-long conference call earlier Thursday with McHenry County College President Walt Packard, Donna Kurtz and Scott Summers.

“If we want to hire a 3rd party they would respect and listen to, within reason, anything an outside expert would suggest,” Zellman said. “There are certainly time constraints.”

By telephone, Dave Phelps pointed out, “This will not be done by September 8th.”

While Commissioner Jerry Sullivan had earlier said, “I think the science has been done,” in agreeing to seek additional advice, he added later, “We need to be able to say to the city that we’re not ready until the review is finished.”

Phelps emphasized the strangeness of the city council’s considering granting “a variance to something that’s in process.”

“That’s one of our concerns—that the manual isn’t completed,” Sullivan said.

Seconded by Dave Phelps, with two commissioners absent, the motion passed 5-0.

After deciding to solicit proposals to review the city’s proposed update on its watershed manual, I suggested that if they wanted to slow down the process, they could ask the Illinois Community College Board (ICCB) to “dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s.”

I told them of the letter to the ICCB that would be posted on McHenry County Blog after I got home, which contained legitimate questions.

“Why don’t we draft a letter saying we have environmental concerns?” Sullivan suggested. “Ask them to withhold their approval until we get the results.”

The board agreed to write the state agency, which must approve local college buildings. The letter will address the park board’s environmental concerns and the inability to satisfy them until additional research is performed. Walkup agreed to write the letter.

At one point Zellman said, “The college has been open.”

I guess he hasn’t been a regular reader of McHenry County Blog.

Zellman did say that he would “let Walt know this is going to take place.”

Earlier in the meeting, several members of the McHenry County Defenders spoke.

Linda Gaska of Nash Road presented a case study of overdevelopment in the Catskills that led to degradation of a pure water supply for New York City.

The main speaker for the Defenders, Kim Willis, complained that the proposed zoning recommendations are “based on a manual, which has not yet been approved.”

She said the watershed manual contained “radical” changes.

Zellman pretty much pounced on the word “radical,” asking for examples.

I jotted down four:

• The manual does address the quantity of recharge, but the Defenders are not satisfied with the best management practices on the quality side.
• The Defenders are seeing things being taken out of the 2005 manual that are not in the proposed 2007 manual.
• The locations of the filtration areas in the MCC proposal are inadequate.
• The college is not treating water as it falls, which is generally better than collecting the runoff and treating it centrally.

Willis asked the board to “hire your own consultant to review this manual.”

Former State Rep. Rosemary Kurtz pointed out that there’s “another 1000 to 1500 acres out there that’s going to fall to development.”

She said the watershed ordinance has been in effect for 30 years and the city’s “staff hasn’t implemented it.”

Kurtz pointed to the last page of the second appendix, where an important change could go unnoticed. While the current ordinance states, “Impervious surface to be limited to 20 percent,” the proposal says,

“This whole thing is getting back-doored,” Walkup added. “This is all being rushed through the back door.”

Superintendent of Parks Dennis Jahnke, who monitors the district’s wells daily, worried about “the volume of water running through Lippold Park.”

“Will it continue that way?” he wondered.

“The bike paths are all covered over,” Commission Candy Reedy observed.

District Director Kirk Reimer called the skateboard park at Lippold
”a wakeboard Park.”

The city’s technical advisory committee will be held August 28th.

= = = = =
Crystal Lake Park Commissioner Mike Walkup is seen upper left. Commissioner Dave Phelps’ name sign is shown before a speaker phone above a picture of Commissioner Jerry Sullivan gesturing with his hands.

Two of the CCAPOA’s boy kids were swimming at Gate 7 Beach for two hours Thursday afternoon. You can see that Crystal Lake is unusually clear for this time in August.

Linda Gaska, Kim Willis and Rosemary Kurtz are shown below on the left hand side of the page.

Below them is Crystal Lake Park Commissioner Candy Reedy.

The final photo is of three bike-riding teens who were repeatedly driving from the Gate 7 raft on Thursday before they decided just hanging out on the grass was enough exercise. Just another reminder of what keeping Crystal Lake clean is all about.