McHenry County Blog

All of the women on the Management Services Committee of the McHenry County Board–Yvonne Barnes, Marie Chmiel, Barb Wheeler and Mary Lou Zierer–made negative comments about putting Dick Tracy on the McHenry County Seal.

But, after her committee members had spoken, the discussion continued with chairwoman Tina Hill put in her two cents in favor or Dick Tracy.

At least my excitement got through to one committee member.

McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler suggested that a tractor made “a stronger statement (for agriculture) than corn.”

He also said he like the artwork in submission number 4, a drawing of the top of the old courthouse with stalks of wheat around the sides.

Koehler commented favorably on the conservation-open space themed entrant with a heron in the foreground in a lake and a river or stream behind.

Marie Chmiel said she liked the one with a barn and silo.

Hill said nice things about the one which seemed to me to be the busiest. It had a multistory factory in the background, two story houses, waves indicating water and a barn and silo in the front.

“That’s a good idea, but you don’t seen any factories like that,” she said.

I had mentioned that the current flag gives homage to townships, which probably is not deserved since local newspaper don’t even assign a reporter to cover their meetings. I suggested that a diagonal line depicting the Chicago & Northwestern (now Union Pacific) Railroad line from Fox River Grove through Harvard could be used as a dividing line, if Dick Tracy were not selected.

“What would be great would be if you could follow Cal’s idea and work in the train,” Koehler added later.

“It would be a shame to abandon completely Dick Tracy. Cal is 100% right. It’s a huge marketing tool for the county.

“I think the tourism people should really jump on that.

Committee member Pete Merkel came in the committee room after the McHenry County Seal discussion.

So, it seems as if the county seal will end up looking like it was created by a committee.

I guess that’s appropriate because it will have been created by a committee.

Some previous McHenry County Seal Posts:

1. Sealed With A Dis
2. The Great Seal Of McHenry County Not Great Enough
3. McHenry County Eye Candy
4. McHenry County Seal Makeover Makes The News
5. Baseball, Hot Dogs, Community College, and County Seals
6. The Passive-Aggressive State of Illinois Seal
7. How To Create An Official Seal – Part 1: The Mechanics
8. How To Create An Official Seal – Part 2: Credentials
9. Another Great McHenry County Seal
10. Best Option Re Final Candidates For New McHenry County Seal
11. The McHenry County Seal Slaughter

All of the women on the Management Services Committee of the McHenry County Board–Yvonne Barnes, Marie Chmiel, Barb Wheeler and Mary Lou Zierer–made negative comments about putting Dick Tracy on the McHenry County Seal.

But, after her committee members had spoken, the discussion continued with chairwoman Tina Hill put in her two cents in favor or Dick Tracy.

At least my excitement got through to one committee member.

McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler suggested that a tractor made “a stronger statement (for agriculture) than corn.”

He also said he like the artwork in submission number 4, a drawing of the top of the old courthouse with stalks of wheat around the sides.

Koehler commented favorably on the conservation-open space themed entrant with a heron in the foreground in a lake and a river or stream behind.

Marie Chmiel said she liked the one with a barn and silo.

Hill said nice things about the one which seemed to me to be the busiest. It had a multistory factory in the background, two story houses, waves indicating water and a barn and silo in the front.

“That’s a good idea, but you don’t seen any factories like that,” she said.

I had mentioned that the current flag gives homage to townships, which probably is not deserved since local newspaper don’t even assign a reporter to cover their meetings. I suggested that a diagonal line depicting the Chicago & Northwestern (now Union Pacific) Railroad line from Fox River Grove through Harvard could be used as a dividing line, if Dick Tracy were not selected.

“What would be great would be if you could follow Cal’s idea and work in the train,” Koehler added later.

“It would be a shame to abandon completely Dick Tracy. Cal is 100% right. It’s a huge marketing tool for the county.

“I think the tourism people should really jump on that.

Committee member Pete Merkel came in the committee room after the McHenry County Seal discussion.

So, it seems as if the county seal will end up looking like it was created by a committee.

I guess that’s appropriate because it will have been created by a committee.

Some previous McHenry County Seal Posts:

1. Sealed With A Dis
2. The Great Seal Of McHenry County Not Great Enough
3. McHenry County Eye Candy
4. McHenry County Seal Makeover Makes The News
5. Baseball, Hot Dogs, Community College, and County Seals
6. The Passive-Aggressive State of Illinois Seal
7. How To Create An Official Seal – Part 1: The Mechanics
8. How To Create An Official Seal – Part 2: Credentials
9. Another Great McHenry County Seal
10. Best Option Re Final Candidates For New McHenry County Seal
11. The McHenry County Seal Slaughter

Yesterday, I started the tale of how Tina Hill’s Management Services Committee considered citizen-submitted suggestions for a new McHenry County Seal.

I told of my relaying Heck of a Guy blogger Alan Showalter’s suggestion that the center of the seal be the face of Dick Tracy, drawn by cartoonist Chester Gould in Bull Valley.

Cutting this old guy to the quick was county board member Barb Wheeler’s opening comment:

“With all due respect to the elderly…”

Now, I readily admit that Dick Tracy has had a long professional career. 77 years.

Wheeler’s relegation of Dick Tracy to the dustbin of McHenry County history made my quaking hands shake so much I didn’t get down what she said about her children and Bugs Bunny.

Bugs Bunny, by the way, is younger than I am.

“It’s cute and it would definitely add some entertainment, (but) it’s not professional, not stately enough for a seal.”

Dick Tracy “not professional?”

The nerve of that youngin!

Dick Tracy is nothing, if not professional.

Her comments came after comments from the not-so-elderly-as-I McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler, whose father was a Dick Tracy fan when the family moved to Crystal Lake.

“We knew where Dick Tracy was from.”

“With all fairness to Cal, we don’t often agree, but…”

His appreciation for the role Dick Tracy could play came out so fast I couldn’t get his exact words, but my pen did reengage with the back of the agenda when he said,

“There’s a a lot of great possibilities.”

I think he was thinking about using Dick Tracy to market McHenry County, something that apparently has not occurred to the McHenry County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Koehler did say, “Dick Tracy could be part of (a quadrant-designed) seal.”

Marie Chmiel, who is retiring and suggested that her opinion didn’t count, didn’t mention Dick Tracy in her list of favorites.

“The one with the courthouse looks very nice, but I like the different segments.

“It’ll give it notoriety, but personally I don’t think we should go with a cartoon character. I don’t think it should be strictly agriculture…or conservation.”

“Hire a consultant to do it,” was Chmiel’s final advice.

“Notoriety?”

The word’s definition certainly does not fit Dick Tracy:

“The quality or condition of being notorious”

Notorious:

“Known widely and usually unfavorably.”

Dick Tracy “notorious?”

Maybe to Flattop or The Brow.

But calling Dick Tracy “notorious” is akin to calling U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald “notorious.”

And, Fitzgerald is only considered notorious by those whom he indicts and their friends.

(And, yes, I know Chmiel was talking about Chester Gould’s drawing, not the character’s character.)

County board member Yvonne Barnes belonged to the cut and paste faction.

“I like bits and pieces of a number of them. I’d like to see a combination.”

Later, Barnes said she wanted a seal which would reflect “current McHenry County and reflect what it will look like 10-20 years from now.”

“We’re trying to recruit.”

Her favorite was the one with the factories, homes, barn and silo and water.

Continued tomorrow.

Yesterday, I started the tale of how Tina Hill’s Management Services Committee considered citizen-submitted suggestions for a new McHenry County Seal.

I told of my relaying Heck of a Guy blogger Alan Showalter’s suggestion that the center of the seal be the face of Dick Tracy, drawn by cartoonist Chester Gould in Bull Valley.

Cutting this old guy to the quick was county board member Barb Wheeler’s opening comment:

“With all due respect to the elderly…”

Now, I readily admit that Dick Tracy has had a long professional career. 77 years.

Wheeler’s relegation of Dick Tracy to the dustbin of McHenry County history made my quaking hands shake so much I didn’t get down what she said about her children and Bugs Bunny.

Bugs Bunny, by the way, is younger than I am.

“It’s cute and it would definitely add some entertainment, (but) it’s not professional, not stately enough for a seal.”

Dick Tracy “not professional?”

The nerve of that youngin!

Dick Tracy is nothing, if not professional.

Her comments came after comments from the not-so-elderly-as-I McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler, whose father was a Dick Tracy fan when the family moved to Crystal Lake.

“We knew where Dick Tracy was from.”

“With all fairness to Cal, we don’t often agree, but…”

His appreciation for the role Dick Tracy could play came out so fast I couldn’t get his exact words, but my pen did reengage with the back of the agenda when he said,

“There’s a a lot of great possibilities.”

I think he was thinking about using Dick Tracy to market McHenry County, something that apparently has not occurred to the McHenry County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Koehler did say, “Dick Tracy could be part of (a quadrant-designed) seal.”

Marie Chmiel, who is retiring and suggested that her opinion didn’t count, didn’t mention Dick Tracy in her list of favorites.

“The one with the courthouse looks very nice, but I like the different segments.

“It’ll give it notoriety, but personally I don’t think we should go with a cartoon character. I don’t think it should be strictly agriculture…or conservation.”

“Hire a consultant to do it,” was Chmiel’s final advice.

“Notoriety?”

The word’s definition certainly does not fit Dick Tracy:

“The quality or condition of being notorious”

Notorious:

“Known widely and usually unfavorably.”

Dick Tracy “notorious?”

Maybe to Flattop or The Brow.

But calling Dick Tracy “notorious” is akin to calling U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald “notorious.”

And, Fitzgerald is only considered notorious by those whom he indicts and their friends.

(And, yes, I know Chmiel was talking about Chester Gould’s drawing, not the character’s character.)

County board member Yvonne Barnes belonged to the cut and paste faction.

“I like bits and pieces of a number of them. I’d like to see a combination.”

Later, Barnes said she wanted a seal which would reflect “current McHenry County and reflect what it will look like 10-20 years from now.”

“We’re trying to recruit.”

Her favorite was the one with the factories, homes, barn and silo and water.

Continued tomorrow.

Tina Hill was kind enough to remind me Sunday that her Management Services Committee would be considering candidates for McHenry County Seal yesterday morning.

I made it in time and was asked to sit in the empty press session, where visitors usually sit, Hill told me.

When public comment time came, I got up and made my pitch for Dick Tracy for County Seal.

Apparently, the contest didn’t make it on the General Election ballot. All that campaigning for nothing.

Being a fictional character, Dick Tracy couldn’t even sign up to be a write-in candidate.

Gone are the days of votes for Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck that Mike Royko used to report after every election.

The Chicago and Springfield pols got tired of the ridicule and required people vote for real people who wanted to be voted for.

So, all those write-ins a week ago were wasted, folks.

As in, not counted.

Admitting that the current county seal, based on the state seal is “boring,” I plunged ahead.

I told the all-female attending committee members that I had been trying to think of something that would represent McHenry County for McHenry County Blog, but couldn’t come up with anything better that Dick Tracy. I pointed out that Crystal Lake blogger Alan Showalter of Heck of a Guy blog had come up with the idea.

I pointed out that the State of Illinois Tourism folks had paid $2,000.

I suggested that international publicity would result from putting Dick Tracy on the county seal. It could be the centerpiece of a tourism campaign.

The Illinois Department of Tourism paid $2,000 to get the rights to use Dick Tracy’s image in a poster saying,

I suggested that $2,000 a year might end up being a good tourism expenditure, considering I’d heard the county gives the McHenry County Convention and Visitors Bureau $150,000 a year.

And, by selling the county seal and related Dick Tracy merchandise, county government could probably recoup the cost of licensing.

Why the county could even open a web store.

But, the state tourism poster was advertising a now-closed museum in Woodstock and, as committee member Mary Lou Zierer put it,

“I connect Dick Tracy with Woodstock. If we’re going to have a county seal that designates a certain town in the county, I like the old courthouse. I think a combination of the new and old would be good to have.”

During my pitch, I pointed out that Chester Gould had told me (or maybe I didn’t mention my source) that his inspiration for Gravel Gertie and B.O. Plenty came when he was driving past the old Crystal Lake Dump on Virginia Street Road. It’s now covered with gravel trucks and a row of storage units.

And as soon as I saw former Supervisor of Assessments Stanley Cornue after I was elected county treasurer I thought he looked like Pruneface. (Don’t you wonder what kind of a fight led Gould to make him a villain in his cartoon strip?)

In any event, the committee was shown all the entries from the public.

Dick Tracy was shown first because Alan Showalter sent it in first.

Continued tomorrow.

Tina Hill was kind enough to remind me Sunday that her Management Services Committee would be considering candidates for McHenry County Seal yesterday morning.

I made it in time and was asked to sit in the empty press session, where visitors usually sit, Hill told me.

When public comment time came, I got up and made my pitch for Dick Tracy for County Seal.

Apparently, the contest didn’t make it on the General Election ballot. All that campaigning for nothing.

Being a fictional character, Dick Tracy couldn’t even sign up to be a write-in candidate.

Gone are the days of votes for Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck that Mike Royko used to report after every election.

The Chicago and Springfield pols got tired of the ridicule and required people vote for real people who wanted to be voted for.

So, all those write-ins a week ago were wasted, folks.

As in, not counted.

Admitting that the current county seal, based on the state seal is “boring,” I plunged ahead.

I told the all-female attending committee members that I had been trying to think of something that would represent McHenry County for McHenry County Blog, but couldn’t come up with anything better that Dick Tracy. I pointed out that Crystal Lake blogger Alan Showalter of Heck of a Guy blog had come up with the idea.

I pointed out that the State of Illinois Tourism folks had paid $2,000.

I suggested that international publicity would result from putting Dick Tracy on the county seal. It could be the centerpiece of a tourism campaign.

The Illinois Department of Tourism paid $2,000 to get the rights to use Dick Tracy’s image in a poster saying,

I suggested that $2,000 a year might end up being a good tourism expenditure, considering I’d heard the county gives the McHenry County Convention and Visitors Bureau $150,000 a year.

And, by selling the county seal and related Dick Tracy merchandise, county government could probably recoup the cost of licensing.

Why the county could even open a web store.

But, the state tourism poster was advertising a now-closed museum in Woodstock and, as committee member Mary Lou Zierer put it,

“I connect Dick Tracy with Woodstock. If we’re going to have a county seal that designates a certain town in the county, I like the old courthouse. I think a combination of the new and old would be good to have.”

During my pitch, I pointed out that Chester Gould had told me (or maybe I didn’t mention my source) that his inspiration for Gravel Gertie and B.O. Plenty came when he was driving past the old Crystal Lake Dump on Virginia Street Road. It’s now covered with gravel trucks and a row of storage units.

And as soon as I saw former Supervisor of Assessments Stanley Cornue after I was elected county treasurer I thought he looked like Pruneface. (Don’t you wonder what kind of a fight led Gould to make him a villain in his cartoon strip?)

In any event, the committee was shown all the entries from the public.

Dick Tracy was shown first because Alan Showalter sent it in first.

Continued tomorrow.

The Valley Hi Committee, the McHenry County Board committee that oversees the county nursing home, has decided to outsource.

At least its management.

That’s what the Northwest Herald’s Regan Foster reports.

At the same meeting, the committee recommended that a $625,000 bailout of the nursing home.

Voting against the outside management proposal were committee chairman Mary Lou Zierer from the Marengo area (but with a Harvard address) and Fox River Grove’s Dan Shea. Both have announced their retirements.

The Valley Hi Committee, the McHenry County Board committee that oversees the county nursing home, has decided to outsource.

At least its management.

That’s what the Northwest Herald’s Regan Foster reports.

At the same meeting, the committee recommended that a $625,000 bailout of the nursing home.

Voting against the outside management proposal were committee chairman Mary Lou Zierer from the Marengo area (but with a Harvard address) and Fox River Grove’s Dan Shea. Both have announced their retirements.

In 2006 McHenry County Democrats took up the expensive relocation of the McHenry County Animal Shelter to Crystal Lake as a county board issue.

It is safe to predict that one 2008 issue will be incompetent management of Valley Hi, the county nursing home. Of course, the animal shelter may come back as a sequel.

Somehow looking at articles on the internet does not have the same impact as seeing them in the Northwest Herald. Placement and size on the printed page can make a big difference.

I know that reading Reagan Foster’s words,

”The audit stated that there was no sign that funding had been managed in any way, nor were there any indications that managers working to change the increasing reliance on taxpayer support,”

gave me a sense of the enormity of the management failure by the McHenry County Board.

Instead of tossing old NW Herald’s my in-laws save them for me. So, last Sunday, I looked through a pile.

The NW Herald put its

article on its front page last Friday.

You can expect to see that front page of July 27th edition of the NW Herald in Democratic Party literature next year, if county Democrats have good designers.

And, how incompetent was county management?

Not knowing the county was spending almost $184 a day caring for patients, while taking in about $131, shows about as few management controls as one could imagine.

To get an idea how significant blowing through $2 million can be, take a look at the Chicago Tribune’s main article last Sunday. It and others were on Governor Rod Blagojevich’s $2.6 million commitment to purchase flu vaccines which were never used.

That rated the front page on Sunday’s Tribune and all of the editorial page of the Chicago Sun-Times on Wednesday.

State government has over a $50 billion budget. So, $2 million is a very small proportion of the total. Yet it is important because Blagojevich was in his “Let’s create a national image, so I can run for President” mode when he got the flu vaccine.

$2 million to McHenry County is real money. The total 2006 county budget was $180 million. Valley Hi’s share was about $12.5 million. $2 million is 16% of 12.5 million, a bit over 1% of the total county budget.

Just as the governor was trying to get publicity with his vaccine ploy, the county board was in the process of completing a new county nursing home.

Big opportunity for brownie points, wouldn’t you agree?

Blown by mismanagement.

Two NW Herald articles, plus an editorial, to drive home the point:

July 26th – Valley Hi audit says home $2 million in red in ‘06

July 27th – Valley Hi ran in red in ’06

July 28th – Valley Hi’s budget woes

The Valley Hi Administrator did resign, but I’m thinking the Democrats may be looking for some county board member scalps.

Members of the Valley Hi Committee, according to the McHenry County web site, are

Chairman: Mary Lou Zierer
Vice Chair: Ed Dvorak
Members: James Heisler, James P. Kennedy, Mary McCann, Pete Merkel, Dan Shea

= = = = =

I wrote last year of Valley Hi Administrator Howard Nehlig’s having told me a story when I was McHenry County Treasurer in the late 1960’s about the pigs raised at the old county poor farm not having hams. He told me the story three times and I still didn’t get his point. He finally had to tell me that the hams went home in the county board committee members’ trunks.

In the same article, I wrote of a farmer who told me at the County Fair in 2000 of how a long ago poor farm committee chairman tried to shake down a farmer who lived, what was it, 8 miles west of Woodstock on Kishwaukee Valley Road. The farmer was hired to dig a well and did so. Afterwards, the county board member showed up, asking, “Where’s my cut?”

The farmer told him he had worked hard and he wasn’t going to pay him anything.

The county board member told the farmer that he would make sure he never got another county contract. The crooked county board member delivered on his pledge.

Maybe McHenry County taxpayers would be better off with the petty corruption of years past than the massive mismanagement of today.

My article on county home corruption also has a McHenry County syndicate section that might be of interest.

In 2006 McHenry County Democrats took up the expensive relocation of the McHenry County Animal Shelter to Crystal Lake as a county board issue.

It is safe to predict that one 2008 issue will be incompetent management of Valley Hi, the county nursing home. Of course, the animal shelter may come back as a sequel.

Somehow looking at articles on the internet does not have the same impact as seeing them in the Northwest Herald. Placement and size on the printed page can make a big difference.

I know that reading Reagan Foster’s words,

”The audit stated that there was no sign that funding had been managed in any way, nor were there any indications that managers working to change the increasing reliance on taxpayer support,”

gave me a sense of the enormity of the management failure by the McHenry County Board.

Instead of tossing old NW Herald’s my in-laws save them for me. So, last Sunday, I looked through a pile.

The NW Herald put its

article on its front page last Friday.

You can expect to see that front page of July 27th edition of the NW Herald in Democratic Party literature next year, if county Democrats have good designers.

And, how incompetent was county management?

Not knowing the county was spending almost $184 a day caring for patients, while taking in about $131, shows about as few management controls as one could imagine.

To get an idea how significant blowing through $2 million can be, take a look at the Chicago Tribune’s main article last Sunday. It and others were on Governor Rod Blagojevich’s $2.6 million commitment to purchase flu vaccines which were never used.

That rated the front page on Sunday’s Tribune and all of the editorial page of the Chicago Sun-Times on Wednesday.

State government has over a $50 billion budget. So, $2 million is a very small proportion of the total. Yet it is important because Blagojevich was in his “Let’s create a national image, so I can run for President” mode when he got the flu vaccine.

$2 million to McHenry County is real money. The total 2006 county budget was $180 million. Valley Hi’s share was about $12.5 million. $2 million is 16% of 12.5 million, a bit over 1% of the total county budget.

Just as the governor was trying to get publicity with his vaccine ploy, the county board was in the process of completing a new county nursing home.

Big opportunity for brownie points, wouldn’t you agree?

Blown by mismanagement.

Two NW Herald articles, plus an editorial, to drive home the point:

July 26th – Valley Hi audit says home $2 million in red in ‘06

July 27th – Valley Hi ran in red in ’06

July 28th – Valley Hi’s budget woes

The Valley Hi Administrator did resign, but I’m thinking the Democrats may be looking for some county board member scalps.

Members of the Valley Hi Committee, according to the McHenry County web site, are

Chairman: Mary Lou Zierer
Vice Chair: Ed Dvorak
Members: James Heisler, James P. Kennedy, Mary McCann, Pete Merkel, Dan Shea

= = = = =

I wrote last year of Valley Hi Administrator Howard Nehlig’s having told me a story when I was McHenry County Treasurer in the late 1960’s about the pigs raised at the old county poor farm not having hams. He told me the story three times and I still didn’t get his point. He finally had to tell me that the hams went home in the county board committee members’ trunks.

In the same article, I wrote of a farmer who told me at the County Fair in 2000 of how a long ago poor farm committee chairman tried to shake down a farmer who lived, what was it, 8 miles west of Woodstock on Kishwaukee Valley Road. The farmer was hired to dig a well and did so. Afterwards, the county board member showed up, asking, “Where’s my cut?”

The farmer told him he had worked hard and he wasn’t going to pay him anything.

The county board member told the farmer that he would make sure he never got another county contract. The crooked county board member delivered on his pledge.

Maybe McHenry County taxpayers would be better off with the petty corruption of years past than the massive mismanagement of today.

My article on county home corruption also has a McHenry County syndicate section that might be of interest.