McHenry County Blog

The delivery charge pays for the infrastructure. Here is a major failure next to Crystal Lake's Best Buy on Main Street south of Route 14.

What I thought was going to be the most uncontroversial item on the ballot wasn’t.

Having put together the bulk buying of natural gas for state government facilities across Illinois while working for the Department of Central Management Services, it seems to be that the bulk buying of electricity is a pretty straight forward proposition.

Unless you don’t trust your local government, what’s to object to?

Especially, since you can opt out of the program if you think Com Ed’s price will be better or you’d rather shop around for yourself.

I figure let someone who has more expertise do the shopping, so I voted, “Yes.”

I had gotten some emails opposed to it.One had two objections, one of which didn’t seem to make any sense to me.

The complaint was made that municipal officials would not be allowed to negotiate the delivery price.

That is completely correct and that is because the local delivery cost is set by the Illinois Commerce Commission.

I figure the person who sent the email just didn’t know that was the situation.In any event that objection was not a legitimate reason to vote “No.”

It might, however, be a reason to vote against legislators who voted to allow Com Ed to raise electricity delivery rates.  (See Senate roll call, which passed by only one vote.  See House roll call.)

The second objection was that it would force peak pricing.  I asked my Lakewood Village Administrator, but did not get an answer.

So, if you voted against the referendum in your area (unincorporated or municipality), please tell readers where you live and why you voted “No.”

Results of McHenry County electric aggregation referendums follow:

Wonder Lake voted overwhelmingly against the proposal as 68% vote No. Why?

Folks in rural McHenry County voted against overwhelmingly against their referendum, 62% to 38%. Was it because they do not trust the County Board?

The City of McHenry's voters cast a 57-43 No vote. Why?

Lake in the Hills voted No as well, by a margin of 54-46. Again, if you are from Lake in the Hills and voted on the prevailing side, tell us why.

Johnsburg is another McHenry Township village where voters turned thumbs down 53-47. Tell us why, Johnsburg readers?

Marengo residents didn't like the idea either. The vote was close, losing by only 8 votes.

McCullom Lake next to McHenry also voted against the bulk buying proposal, but just barely. It only lost by one vote. Why?

Algonquin is in two counties, McHenry and Kane. It passed by a little bit on the McHenry County side, but failed by more on the Kane County side. The result was as 1,557-1,576 vote, with early and absentee ballot still not folded in, for a 50.3% “Yes” vote and 49.7% “No.”

While Lake in the Hills defeated their electric aggregation referendum, voters in the next door Village of Algonquin vote approval by 34 votes.

While the referendum passed in the McHenry County portion of Algonquin, it failed in Kane County. Click to enlarge.

Spring Grove's citizens voted down the referendum by 4 votes. If you are a "No" voter, please share your reason.

Now let’s look at those municipalities where people approved their referendums.

Woodstock citizens barely passed their referendum with only 27 votes to spare.

In Prairie Grove villagers voted 53-47 to allow bulk buying.

Cary voters cast 54% of their votes in favor.

54% of Crystal Lake ballots would favorable.

Huntley also straddles the Kane-McHenry County line. Unlike Algonquin, however, residents on both side voted for the referendum. There were 3,731 in favor and 2,870 against, when the figures were added together.  56.5% voted in favor.

By a healthy 59-41%, Huntley voters approved their electric aggregation referendum.

On the Kane County side of Huntley, the referendum passed 61-33.

The small Village of Ringwood passed the idea by 62% to 38%.

Lakewood voted overwhelmingly in favor of its referendum, 63-37.

I skipped Barrington Hills and Island Lake.

McHenry County making the front page of the Chicago Sun-Times twice in one week.

That’s probably a record since the tragic school bus-Metra train collision in Fox River Grove in the mid-1990′s.

First we are treated to the Thursday revelation of Congressman Joe Walsh’s child support problems.

And, today, we learn that McCullom Lake has the worst Com Ed electric service on storm days in the entire Chicago Metropolitan area.

I’ve extracted the data from the almost full-page chart. It shows “the total number of each town’s outage minutes divided by the population.”

Reporters Art Golab and Kim Janssen say this is “the first to compare towns of different sizes on a per-person basis.”

This, I would note as a former state legislator is the kind of information that the Illinois Commerce Commission should regularly report so members of the General Assembly can hold the regulators’ feet to the fire when such variation exists concerning the reliability of service.

Here are the numbers in McHenry County, from worst to best:

Com Ed employee fixes a line.

• McCullom Lake – 263.0
• Barrington Hills – 64.1
• Union – 57.2
• Port Barrington – 37.0
• Trout Valley – 33.1
• Lakemoor – 26.7
• Fox Lake 24.7
• Algonquin 24.3
• Lakewood – 23.5
• Oakwood Hills – 22.3
• Woodstock – 20.0
• Bull Valley – 17.4
• Crystal Lake – 16.6
• Johnsburg – 16.1
• Fox River Grove – 15.4
• Harvard – 14-8
• Chemung – 14.0
• Spring Grove – 12.7
• Prairie Grove – 10.5
• Cary – 9.3
• Hebron – 7.2
• Huntley – 7.1
• Lake in the Hills – 5.9
• Richmond – 5.7
• Marengo – 5.6
• Wonder Lake – 5.5
• Island Lake – 2.6

You can find all the numbers here.

The article will undoubted be used by opponents to electric supplers Com Ed and Ameren, who are seeking rate hikes to finance something they call a “smart gird.”

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s Office claims that the legislation “will guarantee it huge profits while weakening reliability standards for years to come,” the article says.

The following seems to summarize the dispute:

“Under the current legislation, ComEd is required to prove its reliability performance to regulators before winning rate hikes, whereas under the bill the balance of power would shift so that regulators seeking to prevent a price hike would have to show that ComEd has failed to meet reliability standards, according to Illinois Commerce Commission executive director Tim Anderson.

“Crucially, ComEd would not be judged on its performance on the worst nine storm days each year.

“ComEd says that’s necessary to allow a fair year-to-year analysis that excludes extreme weather events beyond its control, but critics say it will allow ComEd to dodge improvements to its storm preparedness and response.

“The utility said the new performance standard ‘is designed to accurately measure ComEd’s day-to-day reliability performance; it is not designed to measure how lucky we are in avoiding severe weather.’”

Here’s the press release sent out by the McHenry County Board:

Rohm and Haas to Fund Well Testing in McCullom Lake

WOODSTOCK, IL – At the Wednesday, August 25 meeting of the McHenry County Public Health and Human Services Committee, County Board Chairman Ken Koehler presented a letter from Rohm and Haas Company, of Ringwood, Illinois, indicating that they are willing to provide funding to expand well testing in the Village of McCullom Lake.

In a letter addressed to Chairman Ken Koehler, Rohm and Haas stated that they are willing to provide financial assistance to the County for additional independent testing through the following three components:

1. To fund the County’s additional well testing for Village of McCullom Lake homeowners who request it, Rohm and Haas will commit up to $125 for each well tested for the presence of vinyl chloride (up to $50,000 if all village wells were tested). To ensure that the results are both independent and credible, the County and/or Illinois EPA will select EPA-certified firms to conduct the testing and related laboratory analysis.
2. Rohm and Haas will commit up to $5,000 to test outdoor Village air for vinyl chloride and that McHenry County and/or the Illinois EPA will select EPA-certified firms to conduct the testing and the laboratory analysis to assure independent and credible results.
3. Finally, Rohm and Haas is prepared to commit up to $50,000 to support an independent comprehensive expert assessment of the various theories of vinyl chloride exposure in the Village through the Illinois EPA and the Illinois Water Survey.

Ken Koehler

“This is a good opportunity for the residents of McCullom Lake to get peace of mind that their water supply is safe and good corporate stewardship by Rohm and Haas to propose these components,” stated Chairman Koehler in regards to the letter.

Following the presentation by Chairman Koehler, the Public Health and Human Services Committee agreed that McHenry County should assist in the efforts to bring testing of the McCullom Lake water supply through independent and EPA-certified firms.

Melissa Bean

The Northwest Herald is running a story today about a meeting that 8th District Congresswoman Melissa Bean held at McHenry County College.

The public was not invited…again.

Just “local leaders.”

A dozen of them.

No ordinary taxpaying citizens.

No advance notice so the uninvited might express their feelings outside.

Terry Counley and Mark Eisenberg, the village presidents of McCullom Lake and Spring Grove, respectively, are quoted.

McHenry County Board member Marc Munaretto’s name is included in the article, even though he does not live in Bean’s district.

Holiday Hills Police Chief Larry Mason also gets a mention.

“She regularly conducts such forums,” the article reads.

Just not where the public can attend, I guess.

No Town Hall meetings on health care.

Not for Melissa Bean.

No debates with opponents for Melissa Bean.

Not since before Labor Day four years ago. (Political campaigns traditionally start on Labor Day.)

Just controlled appearances with known guest lists.

That’s the Melissa Bean Way.

I’m not sure what the last COMMUNITY CHEST substitution has to do with McHenry County Republicans.

But, what the heck.

This is a political piece and most won’t look at it as closely as I am.

Let’s cut them some slack even though it was the Clinton Administration that pushed for loosening mortgage qualifications.

It has the guy pulling his empty pants’ pockets out again with the message

Where Luxury Tax usually appears are another three monkeys.

This time it says,

Water and air pollution are under the jurisdiction of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and the Illinois Pollution Control Board, but the McHenry County Health Department did prepare a report that was far less than complete.

Before returning to the “STOP” game starting place, the Democrats have replaced the last CHANCE SPOT with something a bit different

A CHANCE SPOT near Boardwalk and Park Place still has a question mark, but above it is the word

That’s what the advertising piece is designed to push people toward, isn’t it?

Voting Democrat, rather than Republican.

Change.

And between Boardwalk and Park Place is another card with a bag of money.

$5,000 this time.

What’s that?

Who’s it from?

Tomorrow – Part 5 of McHenry County Monopoly – How Is Your Town Ranked by Local Democrats?

I’m not sure what the last COMMUNITY CHEST substitution has to do with McHenry County Republicans.

But, what the heck.

This is a political piece and most won’t look at it as closely as I am.

Let’s cut them some slack even though it was the Clinton Administration that pushed for loosening mortgage qualifications.

It has the guy pulling his empty pants’ pockets out again with the message

Where Luxury Tax usually appears are another three monkeys.

This time it says,

Water and air pollution are under the jurisdiction of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and the Illinois Pollution Control Board, but the McHenry County Health Department did prepare a report that was far less than complete.

Before returning to the “STOP” game starting place, the Democrats have replaced the last CHANCE SPOT with something a bit different

A CHANCE SPOT near Boardwalk and Park Place still has a question mark, but above it is the word

That’s what the advertising piece is designed to push people toward, isn’t it?

Voting Democrat, rather than Republican.

Change.

And between Boardwalk and Park Place is another card with a bag of money.

$5,000 this time.

What’s that?

Who’s it from?

Tomorrow – Part 5 of McHenry County Monopoly – How Is Your Town Ranked by Local Democrats?