McHenry County Blog

Route 62 through Barrington Hills was slow going, but the scenery was marvelous.

It took 30 minutes to get from Route 25 to Route 31 in Algonquin. The surface was bumpy ice.

Men were pushing this car up the Route 62 hill.

Two IDOT snow plows tried to make a difference on Route 62 in Algonquin.

Randall Road was backed up north of Miller Road in Crystal Lake.

A woman lost traction and plowed into the snow bank in front of the CVS Pharmacy across from Ackman Road in Crystal Lake.

Two McHenry County snow plows came east on Ackman Road onto Randall-Rakow Road.

A third snow plow from the McHenry County Transportation Department followed the first two.

All in all, it was a very bad night for traffic.

Route 62 was worse than that part of Algonquin Road east of Route 31, which is a county road. Maybe it was the beet juice mixed with the salt. The county section, however, had a dicey, snow-covered right lane.

A press release from the McHenry County Board:

Illinois Route 31 @ Virginia Road/Klasen Road Widening and Reconstruction Improvement; Completion of the final Stage III has occurred and the roadway is ready to be open to traffic.

[November 28, 2012 Algonquin, Lake in the Hills, Cary, IL] The McHenry County Division of Transportation is announcing that the roadway construction on Illinois Route 31 at Virginia Road/Klasen Road has been completed and that all lanes of traffic will be open on Thursday, November 29th.

Motorists should expect a slight delay the day of the opening as the traffic signals get turned on.

There is a small amount of remaining work to be done after the 29th which will be done using daily lane closures. The lane closures are expected to last until the middle of December.

Construction on Route 31 and Klasen Road on the Saturday of Algonquin’s Founders Days Parade.

Upon completion, the Illinois Route 31 @ Virginia Road/Klasen Road Widening and Reconstruction Improvements will tie into the Western Algonquin Bypass Project, connecting a key corridor for the area.

The project along IL 31 has seen many improvements take place because of the construction this year.

Those include over a mile of new reconstructed concrete pavement with four lanes of traffic and dual left turn lanes at Virginia Road.

The realignment of Virginia Road also was completed with efforts to increase safety at the intersection of IL 31.

The Klasen Road and Virginia Road intersections at Illinois Route 31 received modernized traffic signals.

A new bike path was paved along the entire length of the east side of IL 31.

Over two and a half miles of new storm sewer has been installed to go together with the open-ditch storm water system.

The final landscaping for Illinois Route 31 will be completed in the Spring of 2013. This work will take place under daily lane closures and may also include some small punch-list items.

The McHenry County Division of Transportation would like to thank you for your patience this past year while the project was being constructed.

County Highway Engineer Joseph Korpalski and State Rep. Mike Tryon can be seen on the left as people waited for the ceremony to begin.

This morning’s ribbon cutting for Rakow Road had a bit better weather than the snowy day when the road was inaugurated.

McHenry County Board member Jim Heisler made a bee line to the coffee dispenser.

The sides to the tent weren’t lowered today.

Beginning the festivities, McHenry County Board Transportation Committee Chairman Anna May Miller noted she had a “wind blown” look this year. She also wore gloves.

No participation, but wind strong enough to lift the unweighted tent poles from the parking lot surface.

How strong was the wind? You can get an idea from looking at McHenry County Recorder of Deeds Phyllis Walters’ and State Rep. Mike Tryon’s hair.  Note the turned up collars.

And, it mused up more than Miller’s hair.

Transportation Committee Chairman Anna May Miller introduced County Board Chairman Ken Koehler.

Traffic on the 32,000 a day road was light between 9 and 9:30 in the morning.

Most of the crowd was warmly dressed, including ear muffs, but I saw one man in shorts.

The road is designed to handle 60,000 vehicles a day.

Phyllis Walters, the widow of James Rakow, pointed out that his last name is pronounced “Raco” with a long “a,” not “Racko.” She told a humorous story about being asked how she knew. “I’m married to him.”

The main speaker was Phyllis Walters, the wife of Jim Rakow, the man after whom the road is named.

After the ceremony, Phyllis Walters pointed out her grandchildren in the enlarged photograph.

She pointed out that she wished Congressman Don Manzullo was in attendance since he had gotten $7 million for the widening of the road put into the Federal budget.  She said she would miss having him as Congressman.

State Rep. Mike Tryon spoke next.

And, then it was off to cut the ribbon.

“These are real scissors,” McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler was heard to say.  From left to right are County Engineer Joe Korpalski, Rep. Mike Tryon, Chairman Board Chairman Ken Koehler, Transportation Committee Chairman Chair Anna May Miller, Recorder of Deeds Phyllis Walters, and Peter Austin.

No stopping traffic.

The scissors didn’t work on the first try.

This ribbon cutting was as symbolic as the ground breaking ceremony a year and a half ago.

Ken Koehler tried a second time to cut the red ribbon.

The ribbon cutting part of the ceremony did not go as planned.

The third time was not the charm for the Rakow Road ribbon cutting.

By this time I was laughing my head off.

It was time to bring the local expert in ribbon cuttings in for assistance. Gary Reece, Crystal Lake Chamber of Commerce Executive came forward to offer advice.

I was asking,  “Is anyone getting video of this?”

The angle with which one applies the scissors seems key to success in cutting ribbons.

If at first you don’t succeed…

Still trying to cut that *x@# red ribbon.

And the wind kept blowing.

Try, try, try again.

I was laughing so hard, had I had a camera with film, the photos would have been fuzzy.

Can you spell “frustration?”

Maybe you had to be there to enjoy the spectacle.

Success!

I’m sure the guys who did the work were amused.

Standing at the back of the crowd where the ones who were responsible for the construction.

Afterward, there was a rush to the inside of one of the businesses in the at least half empty strip mall which has to have been hurt by the two construction seasons.

Phyllis Walters ended up with the Rakow Road red ribbon wrapped around her neck.

Now maybe the at least half empty strip mall at the intersection of McHenry Avenue and Rakow Road will find some tenants.

The strip mall where McHenry Avenue meets Rakow Road has had a hard time renting space in 2011 and 2012 during the widening of highway.

My first public meeting was a hearing at the Algonquin Township Garage while I was still in college.

For some reason, my father was interested in a Silver Lakes non-dedicated road hearing.

At the time, Silver Lakes, near Cary, had roads, but they were not in the township system because they were not up to the standards set by some agency unknown to me at the time.

The meeting was part of a process to initiate a special assessment program to raise money to improve the roads enough for Township Road Commissioner Julian Dvorak to take over their maintenance.

That was probably in 1963 or 1964.

After I took office as McHenry County Treasurer in 1966 it was my job to collect the special assessments.

Intervening was a court suit that declared the law authorizing the special assessments unconstitutional.

I can’t remember the details, but we kept collecting the money to pay off the bonds.

When the Constitutional Convention was held, one part specifically authorized such assessments for a specific purpose for a specific area.

It’s called a Special Service Area Assessment.

Developers now use the tool to stick homeowners with infrastructure costs that previously would have been part of homes’ purchase prices.

But the unincorporated road problem continues to exist in McHenry County, where dozens of subdivisions, especially along the Fox River, have roads that are not as wide or thick as Township Road Commissioners would like.

Trees are in the right-of-way.

Lots of problems from a Road Commissioner’s point-of-view.

Letter presented to McHenry County Board Transportation Committee Chairman Anna May Miller by the McHenry County Non-Dedicated Road Coalition.

The signers of the letter when McHenry County Blog received it were

• Reihansperger – Fair Oaks Subdivision
• Cosgrove – Bay View Lane, Pistakee Bay
• Anthony Kless – Wonder Woods
• Edward Wolff – North Shore POA
• Robert Beltran- East Pistakee Bay Rd. Assoc.
• Mark Galasso – Mineral Springs Assoc.

All are from McHenry Township.

Scott Summer is a big advocate of alternative transportation modes. Here he rides with Rich Whitney, the 2010 Green Party candidate for Governor.

A press release from Democratic Party District 6 McHenry County Board candidate Scott Summers:

McHenry County’s draft 2040 transportation plan — predicated on dysfunction?

Yesterday (August 23, 2012), I attended an open house hosted by the McHenry County Department of Transportation.

The subject was the county’s draft transportation plan for the year 2040. (http://www.2040mchenrycountyplan.org)

Considerable effort is going into preparation of the document. In particular, its elevated attention to public transit and walkways/bikeways is to be commended. I was pleased to speak with thoughtful and knowledgeable county staff.

Overall, I offer an opinion that many people will find to be unusual.

Much of the draft plan is predicated on dysfunction. And rather than remediate the dysfunction, the plan inadvertently perpetuates it.

Consider this: roughly 80% of our working residents stream out of the county every day for employment elsewhere. Conversely, significant numbers of service workers are commuting into McHenry County daily.

The majority of these arduous trips are made by single individuals in private automobiles.

Rather than facilitate and enable and reinforce these spectacularly wasteful travel patterns by sinking ever-increasing sums into new roads, we must work instead to shorten commutes.

To accomplish this, we should redouble our economic development efforts to generate in-county jobs. And we should increase our stocks of affordable housing.

It may take decades to turn our collective driving habits around. But that’s what a long range plan is all about.

I believe that comprehensive efforts to shorten our commutes — and to reduce driving overall — are eminently worthy goals for the year 2040.

A press release from the McHenry County Department of Transportation:

McHenry County Division of Transportation 2040 Long Range Transportation Plan Open House

The masthead from the new website.

WOODSTOCK, IL – The McHenry County Division of Transportation (MCDOT) is working on the 2040 Long Range Transportation Plan to identify the County’s future transportation needs and figure out how to best address them.

As part of this project, MCDOT has been obtaining input through a number of different methods, including pop-up meetings, high school learning programs, focus groups, charettes, library display boards, and an interactive map on the website.

This comprehensive outreach effort has led to an unprecedented amount of participation among the public for a planning effort in McHenry County.

MCDOT will be holding an open house on Thursday, August 23, 2012, between 2:00 PM and 7:00 PM at Crystal Lake City Hall.

The purpose of this open house is to allow attendees to review all of the public comment that has been heard to this point, review the goals and objectives of the plan, and provide your input on the direction of the Plan.

County staff and consultants will be in attendance to listen to your ideas and get your input.

To learn more about the Plan, review documents, and see what others in the County have to say about transportation on the “Map” visit http://www.2040mchenrycountyplan.org.

Additional public meetings will be held in the fall to present the draft plan.

If one believed in conspiracies in McHenry County, one might think the gouging of the grass along parts of Fleming Road was deliberate.

The McDot mower went right next to one of the trees targeted for destruction under the original County plan to widen Fleming Road.

There certainly could be motive for McDOT’s defacing the shoulders along the stretch of scenic rural highway.

The County Highway employee who mowed this part of Fleming Road damaged the shoulder.

After all, the Fleming Road Alliance put so much pressure on the McHenry County Board, that the Highway Department had to back off from its plans to widen and level the road to an extent that lots of Bull Valley folks thought it was deliberately designed to be an eastern truck bypass of Woodstock.

State highway workers don't mow the shoulders until young wildlife have reached the age to survive on their own.

Whether the original plan or the possible retribution holds any credence, the damage done by County employees certainly marred the sides of the road.

You can see that from the photos.

Maybe the mowing of the shoulders of Fleming Road was a "make work" project. It's not as if people regularly park next to the roadway.

The pictures came along with this email last night from Emily Berendt:

“As I drove down Fleming Road this morning, not far behind the MCDOT Mowers, I was appalled at the condition of the roadsides.

“Large patches of earth were scraped bare of vegetation, deep gouges were dug into the banks, tire marks dug into the shoulders.

“At the southern end of the road, mowers encroached about 20 feet into the hay the entire length of the field, taking down that much of the farmers crop.

“A call to Anna May Miller resulted in her agreeing to look into this.

“We will be attending the Transportation Committee meeting tomorrow morning to see what transpires.

“The last picture is our new sign in response to the damage.”

"Mow Shoulder Not More Don't Scrape or Gouge!" says the Fleming Road Alliance sign.

I’ve been dropping the ball in keeping people update on what is happening regarding Fleming Road.

After hearing the comments of County Board candidates who have personally dealt with the McHenry County Department of Transportation, I believe residents need more information about how it operates.

Below is a summary of the CAG meeting on Thursday afternoon, where the CAG reached consensus on a rehabilitation method for Fleming Road that will stay within the existing footprint and profile with minimal disruption. More information about the impact on our trees will be coming in a day or two.

Summary of CAG #6, February 16, 2012:

Initial discussion was focused on whether or not they could do a reconstruction (rebuild the entire base) to give us the most longevity, and still stay in the same footprint.

The answer is yes they can, but no they can’t.

A seasonal sign on Fleming Road worth seeing.

Yes they can do that physically, but no they can’t because the standards that apply when reconstruction is used require that the footprint and profile be changed and that is what we have been fighting.

We sparred about standards for a while until they convinced us that three specific design elements

• clear zone,
• cross slope and
• side slopes

would not be granted variances to the standards even if applied for – so any base reconstruction would destroy the footprint and profile of the road and require acquisition of right-of-way.

Discussion then turned to Interim #2, Cold in-place recycling.

Cold in-place recycling is a rehabilitation method and does not require that the standards be adhered to.

The process requires a “train” of vehicles that go straight down the road pictured in the attached illustration. (More detail is in the technical memo.)

The biggest fear of residents was that Fleming Road would become an eastern truck bypass for Woodstock traffic.

One lane of the road is completed and then the other. There will be a cure period where only local traffic will have access prior to a resurfacing over the rehabilitated material. More core borings will be done first to determine the extent of areas where the base may not be stable enough for this process and those areas will be addressed and refurbished.

After the work is done, the shoulders will be restored at their original width with aggregate or by use of the safety edge, a minimally disruptive shoulder treatment we have been asking them to consider.

NO right-of-way will be acquired.

The footprint and profile of Fleming Road will not be altered. The depth of cut into the pavement will vary from 4 and 6 inches depending on base stability, so we will not see a lot of tree die off.

The finished road will have an 8-10 year initial pavement life projection, a second phase of resurfacing in 4 – 7 years and the ability to continually repeat the process to recycle the road and refurbish the base into the future.

After a long discussion this option gained consensus of the group.

The CAG, MCDOT Engineers, TranSystems design consultants and county board members concurred on the desire for this to be an on-going solution for Fleming Road.

(Interim #1 –simple resurfacing – was not discussed except in passing as it would only give us a 3-4 year life before we would all be back at the table again.)

The discussion now goes to the Transportation Committee for final direction to MCDOT, after which MCDOT needs 2-3 months to draw up the plans. Then they will begin the process of interviewing contractors with skill in the cold in-place process.

If there is time, the work will be done this year, if not, next year. We will continue to monitor throughout the plan development, interviewing and actual construction phases of the project.

At the end of the meeting Paula Yensen, Transportation Committee Vice Chair, stated that the Context Sensitive Solutions process for road maintenance would be clarified and include a section on a new road classification called Natural Heritage Corridor. We hope to be invited to participate in the development of this classification.

Emily Berendt

Fleming Road Alliance Organizing Committee
Ed Bennett, Mary Moltman, Lisa Rhoades, Marti Jadd, Linda Ramsey. Stanley Jarosz, Phyllis Keinz, Kevin Keesee
Emily Berendt, Deb Staley, Bjorn Mattsson

If you didn’t get to the open house held by the McHenry County Department of Transportation Thursday night, here’s the main exhibit–the route from Route 47 to Harmony Road:

Click to enlarge this map of where Algonquin Road will be extended across southern McHenry County.

He advocated site value taxation. That basically means that only land should be taxed. Not taxing improvements, that is, buildings, would encourage people to maximize the value of property they owned by building as much on them as possible.

If this road could be financed by taxing the increase of the value of the land that will benefit from it, the road might be capable of being built fairly soon.

Now that I think of it, that sounds like a TIF (Tax Increment Financing) district, except developers, that is owners of adjacent property, would not be directly subsidized; the county would just be using a similar mechanism to finance the road that would benefit them the most.

A press release from the McHenry County Board:

McHenry County Receives Three National Association of Counties Achievement Awards

WOODSTOCK, IL – McHenry County was recently recognized by the National Association of Counties (NACo) for implementing innovative county government programs to better serve area residents. The 2011 NACo Achievement Awards winners were honored during the NACo’s 76th Annual Conference and Exposition in Portland, Oregon.

McHenry County Administrator Pete Austin and Planning & Development Director Dennis Sandquist pose with one of the awards from National Association of Counties.

McHenry County received three NACo Achievement Awards for its

• Winter Snow & Ice Workshop,
• Community Partners – Mental Health Awareness for All, and
• MAPP Heart Age Assessment Tool.

 Winter Snow & Ice Workshop

The Winter Snow & Ice Workshop teaches public and private snow plow operators and contractors how to safely and effectively manage winter snow and ice and how to safely handle road salt and de-icing chemicals in order to minimize the potential for water pollution.  The workshops are an important component of the County’s continued commitment to protecting its water quantity and quality.  For more information on this program, please contact Cassandra McKinney at 815-334-4213.

 Community Partners – Mental Health Awareness for All

The purpose of Community Partners – Mental Awareness for All is to change perceptions of mental health through education by an initiating and nurturing community group.  It is a unique partnership working to reduce stigma and raise consciousness and understanding of mental illness in McHenry County.  For more information on this program, please contact Barb Iehl at 815-455-2828.

 MAPP Heart Age Assessment Tool

Department of Health – MAPP Heart Age Assessment Tool, a community-based cardiovascular screening program designed to identify and educate adults 30-75+ years of age of the risks associated with heart disease; the tool measures body mass index and blood pressure against age, gender, height, weight, smoking and diabetic status and how it affects their heart’s “true age”.  For more information on this program, please contact Deb Quackenbush at 815-334-4456.

Ken Koehler

“It is an honor for McHenry County to be recognized through the NACo Achievement Awards for these top notch programs,” stated County Board Chairman Ken Koehler, “McHenry County continues to find innovative ways to meet the needs of our residents during these difficult economic times.”

The NACo Achievement Award program is a non-competitive program that recognizes counties for improving the management of and services provided by county government. Since the program’s inception in 1970, the NACo Achievement Award program has honored thousands of county government initiatives that have improved service delivery, achieved greater cost efficiency, provided finer customer service, and helped to develop a better-trained work force.  For more information on the NACo Achievement Awards, please visit www.naco.org.