McHenry County Blog

A communication from the Village of Johnsburg:

Fairview Avenue in Johnsburg

SEWER CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT AWARDED

At Thursday night’s board meeting, the Village Board accepted a bid from Glenbrook Excavating to install gravity sewer along Fairview Avenue from Chapel Hill Road to Church Street.

Construction is expected to begin in September and last through November.

This project is possible because of Federal and State funding the Village has received to further our sewer collection system project.

The Village awarded a contract to Glenbrook Excavating to install gravity sewer along Fairview Avenue from Chapel Hill Road to Church Street. Construction is expected to begin in September and last through November.

Fairview Avenue, between Chapel Hill Road and Johnsburg Road, will be closed to thru traffic during parts of the construction and surrounding streets such as Sunnyside Beach, Long, Middle and Stubby will be limited to local traffic only.

Thru traffic will be directed to utilize Chapel Hill Road and Johnsburg Road in lieu of Fairview Avenue. Residents residing on Fairview Avenue will still be able to travel to and from their homes and will be notified of construction activities.

This project is possible because of Federal and State funding the Village has received to further our sewer collection system project.

The Village would like to thank Senator Pamela Althoff for her efforts in securing the State funds that were just recently released.

The Federal funds were secured through the efforts of former Congresswoman Melissa Bean to whom we are also grateful.

By installing this infrastructure, we will be that much closer to bringing sewers to more than 400 residents in our community.

The Village continues to work to find additional grant opportunities to help offset the cost to bring wastewater treatment to other neighborhoods throughout the Village.

If your neighborhood is interested in learning more about connecting to the Village’s wastewater treatment system, please contact Village Administrator, Claudett Peters at 815-385-6023 or cpeters@johnsburg.org

Melissa Bean worked the entrance to the McHenry County Fair last August.

Melissa Bean has used a Washington inside dopester publication Roll Call to reveal that she will not be trying to regain her old congressional seat in 2012.

Although the closest race in the nation for Congress with a 291 victory margin for Republican Joe Walsh, Bean has decided to stay with the job she just got as Executive Director of the Executives’ Club of Chicago.

The publication says that Illinois Democrats may try to eliminate Walsh’s 8th Congressional District since the state will have one fewer district than during the last decade.

Melissa Bean

Former three-term Congresswoman Melissa Bean has been named to be the trade associated exec of the Executives’ Club of Chicago.

The group has a $3 million budget and fifteen employees, the Chicago Tribune reports.

She starts work March 21st.

On March 25th, a conference is scheduled entitled,

“Women of Consequence: Building Financial, Political, and Corporate Clout”

Meeting programs are already scheduled through October, when, if Bean decided to try for a comeback by defeating Joe Walsh, her supporters would already be passing election petitions.

Congresswoman Marguerite Stitt

McHenry County was represented until after the 1962 election by Marguerite Stitt Church.

She lived in Evanston and succeeded her husband Ralph when he died in 1950.

Next came Robert McClory, who held office until re-apportionment in 1982, when he was thrown into the same district as John Porter and declined to seek re-election.

Most of McHenry County (Dennis Hastert had Coral Township) was represented by Phil Crane from 1973 through 1992, less after the 1992 reapportionment when he split the county with Don Manzullo.

When Crane lost to Melissa Bean in 2004, she shared the county with Manzullo.

Now it is Joe Walsh and Manzullo.

With reapportionment coming up this spring and Illinois Democrats in complete control due to the lose of Republican Bill Brady in the governor’s race, fanciful maps are being devised to reverse the GOP congressional gains of 2010.

Below is one of the more fanciful. It is from the Swing State Project web site and would again have Evanston resident Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky representing McHenry County.

A reapportioned map that would make Evanston U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky the congresswoman for most of McHenry County.

Having served with her, I can tell she is one of the most liberal politicians I have ever met.

National Journal columnist Josh Kraushaar made “Against the Grain Awards.”

Joe Walsh conversing with a constituent who asked a question at his McHenry Town Hall meeting.

8th Congressional District Congressman Joe Walsh won a mention for “Most Bang for the Buck.”

Most Bang for the Buck Award

Rep.-elect Joe Walsh, R-Ill., who eked out a 290-vote victory over Rep. Melissa Bean, D-Ill., after spending just $563,000 in a district where buying broadcast ads costs millions.

He can thank Democrats for overlooking him, not airing ads attacking him, and buying expensive air time blasting GOP nominees in neighboring districts.

Of course, Kraushaar wasn’t watching Melissa Bean’s vicious ads on Chicago television.

Mark Kirk merited two awards.

Congressman-Elect Joe Walsh calling on a questionner at his McHenry West High School Town Hall meeting.

The “news” at Congressman-Elect Joe Walsh’s first post-election Town Hall meeting in McHenry County was that he would not vote for the compromise tax bill being considered in Congress.

But the take-away message was that constituents should expect a lot of opportunities to ask their Federal Representative tough questions and have dialogue on issues than has been the case with the woman he beat, Melissa Bean.

“There’s nothing more important than your Representative getting in front of the people all of the time answering any question without any aides around me,” he said at the beginning of the meeting.

“I intend to do this more than you’ll ever believe.”

Walsh intends not to settle in in Washington.

Upwards of 80 people turned out at McHenry West High School on the coldest night of this winter.

“I’m sleeping on my couch in my House office.”

The McHenry resident (he lives near the Drive-In) observed,

“Look, there’s a lot about Melissa Bean that bugged me and a lot about Phil Crane that bugged her.”

Walsh seemed to be referring to the lack of face-to-face contact that both Members of Congress had with their constituents.

“You can do telephone town halls and think that’s good enough.

"I can't compete against people with multiple families living in one house," compalined unemployed electrician/truck driver Andrew Stewart, seen on the right. His message to employers: "Hire legal people. We need the jobs." Joe Walsh picked up on his description of himself as "a simple guy." Walsh replied, "We need a hell of a lot more people like you in Washington." Beginning his words on immigration with the observation that America is the most compassionate country in the world, Walsh got passionate. "Damn it, secure the borders. Enforce the immigration laws. Hold business as accountable as we can." Stewart's number is 847-721-4962, if anyone has work.

“If I can’t stand before Republicans and Democrats and answer any question, I don’t deserved to be re-elected.”

Walsh said he purposely robo-called independents and Democrats.

“I want to hear what they say.”

“I don’t ever want to be in a meeting where people (all) agree with me,” were his last words.

In early June, this tee shirt was found in front of old St. Thomas Church in Crystal Lake the day of the march from Chicago to the Woodstock ICE Dentention Center at the McHenry County Jail refers to the Dream Act.

Using her lame duck status to the max, 8th District Congresswoman Melissa Bean voted for the Dream Act, a bill opponents claimed was a form of amnesty.

Other Illinois Democrats voting for the bill were

• Lame Duck Bill Foster
• Luis Gutierrez
• Lame Duck Phil Hare
• Lame Duck Deb Halvorson
• Jesse Jackson Jr.
• Mike Quigley
• Bobby Rush
• Jan Schakowsky.

Voting against the bill from Illinois were

• Judy Biggert (R)
• Jerry Costello (D)
• Tim Johnson (R)
• Dan Lipinski (D)
• Donald Manzullo (R)
• Peter Roskam (R)
• Aaron Schock (R)
• John Shimkus (R)

The bill passed the U.S. House 216-198.

Joe Walsh (Photo credit: Ryan Provenzano)

It’s almost a month after the November 2nd election and blogger Nate Silver has finally gotten around to writing about 8th District Republican Joe Walsh’s victory over three-term Democrat Melissa Bean.

Silver, whose blog “Five Thirty Eight” projected odds of victory for all congressional seats, was spectacularly wrong on Illinois 8th Congressional District.

Despite two public polls by WeAskAmerica showing Walsh and Bean within the margin of error, on election day, Silver was giving Bean an 88% chance of re-election.

Nate Silver gave Melissa Bean an 89% chance of winning the day of the election.

No mention of that massive miscue in today’s snippet about the contest:

“Illinois 8: After absentee and provisional ballots were counted, Melissa Bean, the Democratic incumbent, still trailed Republican Joe Walsh by about 300 votes. Ms. Bean admitted defeat, and Mr. Walsh became another tea-party backed candidate to become a tea-party backed representative.”

I have not seen an explanation of why Silver miscalled the races he did.

The masthead of Don Suber's blog for the Charleston Daily Mail.

Don Surber of the Charleston Daily Mail wrote ten articles of advice after the campaign.

Since some touch on the Joe Walsh-Melissa Bean contest in the 8th Congressional District.

In retrospect, Walsh did what Surber suggests, while Bean didn’t.

I thought they might be of some interest to readers .

Lesson No. 1: Be like Scott Brown and shake hands.

Lesson No. 2: Solicit Money.

Lesson No. 3: Start Small.

Lesson No. 4: Listen.

Lesson No. 5: Curb your ideology.

Lesson No. 6: Don’t Go On Fox News.

Lesson No. 7: Relax. (Featuring Joe Ptak and the Northwest Herald’s Dan McCaleb)

Lesson No. 8: Be a veteran.

Lesson No. 9: Don’t buy a landslide.

Final lesson of 2010 – Ignore the Media

So far, I have not seen a Joe Walsh photo that shows the joy that he must feel from being elected to Congress.

Likewise, I have not seen a Melissa Bean photo in which she looks at all sad.

Just looking at the post-election photos from the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times one would have no clue that the pleasant faced woman didn’t win the race.

So far, a smiley Joe has not showed up in print.

Today I saw the front page of the Northwest Herald and the little sister has followed the example of the big guys.

Take a look.

Photos on the front page of the Northwest Herald November 18, 2010.

From just looking at the facial expressions, which person would you think had just won an election?

Maybe on Sunday there will be a photo of a happy Joe Walsh taken at the Town Hall meeting Saturday afternoon at 3 at Crystal Lake City Hall or the 4-6 Victory Party for Walsh in Lakemoor.