McHenry County Blog

It was not too long ago (about two years ago) that the minor league baseball team in Joliet was sold.

The team’s name was “The Joliet Jackhammers.”

The new team owners re-named it “The Slammers,” an appropriate enough name for the town the Blues Brothers movie made famous.

When I spotted a Slammers tee shirt in Galena last weekend, I asked to take a photo.

In discussing the team, I was told it won the Frontier League championship this year.

This past week, however, the Chicago Sun-Times that the Slammers may be for sale.

Again I am pleased that I was not one of the taxpayers stuck with paying off over $20 million in baseball stadium bonds that the McHenry County College Board wanted to issue for Mark Houser’s Frontier League team.

For those with short memories, here’s the language that says you and I would have been on the hook for any payments if the minor league baseball team defaults on its lease payments:

“Security

“The Certificates are valid and legally binding upon the District and are payable from any funds lawfully available and annually budget for such purpose. There is no statutory authority for the levy of a separate tax in addition to other taxes or the levy of a special tax unlimited as to rate or amount to pay the principal of or interest on the Certificates. The Certificates are considered debt under Illinois law; are not subject to appropriation risk; are non – cancelable and are not subject to completion risk.”(Emphasis added.)

Put this 2002 campaign flyer in support of a Home Rule referendum in Bridgeview:

Look at the Home Rule promises:

• No property tax increases for eight years.
• No new utility taxes.
• No real estate transfer taxes.
• Other sources of village revenue besides real estate taxes.
• Financial future of village “stable and secure.”

There is huge amount of research on the Village of Bridgeview’s building of a soccer field named Toyota Park.

As we were heading down Harlem Avenue to Tinley Park’s 2012 Illinois Republican State Convention, I asked what the Toyota Park signs were all about.

Anyone who reads the articles by Joseph Ryan and Joe Mahr:

• Soccer Ball and Chain
• Public, private interests intersect
• Some firms faced little competition on contracts
• Broken [Home Rule] Promise

might figure out why I opposed Home Rule for Lakewood after being stuck with a similar tax hi8ke problem when my village board voted to buy a failing golf course a bit over twenty years ago.

Looking at this disaster in public finance might also give readers an idea why I opposed the minor league baseball stadium proposed by the McHenry County College board.

The shifty bond salesman convinced the board that it would be cheaper to put the taxpayers on the hook than to let the golf course pay off the purchase price, plus lots of interest, with what are called revenue bonds.  With revenue bonds, if the enterprise does not bring in enough money to pay off the bonds, the bondholders, not the taxpayers get hurt.

In Sunday’s Chicago Sun-Times, the City of Zion took a big hit for all the screw-ups from its minor league baseball team.

McHenry County College managed to avoid such a fiasco, but its Board majority censured the two members who led the fight to kill President Walt Packard’s proposal.

Those two were

current McHenry County Board member Donna Kurtz and

former MCC Board President Scott Summer.

With entrepreneur Mark Houser still trying to get a minor league baseball stadium and team off the ground in Woodstock, I keep looking for what’s happening in other parts of the country.

You may remember that Heartland Community College in Normal (next to Bloomington) pulled off what McHenry County College could not.  (Houser was the one pushing the MCC stadium.)

Heartland now has a minor league baseball stadium on its campus.

Patrick Wade writes in the (Champaign) News-Gazette on the economic impact of the Heartland stadium:

“Crystal Howard, the director of the BNCVB, said the Normal team had an economic impact of $300,000 in its first year. That seems like a minor dollar amount considering the Illinois High School Association wrestling state championships is estimated to bring in $5.1 million to Champaign County during the one weekend it’s in town.”

Both the Bloomington-Normal Convention and Vacation Bureau and Avon, Ohio, Mayor Jim Smith described the minor league baseball teams and stadiums as “quality of life,” rather than economic boosters for their communities.

In Avon the taxpayers are paying for the $13 million stadium. The bond payment is $600,000 a year, while the team pays $250,000 annually. The subsidy comes from a quarter of one percent income tax.

The stadium is privately owned, but it is built on community college land and I think I remember some parking lot subsidy from the city of Normal.

A press release from Joe Stefani, President of the Rockford Foresters Baseball Team:

FORESTERS TO HOST TEA PARTY NIGHT

FEATURING TWO CONGRESSMEN

ROCKFORD, IL – June 17, 2011 – The Rockford Foresters Baseball Team announced today it will be hosting “Tea Party Night” at the game on Saturday, July 9 at 6pm at Historic Marinelli Field in Rockford. Special guests for the night include Congressman Joe Walsh and Congressman Bobby Schilling, both of Illinois.

The night will start at 5:15 pm where the Rockford Tea Party, Congressman Walsh and Congressman Schilling will address the crowd.

At 5:30pm, Congressman Walsh and Congressman Schilling will take the field in a home run competition to benefit charity.

Before the game, both Congressman Schilling and Congressman Walsh will be throwing out ceremonial first pitches.

Congressman Walsh represents the 8th district of Illinois, which includes parts of McHenry and Lake County, was elected in 2010 by beating an incumbent Congressman. Walsh is a Tea Party conservative activist and is a consistent guest on national news media shows.

Congressman Schilling represents the 17th district of Illinois, which includes the Quad Cities. Elected in 2010 by beating an incumbent Congressman, Schilling is a restaurateur and has 10 children.

“The Rockford Foresters are honored to be hosting Tea Party Members from across the State of Illinois in addition to Congressman Walsh and Congressman Schilling,” said Majority Owner/President Joe Stefani.

“This is a great opportunity for members of the community to come out and meet tea party favorite Congressman Walsh as well as Congressman Schilling, who will be representing the Rockford area in the future with the new Congressional maps.”

Tickets for the game and pre-game activities are free and can be obtained by calling the Rockford Foresters box office at 815-312-2115 or by emailing tickets@rockfordforesters.com.

About the Rockford Foresters:

The Rockford Foresters are a member of the Midwest Collegiate League, which is a summer collegiate wood bat league that is based in Northern Illinois and Indiana. Going into their second season, the team comes off winning the league’s championship. The Rockford Foresters play at the historic 2,357 seat Marinelli Field, which is owned by the Rockford Park District. The Rockford Foresters are owned by majority owner Joe Stefani, who is the youngest majority owner of a sports team in the United States, in addition to a group of shareholders.

The Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water has made votes by McHenry County Board members up for election available to the public.

So, if the local newspapers didn’t ask the question you think is important, you might find some direction from actual votes the board members cast in Woodstock.

The weakness, obviously, is that challengers aren’t in the matrix.

Yesterday, land use votes were published on McHenry County Blog.

Today the votes on how the Federal Stimulus Bonds should be allocated.

Three projects are tracked,

• Lakewood’s SportsPlex
• the K-Nines Woodstock minor league baseball stadium and
• dredging Wonder Lake

Strangely, the county board members could not find any manufacturing firms who wanted to borrow money with Federal taxpayers subsidzing 25% of the interest.

Previously on the McHenry County Board, Nick Provenzano and John Jung were not serving when these votes were taken.

In two senses.

If they were an animal, their necks on on the chopping block.

In economic terms, there are for sale.

That’s what the Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday.

Why do I keep bringing up a Will County minor league baseball team?

Just to remind you that most of the current McHenry County College Board members were avid supporters of putting us district taxpayers in debt for 25 years to build a minor league baseball stadium.

There is an election next spring when one of them are up for re-election: George Lowe of Cary.

Appointed to fill out the term of Harvard’s Scott Summers was Bob DeWitt of Crystal Lake.

Both have six-year terms.

Only 50 signatures are needed to get on the ballot. I’d advise getting 100.

Any folks out there willing to run for the board?

Taxpayers are getting hammered by the deal owners of the Joliet Jackhammers cut with the rulers of Joliet.

The team owes vendors, too.

Cost of fixing bad stadium construction is the excuse.

Seven lawsuits have been filed against the team.  Key Outdoor  has been successful in getting paid $4,500 as a result of its court suit.

Sunday, the Chicago Tribune reported on the minor league baseball team’s problems.

Fortunately, no such articles have to be written about McHenry County College’s not getting paid what a contract says is due.

Memorial Day, Normal’s CornBelters Frontier League team played its first game in its new stadium, called the Corn Crib.

They lost 3-2 to Windy City, but filled the new stadium.

The stadium is near the intersection of I-39 and I-55. I think you see a photo of it above.

It’s built on the campus of Heartland Community College.

White Sox owner Bill Veeck’s son Mike is the most familiar name.

Subsidies from both the college and the town of Normal subsidized the construction.

This article in All Business, a reprint of a Bloomington Pantograph article, reports the “ownership group, and not the city, owns the stadium and pays for its construction.

“‘It is an unusual deal, but I think it will be the wave of the future,’”

said team President Steve Malliet.

So far, 700 season tickets have been sold. As with all minor league teams, group sales are the key to success, said Malliet.

Meanwhile, McHenry County College’s pioneering effort got mired down in Crystal Lake watershed problems and objections to MCC taxpayers guaranteeing the 25-year bonds while minor league teams go belly up every five years or so.

Developer Mark Houser showed up again in Woodstock, where he was more successful with the city council. Although he has been granted $3.5 million in TARP loan authorization by the McHenry County Board, so far he does not seem to have marshaled the financial resources to follow in Normal’s footsteps.
= = = = =
Meanwhile Meijer’s has partnered with the Kane County Cougars to give away free tickets, as you can see from the press release below

MEIJER TO GIVE AWAY FREE
KANE COUNTY COUGAR TICKETS

Attention all you Cougar fans! Meijer has partnered with the Kane County Cougars for the 2010 baseball season. Customers should present their Meijer receipt at the Elfstrom box office when purchasing a 2010 Cougar General Admission ticket for any Monday home game and receive a second General Admission ticket FREE!

This offer is good for up to four free tickets with the purchase of four tickets using a single receipt. Offer begins NOW and expires September 6, 2010. Don’t miss this chance to see the Kane County Cougars in action on their home field!

For complete schedules and rosters, visit the team Web site at http://www.kccougars.com/

Headed by Lake in the Hills’ Louis Tenore, Jr., a group of investors is seeking permission to obtain $18 million in Federally-subsidized stimulus money, according to a document posted on the McHenry County Board’s web site.

The proposed McHenry County Sportsplex will be mainly on the west side of Route 47 where it joins with Route 176. That area is within the planning jurisdiction of the Village of Lakewood. Background on the project can be found here.

While discussions have been going on for a considerable length of time, the application says that the Village of Lakewood will not act on annexation and approval of the project until next March.

Issuance of the $18 million in bonds, if approved by the county board, is scheduled for April 15^th. Construction would begin January 1, 2010, with completion six months later.

If approved, unless more Federal stimulus money is found, the current $27.5 million allocation of Federal Stimulus Bonds would not seem to have enough remaining to also provide the $15 million in financing that the Woodstock minor league baseball stadium promoters are seeking.

SportsThe time table listed seems a bit optimistic, given the stated March approval by the Lakewood Village Board.

The name of the limited liability corporation which will own 30% of the project is MCSMG LLC. It was formed on May 12, 2009.

The Illinois Secretary of State’s Office lists it as “McHenry County Sportsplex, LLC.”

McHenry Sportsplex E-5 Fund LLC, established August 21^st of this year and located at 111 E. Wacker Drive in Chicago, will own the other 70%. According to the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office, it is related to McHenry Real Estate and Property Investments, LLC. The fund proposes to invest $27 million in the project.

The application says that $13 million in equity will be put up by the investors.

This is how the document says the $40 million will be spent:

• $6 million – land acquisition
• $6 million – site development
• $24,100,000 – new construction
• $500,000 – furniture and fixtures
• $2.9 million – professional fees

Getting the project off the ground will produce 524 temporary jobs, the application says. 420 permanent jobs will be created. Annual payroll after the first year is estimated to be $14.1 million or almost $36,000 per person per year.

The investment banking firm is identified as Stern Brothers. The bonds will be privately placed.

Kitak, Rock, LLC, will be the bond counsel.

Legal counsel is Mike Moody of O’Rouke and Moody at 55 W. Wacker Drive, Chicago.

The application is dated December 16^th.

An attachment showing local labor, supplies and materials to be used is not posted on the county’s web site. Another attachment explaining the project is also not attached.