McHenry County Blog

Although the Northwest Herald had its reporter at the organization meeting of the McHenry County Board, the Daily Herald sent no one.

Organization meeting day at the McHenry County Board.

So, think back with fond memories on those days of yesteryear when not only the Northwest Herald and the Daily Herald covered county political matters, but even the Chicago Tribune had a Crystal Lake bureau.

And if you go back far enough, you can remember when Pioneer Press sent a reporter.

Capitol Fax reminds readers,

“The Daily Herald is still reeling from its decision to build a gigantic multi-million dollar printing plant just as the Internet took off big.

“Ever since, it’s been newsroom cutback after newsroom cutback, and it shows in the quality of some of the paper’s reporting.”

It’s part of a post about the owners of the Springfield Journal-Register thinking about printing its paper at its sister paper, the Peoria Journal-Star.

The Daily Herald agreed to print competitor Northwest Herald’s paper at its plant ten months ago.

Better late than never, I guess.

The Northwest Herald did not endorse anyone in the Huntley School District 158 school board race between Mike Skala and Larry Snow.

After one of the dirtiest campaigns I have seen the two that led to my unseating in 2000, Snow lost over 70%-30%.

One could easily argue that an endorsement would have made no difference.

But is is nice (that’s about the strongest word I can come up with) for the NW Herald editorial writers to notice that Snow has made a difference in the way District 158 operates.

He failed in his efforts to keep unemployed board majority member Glen Stewart from getting the $101,000 Chief Operating Officer post when Skala was board president and Stewart, elected when Snow was, still served on the board.

That was the position for which a professional from the Cincinnati school district paid his own air fare to be interviewed, but withdrew his name from consideration when he saw the fix was in for Stewart. That’s Stewart shaking hands to express appreciation with a very surprised Skala after the board meeting where he got the good job, but before Stewart resigned from the board.

It appears Snow’s evaluation of Stewart was on the mark, because Stewart mysteriously left his post last spring. No reason was ever made public.

The open warfare on the board mysteriously ended after Stewart and 2007 board winner Jim Carlin left the scene. The board even allowed Snow to be chief negotiator with the school teachers.

Skala’s wife was a union official of the Huntley Education Association. Skala voted for the contract in 2002 and continued to attend secret strategy union negotiation meetings in 2006 and 2008, even though he announced that he would not vote on the final deal.

Maybe that was a set-up for the election fall he took last week.

Snow was more successful in preventing another friend of the board majority from getting the pretty important post of curriculum director.

(If you want to see how far behind Huntley High School is from where the much more profession Crystal Lake High School District 155 is, read this explanation of how a teacher of any of the four high schools can go on the internet to find out what she or he is supposed to be teaching in a class.)

And the NW Herald does not even mention Snow’s fight against cronyism in is editorial, which hopes

Fat chance of independent thought and honest discussion with the board majority now having 6-1 control. The only one left who asks questions will be Snow ally Aileen Seedorf.

One person, of course, can’t even get a subject discussed if the board majority doesn’t want it to be exposed to the light of day.

Under Skala’s leadership, as the editorial points out,

“…voters were told that the rate increase would be less than half of what the district actually could access. The district soon would deal with revelations of financial missteps and revolving administrators.”

Snow blew the whistle at his own expense before the referendum passed and was called a liar and vilified for doing so.

The editorial mentions Skala and his board majority’s attempted to intimidate Snow from talking to the press.

Snow, of course, had read the First Amendment.

The board did something when Snow was on the board that I have seen no other school board do.

It made public its salary proposal and the union demands. The Northwest Herald did not mention that in its editorial.

I will give odds this will never happen again in Huntley as long as this union-dominated school board majority is in control. I’ll be surprised to see it happen anywhere else either.

When Skala was in control, the public did not see the contract until after it was ratified and, even then, it was changed from what the teachers voted upon…to the teachers’ benefit.

“Upcoming meetings might be more cordial,” the editorial concludes.

“But the District 158 board cannot slip back into the nearly hypnotic state that led to the messes of 2004.”

One thing is certain. All the major decisions will be made before the meeting and honest discussion will be inhibited.

As I said in my analysis of the election,

“I wonder when the next tax hike referendum will be held.”

Police know they cannot be everywhere so they have developed a Neighborhood Watch program in many communities.

It’s a pretty simple concept.

The police ask people to let them know when they see something suspicious.

Dave Bachmann, the Democratic Party candidate for McHenry County Coroner apparently did that.

His reward?

Being trashed in the Northwest Herald and dissed by Sheriff Keith Nygren.

Oh, well.

They say no good deed will go unpunished.

= = = = =
The Neighborhood Watch placard was sent to constituents by State Rep. Jack Franks.

Click and enlarge it and you will see that the McHenry County Sheriff is one of the numbers people are encouraged to call.

Police know they cannot be everywhere so they have developed a Neighborhood Watch program in many communities.

It’s a pretty simple concept.

The police ask people to let them know when they see something suspicious.

Dave Bachmann, the Democratic Party candidate for McHenry County Coroner apparently did that.

His reward?

Being trashed in the Northwest Herald and dissed by Sheriff Keith Nygren.

Oh, well.

They say no good deed will go unpunished.

= = = = =
The Neighborhood Watch placard was sent to constituents by State Rep. Jack Franks.

Click and enlarge it and you will see that the McHenry County Sheriff is one of the numbers people are encouraged to call.

OK, so I’m a little late reporting what was in the Northwest Herald today.

They ran a story that McHenry County Blog alerted the community to last Sunday.

I can report that more than one person at breakfast at Andy’s Family Restaurant this morning commented that there is not much in the Herald recently.

That’s perhaps to be expected with the remaining reporters having had the number of governments on their beats doubled.

And, there is that problem of declining advertising not only because of Craig’s List, but also because of the declining economy.

In any event, having been told of the situation by a friend of McHenry County Blog, last Saturday I drove over to Ken Bird Park to get some photos of where the Crystal Lake Park District has agreed to put a 75-foot cellular tower for T-Moble.

The reason?

$2,000 a month.

Considering there is a Lake in the Hills water tower pretty near the site, the proposal makes little sense to me.

I’ve been told that the photo shopped overlay of a cell tower wasn’t very realistic, but it’s not as if the park district sent me or anyone else a press release on the subject, complete with rendering. I’m thankful to fellow Crystal Lake blogger Allan Showalter for sharing his talents.

The Crystal Lake Park Board is expected to pull its re-zoning request from the Nov. 5th Crystal Lake Zoning and Planning Commission Agenda, allow folks to make public comment at its Thursday, Nov. 6th regular meeting, and set up a special meeting with those concerned and T-Moble sometime during November.

And, all of this happened before the Northwest Herald ran an article.

Imagine that.

And, what will it really look like?

A large flag pole, it is said.

Not like the cell tower you see above, which is located on Ackman Road just west of Huntley Road.

OK, so I’m a little late reporting what was in the Northwest Herald today.

They ran a story that McHenry County Blog alerted the community to last Sunday.

I can report that more than one person at breakfast at Andy’s Family Restaurant this morning commented that there is not much in the Herald recently.

That’s perhaps to be expected with the remaining reporters having had the number of governments on their beats doubled.

And, there is that problem of declining advertising not only because of Craig’s List, but also because of the declining economy.

In any event, having been told of the situation by a friend of McHenry County Blog, last Saturday I drove over to Ken Bird Park to get some photos of where the Crystal Lake Park District has agreed to put a 75-foot cellular tower for T-Moble.

The reason?

$2,000 a month.

Considering there is a Lake in the Hills water tower pretty near the site, the proposal makes little sense to me.

I’ve been told that the photo shopped overlay of a cell tower wasn’t very realistic, but it’s not as if the park district sent me or anyone else a press release on the subject, complete with rendering. I’m thankful to fellow Crystal Lake blogger Allan Showalter for sharing his talents.

The Crystal Lake Park Board is expected to pull its re-zoning request from the Nov. 5th Crystal Lake Zoning and Planning Commission Agenda, allow folks to make public comment at its Thursday, Nov. 6th regular meeting, and set up a special meeting with those concerned and T-Moble sometime during November.

And, all of this happened before the Northwest Herald ran an article.

Imagine that.

And, what will it really look like?

A large flag pole, it is said.

Not like the cell tower you see above, which is located on Ackman Road just west of Huntley Road.

In the “they are not on our side” file, stick the Northwest Herald’s assignment of reporter Jenn Wiant to cover the Democratic National Convention in Denver, but no one to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

No matter, these two Illinois bloggers will keep you up-to-date on the GOP:

Lots of stuff posted already.

In the “they are not on our side” file, stick the Northwest Herald’s assignment of reporter Jenn Wiant to cover the Democratic National Convention in Denver, but no one to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

No matter, these two Illinois bloggers will keep you up-to-date on the GOP:

Lots of stuff posted already.

In the Daily Herald’s “Saturday Soapbox: Fox Valley,” the Huntley Education Association gets what seems to me to be a mild rebuke for not cooperating with the school board in issuing a contract negotiations’ progress report to the public.

The mini-editorial, entitled,

chides the teachers for not agreeing to “reasonable suggestions for the update.”

The editorial does note that by issuing the press release the school board broke the rules, so I guess an editorial could have been written from the exact opposite point of view, chiding the school board for not being patient enough.

The editorial writers themselves perhaps deserve the biggest rebuke.

They still cling to the falsehood that the teachers are asking for only a 10.6% salary hike.

Although they rightly call that request “ludicrous,” the Daily Herald has thus far neglected to notice that agreeing with the union request for the taxpayers to pay the 10.24% of salary now going to the Teachers Retirement Fund would more than double the take home pay of Huntley teachers.

I pointed that out almost a month ago.

The total take home pay requested is clearly well over 20%, when state and federal income tax implications are taken into account.

You see, the 10.24% taken from teachers’ pay checks now is on money after taxes are withheld.

If the school board agreed to pay the 10.24% or any part thereof, the payment would not be taxable because it would be considered a tax exempt employee benefit.

Maybe I should not be so rough on the Daily Herald.

The Northwest Herald hasn’t picked up on this union request either.