McHenry County Blog

The team was named the “CornBelters.“

Nice play on words.

The “Corn Crib” is what the stadium will be called.

I wonder if it will be decorated like South Dakota’s Corn Palace. It’s covered with murals made out of corn cobs. One local told us it was “the world’s biggest bird feeder.”

How’s construction going?

“Concrete has been set around home plate for the sitting bowl, from which fans will be able to view all the action of the CornBelters Baseball excitement front and center.“The outfield is starting to take shape for its players, while the field surface is being laid into place. The first and third base side dugouts have been installed and will begin forming the outer line of the dugout for the CornBelters, as well as their opposing teams.

“The concourse is also starting to look warm and inviting for all the CornBelters’ fans to enjoy.“

The name of the team mascot?

Corny.

You can find more on the team here.

McHenry County College’s location for baseball stadium, of course, is still a corn field.

The first home game in Normal is scheduled for May 21st.

That’s the month baseball promoter Pete Heitman wanted his team to start playing at MCC.

No construction has begun on the replacement Woodstock site across from Centegra Hospital.

I haven’t gotten around to writing a story on baseball stadium promoter Mark Houser’s pitch to the McHenry County Board’s Finance and Audit Committee yesterday, so I would encourage you to read the stories of the other three reporters there:

Stadium Developer Asks More Time For Financing

Stimulus Bonds Delayed

Houser, of course, is one of the two promoters, the other being Pete Heitman, who pitched the McHenry County College Board to issue bonds to pay for a stadium at MCC.

The local expert on stadiums is McHenry’s Steve Stanek. He is a Research Fellow with the Heartland Institute.

When I read in Kevin Craver’s article in the Northwest Herald that the McHenry County Board is thinking of awarding the largest portion of the Federal stimulus bonds to the Woodstock baseball stadium folks, I thought of Stanek and asked for his opinion.

Just in case you are interested, here is the story I wrote the night the Woodstock City Council approved the proposal.

Here’s what Stanek has to say:

“I could quote dozens of economists and public policy researchers to show how bad it would be for the County Board to grant this greedy, self-serving request for $15 million of stimulus bonds for that baseball stadium. But I will instead quote the owners of a professional sports team:

“‘The financial issue is simple, and the city’s analysts agree, there will be no net economic loss if the Sonics leave Seattle. Entertainment dollars not spent on the Sonics will be spent on Seattle’s many other sports and entertainment options. Seattleites will not reduce their entertainment budget simply because the Sonics leave,’ the Soncis said in the court brief.” — Seattle Times, Jan. 18, 2008, regarding the NBA’s Super Sonics trying to break their stadium lease to move to another city.

“Imagine: The owners of the Seattle Super Sonics said, under oath in federal court, that Seattle would suffer no economic harm if the team were to leave the city. These same owners, when arguing for huge taxpayers subsidies for KeyArena in Seattle, said the team would bring tremendous economic benefits. But of course, when they made those claims, they were not under oath in a court of law.

“When I read about this request for stimulus bonds in the (Northwest) Herald this morning, I said to myself,

‘You’d think these people would have learned from the MCC baseball stadium fiasco.’

“But then I realized this has nothing to do with good economics or benefiting the community.

“This has to do with benefiting a handful of people with lots of money and friends in high places in this county, and with making a handful of people who cast themselves as community leaders feel good about themselves.

“I am especially disgusted with the McHenry County Community Foundation. I contacted them with information about how bad it is to use subsidies to support such facilities, and I received assurances this would be entirely privately funded. (See this article.)

“Now $15 million of stimulus bonds that have been made available by the government could go to this baseball team.

“To those few local officials who might actually care about benefiting the community, I say this would be a terrible waste of resources.

“Economic studies overwhelmingly conclude sports teams return virtually nothing to the economy and sometimes actually hurt the overall economy.

“That money could be loaned far more effectively to other businesses — businesses that have been in this county for years, paying every nickel of tax local government officials can squeeze from them.

“If they don’t believe me about the overwhelming agreement among researchers about how bad such proposals are, maybe they’ll believe this:

’With most empirical issues there’s lots of debate. Does the minimum wage cause unemployment? There’s lots of debate about that issue. Here there’s no debate.’ — Vanderbilt University economist John Siegfried regarding economists against sports subsidies, quoted in Boston Globe, March 19, 2006.”

= = = = =
All the photos were taken at the Woodstock City Council meeting when the proposal was approved 6-1. Top right, pointing at the plan for the stadium is Mark Houser, the man who refused to identify himself when he walked out of a secret meeting with the McHenry County College board. The MCC plan eventually died, of course. Below are Frontier League Commissioner Bill Lee and baseball team promoter Pete Heitman. The crowd that attended the Woodstock City Council meeting is seen at the bottom.

I would note that now the Democrats have two issues upon which to beat county board Republicans about the head–the upcoming Ridgefield train station vote and the baseball stadium bond vote.

Remember the

direct mail piece the Democrats put out last fall (click to enlarge) ?

I am sure the Dems will top this piece, if the county board allocates more than half of the bonds allocated for private enterprise in McHenry County to the Woodstock baseball stadium.

And think of the mailing that could be made to every small business in McHenry County:

Couldn’t get a loan last year?

The McHenry County Board could have helped you, if (you fill in the blank).

In case you have forgotten how good the “Monopoly” piece was, talk a look at

McHenry Dems Attack Republican Monopoly

Democrats Go for Republican Vulnerabilities – 1

Democrats Go for Republican Vulnerabilities – 2

Democrats Go for Republican Vulnerabilities – 3

Democrats Go for Republican Vulnerabilities – 4

County Board Plans to Buy Land to the North

Democrats Go for Republican Vulnerabilities – 5

How Is Your Town Ranked by Local Democrats?

In honor of Mark Houser and Pete Heitman’s obtaining their McHenry County dream—zoning permission to build a minor league baseball stadium in McHenry County—I post this tee shirt found in Milwaukee’s Mitchell Airport.

In case you didn’t read the article that kept me up until 3:45 AM, it is here.

It says,

= = = = =
Pete Heitman is the one on the left and his partner Mark Houser of Equity One is on the right.

= = = = =
Vicki Smith informed me the tee shirt was designed by her company, Eagle Sportz of Cartersville, which is located as far from Atlanta, Georgia, as Crystal Lake is from Chicago. I received the owner’s email on April 2, 2009.

In honor of Mark Houser and Pete Heitman’s obtaining their McHenry County dream—zoning permission to build a minor league baseball stadium in McHenry County—I post this tee shirt found in Milwaukee’s Mitchell Airport.

In case you didn’t read the article that kept me up until 3:45 AM, it is here.

It says,

= = = = =
Pete Heitman is the one on the left and his partner Mark Houser of Equity One is on the right.

= = = = =
Vicki Smith informed me the tee shirt was designed by her company, Eagle Sportz of Cartersville, which is located as far from Atlanta, Georgia, as Crystal Lake is from Chicago. I received the owner’s email on April 2, 2009.

With only councilman Richard Ahrens voting in opposition, the Woodstock City Council approved a special use permit for gravel mining across Route 14 from Centegra Hospital down to Lily Pond Road.

A privately financed minor league baseball stadium promoted by Mark Houser and Peter Heitman will be built northeast of Lake Shore Drive and Route 14.

The third of the threesome who showed up at a secret meeting of the McHenry County College Board in March of 2007, Frontier League Commissioner Bill Lee, only to duck out the back door of the board room, was also present for Woodstock’s public meeting.

The stated plan is to have baseball games starting in May of 2010, but when the council was discussing how the 38 acres to be occupied by the stadium would be conveyed to the city ownership if a stadium were not completed within five years of approval of the rezoning, Houser asked for an extra five months.

If a stadium is not completed by May of 2014, the city would get the parcel.

So, two years if all goes well and five if there are hitches.

In the meantime, Merryman Aggregates will be mining gravel, stockpiling enough each year to provide what the firm thinks it can sell.

Tom Zanck, attorney for the proposal, and others kept calling the operation by other names, e.g., “aggregate extraction.”

Members of the newly renamed McHenry County Defenders, now, the Environmental Defenders of McHenry County complained of the fast track for the re-zoning. The report from the McHenry County Soil and Water Conservation District had just arrived Monday and had not been reviewed by city staff.

Those wishing to slow down the approval process pointed out that it should have been ready before the Planning Commission had reviewed the petitioners’ plan.

Right before the vote, starting at 12:42 AM, Mayor Brian Sager read the report’s executive summary.

In his summation, Sager reported that 41 citizens had contacted him prior to the council meeting had been “strongly in favor.” One was distinctly opposed and two others wanted to make sure certain questions were answered.

Ahrens opposition centered on the far eastern parcel in the proposal.

It fronts on Lily Pond Road, which is where the gravel trucks would leave the property.

Ahrens thought the highest and best use would be something other than the county fair and exhibitions.

Several members had made lists of pros and cons. The pros obviously were considered more persuasive for the six voting in favor of the re-zoning. (Except for the mayor, they are listed in alphabetical order. Picture are in seating order, from left to right with the exception of Ahrens.)

Mayor Brian Sager
Councilwoman Julie Dillon
Councilwoman Maureen Larson
Councilman RB Thompson
Councilman Mike Turner and
Councilman Ralph Webster

But they didn’t agree with the proposal without placing upwards of 50 conditions, a couple of which were strongly disputed by the petitioners.

One was the citing of a state law which said that the city could impose a ticket tax.

When Houser objected, city attorney Richard Flood pointed out that they could take it out, but this council could not bind future council in such a matter. And, since it was in the state law anyway putting it in the document did not harm to the petitioner.

Houser finally agreed.

More contentious was a city proposal which would allow levying an extraction tax. Merryman wanted his surety bond used first, if something were not done which he had promised. It turns out the city wanted to hold his business responsible for any infrastructure failures of the baseball promoters as well, which the council must have thought unfair, because they limited the liability to the mining operation.

Several times, Mayor Sager said that he didn’t want to end up with the problems that Woodstock’s neighbor to the east, aka, Crystal Lake, had with Vulcan Lakes.

Merryman did not propose a pit going beneath the water table and he proposed reclaiming the land as he moved from one part of the property to the next.

Ahrens, Thompson and Turner are running unopposed for re-election.

= = = = =
On top you can see Equity One’s Mark Houser explaining his and partner Peter Heitman’s baseball stadium proposal. Below is Frontier League Commissioner Bill Lee on the right and Heitman on the left. A shot of some of those attending the meeting follows. Mayor Brian Sager is seen directly below with dissenting Councilman Richard Ahrens below him to the left. The council members voting from the proposal are from left to right on the top row, RB Thompson, Maureen Larson and Mike Turner. On the next row you seen Ralph Webster on the left and Julie Dillon on the right. Mark Houser talks to his attorney Tom Zanck directly below. Woodstock City Attorney Richard Flood is below right. At the bottom is another picture of the audience, this time from the back of the room. All photos may be enlarged by clicking on them.

With only councilman Richard Ahrens voting in opposition, the Woodstock City Council approved a special use permit for gravel mining across Route 14 from Centegra Hospital down to Lily Pond Road.

A privately financed minor league baseball stadium promoted by Mark Houser and Peter Heitman will be built northeast of Lake Shore Drive and Route 14.

The third of the threesome who showed up at a secret meeting of the McHenry County College Board in March of 2007, Frontier League Commissioner Bill Lee, only to duck out the back door of the board room, was also present for Woodstock’s public meeting.

The stated plan is to have baseball games starting in May of 2010, but when the council was discussing how the 38 acres to be occupied by the stadium would be conveyed to the city ownership if a stadium were not completed within five years of approval of the rezoning, Houser asked for an extra five months.

If a stadium is not completed by May of 2014, the city would get the parcel.

So, two years if all goes well and five if there are hitches.

In the meantime, Merryman Aggregates will be mining gravel, stockpiling enough each year to provide what the firm thinks it can sell.

Tom Zanck, attorney for the proposal, and others kept calling the operation by other names, e.g., “aggregate extraction.”

Members of the newly renamed McHenry County Defenders, now, the Environmental Defenders of McHenry County complained of the fast track for the re-zoning. The report from the McHenry County Soil and Water Conservation District had just arrived Monday and had not been reviewed by city staff.

Those wishing to slow down the approval process pointed out that it should have been ready before the Planning Commission had reviewed the petitioners’ plan.

Right before the vote, starting at 12:42 AM, Mayor Brian Sager read the report’s executive summary.

In his summation, Sager reported that 41 citizens had contacted him prior to the council meeting had been “strongly in favor.” One was distinctly opposed and two others wanted to make sure certain questions were answered.

Ahrens opposition centered on the far eastern parcel in the proposal.

It fronts on Lily Pond Road, which is where the gravel trucks would leave the property.

Ahrens thought the highest and best use would be something other than the county fair and exhibitions.

Several members had made lists of pros and cons. The pros obviously were considered more persuasive for the six voting in favor of the re-zoning. (Except for the mayor, they are listed in alphabetical order. Picture are in seating order, from left to right with the exception of Ahrens.)

Mayor Brian Sager
Councilwoman Julie Dillon
Councilwoman Maureen Larson
Councilman RB Thompson
Councilman Mike Turner and
Councilman Ralph Webster

But they didn’t agree with the proposal without placing upwards of 50 conditions, a couple of which were strongly disputed by the petitioners.

One was the citing of a state law which said that the city could impose a ticket tax.

When Houser objected, city attorney Richard Flood pointed out that they could take it out, but this council could not bind future council in such a matter. And, since it was in the state law anyway putting it in the document did not harm to the petitioner.

Houser finally agreed.

More contentious was a city proposal which would allow levying an extraction tax. Merryman wanted his surety bond used first, if something were not done which he had promised. It turns out the city wanted to hold his business responsible for any infrastructure failures of the baseball promoters as well, which the council must have thought unfair, because they limited the liability to the mining operation.

Several times, Mayor Sager said that he didn’t want to end up with the problems that Woodstock’s neighbor to the east, aka, Crystal Lake, had with Vulcan Lakes.

Merryman did not propose a pit going beneath the water table and he proposed reclaiming the land as he moved from one part of the property to the next.

Ahrens, Thompson and Turner are running unopposed for re-election.

= = = = =
On top you can see Equity One’s Mark Houser explaining his and partner Peter Heitman’s baseball stadium proposal. Below is Frontier League Commissioner Bill Lee on the right and Heitman on the left. A shot of some of those attending the meeting follows. Mayor Brian Sager is seen directly below with dissenting Councilman Richard Ahrens below him to the left. The council members voting from the proposal are from left to right on the top row, RB Thompson, Maureen Larson and Mike Turner. On the next row you seen Ralph Webster on the left and Julie Dillon on the right. Mark Houser talks to his attorney Tom Zanck directly below. Woodstock City Attorney Richard Flood is below right. At the bottom is another picture of the audience, this time from the back of the room. All photos may be enlarged by clicking on them.

It won’t be on watershed of Crystal Lake watershed at McHenry County College.

But it will be just up the road across Route 12, north of Centegra’s Woodstock hospital.

It will include a minor baseball stadium.

But, it will not it will not cost county taxpayers any money.

And, it won’t be just for baseball. Being promoted are lacrosse, soccer, football, concerts, trade shows, antique shows, car shows and festivals.

And the same guys who fleeced McHenry County College taxpayers are apparently among the driving forces behind the proposal.

Mark Houser and Pete Heitman building a sports facility without a public subsidy.

The 250-acre site will preserve 53 acres of wetlands and 22 acres of oak savannah, seen to the right of the stadium. Click to enlarge.

The area is also being held out as a possible new home for the McHenry County Fair. More specifically, most of the land between the railroad track, Lily Pond Road, where I lived for a while, and Route 14.

The site is also being promoted as a place for not-for-profits and service agencies to locate.

Victor Narusis has been the glue that has put this idea together for the McHenry County Community Foundation. When he told me at the Pro-Life Pig Roast at the end of June that he had several million dollars committed and that there would be no tax dollars involved, I wished him luck.

“We are proud to present this project with no request for public funding,” Narusis said (with my piecing together parts of two sentences from the press release.)

He said the site selected “rose to the top of the list” because it is “located in the central part of the county and along a regional traffic corridor” providing “convenient access for all county residents.”

The sports stadium will sit 6,500 or 10,000 with lawn seating.

The land is being donated and graded by Rick Zirk of Woodstock’s Merryman Enterprises. After site preparation, the remaining land will be made available to the Foundation and the McHenry County Fair Board.

“This approach supports smart land use, economic resource planning, wise budget practices and would provide numerous resources with the many benefits of tourism,” McHenry County Community Foundation Board Chairman Mark Ehlert.

You can read the MCCF press release here.

It won’t be on watershed of Crystal Lake watershed at McHenry County College.

But it will be just up the road across Route 12, north of Centegra’s Woodstock hospital.

It will include a minor baseball stadium.

But, it will not it will not cost county taxpayers any money.

And, it won’t be just for baseball. Being promoted are lacrosse, soccer, football, concerts, trade shows, antique shows, car shows and festivals.

And the same guys who fleeced McHenry County College taxpayers are apparently among the driving forces behind the proposal.

Mark Houser and Pete Heitman building a sports facility without a public subsidy.

The 250-acre site will preserve 53 acres of wetlands and 22 acres of oak savannah, seen to the right of the stadium. Click to enlarge.

The area is also being held out as a possible new home for the McHenry County Fair. More specifically, most of the land between the railroad track, Lily Pond Road, where I lived for a while, and Route 14.

The site is also being promoted as a place for not-for-profits and service agencies to locate.

Victor Narusis has been the glue that has put this idea together for the McHenry County Community Foundation. When he told me at the Pro-Life Pig Roast at the end of June that he had several million dollars committed and that there would be no tax dollars involved, I wished him luck.

“We are proud to present this project with no request for public funding,” Narusis said (with my piecing together parts of two sentences from the press release.)

He said the site selected “rose to the top of the list” because it is “located in the central part of the county and along a regional traffic corridor” providing “convenient access for all county residents.”

The sports stadium will sit 6,500 or 10,000 with lawn seating.

The land is being donated and graded by Rick Zirk of Woodstock’s Merryman Enterprises. After site preparation, the remaining land will be made available to the Foundation and the McHenry County Fair Board.

“This approach supports smart land use, economic resource planning, wise budget practices and would provide numerous resources with the many benefits of tourism,” McHenry County Community Foundation Board Chairman Mark Ehlert.

You can read the MCCF press release here.

There are two items that might be of interest to McHenry County leaders still pursuing a baseball stadium.

First, most Frontier Baseball League teams had fewer fans per game this past summer than previously.

Even though ten of eleven had more home games, six of eleven still saw a decrease in total attendance.

Take a look at the attendance figures below:

Click to enlarge the table.

Of the 3 teams that saw an increase in average attendance,
River City is still down 43% from its all-time attendance high (185,333 in 2004)
Kalamazoo is still down 39% from its all-time attendance high (135,654 in 2004).

The relevance to McHenry County is seen when one sees the attendance projections in ERA’s report of baseball stadium promoter Pete Heitman’s proposal:

+10% year 2
+6.1% year 3
+5.7% year 4
+5.4% year 5

On a more optimistic note for a project that I’ve been told that will be privately financed, Bloomington-Normal’s WJVC radio reported Friday that financing for the one to be built at Heartland Community College was proceeding well.

Eight of fourteen stadium suites have been sold and four major sponsors secured.

The $11.5 million stadium is expected to be completed by March 2010.

McHenry County College made a run at constructing a taxpayer-financed baseball stadium, but ran into too much opposition.

The McHenry County Community Foundation has been actively investigating the privately-financed option.