McHenry County Blog

What started out as a fall fund raiser for McHenry County Recorder of Deeds Phyllis Walters at Algonquin’s Port Edward morphed into one for the McHenry County Republican Party.

This year it is set for Monday, October 8th. The cost is $55 ($100 a couple), as you can see below:

He wasn’t at the front of the parade but the owner of Port Edward, Ed Woloweic, was the Grand Marshall.

The parade took about an hour, truncated because of construction south on Route 31.

Most of the politic entries which I try to document were fairly near the front of the parade.

But, before they arrived, a volunteer for Congressman Peter Roskam, who will, pending a political upset of tremendous proportions, represent Algonquin Township in Congress next session, was sighted passing out small bags. With candy on their minds, a lot of folks took them.

Of course, there were the members of the Algonquin Village Board.

But before the politicians came Police Chief Russ Laine.

And an entry dedicated to the Chicago Cubs.

Founder Favorite Rusty Cherbak was surrounded by a Chicago Cubs wish fulfillment contingent.

There was even a goat.  A billy goat, of course.

Then came the village politicians.

Village President John Schmidt waved.

Village Trustee Bob Smith was accompanied by Buzz Lightyear.

Village Trustee Debbie Sosine was in waving mode.

Trustee Jerrold Glogowski was one of three trustees walking the route handing out candy.

The other two were Jim Steigert and John Spella.  Handing out candy is the Algonquin Parade is easy on Route 31 because the spectators are all on the south side of the street.

The village clerk came dresses as the clown Lazy Bonz.

The first partisan politician was District 1 Republican McHenry County Board member Bob Bless.

District 1 Republican McHenry County Board members Marc Munaretto and Anna Miller were driving in a Mercedes convertible by Algonquin Township Road Commissioner Bob Miller.

I asked Munaretto, who is not running for re-election to the County Board, whether he was running for re-election for Algonquin Township Clerk.

“You’ll have to wait and see,” he replied.

That was the same answer he gave last year before for filing deadline for County Board.

There are no Democrats in District 1, but there is one in District 5–Paula Yensen.

Next came Jean and McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi.

 McHenry County Auditor Pam Palmer followed Bianchi.

Both Bianchi and McHenry County Auditor Palmer are unopposed this fall.

Kane County politicians followed the McHenry County ones.

There were two County Board members, Hollie Lindgren and Maggie Auger.

There are always pictures that could have been.  The one below was going to be of the current and future Kane County Auditors, incumbent Bill Keck and candidate Terry Hunt.

Fortunately, I got a shot of Keck and Hunt before the parade.

“Take my picture. Take my picture,” the two members of the Eagles, a youth football team shouted as they mugged for my camera.

How could I resist?

Interrupting the parade was the girder from the World Trade Center brought by the Algonquin-Lake in the Hills Fire Protection District.

On the sides of the fire engines you can see the above sticker.

I was seated on the porch of a closed building when I way something political after a truck for the Red Run.  (The 5K is August 11th starting at Presidential Park in Algonquin.)

It was the McHenry County Republican Party entry…right at the end of the parade.

There was a banner for GOP State Rep candidate David McSweeney up front.

Right behind were people carrying Congressman Peter Roskam signs.

Then, Dave McSweeney passed me quickly.  I got his attention and he turned around so I could get the photo above.

Next came the McHenry County Republican float.

I just kept snapping my shutter, getting County Board member Nick Provenzano and County Chairman & State Rep. Mike Tryon.

Next came supporters of State Senator Dan Duffy, whose district mirrors that of David McSweeney on the eastern edges of McHenry and Kane Counties.

Next I found McHenry County Board member Robert Nowak.

And with the passing of the next entry, cheerleaders from CEE Snowball Blast Grand Champion, the Algonquin Founders Day Parade was over.

Afterward, however, the young man who had been assiduously gathering candy during the parade put on a Young Republican sticker and agreed to let me take his photograph.

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A special note for you Sheriff’s Department watchers. The McHenry County Sheriff’s Department had no entry in the parade. Neither Sheriff Keith Nygren nor his Undersheriff Andrew Zinke was anywhere to be seen.

Port Edward has pleasant memories for me all the way back to visiting the Algonquin Jaycees back in the late 1960′s.

Then it was only a small corner bar at Harrison and Route 62.

Algonquin Founders Days luncheons, fund raisers, Mother’s Day Breakfasts.

Always good food.

A gift shop to keep your wife and children out of by buying another glass of wine.

Urinals below portholes.

A host without peer–Ed Wolowiec.

Monday night the McHenry County Republican Central Committee held a fundraiser that about 100 people attended.

I was astounded that some candidates were not there. Maybe they don’t know that majority parties have to maintain an infrastructure that minority parties can ignore. Things like rent, phones, utilities, salary.

Not that candidates weren’t present.

Plenty, like Recorder of Deed Phyllis Walters brought petitions.

Barb Wheeler was doing the same and worked two streets in my precinct for signatures this afternoon with Blake Hobson.

Congressman Randy Hultgren’s employee Nick Provenzano was circulating, as was Congressman Joe Walsh’s wife Helena and new staffer Andrew Nelms, who is from Genoa.

I mentioned that State Rep. candidate Barb Wheeler was courting votes.  So were two candidates from the 52nd District Mark Beaubien used to represent.

Appointed State Rep. Kent Gaffney was there with his wife Elizabeth.

So was former 8th Congressional District candidate David McSweeney, now running against Gaffney.

There are three candidates running for the empty 33rd District State Senate seat.  The only one to show up was Kane County Board member Karen McConnaughay.

McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren was making the rounds.

He was introducing his chosen successor, Undersheriff Andy Zinke, although Zinke was doing that well enough by himself before Nygren arrived.

So was McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi.  I did not see the Sheriff and the State’s Attorney conversing.

McHenry County Auditor Pam Palmer was busy gathering petition signatures.

Candidate for McHenry County Coroner Dr. Anne Majewski was courting support at Port Edward, too.

There were a good number of McHenry County Board members and a  couple of township officials.

The County Board members were spread throughout the room. No open meetings violations for these folks.

Some, like District 1′s Anna May Miller and her husband, Algonquin Township Road Commissioner, I didn’t get photos of. Anyone who feels aggrieved can not their attendance in the comment section.

My guess is that local and legislative  candidates will be courting support at Algonquin’s Port Edward on Monday from 5-8:30.

That’s when the McHenry County Republican Central Committee will be raising money to keep its office open and pay other expenses that keep a majority party the majority party in an area.  The price is $55 each.

This is income tax day and this sign, while not local, is appropriate because TEA Party demonstrations are going to be held in Crystal Lake on Route 14 at Main Street and on Route 62 in Algonquin.

For the Route 14 location, one group is promoting 3-6 PM; another 3:30-6:30.

In Algonquin, the place to be is in Cornish Park across from Port Edward from noon to 1.

Last year there was a large police presence.

Worried about all those middle class folks who are fed up.  All those people paying the 75% higher city sales tax, if they stick around to shop.

I wonder if anyone will bring a sign expressing displeasure about Mayor Aaron Shepley and all of his city council’s having hiked the Crystal Lake city sales tax by 75%.

McHenry’s city council is contemplating a 50% increase.

If there is any criticism of the TEA Party movement I would offer, it is that virtually all of the effort is targeted at the national level.

In Illinois, with Democrats in the Senate have actually voted to increase income taxes by 67%, I would think that demonstrators would be concerned enough to target Pat Quinn and his Democratic Party tax hiking colleagues.

And, complaints about local tax hikes, such as the Crystal Lake one described above, mainly to build a recreation lakeside resort area in the middle of the biggest recession in all but one of the city council members’ lives, I expect them to be non-existent.

In politics the hardest lesson to learn is that

“All politics is local.”

Democratic Party U.S. House Speaker Tip O’Neill is the man who said it. The Boston pol was right on.

It is easier to scare local officials than national ones.

That doesn’t mean that I am suggesting ignoring the Melissa Bean’s and Bill Foster’s of the world.

It does mean when people get “mad as hell,” as the vast majority were Tuesday night at the Grafton Township meeting, big things can be accomplished.

The Township Trustees seemed astounded that over 500 people would come to trash their plans to obtain new township offices.

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Those attending the Route 14 TEA Party Thursday afternoon might want to consider coming early to have penny pancakes at Colonial Cafe.  The restaurant is holding an autism benefit for a local agency.

A press release from the McHenry County Republican Party:

Meet the Candidates! The McHenry County Republican Central Committee is hosting their first “Meet the GOP Candidates” fundraiser at Port Edward’s Restaurant in Algonquin Monday, October 5th. This special event runs between 5-8:30pm (doors open at 4:30).

The Port Edward’s

“Meet the GOP Candidates”

event provides an opportunity for any Republican who would like to become personally acquainted with their congressional, senate and state candidates and to support the efforts of the Republican Party in McHenry County, said the McHenry County Republican Chairman, Mike Tryon.

“Our event is meant to provide an opportunity for voters to meet the candidates and make the best informed decision in the primary election.” Tryon said. The primary election is February 2, 2010.

Port Edward’s of Algonquin will highlight its delicious Seafood and Beef Buffet.

To date, there are 6 Republican gubernatorial candidates, 3 lieutenant gubernatorial candidates, 6 senate candidates, 2 congressional candidates for District 8, presently held by Democrat, Melissa Bean.

All of the state, congressional and senate candidates have been invited. Since they are a big draw, we expect a very big crowd .

The event, organized by the McHenry County Republicans, is $50 per person and open to the public.

For more information, please contact Executive Director, Geri Davis (815) 344-4559 or visit the Republican website for more information on this and future events at www.mcgop.org.

We ate at Port Edward. You see the baby bagels, lox and cream cheese, a delicacy I discover in the Wilder Hall basement Ratskeller at Oberlin College in 1960. Port Edward also had a whole salmon on the table seen above.

After eating Mother’s Day brunch at a very crowded Port Edward in Algonquin, we went across Route 62 to Cornish Park along the Fox River.

The river was high, as you can see, but certainly not as high as it has been.

There were more kids than I have ever seen playing at the park.

A couple were playing in the sandbox.

They had picked some of the plentiful dandelions and arranged the stems in arcs around the hole they had dug.

They placed the flowers in a circular fashion farther away.

OK, ornithologists.

What is this unhatched egg my son found on Mother’s Day after we finished eating at Port Edward?

It was on the edge of the Fox River in Algonquin.

There were several of them that obviously the mother bird was not able to save from the recent high water.

April 12th we saw a goose on what I called “Goose Island.”

We thought maybe she was sitting on a nest of eggs, but when we returned a week later, the goose was gone.

Turns out it wasn’t a permanent island.

The photographs can be enlarged by clicking on them.

OK, ornithologists.

What is this unhatched egg my son found on Mother’s Day after we finished eating at Port Edward?

It was on the edge of the Fox River in Algonquin.

There were several of them that obviously the mother bird was not able to save from the recent high water.

April 12th we saw a goose on what I called “Goose Island.”

We thought maybe she was sitting on a nest of eggs, but when we returned a week later, the goose was gone.

Turns out it wasn’t a permanent island.

The photographs can be enlarged by clicking on them.