Metra Executive Director Phil Pagano and Joseph Gottemoller, attorney for Metra, appear before the Crystal Lake City Council seeking permission to proceed with annexation of the land for a Ridgefield commuter station.

Metra Executive Director Phil Pagano returned to his home town city council for a second time seeking permission to proceed with plans seeking approval for a new commuter train station in Ridgefield next to the old 84 and new Alexandra Lumber location.

The proposal debated by city council members basically said that if Metra met all the requirements set by the city council that it could gain annexation to the city.

Mayor Aaron Shepley framed the debate like this:

“The question is solely whether council wishes to assume control of development of this project.”

At the end of the debate, the council voted 5-2 to assume control. Jeff Thorsen and Ralph Dawson voted “No.”

Jeff Thorsen registered his complaint about what he saw as the one-sided nature of the agreement.

Thorsen thought the agreement too one-sided.

“The agreement does not even require they ever annex,” he said. “At the end of the day, we can’t say ‘No.’ You can say ‘No.’”

He worried that if money is needed to enforce Crystal Lake’s Watershed Ordinance that Metra would not have to pay its fair share.

Shepley wondered if Thorsen wanted county government to be the approving governmental entity, as it was for 84 Lumber, which property covers more of the watershed than would be allowed had it been annexed to Crystal Lake.

“If the county wants to be irresponsible about developing it, then it’s not on my shoulders,” Thorsen replied.

Later Councilwoman Ellen Brady Mueller pointed out that the proposed 2030 Plan for county land development does not recognize Crystal Lake’s Watershed Ordinance.

Ralph Dawson views a Ridgefield Metra Station in Crystal Lake as a way to stretch city police forces too thin.

Ralph Dawson worried about extending city police protection still farther, pointing out that the Pingree Road Station had had vandalism problems, which Crystal Lake Police had to handle.

“It’s a far stretch from the city limits,” Dawson said. “I cannot support the City of Crystal Lake annexing the station. I don’t think the city should be obligated to go that far out to give it service.”

Trying to pour water on the fire, Pagano affirmed, “Metra intends to work with the city on the watershed…and traffic.”

Still Dawson concluded,

“I don’t see my taxpayers to benefit on this project.”

Brady Mueller asked,

“Are we out there already?”

Police Chief David Lindner pointed out that his force already served nearby McHenry County College and

“If there is a request from the Sheriff and we’re closer, we go out there.”

Ellen Brady Mueller argued for city control of the Crystal Lake watershed on which the proposed Metra station would be located.

Brady Mueller wanted to know,

“Why in the world would we want to give up a piece of property in the watershed?”

“We want to have the control.”

Cathy Ferguson agreed:

“I want control. I have enormous traffic concerns.”

Both relative newcomers Brett Hopkins and Carolyn Schofield concurred.

“I’d absolutely like to see it under control of the city, rather than the county,” Schofield said.

Summing up, Shepley said,

"If we say, 'No', we're counting on somebody else to do our job," Mayor Aaron Shepley said.

“We have fought like wolverines to control what goes on in the watershed. It’s not just our right; it’s our obligation.

“There is no done deal. Mr. Hopkins said it. The only question is who should we be dealing with.

“The downside for them is if they don’t meet our standards, they still have to go to the county.

“As far as police enforcement goes, Mr. Dawson, I think that is a fair concern. If it should go to the county we’ll still be the first responders.

“The difference is that the benefits will not fall to the Crystal Lake side of the ledger.

“If we say ,’No,’ we’re counting on somebody else to do our job.”

Dawson suggested the county was “in a new era. They’re talking about water, at least they’re making waves in an election year.”

“If the county is good, we’re better,” Shepley stated. “We owe it to the people to protect their interest.”

The Crystal Lake City Council unanimously approved Councilwoman Ellen Brady Mueller’s motion to reject SEC, which used to be called Smith Engineering, as the firm to provide the traffic study for the Ridgefield station which Metra wants annexed into the city.

Council members decided they would rather have one of their already authorized consultants do the study.

Metra preferred SEC because it had been contracted to do a study for a future Lily Pond Road site called East Woodstock, as well as for Ridgefield.

Questions about traffic arose from all quarters.

Carolyn Schofield: “My main concerns will be traffic and the watershed.”

Brett Hopkins: “I’m concerned about traffic”

Jeff Thorsen concurred, “You’re engineer hasn’t addressed the western development we know is going to come…I’d rather go with our pool of traffic consultants. I’m already looking at two studies that are pretty opposite.”

Thorsen also made the same pitch he made in the baseball stadium traffic discussion–that Briarwood and Route 176 be included.  He pointed out that there had been another accident there earlier in the day.

Kathy Ferguson:  “I have some concerns about traffic. You’re going to change the whole tone and tenor of that area.”

Ferguson also told of driving to the courthouse on Country Club Road for jury duty. She commented negatively on the current danger at the curve.

“The line of sight when you’re coming around those corners has to be addressed.”

During extended public comment by Craig Steagall, the owner of land Metra considered buying across the tracks from that which is half-owned by McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler, he bent his arms to demonstrate the intersection problem in Downtown Ridgefield.

Mueller talking about traffic: “I don’t know how to make it work without moving the houses that are out there…I myself cannot support having a traffic consultant not going through the normal process.”

Mayor Aaron Shepley empathized with Metra: “It would be awfully difficult to change (horses in midstream).”

Ralph Dawson took a different approach: “What are we going to get out of it? How long will (it take for) my police cars have to be dispatched out there? Why do we want to annex it? We’re already stretched out. I have a county police department that is more than adequate to police that station.”

Metra attorney Joe Gottemoller explained that he thought Crystal Lake wanted to annex the entire watershed of Crystal Lake. The station is within that watershed.

Mayor Shepley summed up the reason for annexing the property: “With an annexation into Crystal Lake you have a greater control on what the project will look like,” adding the city would have more influence over the traffic problems.”

His conclusion: “The deal breaker here—it’s all about the traffic.”

Shepley specifically mentioned the inadequate Ridgefield railroad crossing.

Both Mueller and Steagall are candidates for a Republican nomination for the McHenry County Board, Mueller in District 2 and Steagall in District 3.

Goss seemed to have been left out of the “incumbent slate” during last spring’s election.

At least if sign placement is any indication.

Jeff Thorsen’s, Ralph Dawson’s and Carolyn Schofield’s signs regularly appeared together.

Goss seemed like the odd man out.

But Mayor Aaron Shepley, who had a Goss sign on his front year along with Thorsen’s and Dawson’s, has appointed him to the city Planning and Zoning Commission.

I don’t know whether he actually replaced Schofield on the commission, but that ’s what it looks like.

One thing is for sure.

Goss will do his homework. I can’t remember a time he didn’t do so when I attended council meetings.

Briarwood is the first major intersection west of Route 14 in Crystal Lake.

As I approached from the north I saw two fire vehicles. I drove across 176 and took this photo.

Driving past I saw a pickup truck had collided with the back of a car.

Here’s what the pickup looked like. Looks like a light on top of the cab.

The car’s rear end was bashed in.

Eventually, the Crystal Lake Police arrived.

This is a very dangerous intersection crying for a traffic light.

This is the corner that the traffic study conducted for Pete Heitman’s and Mark Houser’s baseball stadium at McHenry County College completely ignored.

Crystal Lake City Councilman Jeff Thorsen pointed that out during the zoning debate prior to the “No” votes by him and Councilman Ralph Dawson doomed the project.

It’s time for a traffic light.

Click to enlarge any image.

Maybe if newspapers were taxed as they are in other states, the NW Herald would have cared.

= = = = =
You see the Chicago Tribune’s front page article about Todd Stroger’s veto of the Cook County sales tax repeal on top and it editorial below.

At the bottom of the editorial, you can see that it has been 316 days since Todd Stroger’s sales tax hike went into effect.

Coincidentally, it has also been 316 days since Mayor Aaron Shepley’s 75% Crystal Lake city sales tax took effect.

Yesterday another Crystal Lake Planning and Zoning Commissioner defeated incumbent Dave Goss.

When swearing in time comes, Carolyn Schofield will join her former commissioner colleague Brett Hopkins in the council chambers.

This is the second time for this engineer’s name has been on the council ballot.

She ran two years ago and placed sixth out of six candidates.

Schofield ran first, undoubtedly aided by her being first on the ballot and her being a woman.

Second place went to incumbent Jeff Thorsen, while incumbent Ralph Dawson took third.

Goss, who placed fourth, was partially responsible for his loss in that he chose to file in the middle of the week, rather than at the beginning or at the end of filing.

That resulted in a less than ideal ballot position of fifth out of eight for Goss.

He got only 55% of Dawson’s votes.

The top three candidates on the ballot won. I’ve been calling them, perhaps incorrectly, the anti-McHenry County College baseball stadium slate.

Of course, part of Goss’ loss might be attributed to his having voted for the 75% city sales tax increase. But, so did Dawson.

The other five candidates received the indicated votes:

• Kay Stanish – 647
• Mike Shorten – 474
• Sal DiBenedetto – 414
• David Bradford – 399

Now, to the losers, I would suggest you take heart. Re-read the paragraph that says the top vote getter in 2009 was the lowest vote getter two years ago.

If you are a man, you can’t change your gender and get the five percentage point advantage that I am sure exists in this area, but you could get lucky and obtain first ballot position like Schofield did.

And you could be as determined to win as she was.

= = = = =
The winners appear from highest vote on down. Carolyn Schofield is on top, Jeff Thorsen second and Ralph Dawson third.

There were for Thorsen, fellow incumbent Ralph Dawson and CL Planning and Zoning Commissioner Carolyn Schofield.

Driving around after spring break, I saw more of that combination on yards.

Incumbent Dave Goss was clearly the odd man out.

I wondered if his fate would be the same as incumbent Howie Christensen’s two years ago. He was clearly on his own.

He was beaten by Brett Hopkins, a Planning and Zoning Commission member just like Schofield.

But after the mini-vacation, there was a new combination.

It was of the three incumbents.

Although Mayor Aaron Shepley has clearly shown his dislike for the way Thorsen has challenged him in the last two years, he wrote a letter to the Northwest Herald endorsing incumbents Dawson, Goss and Thorsen.

If you doubt his occasional disdain for Thorsen, take a look at this photo of Shepley rolling his eyes while Thorsen was talking. I used red eye reduction, by the way.

The debate was over the Crystal Lake watershed ordinance and Thorsen was clearing asking some questions that Shepley thought were a waste of time.
This photo gets a number of hits on McHenry County Blog because Google’s search engine for images displays it on top of the “rolling eyes” images.

Shepley also has the signs of the three incumbents in his front lawn.

Maybe this is a case of

“the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know.”

Across the street on Donna Kurtz’ front yard is the other combination.

You may remember that Thorsen and Dawson killed the McHenry County College baseball stadium re-zoning, while Schofield oppose the matter on the Planning and Zoning Commission (as did all the other members, which led to the requirement for 5 out of the 7 council members having to approve the rezoning for it to pass).

I am tempted to call this slate the “anti-baseball stadium” slate, but, when I asked one of my neighbors if that was the reason he was supporting the three, he told me it wasn’t.

I know that another precinct resident as deeply involved in the effort to kill the baseball stadium as Kurtz has those same three signs up that are Kurtz’ front yard.

It will be interesting to see the elections for Algonquin 10, where Shepley is the Republican precinct committeeman.

If Goss loses the precinct that either means Shepley wasn’t really supporting him or he did nothing in his precinct.

From their sign placement, I conclude that all the other four city council challengers but Schofield are running on their own.

One, Mike Shorten put together a solid door-to-door campaign, as I mentioned Sunday.

Interestingly, no one ran an ad in the Northwest Herald.

As far as I can figure out, none of the five challengers to the Crystal Lake City Council incumbents has cited any votes of the incumbent councilmen running for re-election. You see, from left to right, Councilman Ralph Dawson, Councilman Dave Goss and Councilman Jeff Thorsen.

When I wrote the Crystal Lake part of my Algonquin Township, Precinct 7 letter, I decided to include votes from the three issues I think were most significant in the last two years.

Below is what I wrote and distributed to the homes in my precinct on Saturday. About 125 are in Crystal Lake; the other 100 in Lakewood.

Let’s talk about the incumbent CL councilmen first. In the last two years, three issues have attracted the most attention—the 23-year Tax Increment Financing tax hikes, Mayor Shepley’s 75% city sales tax hike and building a baseball stadium on the lake’s watershed.

Here’s what the incumbents and a challenger who had a vote did:

Vulcan Lakes and Main Street TIF Districts, passage of which will cause every tax district to raise our tax rates to make up for the lost revenue taken for city-directed purposes:

Voting Yes – Ralph Dawson, Dave Goss and Jeff Thorsen

Hiking the city sales tax by 75%:

Voting Yes – Ralph Dawson and Dave Goss;

Voting No – Jeff Thorsen

Approving the poorly thought out McHenry County College minor league baseball stadium:

Voting Yes – Dave Goss;

Voting No – Ralph Dawson, Jeff Thorsen and Carolyn Schofield (on the CL Planning and Zoning Commission)

I then wrote some things about the challengers and made no recommendations.

I just tried to provide enough information for voters to make up their own minds.

• David Bradford

• Ralph Dawson

• Sal Di Benedetto

• David Goss

• Mike Shorten

• Carolyn Schofield

• Kay Stanish

• Jeff Thorsen

They might help make up your mind.

Three seats are up on the Crystal Lake City Council on April 7th and eight people are running for them.

(You have to click on this photo taken at the McHenry County College Conference Center at the candidates’ night sponsored by the League of Women Voters of McHenry County to even be able to see their faces.)

Four years ago, as Councilman Jeff Thorsen pointed out, there were three candidates for three vacancies.

Three incumbents ran and were re-elected.

The same three are running for re-election this year.

Since then incumbents from elsewhere figured out that the more candidates, the better the chances incumbents would get re-elected.

So, instead of having a primary election to eliminate all but two for each office, the General Assembly changed the law to allow three candidates for each office. (Maybe it’s four times; I’ll have to check.)

In any event, common sense tells you that people tend to vote for people they know, other things being equal.

So, why no opposition three years ago and five challengers this year?

That question was addressed by Salvatorie Di Benedetto.

“Some think the bus is going in the wrong direction and it’s time for a U-turn.

“I think it’s time to stop the bus and change the people on the bus, three of them.

“It’s time to change the drivers,” he said in his concluding comments.

The biggest issue seemed to be the large number of vacant stores on Route 14.

City Planning and Zoning Commission member Carolyn Schofield, running for the second time, brought it up.

So did Di Benedetto.

As did David Bradford.

Kay Stanish wanted to know why businesses were leaving and going “down to Algonquin Commons.”

“I’ll tell you what we are doing,” Thorsen said when it came his turn.

“Vulcan Lakes.

“That’s going to attract redevelopment.”

Incumbents Councilmen Ralph Dawson and Dave Goss and Thorsen also pointed to the development of Vulcan Lakes as a recreational area as a magnet that would draw retailers to fill the empty storefronts.

“We have been ahead for the curve,” Dawson said.

While supportive of the Vulcan Lakes project, the five challengers generally contended that was not enough.

Di Benedetto, Mike Shorten and Kay Stanish had three versions on the theme that Crystal Lake is a difficult town in which to do business.

“We need a change in attitude,” Di Benedetto said. “It seems it’s difficult to start something when one comes to Crystal Lake.”

“Sometimes coming to Crystal Lake can be a little bit restrictive,” Shorten added.

“I think in the past business owners have found it difficult to deal with Crystal Lake,” Stanish.

A new concern showed up about how the city will pay to operate and maintain Vulcan Lakes, recreation having been provided by the Crystal Lake Park District since the 1920’s.

“There is no information it will be self-supporting,” Schofield pointed out.

“I share some of the caution Carolyn has,” Stanish added. “The last thing we want to happen is to see it turn it back into a liability for the city.”

At that point, Shorten dropped the bombshell of the night for me.

“The plan is to issue bonds against the Home Rule tax,” he said.

He had apparently spent a significant amount of time since Wednesday when the city budget was placed on display.

He revealed that in the 2009-10 budget, $158,000 has been budgeted for operations and maintenance of Vulcan Lakes…”not a full year or a full staff.”

(My suggestion, offered more than once, is for the city to pressure the McHenry Conservation District to take over and pay for the development of Vulcan Lakes as a recreational facility. Goodness knows, the MCCD sucks enough money out of the Crystal Lake area and has returned virtually nothing but a bike path and a future conservation area west of West School in Lakewood.)

The implication of borrowing money and promising to repay it with Mayor Aaron Shepley’s (and the city council’s) 75% last July 1st city sales tax increase is that the council wants to make certain that it is never repealed.

“Never” being defined as until the bonds are paid off.

Of course, that probably was the plan all along.

Not that any of the candidates said the tax should be repealed.

And, speaking of sales tax, Goss (as did Dawson) pointed out that receipts are holding up very well, despite having lost the Ford dealership. Goss thought it was down “1% or 2%.” Schofield said, “3.1% compared to 7% or 8%” in neighboring cities.

For some reason, the sponsoring League of Women Voters allowed a question about foreclosure.

Schofield supplied the facts:

“There are 214 or 240 out of 11,000 (housing units). It was surprisingly low.”

David Bradford supplied the story of one his neighbors whose home was just foreclosed upon:

“It’s just tragic. Kids and everything. It’s terrible. We need to provide more support for them.”

His suggestion: “Make information available on the (city) web site.”

Thorsen, President of the Corporation for Affordable Housing of McHenry County, pointed out that it was more of a county function to try to keep people in their homes than a city role.

= = = = =
From top to bottom, the candidates seen are incumbent Jeff Thorsen, challenger Salvatorie Di Benedetto, challengerCarolyn Schofield, incumbent Ralph Dawson, challenger Kay Stanish, challenger Mike Shorten, incumbent Dave goss and challenger David Bradford.