McHenry County Blog

The Huntley-centric Grafton Township Board reached out to the northeast corner of the township to select a Lakewood woman as township clerk.

On a 5-0 vote, the board voted for Harriet Ford.

Ford edged out Kristy Borchart and Joan Citro, both of Huntley. Citro was disqualified because she had not voted in a Republican primary election.

The appointee had to be a Republican because Dina Frigo had been elected running as a Republican.

Ford was sworn in immediately after the meeting adjourned by Township Supervisor Linda Moore.

Ford has served six years on the Glendale Heights-Bloomingdale Grade School Board, was Bloomingdale Village Clerk for eight years, is President of the NISRA Foundation and is on the Grafton Township Food Pantry Foundation Board.

She used to handle public relations for Del Webb and previously did similar work for Grafton Township.

In other business the trustees voted 4-0 after a secret meeting with their attorney (with Linda Moore abstaining)

“to direct the attorney to act as directed in closed session relating to the Moore vs. Grafton Township litigation,”

which turned out to be Linda Moore’s separation of powers suit against the four trustees.

Township Assessor Bill Ottley gained approval to purchase a new computer software program from Elgin’s Cirone Computer Consulting, which also serves McHenry, Nunda, Dorr, Marengo, Richmond and Coral Townships.

The cost was $58,800 spread over two years with a 15% a year maintenance fee (just under $9,000, as Trustee Betty Zirk pointed out) starting in the second year.

In other things computer, Township Administrator Pam Fender recommended the hiring of Leading IT Solutions, which she said was a member of “our Chamber of Commerce,” as well as Woodstock’s.

The board agreed, with Trustee Rob LaPorta saying, “This should be the only authorized person to work on township computers.”

“Except for my office at home,” Supervisor Moore interjected.

“If you incur a bill, don’t expect us to pay it without prior approval,” Trustee Gerry McMahon said.

To obtain read only access to township financial records, Fender reported would cost $2,446 for the hardware and $1,200 for installation. She said that if the township signed an annual contract with Leading IT Solutions for $3,656, the $1,200 would be included.

The firm charges $75 per hour.

Discussion of using the township bus to bring seniors and the disabled to the April 13th Annual Town Meeting was a bit contentious with Township Attorney Keri-Lyn Krafthefer suggesting applications that would indicate the time a request for a ride was made.

Reading the agenda item, which talked of serving “regular” riders, Moore asked, “How can we discriminate against irregular riders?”

Various suggestions were made.

“One thing we shouldn’t be doing is picking this to death,” McMahon said.

Attorney Krafthefer observed,

“We don’t want to end up with any political discrimination suit?”

“If it’s impossible to create an audit trail, maybe we shouldn’t do it,” Trustee Rob LaPorta said.

Trustee Barb Murphy pointed out that the bus was used two years ago.

“But not last year,” LaPorta said.

Moore suggested perhaps Senior Service Associates and Faith in Action might provide rides for people who wanted them.

After a bit more discussion, LaPort said,

“This appears to be creating more trouble than it’s worth,”

and the meeting moved on.

The reason I went to the meeting was that preparing the agenda for the Annual Town Meeting was on the agenda.

But, it was a non-started.

The township attorney said she wasn’t prepared because no one had asked her to do anything on the agenda.

That strikes me as a bit odd, considering the effort that was made to make certain the order entered concerning the taxpayer suit filed by Dan Ziller, Jr., et al, would not preclude moving ahead on things like buying the Haligus Road property and having the Township Road District buy the Grafton Township Hall.

Indeed, McMahon expressed the desire to word questions put to the Township Electors in a format in which they could ratify past actions found illegal by Judge Michael Caldwell and the 2nd Appellate Court.

Talking about the Haligus Road property, which Krafthefer said she had just received new information on from Lake in the Hills the afternoon of the meeting, McMahon said, “Ratify and sell it on the open market.”

“I didn’t have any information about Haligus Road until this afternoon,” she said.

Krafthefer did not reveal what new information she had learned, despite being repeatedly asked by Moore, but it was Lake in the Hills Attorney Richard Flood.

Krafthefer did, however, allowed as how she “could provide an educational statement.”

“We need to legally fix things,” she added.

“Couldn’t we ask to have acceptance, Yes or No?” McMahon asked.

“Those are the two choices,” the attorney replied.

“We don’t need to think that everything has to be undone,

” McMahon continued. “Get a second set of electors to approve it.

“That’s what I want.”

The outgoing Lakewood Village President is Julie Richardson. You see her above (second from the left). Sitting to her right is Julie Hansen, the village clerk. To her left is Village Administrator Catherine Peterson and Village Attorney Richard Flood.

For the rest of our lives, my wife and I shall be grateful for her successful effort to ban leaf burning.

We can now leave our bedroom windows open during the fall and couldn’t before.

When Richardson decided to retire, two candidates filed for office.

Former Village Trustee Erin Smith was one.

She grew up in Country Club Additions, the part of Lakewood between Crystal Lake and the Crystal Lake Country Club and Wedgewood. Smith now lives in Turnberry and has a responsible job at Motorola which allows her some flexibility to work from home some times.

She campaign hard, especially in original Lakewood. You could tell by all the signs.

The other candidate was John O’Hara, who has been involved in the zoning end of village government. I received no campaign literature from him.

I observed both at a village board meeting concerning the budget. Both asked good questions, but there was obvious posturing from both sides in front of an audience that exceeded the number of people who usually go to Crystal Lake City Council meetings.

There is continuing tension between Lakewood and Crystal Lake.

A suit over sewage treatment fee payment, which I suspect is just making the lawyers money, remains outstanding, goes on. A court settlement seems to be the only answer.

Afterward, maybe the two neighbors can move on.

The opportunity for providing more rational fire protection services exists for both municipalities, if anyone can dampen down the hostility Crystal Lake officials seem to feel when Lakewood decided it would be cheaper to create its own fire department, rather than pay for a level of fire protection that commercial and high rish Crystal Lake needs, but residential Lakewood does not.

The election is over and the results show a convincing victory for Smith.

She got 62% of the vote with O’Hara receiving 38%.

The vote totals were 434 to 268.