McHenry County Blog

Look what the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department is doing in the wake of the Sandy Hook, Connecticut, elementary school massacre.  The following was postred on the Johnsburg School District web site on January 14th:

McHenry County Sheriff’s Department to Visit Ringwood School Primary Center

Dear Parents and Community Members,

At the end of last week, Johnsburg School District was contacted by the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department regarding an upcoming visit to Ringwood School Primary Center.

Their intention is to complete a school walk-through with members of their strategic entry force, in a effort to familiarize their team with the layout of the building in the event of an emergency.

While many of their team members are already familiar with the layout and environment of Ringwood School, the Sheriff’s Department is taking this opportunity to visit all schools within their service area (unincorporated McHenry County and contracted towns and municipalities).

In an effort to keep the lines of communication open with our parents and community members, we wanted to take this opportunity to inform you of this request and share with you the timeline.

Pending no changes to the Sheriff’s Department schedule, the strategic entry force team is scheduled to visit Ringwood School the morning of Wednesday, January 16, 2013.

We anticipate between 10 and 20 representatives from the Sheriff’s Department, which will consist of uniformed and non-uniformed personnel.

The site visit will consist of walking through the facility and visiting common areas, not specific classrooms.

In addition, student contact will be limited, and the team will be escorted by myself at all times.

As there will be a significant law enforcement presence, we wanted to communicate to all of our parents and community members that this is a scheduled visit, and that there will be no cause for alarm.

If you have any questions or concerns I encourage you to contact either myself, or the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department at (815) 338-2144.

Most Sincerely,

Mrs. Cathy Neiss
Principal, Ringwood School Primary Center

The next step in lowering electric rates 46% (not Com Ed’s delivery charge) has taken place.

Direct Energy has notified residents of the municipalities which awarded it the contract (Woodstock, Huntley, Lakewood, Ringwood and Genoa) that they have the right to ope-out of the bulk buying contract.

Here’s the letter (click to enlarge):

If you are in unincorporated McHenry County or one of the municipalities who didn’t pass electric aggregation, you can sign up individually with any number of companies.

But, you’ll have to do it on your own.

I found the following information on the Chicago Tribune’s Real Estate page on the internet.

It has an interative map of McHenry County (and all other parts of the six-county Chicago metropolitan area) that tells what has happened to real estate values in municipalies with enough sales from which to pull statistics.

In McHenry County, I was surprised that homes in my village of Lakewood (a suburb of Crystal Lake) have held their value better than anywhere else.

• Lakewood: +17.65% with current median value at $353,250. (Our home is a bit below average.)
• Crystal Lake: -32.98% with median value at $157,500
• Huntley: -39.59%, median at $193,000
• Lake in the Hill: -34.08%, median at $147,000
• Algonquin: -25%, median at $147,000
• Cary: -39.77%, median at $156,000
• Fox River Grove: -42.609%, median at $154,750
• Oakwood Hills: -18&%, median at $164,000
• Island Lake: -30.06, median at $114,000
• Holiday Hills: -100%, but median given at $0, so obviously there is a glitch in the data
• Woodstock: -42.14$, median at $136,000
• McHenry: -31%, median $138,000
• Lakemoor: -29.37%, median $117,250
• Johnsburg: -48.38, median $175,000
• Wonder Lake: -27.13%, median $119,500
• Ringwood: -19,2%, median $201,000
• Richmond: -36.45%, median $197,000
• Spring Grove: -33.52, median $232,500
• Marengo: -42.65%, median $117,000
• Union: -1.59%, median $310,000 (something seems a bit wonky with the median average number)
• Harvard: -50.5%, median $99,000
• Hebron: -31.03%, median $130,000

Other communities have no information.

A press release from the Northern Illinois Governmental Electric Aggregation Consortium and the Northern Illinois Governmental Electric Aggregation Consortium:

Direct Energy Offers Fixed Electricity Price to Five Communities in the Northern Illinois Governmental Electric Aggregation Consortium

Illinois (April 30-, 2012) – As part of its agreement with the Northern Illinois Governmental Electric Aggregation Consortium (NIGEAC), Direct Energy has set a new fixed rate for electricity customers in the cities of Genoa and Woodstock and the villages of Huntley, Lakewood and Ringwood.

For the August 2012 through July 2013 billing cycles, customers in the cities of Genoa and Woodstock and the villages of Huntley, Lakewood and Ringwood will pay $0.04169 per kWh for electricity supply (exclusive of utility distribution charges and taxes).

The current ComEd rate is $0.0773 per kWh. Please be advised that ComEd’s rates may change over time. [These delivery charges are the ones that State Reps. Jack Franks and Mike Tryon and State Senator Pam Althoff agreed to allow to be raised at least $3 a month.]

The NIGEAC has an agreement with Direct Energy for an electricity Opt-Out Aggregation Program, a program that is available to residential and small business consumers currently served by the local utility in Genoa, Huntley, Lakewood, Ringwood and Woodstock.

Under the Opt-Out Aggregation agreement, residents in those communities that are currently served by the utility are automatically included in the Opt-Out Aggregation pricing plan unless they contact Direct Energy to be excluded.

Direct Energy will be sending all residents of the five NIGEAC communities an opt-out letter in the coming weeks that will give them the option of starting service with Direct Energy or opting out of the program to stay with ComEd. The letters will explain how residents can opt-out of the program, if they so choose to do so.

“We are pleased that residents and small businesses in these communities represented by the NIGEAC will have the option of purchasing electricity through this agreement,” said Anna Moeller, Official Coordinator for NIGEAC and Executive Director of the McHenry County Council of Governments.

The NIGEAC is an intergovernmental consortium of five northern Illinois communities including the cities of Woodstock and Genoa and the villages of Huntley, Lakewood and Ringwood. It was created to coordinate the electricity aggregation process for these communities in order to achieve administrative costs savings and possibly more competitive electricity rates through the combined purchasing power of the five communities.

# # #

About Direct Energy

Direct Energy is one of North America’s largest energy and energy-related services providers with more than 6 million residential and commercial customer relationships. Direct Energy provides customers with choice and support in managing their energy costs through a portfolio of innovative products and services. A subsidiary of Centrica plc (LSE:CNA), one of the world’s leading integrated energy companies, Direct Energy operates in 46 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia and 10 provinces in Canada.

I missed the biggest news of Tuesday night.

It wasn’t the Grafton Township Electors voting to ratify the deal that the Township Trustees cut with Road Commissioner Jack Freund for the Town Fund to repay the loan taken out to buy the Town Hall property over a three-year period.

The 5% loan interest to finance the loan is higher than the under 1% interest being paid Grafton Township by investing it, but that issue didn’t surface and the practice will continue until the Road Commissioner pays back the last $300,000.

That savings pales in comparison to what I personally and what residents of

• Cary
• Crystal Lake
• Huntley
• Lakewood
• Prairie Grove
• Ringwood
• Woodstock

will save once a contract is signed with a supplier of electricity other than Commonwealth Edison.

Lakewood Village President Erin Smith summarizes the differences in prospective rates between a non-Com Ed supplier and Commonwealth Edison:

“The first bids came in with several rates between 4 and 5 cents per kilowatt.

“We pay approximately 6.7 – 7.1 cents today, depending on the season.

“Many contract details will need to be worked out before anything is final, but we are very encouraged by the first proposals.”

Citizens will probably save 25% to 30% once the contracts are in effect, based on current Com Ed rates and the “soft” bids to which Smith refers.

There is a requirement that two public hearings be held. No one showed up at the first Lakewood hearing.

The second was Tuesday night, the same night as the Village Board meeting.

One lady showed up.

Then, the Lakewood Village Board voted to go ahead with the “buying club.”

Customers have a right to opt out for 21 days after a letter has been mailed. Lakewood’s letter has not yet hit mailboxes.

If your municipality or unincorporated area is not on the list above, you can find the election night results here. (There were slight changes in totals, but no changes in results, after the late votes were added.)

What I thought was going to be the most uncontroversial item on the ballot wasn’t.

Having put together the bulk buying of natural gas for state government facilities across Illinois while working for the Department of Central Management Services, it seems to be that the bulk buying of electricity is a pretty straight forward proposition.

Unless you don’t trust your local government, what’s to object to?

Especially, since you can opt out of the program if you think Com Ed’s price will be better or you’d rather shop around for yourself.

I figure let someone who has more expertise do the shopping, so I voted, “Yes.”

I had gotten some emails opposed to it.One had two objections, one of which didn’t seem to make any sense to me.

The complaint was made that municipal officials would not be allowed to negotiate the delivery price.

That is completely correct and that is because the local delivery cost is set by the Illinois Commerce Commission.

I figure the person who sent the email just didn’t know that was the situation.In any event that objection was not a legitimate reason to vote “No.”

It might, however, be a reason to vote against legislators who voted to allow Com Ed to raise electricity delivery rates.  (See Senate roll call, which passed by only one vote.  See House roll call.)

The second objection was that it would force peak pricing.  I asked my Lakewood Village Administrator, but did not get an answer.

So, if you voted against the referendum in your area (unincorporated or municipality), please tell readers where you live and why you voted “No.”

Results of McHenry County electric aggregation referendums follow:

Algonquin is in two counties, McHenry and Kane. It passed by a little bit on the McHenry County side, but failed by more on the Kane County side. The result was as 1,557-1,576 vote, with early and absentee ballot still not folded in, for a 50.3% “Yes” vote and 49.7% “No.”

Now let’s look at those municipalities where people approved their referendums.

Huntley also straddles the Kane-McHenry County line. Unlike Algonquin, however, residents on both side voted for the referendum. There were 3,731 in favor and 2,870 against, when the figures were added together.  56.5% voted in favor.

I skipped Barrington Hills and Island Lake.

Because Lakewood Village Board members decided to require residents to pay off the last year of the golf course purchased the year before the Property Tax Cap went into effect, Lakewood has the highest percentage tax rate increase of any municipality located in whole or part in McHenry County.

Right behind Lakewood was Port Barrington, another small town that used to be called Fox River Valley Gardens.  Its tax rate is a mere 25 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, while LaLakewood’s is $1.15.

Other double digit increases were seen by

• Harvard – 14.8%
• Huntley – 14.6%
• Barrington Hills – 14.3%
• Lake in the Hills – 13.4%
• Marengo – 11.4%
• Lakemoor – 10%

Only one municipality, Richmond managed a 1.3% cut in its tax rate.

Now, the big question.

Why did the rates increase?

You may remember the salad days when assessed valuation, a proxy for property values, increased more than the Consumer Price Index, which governs the amount of extra money that a tax district can get.

When real estate inflation exceeded the CPA, tax rates were forced down.

The result is that most, if not all, tax districts with statutory tax rates are well below those levels.

That means if the real estate assessment base increases less than the rate of general inflation or–as it the case now–it actually decreases, tax districts can still get what they got last year, plus whatever the CPI went up.

They do that just by asking for the money from the McHenry County Clerk’s Office where the tax rates are determined.

As long as that maximum amount can be obtained by multiplying a tax rate less than the statutory maximum times the assessed valuation equalized by the Illinois Department of Revenue, the tax district gets that amount.

The tax districts do not have to act like families and businesses yet.

They don’t have to cut back.

As has been noted on McHenry County Blog, public officials in at least Grafton Township, Huntley School District 158 and McHenry Grade School District 15 tried to get fellow board members not to ask for an increase.

One further observation.

You may be tempted to compare tax rates for different cities or villages.

For example, you could compare Crystal Lake to Woodstock.

The problem with that is that Crystal Lake’s rate includes fire protection and the city library, while Woodstock has additional tax rates for its fire protection and library districts. Conversely, Woodstock pays for its park system with city taxes, while Crystal Lake residents have a separate park district.

There are problems like this all over the place.

In each of the three instances, the prospective tax cutters lost to the tax hikers.

In one case a school board member was told he just didn’t know enough about school finance, that the district would “lose” millions of dollars if the maximum were not taken this year.

In the case of Grafton Township, the Trustees pointed out that it was just pennies per household, that no one would notice.

No elections until next year and the real taxing districts–the schools have no elections until 2013, but now is as good a time as any to suggest that those who are willing to wave a sign on Route 14, Randall Road or Route 62, need to think about doing some heavy lifting by running for office.

With the low turnouts at elections held on the odd-numbered years, anyone can win…if they start writing down the names, phone numbers and emails of acquaintances who agree with them on spending and tax issues.

If those so inclined do not do that, rest assured the candidates backed by the teacher unions will win every school board, as they probably did this year everywhere but McHenry.

The only way to know for sure, of course, would be for people in the various IEA and IFT locals to share endorsements–formal or informal–for school board.

Lacking that, just assume the vast majority of the winners for school board were backed by the employees of each school district.

You can find school district tax rates here.

Here’s an interesting press release from the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department telling about the arrests of Antonia H. Sadikoff, about 30 years old, of Ingleside. He was charged with Unlawful Production of Cannabis Sativa Plants (class 2). He paid $4,000 and was released on bond.

One Arrested in Connections with Ringwood Grow Operation

May 3, 2010

Sheriff Keith Nygren announced today the arrest of an Ingleside resident for operation of an indoor clandestine cannabis growing lab.

On May 2, 2010 members of the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Unit discovered the operation in the 5000 block of Business Parkway, Ringwood, Illinois.

A Canine Officer from the Wauconda Police Department responded at the request of the Sheriff’s Office to assist Investigators.

At the completion of the search, Investigators recovered over 300 grams of processed Cannabis along with 86, approximate 4’-5’ tall, actively growing cannabis sativa plants along with nutrients, lights, ballasts, water pumps and exhaust tubing used to cultivate the Cannabis.

Sheriff Nygren estimates the street value of the seized cannabis to be in excess of $87,000.

The investigation culminated in the arrest of Antonio H. Sadikoff who was incarcerated in the McHenry County Adult Corrections Facility and was later released after posting 10% of his $40,000 bond. The criminal investigation is ongoing by the Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Unit.

McHenry County Democrats have sent out an imaginative post card based on the game of Monopoly.

They obviously want people to think that McHenry County Republicans have a monopoly on local office.

While that is not true—think of the Democrats on school boards—the partisan offices at the county level are dominated by Republicans, even though at least one used to be a Democrat.

All of the countywide officials are Republicans and only one of twenty-four county board members is a Democrat (Jim Kennedy of Lake in the Hills in District 5).

This article will address where your town has been placed on the McHenry County Monopoly board.

What town is where Boardwalk is? Who’s Park Place?

I would have thought Boardwalk would have been Bull Valley or Barrington Hills and Park Place one of those two as well.

But, that’s not the case.

So, this isn’t exactly a reality game.

Marengo is where Boardwalk usually appears and Ringwood is identified as McHenry County’s Park Place.

Crystal Lake, Huntley and Lakewood are the placed where the next most valuable lots are on the real Monopoly board.

The yellow lots just before where the “Go To Jail” sign on regular Monopoly appears are Algonquin, Hebron and Lake in the Hills.

McHenry, Trout Valley and Prairie Grove are the red lots next to where free parking.

Do you notice a lack of uniformity in what appears to be almost a random placement of village and city names?

The orange ones are labeled McCullom Lake, Cary and Woodstock.

Oakwood Hills, Richmond and Harvard are on the same side next to the jail.

Spring Grove, Union and Johnsburg are right before the jail, but they aren’t the color I remember on the original board (but I’m color blind to some extent, maybe I’m wrong).

The two cheapest properties on the regular Monopoly board were named Wonder Lake and Fox River Grove. I wonder if residents there will take offense.

McHenry County Democrats have sent out an imaginative post card based on the game of Monopoly.

They obviously want people to think that McHenry County Republicans have a monopoly on local office.

While that is not true—think of the Democrats on school boards—the partisan offices at the county level are dominated by Republicans, even though at least one used to be a Democrat.

All of the countywide officials are Republicans and only one of twenty-four county board members is a Democrat (Jim Kennedy of Lake in the Hills in District 5).

This article will address where your town has been placed on the McHenry County Monopoly board.

What town is where Boardwalk is? Who’s Park Place?

I would have thought Boardwalk would have been Bull Valley or Barrington Hills and Park Place one of those two as well.

But, that’s not the case.

So, this isn’t exactly a reality game.

Marengo is where Boardwalk usually appears and Ringwood is identified as McHenry County’s Park Place.

Crystal Lake, Huntley and Lakewood are the placed where the next most valuable lots are on the real Monopoly board.

The yellow lots just before where the “Go To Jail” sign on regular Monopoly appears are Algonquin, Hebron and Lake in the Hills.

McHenry, Trout Valley and Prairie Grove are the red lots next to where free parking.

Do you notice a lack of uniformity in what appears to be almost a random placement of village and city names?

The orange ones are labeled McCullom Lake, Cary and Woodstock.

Oakwood Hills, Richmond and Harvard are on the same side next to the jail.

Spring Grove, Union and Johnsburg are right before the jail, but they aren’t the color I remember on the original board (but I’m color blind to some extent, maybe I’m wrong).

The two cheapest properties on the regular Monopoly board were named Wonder Lake and Fox River Grove. I wonder if residents there will take offense.