McHenry County Blog

Lack of inter-connectivity has always been the problem in delivering bus service to the suburbs.  To get from one town to the next, you had to be able to get from your home to the bus stop.

During the 1974 RTA referendum, proponents promised,

“Public transportation, when and where you need it, throughout the region.”

“Right,” I thought then. “Not in my lifetime.”

Now local officials have forged an agreement to allow those living in Crystal Lake (the city, not the zip codes 60012 and 60014) to get to and from home and McHenry and/or Woodstock or anywhere in Dorr Township, plus all combinations thereof.

Here is the county’s press release on the ribbon cutting:

PACE Ribbon Cutting

WOODSTOCK, IL – A ribbon cutting ceremony was held this morning to commemorate the launch of a program to expand Pace Dial-a-Ride services in McHenry County.

The Program, which officially went into service last Saturday, enables registered users to arrange transit trips between the cities of Crystal Lake, McHenry, and Woodstock, and for seniors and people with disabilities the area also includes all of McHenry Township and unincorporated Dorr Township.

McHenry County Board Chairman speaks at a ceremony announcing the expansion of PACE bus service between Crystal Lake, McHenry and Woodstock.

Near the Vietnam War Memorial at the County Administration building, County Board Chairman Ken Koehler provided a few words for the occasion:

“It would be an understatement to say it’s been a very long journey from planning stage to implementation of these services… This project, funded by the Senior Services Grant Commission and the County Transit Grant Program will have immediate impacts to many with limited mobility in the County and will, in the long-term, create positive social and economic impacts.”

The seeds for this service were first planted in 2005, when the County Board approved a Transit Plan calling for the coordination of transit services.

Pace Board Chairman Richard Kwasneski heralded the new service as an example of the kind of coordination that will be necessary for successful transit systems in the future.

Sandra Salgado, McHenry County Board member and Chair of the County’s Senior Services Grant Commission, expressed how happy the Commission members are to see this service provide new transportation options for McHenry County’s seniors.  In late 2007, the Senior Services Grant Commission awarded funds to the McHenry County Division of Transportation to begin a program of coordinated transit services.

Anna May Miller, also a Board member and Chair of the County’s Transportation Committee, shared her enthusiasm for this first step in coordinated, expanded transit services.  The Transportation Committee authorized a Transit Grant Program that provided funding for the service in 2009 using the County’s RTA Sales Tax.

County Chairman Koehler, Pace Chairman Kwasneski, County Board Member Salgado, County Board Member Miller, and McHenry Township Supervisor Donna Schaefer cut the red ribbon over the door of the Pace bus, officially declaring the service up and running.

Sandra Salgado, Anna May Miller, Donna Schaefer, Ken Koehler, Rick Kwasneski cutting the ribbon.

Other attendees at this event included: County Board members Lyn Orphal, Mary Donner, and Mary McCann; Bob Pierce, Dorr Township Supervisor; Don Kopsell, Nunda Township Road District Commissioner; Mayor Susan Low, City of McHenry; Mayor Brian Sager, City of Woodstock; Pace Executive Director T. J. Ross; McHenry County Engineer/Director of Transportation Joseph Korpalski, Jr.; and Pioneer Center President and CEO Lorraine Kopczynski.

McHenry County Board members Nick Provenzano and John Jung lost their seats two years ago in District 3 and District 5.

Joint sign for Mary Donner and Nick Provenzano for county board showed up for the first time the night before the election around polling places. Provenzano lost the election to Democratic Party challenger, now central committee chair, Kathy Bergan Schmidt.

It wasn’t that Provenzano and Jung didn’t have signs up supporting their re-election.

In retrospect, I believe it was because they did not run joint campaigns with their Republican running mates.

There was nothing but being next to each other on the Republican Party ballot to encourage supporters of their running mates to vote for them as well.

This causation factor hit me the night before the election when I saw this joint yard sign for Mary Donner and Provenzano.

It turned out to be too little, too late,

Provenzano lost to Kathy Bergan Schmidt and Paula Yensen beat Jung.

Yard signs for John Jung running mate Virginia Peschke began showing up two weekends before the election in which Democrat Paula Yensen picked off Jung. Peschke ran first.

Jung’s running mate, Virginia Peschke, put on no discernible campaign until yard signs appeared about two weekends before the fall election.

So, here’s my unsolicited advice to Republican county board candidates.

Convince your running mates to have joint yard signs.

Even if you don’t like them and they don’t like you.

Consider it a self-preservation move.

Right now, most GOP candidates don’t have Democratic Party opponents.

It is legal for the Democratic Party to slate candidates. They’ve done it before.

Certainly, it is difficult to find candidates like Yensen and Schmidt, people who will put shoe leather into a campaign.

Campaigning is boring work.

But, there are personal benefits. Candidates who are serious tend to miss meals and, because of that and the energy required going door-to-door, lose weight.

Nevertheless, odds are good that the Democrats won’t find vigorous candidates and, without “fire in the belly” opponents, Republican ballot holders probably aren’t in much trouble in this year of the backlash to corruption so evident among the Democrats’ high profile politicians.

But, it’s always better to do more, rather than less, in an election campaign.

If I were running for county board, I’d want a joint sign campaign.

And joint literature.

Especially, if I came in second in the primary election.

“Hostile” would be fair in characterization of McHenry County Board member Pete Merkel’s reaction to the ALAW conflict of interest proposal, as reported by Kevin Craver of the Northwest Herald

Merkel, running unopposed in the Republican primary election, did not volunteer to reveal his property ownership outside of his home or other potential conflicts of interest.

No opponent. No political need to do so.

Nevertheless, his running mate Sandy Salgado was one of the 20 people running for the county board who did fill out the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water ethics questionnaire.

And, so did Jeff Thirtyacre, so far, the only Democratic Party challenger in the fall election.

Merkel ran first in the primary election.

Looking at the almost final primary election results, Merkel would seem to have no reelection problems.   The Democrat received 1,800 fewer votes than Merkel.

So, he would be the perfect person to lead the charge against ALAW.

The questionnaire was politically motivate, he charges.

No question about that.

It was designed to influence the February 2nd primary election.

Truth.

But, then Merkel charged that the conflict of interest form had nothing to do with “transparency and openness.”

He really should have come to the Patriots United County Board Candidates’ Forum and heard the tepid applause after incumbent Dan Ryan (R-Huntley) made known that he was not going to fill out the ALAW form.  Subsequently, Ryan blamed his loss on the questionnaire.

There he swerves from the truth and threatens to lead the Republican Party, as exemplified by its county board members, into an abyss.

No matter how insulated McHenry County’s Republican board members are from the public, even they, if they will just let their emotions subside, are capable of figuring out that Illinois voters are fed up with politics as usual.

Those who don’t think so aren’t paying attention.

Will it be the sea change that I noticed in 1969?

Before that date, the fact that Crystal Lake’s mayor worked for the biggest developer in town was no big deal.

Everybody had to work somewhere.

Then the Crystal Lake Jaycees, many of whom lived in Coventry, the development built by that developer, did a fire safety project. They discovered that in the back section of Coventry fire trucks could not get through if cars were parked on the streets.

Then, it became important where the mayor worked.

Tony Wujcik beat incumbent Mayor Lou Goosens handily in the 1971 election. (More about that change in ethical standards here.)

To mix metaphors, are we at a similar fault line now?

I think so.

McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler was one of three re-nominated incumbents who has so far not completed the ALAW conflict of interest form.

Twenty of twenty-seven candidates for county board voluntarily completed ALAW’s questionnaire.

Of those who won nomination in the Republican Party, incumbents

• Anna May Miller,
• Ken Koehler,
• Pete Merkel, plus
• newcomer Robert Nowak

are a minority of 4 out of 12 GOP county board candidates on the ballot this fall who did not do so.

Democrat incumbent Jim Kennedy is the only Democrat who did not fill one out.

Maybe these four incumbents know something that the rest of the people (sans District 1 newcomer Robert Nowak) running for county board don’t know.

Eight of twelve people on the Republican Part ballot this fall have filled out the form are:

• Donna Kurtz
• Nick Provenzano
• Barb Wheeler
• Sandy Salgado
• Tina Hill
• John Jung
• Diane Evertsen
• Mary McCann

Among the Democrats, two-thirds answered ALAW’s questions:

• Jeff Thirtyacre
• Lori McConville

So did the only Green Party candidate:

• Frank Wedig

So, maybe those out of step with the times are those who have not yet sent in the questionnaire.

= = = = =

I’ll have some more comments a bit later.

This was not an investigatory story.  (Hurry.  It won’t be free long.)

Nothing about how the county was looking for a place not near a residential neighborhood…on cheap land…without brick walls and ended up near a residential neighborhood on one of the busiest highways in McHenry County with brick walls.

After Blake Hobson gave Ken Koehler the credit for the new facility, someone named “OakLeaf” wrote the following:

OakLeaf wrote on January 25, 2010 12:44 p.m.

“I think the county could have found a much less expensive place. This is from mchenrycountyblog The folks running for re-election (or, in the case of one seeking to return to the board) who voted to impose the cat tax in order to help pay for new animal control shelter on Route 14 in Crystal Lake follow:

• Ken Koehler, County Board Chairman, Crystal Lake, District 2
• John Jung of Woodstock, District 5
• Tina Hill of Woodstock, District 5
• Anna May Miller of Cary, District 1
• Sandra Salgado of McHenry, District 4
• Barbara Wheeler of Crystal Lake, District 3″

Keely Cat doesn't have to hide from the McHenry County Cat Tax Collector anymore.

It was a coincidence that I wrote a story about the votes on the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax the same day the NW Herald did a two-year retrospective.

And, the Herald didn’t point out the role its approval played in the defeat of Woodstock Republican County Board member Perry Moy by Lake in the Hills Democrat Jim Kennedy.

There are certainly different roles played by the NW Herald and McHenry County Blog.

And, only McHenry County Blog features the best know cat in McHenry County:

The one, the only

Keely Cat

Keely Cat takes a dim view of those county board members who wanted to send out the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax Collector. (He also takes a dim view of people who wake him up to take his picture to illustrate a story like this.) Catkins still can't understand why they thought he couldn't take care of any rabid bat that might penetrate the Skinner household. The bugs he has hunted are no longer around and, if he could get out of the sun porch, he knows that chiprats would be no problem.

Now that the primary election is but a week away, I’m going to give you a chance to read my article on the McHenry County Board’s 2007 defeat of the Republican Cat Tax.

The folks running for re-election (or, in the case of one seeking to return to the board) who voted to impose the cat tax in order to help pay for new animal control shelter on Route 14 in Crystal Lake follow:

• Ken Koehler, County Board Chairman, Crystal Lake, District 2
• John Jung of Woodstock, District 5
• Tina Hill of Woodstock, District 5
• Anna May Miller of Cary, District 1
• Sandra Salgado of McHenry, District 4
• Barbara Wheeler of Crystal Lake, District 3

The original February 21, 2007, article follows. For some reason Google has removed the original photographs, even though I paid extra to keep the up.

11 Republicans, 1 Democrat Kill McHenry County Republican Cat Tax

If you ever think that your voice can’t make a difference in local government, think again!

Both opponents and proponents of the Republican Cat Tax mentioned they had been lobbied by their constituents.

And some of them used language (“Cat Tax Collector”) that made me know that McHenry County Blog readers had been spreading the word.

The McHenry County Board, stacked 23-1 in favor of the Republican Party, defeated the cat tax backed by County Chairman Ken Koehler (he called it a “fee”) and nine other GOP county board members.

The motion to eliminate the cat tax from the revision of the animal control ordinance passed 12-10 on a motion by Lyn Orphal, seconded by Mary Lou Zierer. Perhaps Republicans have been this split on a board vote before. I don’t follow it closely enough to know. It must be a rarity, however, for a county board chairman not to get his way.

The 11 Republicans voting to kill the Republican Cat Tax follow. (Those in bold face type are on the ballot.)

• Yvonne Barnes of Cary, a newcomer
• Sue Draffkorn of Wonder Lake
• Randy Donley of Union
• Ed Dvorak of Crystal Lake
• John Hammerand of Wonder Lake
• Mary McCann of Woodstock, just elected
• Lyn Orphal of Crystal Lake
• Nick Provenzano of McHenry
• Daniel Ryan of Huntley, just elected
• Dan Shea of Fox River Grove
• Mary Lou Zierer of Marengo

Newly elected Democratic Party member Jim Kennedy of Lake in the Hills joined this majority of voting Republicans (two were absent) to kill the cat tax.

Get down, Catkins. I’m writing a story.

Don’t worry, you’re safe now from the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax Collectors.

Relax.

I’ll scratch your chest and neck later.

Those voting in favor of the Cat Tax ordinance, which would require rabies inoculation, plus the fee (which even a supporter slipped and called a “cat tax”), couched their arguments primarily toward being fair to both dog and cat owners, plus getting ahead of the spread of cat rabies, which is in Pennsylvania.

Those voting in favor of imposing the Cat Tax Hike were all Republicans. Their names follow (those on the ballot shown in bold face type):

• Ken Koehler, County Board Chairman, Crystal Lake
• Marie Chmiel of Crystal Lake
• Mary Donner of Crystal Lake, just elected
• John Heisler of Crystal Lake
• Tina Hill of Woodstock
• John Jung of Woodstock
• Anna May Miller of Cary
• Virginia Peschke of Woodstock
• Sandra Salgado of McHenry
• Barbara Wheeler of Crystal Lake

= = = = =
Here, minus Chairman Ken Koehler, are those who attended the Cat Tax County Board meeting. (Click to enlarge.)

Koehler is pictured in profile on top, while Lyn Orphal, the Crystal Laker who made the motion to kill the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax is just below.

Keely cat is shown relaxing after the death of the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax Collector ordinance.

Remember hearing about how forest fires sometimes jump fire breaks that are intended to contain them.

That may have happened late last week with the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water’s conflict of interest ordinance.

Originally presented to the McHenry County Board in December, the draft ordinance was shipped off to the State’s Attorney’s Office for review.

The review came back with some good points, along with some trivial ones.

And the number of county board candidates voluntarily filing the form kept increasing. Here’s who have filed so far:

• District 1 – None
• District 2 – All but Ken Koehler, that is, Sandra DePaul, Donna Kurtz, Ellen Brady Mueller and Lyn Orphal
• District 3 – Everyone of them! Veronica Armstrong, Nick Provenzano, Craig Steagall, Barbara Wheeler and Karen Tynis
• District 4 – Sandra Salgado and Jeff Thirtyacre (Democrat)
• District 5 – Tina Hill, John Jung and Frank Wedig (Green).  Incumbent Jim Kennedy and challenger Dave Frederick have not yet filed the form.
• District 6 – All but incumbent Dan Ryan, that is, Richard Draper, Diane Evertsen, Mary McCann and Vic Narusis.

Since there is no deadline, candidates or public officials can still download the conflict of interest form, fill it out and send it in.

Indeed ALAW did not even ask candidates to fill out the ethics form; it did have a questionnaire on issued of interest, however, the results of which can be found here for the twelve county board candidates who completed it.

As you can see more candidates filled out the ethics statement than filled out the issue questionnaire.

Along the way, every candidate for sheriff has answered the conflict of interest questionnaire.

And, two incumbent county board members not up for election have completed it. One, Republican Virginia Peschke, the other, Democrat Paula Yensen.

Crystal Lake Councilwoman Carolyn Schofield

Late last week, however, the first municipal official sent in answers.

She is Crystal Lake City Councilwoman Carolyn Schofield.

What’s that all about?

She just got elected.

Does this portend an issue in the Crystal Lake city elections next spring?

Will Schofield introduce an ordinance to make completing the conflict of interest form a requirement for elected and appointed city officials, as well as city consultants?

Unlike the County of McHenry, the City of Crystal Lake is a Home Rule unit of government.

What’s that mean?

It means the Crystal Lake City Council and other Home Rule cities have more power than county government.

The standard explanation of what a Home Rule government can do is anything the General Assembly doesn’t say it can’t do.

If Schofield, the newest member of the city council, follows decides to make a variation of the ALAW ordinance mandatory in Crystal Lake, the debate could turn quite interesting.

Since city Councilwoman Ellen Brady Mueller is running for county board in District 2, she might get elected. She certainly is in the top three in the sign war.

If elected, I imagine she would resign from the council. If so, a replacement would have to be selected.

Might the council require applicants for the possible vacancy to answer the conflict of interest questions first?

Whether or not the city council passed such a requirement, any council member could let it be known that he or she would not support a candidate who did not fill out the form.

Yes, ALAW has started something that could get very, very interesting.

Zane Seipler

So far thirteen candidates for the McHenry County Board have filed the conflict of interest forms that the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water have suggested be applied to all county officials.

Yesterday, Zane Seipler, who is challenging three-term incumbent Keith Nygren for Sheriff, filed his form.

“I have nothing to hide. Literally, nothing at all!”

he emailed me with his filled out form.

This marks the first time that the issue of ethics raised by ALAW has reached the level of offices all of us in McHenry County get to vote on.

Two additional county board members filed as well.

They are incumbent Sandy Salgado, who is running unopposed along with incumbent Pete Merkel, in District 3’s Republican primary election. Their Democratic opponent Jeff Thirtyacre was one of the first to file.

Thirtyacre sent me this email:

Jeff Thirtyace

ALAW’s request for info should be the beginning of cleaning out the people that cause harm to our County.

We need this kind of openness with all our Government the time for dishonesty and Greed has to come to an end.

And This needs to go for all government starting with Township and School Districts and their Boards,also Hospital Boards where ever there is politics it should be in place so that we don’t have another situation like the one we just had with our former Governor.

I believe we need a States Attorneys office that doesn’t work for just one party it work for the people.

And a Sheriffs Department that’s officers care about all of our County not just where they live.

Besides Salgado, District 6 Republican candidate Richard Draper of Wonder Lake has filed his questionnaire.  He is the third in this most rural district to have filed the ALAW questionnaire.  Preceding him by three days were challenger Dianne Evertson and incumbent Mary McCann.  Incumbent Dab Ryan has not yet filed the form.

Below you can click on the forms that have been filed with ALAW or get one to fill out or go here. Look at one and you can see, for most people, it’s not a tough from to fill out.  Note the dates on which the forms were filed.

Attachments (14)

• DISCLOSURE FORM FROM ORDINANCE.doc – on Jan 7, 2010 1:33 PM by A LAW (version 1)
  25k Download
• Disclosure – Armstrong.pdf – on Jan 12, 2010 3:08 PM by A LAW (version 1)
  1098k View Download
• Disclosure -Draper.pdf – on Jan 11, 2010 9:37 PM by A LAW (version 1)
  951k View Download
• Disclosure -Evertsen.pdf – on Jan 8, 2010 1:02 PM by A LAW (version 1)
  9k View Download
• Disclosure -Hill.pdf – on Jan 10, 2010 5:17 PM by A LAW (version 1)
  21k View Download
• Disclosure – Kurtz.pdf – on Jan 5, 2010 4:38 PM by A LAW (version 1)
  23k View Download
• Disclosure – McCann.pdf – on Jan 8, 2010 5:26 PM by A LAW (version 1)
  21k View Download
• Disclosure – Provenzo.pdf – on Jan 8, 2010 1:02 PM by A LAW (version 1)
  24k View Download
• Disclosure-Salgado.pdf – on Jan 12, 2010 10:20 PM by A LAW (version 1)
  125k View Download
• Disclosure-Seipler.PDF – on Jan 12, 2010 10:20 PM by A LAW (version 1)
  22k View Download
• Disclosure-Steagall.pdf – on Jan 9, 2010 10:10 PM by A LAW (version 3 / earlier versions)
  586k View Download
• Disclosure- Thirtyacre.PDF – on Jan 10, 2010 9:35 AM by A LAW (version 1)
  43k View Download
• Disclosure-Wedig.pdf – on Jan 9, 2010 10:15 PM by A LAW (version 1)
  91k View Download
• Disclosure -Wheeler.pdf – on Jan 9, 2010 10:14 PM by A LAW (version 1)
  21k View Download

OK. I was wrong.

I predicted last night that the McHenry County Board would approved what proponents insist on calling video poker.

But, this morning social conservatives on the board pulled off a 13-10-1 victory.

That was with the help of all three Democrats on the county board. (Counting only Republicans, the vote would have been tied 10-10.)

Lake in the Hills member Paula Yensen has personal knowledge of how devastating gambling can be to a family.

Patriots United video slot machine debate panels, ban proponents on the right, opponents on the left.

Perhaps also influencing the vote was the leadership that Democratic Party State Rep. Jack Franks has taken on the issue. He attended a Patriots United debate on the subject after returning from one of this fall’s veto sessions.

All Republicans representing McHenry County in the Illinois General Assembly except State Senator Dan Duffy, that is, State Representatives Mike Tryon and Mark Beaubien, plus State Senator Pam Althoff, voted supported video slot machines.

Voting in favor of a ban of the video gambling machines in unincorporated areas were the following, who are grouped by county board district (those up for election this year are show in bold face type):

District 1

• Yvonne Barnes

District 2

• Jim Heisler

District 3

• Ed Dvorak (retiring)
• Kathy Bergan Schmidt
• Barbara Wheeler

District 4

• Sue Draffkorn
• John Hammerand
• Sandy Salgado

District 5

• Paula Yensen
• Jim Kennedy
• Virginia Peschke

District 6

• Mary McCann
• Ersel Schuster

Voting against the ban, thus in favor of expanding gambling were the following:

District 1

• Anna May Miller
• Bob Bless
• Marc Munaretto

District 2

• Scott Breeden
• Ken Koehler
• Lyn Orphal

District 3

• Mary Donner

District 4

• Pete Merkel

District 5

• Tina Hill

District 6

• Dan Ryan

Abstaining from the vote was District 6 Republican Randy Donley.

A month ago the board voted against holding an advisory referendum on the issue. The vote was 13-11-1.

The thirteen board members who voted against allowing their constituents to vote on the issue follow:

• Yvonne Barnes (R-Cary)

• Sue Draffkorn (R-Wonder Lake)

• Paula Yensen (D-Lake in the Hills)

• Ed Dvorak (R-Crystal Lake)

• Jim Heisler (R-Crystal Lake)

• Ken Koehler (R-Crystal Lake)

• Mary McCann (R-Woodstock)

• Pete Merkel (R-McHenry)

• Virginia Peschke (R-Bull Valley)

• Sandy Salgado (R-McHenry)

• Kathy Bergan Schmidt (D-Crystal Lake)

• Barb Wheeler (R-Crystal Lake)

Voting in favor of an advisory referendum were

• Bob Bless (R-Fox River Grove)

• Scott Breeden (R-Lakewood)

• Mary Donner (R-Crystal Lake)

• John Hammerand (R-Wonder Lake)

• Tina Hill (R-Woodstock)

• Jim Kennedy (D-Lake in the Hills)

• Anna May Miller (R-Cary)

• Marc Munaretto (R-Algonquin)

• Lyn Orphal (R-Crystal Lake)

• Dan Ryan (R-Huntley)

Members of the Operating Engineers Local 150 lobbied vigorously against the gambling ban, arguing for the jobs its proceeds would finance.

This is the fourth article on Tuesday’s gambling debate at the McHenry County Board. Click to find who voted how and for Part 1 and Part 2.

Having failed to alter the agenda to allow a Tuesday up or down county board vote on video gambling, Nunda Township’s gambling opponent Barb Wheeler next sought to table the referendum resolution.

This motion was seconded by Ersel Schuster.

As it sat on the agenda, the outright ban was to be considered for 30 days and voted upon the first Tuesday in December.

But that rule can be waived.

Tina Hill asked if the committee was “going to ask to waive the 30-day review (for the gambling ban resolution).”

License and Liquor Committee Chairman John Hammerand related the history of the committee discussion. It started with talk of a ban, then “we decided it would be nice to have the people involved in the decision.”

He said he wanted the county board to have the opportunity to be a leader in the communities, so that municipalities could put similar referendums on the ballot on Feb. 2nd.

“I certainly support the referendum,” he said.

“It’s not my goal to waive the rules,” Hammerand continued.

Cary’s Anna May Miller took the delegate approach:

“I would like to move forward to allowing people with the county weigh in.”

Woodstock’s Hill wondered why there was all the fuss. She listed the number of people in each county board district who would be eligible to vote, 47,923 in all, while there are 200,228 registered voters in McHenry County. That’s not quite 25% of the total living outside of municipalities.

• District 1 – 4,034
• District 2 – 2,340
• District 3 – 11,214
• District 4 – 12,448
• District 5 – 3,254
• District 6 – 14,633

Huntley’s Dan Ryan pointed toward the moral aspect of the issue. He said there was no question from the fiscal point of view:

“Yes, we want the money.”

Ryan voted for a referendum, assuming I would guess that people know what their moral stand on the issue is.

The cost of the referendum also came up. Just under $18,000.

Yvonne Barnes of Cary came down on the trustee side of representation:

“I’m opposed to postponing the vote (on the gambling ban).”

Hammerand re-entered the debate:

“All I’m asking is to have status quo until we have a referendum and let them speak.”

Hill attempted to clarify what would be voted upon. Hammerand seemed to say that a vote on both Tuesday would be acceptable.

Pete Merkel, up for re-election in an unopposed McHenry-Richmond-Burton Township primary, took the trustee approach. He told of two advisory referendums on hot issues which a park board and city council decided to put on the ballot in an attempt to reach consensus.

The votes were 54-46 and 49-51.

No consensus resulted, he noted, supporting the “no advisory referendum” side of the issue.

“That’s why we get paid to make the tough decisions,” Merkel added.

“I’ll bet we’re going to be back here at the end of February with a whole roomful again and we’ll be having the same discussion.

“I think it is a cop out.

“Do we want to do that (have a referendum) with the 2030 Plan, with the public safety building?”

Merkel then pointed out that it was a social issue and questioned whether a “low turnout” primary election would yield a valid reading of public opinion.

Hedging his bet a bit, Merkel concluded,

“I don’t want to say, ‘We don’t want to listen to the people.’”

His vote, nevertheless, was against holding the advisory referendum.

“I totally agree with Mr. Merkel’s position,” Seneca Township board member Ersel Schuster added.

She remembered an advisory referendum that received 80% approval, but was ignored. The subject was whether the county board should require a three-quarters vote to approve conditional use permits.

Bull Valley’s Virginia Peschke agreed.

“I think the referendums should be reserved for asking people if (they want higher taxes).

“This is just government cowardice.”

Sandra Salgado, who like Merkel has not primary opponent, also took the “we can make the decision without voter input.”

“I can’t tell you how aggravated I was when legislators stood up here and said, ‘(You’re) going to make the hard decision.’”

“Obviously, I’m ready to make the tough decision,” Wheeler added.

“You don’t want the people to say you don’t want to hear them. (Let’s) not put the burden on our voters. We are elected to make these tough decisions.”

Also speaking in opposition to a referendum was Yvonne Barnes of Cary.

“I believe as elected officials it is our responsibility to make these decisions.

“This issue affects people throughout the area (county). An advisory referendum does not include (those in incorporated areas) in making the decision.”

Merkel then referred to the provision in the legislation that allows 25% of the voters to petition for a binding referendum.

Hammerand pointed out how extraordinary high that 25% signature requirement is.

“If it is (for) the board to wash out this referendum, I have no objection.”

He then attempted to amend the resolution motion to require a county board vote after the February 2nd primary election.

Tina Hill seconded the motion, “even though we’re probably on different sides of the issue.”

The attempt failed on a voice vote.

Maybe it was the $20,000 salary, plus full and generous health coverage, but whatever the motivation, all the incumbents but District 4 incumbents Sandy Salgado and Pete Merkel, both from McHenry, drew challengers.

Twenty-three people are vying for twelve spots on the fall ballot.

Thirteen are women; ten men.

In District 1, incumbents Anna May Miller and Yvonne Barnes are being challenged by Cary’s Bob Nowak.

In District 2, incumbents Ken Koehler and Lyn Orphal will face not only MCC Board member Donna Kurtz, but Crystal Lake City Councilwoman Ellen Brady Mueller, but also Sandra DePaul.

Mueller likes to be last on the ballot, but she didn’t wait long enough this afternoon. DePaul gets the coveted spot, worth an extra 5% in a six-person race, probably less in this five-person race.

In District 3, newly energized entrepreneur Craig Steagall, who lives just north of Crystal Lake will take on incumbent Barb Wheeler, former county board member Nick Provenzano and newcomers Veronica Armstrong and Karen Tynis.

Steagall is known for his full-page ads in the Northwest Herald in opposition to Metra’s purchase of 17 acres next to the old 84 Lumber (new Alexander’s Lumber) on Country Club Road.

Those ads have attacked McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler. Less well known is that he put together the people who built Prairie Ridge High School’s soccer field.

In District 5, Dave Frederick filed his nominating papers. The veterinarian will be running against incumbent Tina Hill and former county board member John Jung. The announced candidacy of John Vrett did not materialize.

In District 6, incumbent Mary McCann filed her petitions Monday. She joins incumbent Dan Ryan and challengers Richard Draper of Wonder Lake, Dianne Evertsen of Hartland Township and Victor Naursis of Woodstock.