McHenry County Blog

The Moore family home.

There were plenty of political motives to change the longstanding agreement that Huntley 158 had which allowed Linda Moore and her family to live in the house she grew up in.

Linda’s family sold the school district the property that Huntley High was on and retained the right to live in the tiny house on the opposite side of Harmony Road. The house was 1,200 square feet; the hen house 350 sq. ft.

Linda Moore ran for school board. The political knives of existing school board members
came out.

She ran with Aileen Seedorf, who was the top vote getter. Board President Mike Skala narrowly lost (13 votes) to his running mate Jim Carlin. Linda Moore ran just one vote behind.

Skala’s friends on the board were ticked.

David and Linda Moore talk with former school board member Glen Stewart after he was appointed Chief Operating Officer of Huntley School District 158 by his fellow school board members.

Superintendent John Burkey appears to have begun a mission to generate negative publicity about Moore being in the house rent free and how this somehow was so terrible or unfair. Burkey certainly seemed glad to allow negative publicity and administrator remarks be directed at the Moores.

Apparently honoring an existing legal agreement is subject to interpretation when you have “free” legal services of the government at one’s disposal.

The Moore family farm barn and silo.

The district insisted on charging rent. The Moore’s simply moved almost next door, to another house they own.

Now the school district is about to authorize tearing the tiny house down, along with the hen house and barn.

The demolition cost will be over $44,000.

The district could have avoided spending the money.

But that would have meant allowing the Moore family to live in the tiny house. The Moores were responsible for the upkeep of the house and maintenance of the grounds. An old drafty house is expensive to heat in the winter. Paying what rent the district wanted made sense for one year as a transition, but it wasn’t economical to stay.

The kitchen was bright.

School board members knew that. They also knew it would be expensive to tear down the buildings. At the time, board member Larry Snow told the board that it would cost at least $20,000 to tear down the building and the board majority scoffed that it could cost this much.

More than $44,000 for demolition will be likely approved at July’s board meeting.

Not a penny of which, of course, will go toward improving the educational services of the students.

Johler Demolition will get to keep the boards after tearing down one of Huntley’s historic
barns. I wonder if paneling basements in barn boards is still in style.

School board politics and not wanting the Moore’s to live in the family house means one of
Huntley historic barns will get torn down.

The demolition bids can be found on page 8 at this link.

No thought of allowing a teacher who was starting out to rent the home, I guess.

= = = = =
Starting in 1842, the Williams family lived on the farm it purchased for $75. In 1942 Linda Moore’s grandfather, Louis Borhart brought the farm. The family moved next door two yea+rs ago.

In February, I noted that the home northeast corner of South Walkup and Paddock Street was being torn down.

I don’t think a tree was left standing on the lot.

Now a foundation is being prepared for a new house.

There used to be a rundown house on west side of Route 47 near the intersection of Interstate 55 near Dwight.

My father used to see structures like this and observe that it was listed by Century 19, a play on Century 21.

When I was on my way to Bob Wargaski’s Pigapalooza May 3, I saw this farm building that certainly could be listed by the same real estate firm.

It was southwest of the intersection of North Darrell and West Case Roads.

Tear downs on Brink Street occurred while I was in high school during the late 1950′s.

My friend Doug Starritt’s home was across from the current drive-through facility of the Home State Bank. It went early. They moved to Dole Avenue close to the First United Methodist Church both of our families attended.

But that tear down was for commercial purposes.

Last week I saw a tear down of a little home on the northeast corner of South Walkup and Paddock Street.

Although I thought the city had an ordinance against cutting fairly large trees as a result of the developer of the Walter E Smithe Furniture store having chopped down several mature walnut trees, the residential lot appeared to have been clear cut, except maybe for the evergreen on the south side.

It will be interesting to see what kind of house is constructed on the property.

If you click the bottom picture, you can see lots of tree trunks on the ground.

Tear downs on Brink Street occurred while I was in high school during the late 1950′s.

My friend Doug Starritt’s home was across from the current drive-through facility of the Home State Bank. It went early. They moved to Dole Avenue close to the First United Methodist Church both of our families attended.

But that tear down was for commercial purposes.

Last week I saw a tear down of a little home on the northeast corner of South Walkup and Paddock Street.

Although I thought the city had an ordinance against cutting fairly large trees as a result of the developer of the Walter E Smithe Furniture store having chopped down several mature walnut trees, the residential lot appeared to have been clear cut, except maybe for the evergreen on the south side.

It will be interesting to see what kind of house is constructed on the property.

If you click the bottom picture, you can see lots of tree trunks on the ground.