Republicans in the CL Independence Day Parade

Previously, McHenry County Blog has written about the turnout for GOP McHenry County State’s Attorney candidate Patrick Kenneally. Now, let’s look at the other Republicans in Crystal Lake’s Independence Day Parade. My first shot was of supporters of State Senator … Continue reading

Committee Unanimously Approves End to County Board IMRF Pensions

Every member of the Human Resources Committee voted to abolish Illinois Municipal Retirement Pensions for County Board members starting in December. Outside the meeting members expressed the opinion that this will make the IMRF requirement for work logs go away. … Continue reading

D155 Citizens Think Poorly of Bonus for Superintendent, Bleacher Suit Cited

Seven citizens delivered messages to the Crystal Lake District 155 High School Board Tuesday night before it went behind closed doors to evaluate the year’s performance of Superintendent Johnnie Thomas. A suggestion for more transparency came from McHenry County Board … Continue reading

Valley Hi Consultant’s Report

Have to say I was disappointed with the Wipfli LLP Market Study Report presented at the joint meeting of the Valley Hi Operating Committee and Public Health and Human Services Committee. From the hour or so presentation and discussion I … Continue reading

County Board Blanches Open Meetings Act Suit Boil

Using a cost-benefit approach, an 18-4 vote of the McHenry County Board settled a suit brought by Local 150 of the International Union of Operating Engineers over an alleged violation of the Open Meetings Act when the majority of a … Continue reading

County Board Vents at Jack Franks and IMRF Exec.

The Thursday night meeting of the McHenry County Board consisted mostly of criticizing Democratic Party State Rep. and the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund. Executive Director Louis W. Kosiba had been invited to the meeting. No one used the word “pawn” to … Continue reading

Demetri Makes Fourth Mailing

In the fourth mailing on behalf of his candidacy for Circuit Court Judge, Demetri Tsilimigras unrolls a list of endorsements. On the address side, he promises to “adhere to the highest ethical standards and enforce the law equally–without prejudice, bias … Continue reading

Mailed Sample Ballot Arrives

I haven’t noted this year that the post office continues to play the role of precinct worker. Think of how much dedicated manpower that candidates would have to have if all the post cards and other literature you receive in … Continue reading

Debating Ersel Schuster’s Animal Control Privatization Idea

While she isn’t mentioned by name, District 6 McHenry County Board candidate Ersel Schuster’s proposal to look at privatizing the Animal Control function received much discussion at the February 10th meeting of the Public Health & Human Services Committee meeting. … Continue reading

Dan Wilbrandt Fundraiser

While your McHenry County Blogster cowered from the cold last night putting up banner ads for Circuit Court candidate Demetri Tsilimigras and State’s Attorney candidate Patrick Kenneally, a Friend of McHenry County Blog was taking photos and gathering the information … Continue reading

Keeping the One-Sixth of Prisoners Who Are Mentally Ill Out of McHenry County Jail

The minutes of the January 13, 2016, McHenry County Public Health Committee dipped into the mental health problems of those ending up in the County Jail. The statistics for last year show there were 6,200 individuals detained in our jail … Continue reading

Township Consolidation Dead – Updated with Public Comment

Led by McHenry County Board Chairman Joe Gottemoller, thirteen members tacked the lid on the coffin of the township consolidation movement. During the lengthy public comment period, in which the opponents of township consolidation dominated the podium, County Board members … Continue reading

Prim Gets 6-Months to See if Fed Jailing Worthwhile

After cutting jail expenses since he took office in December, McHenry County Sheriff Bill Prim asked County Board approval to continue housing ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and U.S. Marshal detainees and prisoners for another six months. Wonder Lake’s John … Continue reading

Valley Hi’s Future

Below are the August 4th County Board minutes of the discussion of hiring a consultant to made recommendations on the future of Valley Hi. The County nursing home, an enterprise account (meaning it is separate from other parts of McHenry … Continue reading

No Cost-Benefit Analysis on Township Consolidation, Just Data Dump – Part 7

The McHenry County Board’s Township Consolidation Task Force met the Tuesday before last and for the past week I have been trying to let people know what happened. Yesterday, a bit of the meeting, which was fairly boring, compared to … Continue reading

No Cost-Benefit Analysis on Township Consolidation, Just Data Dump – Part 6

After all the public comment, Township Consolidation Task Force Chairwoman Carolyn Schofield pointed out that at the first meeting a lot of questions had been asked, but not a lot of answers supplied. She told of two meetings that people … Continue reading

No Cost-Benefit Analysis on Township Consolidation, Just Data Dump – Part 1

The Township Consolidation Task Force met Tuesday for the second time. Again, there was no presentation of how taxpayers might save money if townships were merged other than the salaries and benefits of any elected township officials. In short, no … Continue reading

CL’s Independence Day Parade – 2

We continue today looking at things political in Crystal Lake’s July 4th Parade–held on July 5th. McHenry County Board member Donna Kurtz rode on her Kurtzmobile. Her mother, former State Rep. and now District 155 High School Board member Rosemary … Continue reading

CL’s Independence Day Parade – 1

Yesterday we looked behind the scenes at political parade participants lining up. Today we’ll look at what was seen. City officials were riding on a float near the beginning. Unfortunately, I was too close to get the whole float. A … Continue reading