“First Come, First Served” Proves Bad Strategy for Awarding Stimulus Bond Authority

Finance Committee members considering award of Stimulus Bond authority. Seen from left to right are Tina Hill, John Hammerand, Dan Ryan and Lyn Orphal. Chairman Marc Munaretto is to Orphal's left.

The McHenry County Board’s Finance Committee decided to award millions of dollars of Federal Stimulus Bond authority on a “first come, first served” basis.

The first two private entities in line were sports related.

One was Mark Houser’s EquityOne’s baseball stadium, to be located in Woodstock after the McHenry County College Board’s efforts to provide taxpayer-backed bonds failed.

The second was a new proposal for a McHenry County SportsPlex located in Lakewood.

Both received support from the municipalities in question.

But, in taking a “first come, first served” approach, along with the attendant publicity, the county board was telling other potential job creators they need not apply.

The SportsPlex' field layout. Click to enlarge.

Last Friday Lakewood Village President Erin Smith issued a press release announcing that the financing could not be obtained in time to meet the December 31st deadline imposed by Federal law.

And, so, McHenry County lost the opportunity to see the money used for job creation.

While the SportsPlex did not drop out early enough to allow the subsidized interest loans to be re-directed, the baseball stadium did.

Sage Products, a provide job creator, got money to put on a addition.

One can only wonder if there were other successful manufacturers in McHenry County who were deterred from applying by the “First come, first served” loan allocation approach.


Comments

“First Come, First Served” Proves Bad Strategy for Awarding Stimulus Bond Authority — 1 Comment

  1. So, someone refresh my memory, did the Board let the SportsPlex folks keep moving the line in the sand deadline (and missing it) over and over again until it was too darned late to have a plan B/C/D ?

    Nah, that didn’t happen did it?

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