From McHenry County Board Chairman Mike Buehler:
2025 State of the County Address
Good morning. It’s once again an honor and a privilege to present
the annual State of the County Address for 2025 to the McHenry County Board and the people of McHenry County we serve.
This is the fifth State of the County Address I have given since first taking office in 2021 – having four of them under my belt offers the gift of hindsight when it comes to everything we’ve accomplished together.
As one example of many, I again come to you from the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office Regional Training Center, in Cary.
We purchased the old Village Hall from the village for one dollar and renovated it into a much-needed training facility for our sheriff’s deputies, and law enforcement and first responders countywide.
This setting is the perfect backdrop for my message for 2025 – collaboration, fiscal prudence, and results.
We work together, we’re smart with our money and investments, and we continue to see the positive fruits of our labor.
I would like to start my address by once again welcoming our new elected officials who were sworn in at the start of December:
County Board members Patrick Sullivan, John Collins, Deena Krieger and Paul Thomas, and our new State’s Attorney, Randi Freese.
And just introducing these new and fresh faces gives me the opportunity to tout one of our many 2024 achievements.
Last fall, we opened the new McHenry County Election Center, giving our County Clerk’s Office a dedicated facility to run our elections.
For too long, County Clerk Joe Tirio and his talented and dedicated staff were constrained by the available space at the County Administration Building, and his office partnered with us to find a solution.
We leased and renovated 16,500 square feet of existing space, saving significant money over building a brand-new facility – and we put it to the test right away.
More than 80% of McHenry County’s more than 200,000 registered voters cast ballots in the Nov. 5 presidential election, and let me tell you, this election ran very smoothly.
A small investment in a new Election Center reaped big rewards.
The 2024 election also gave McHenry County’s voters a chance to reduce County Government’s share of their property-tax bill.
The County Board put the power to lower property taxes into the public’s hands by placing a referendum on the March primary ballot asking whether to replace the property-tax levy to fund mental health with a quarter-percent sales tax.
Voters approved the measure, and McHenry County subsequently eliminated the levy, bringing measurable property-tax relief this year.
While the initial revenue from the sales tax has not yet met projections, the McHenry County Mental Health Board in charge of disbursing funding to mental and developmental health agencies is in a much better position to fund mental health needs.
McHenry County’s sales tax revenue historically increases year over year, while County Government’s share of property-tax revenue has historically decreased.
And because there was a period during which the Mental Health Board was collecting both the property-tax levy and the sales tax, they have built a substantial reserve with which to fund their agencies until sales tax revenues catch up with projections.
While it is vital that County government seeks to cut costs and lower taxes wherever possible, the indisputable fact is that nothing contributes to tax relief more than robust economic growth.
As our commercial and industrial base grows, the property tax burden is lessened. New, quality jobs are created, more money is spent, and more tax revenue is received.
In 2024, McHenry County made a number of huge strides toward growing our economy.
It practically warrants an address all its own.
At the end of May, Mark Piekos took the helm as executive director of the McHenry County Economic Development Corporation, injecting new energy and tremendous knowledge into our partner organization.
A lifelong Woodstock resident, Mark was president of a small business for nine years before becoming the manager of the Illinois Small Business Development Center at McHenry County College, while always finding the time to serve on local business and civic boards.
He knows what startup businesses need to grow, and what established businesses need to thrive – and this, combined with his lifetime familiarity with McHenry County, makes him a perfect fit.
Mark hit the ground running. One of his first priorities was making sure that job creators knew that McHenry County is a great place to start or expand a business, and he worked with County
Government to create Rise and Thrive, a five-part video series showcasing McHenry County’s tremendous assets for employers
- you can watch these videos on the County website at www.mchenrycountyil.gov.
The videos highlight our manufacturing potential, the awesome infrastructure system giving us access to worldwide markets, our growing tourism and leisure sector, and our unmatched workforce development network.
When it comes to workforce development, McHenry County took a giant step forward last September with the opening of the new Foglia Center for Advanced Technology and Innovation at McHenry County College.
This state-of-the-art facility, featuring 45,000 square feet of open-concept class space outfitted with the newest equipment and technology, specializes in teaching skilled trades and innovation, giving McHenry County manufacturers a steady pipeline of trained workers, as well as another place for their current employees to learn new skills.
McHenry County College has long been an integral partner when it comes to job training and economic development, and 2024 was their year to shine – and in more ways than just the Foglia enter.
The center was one of the first recipients of a grant through our Advance McHenry County initiative, which invested almost $30 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding directly into thoughtful and impactful programs that would tangibly improve our communities.
The center was one of the first recipients of a grant through our Advance McHenry County initiative, which invested almost $30 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding directly into thoughtful and impactful programs that would tangibly improve our communities.
It was just over three years ago, in 2022, that the County Board allocated MCC $1.69 million to cover more than half the cost of the Foglia Center’s equipment.
Later that year, another $717,300 Advance McHenry County grant to MCC and the Manufacturing Pathways Consortium funded a three-year program partnering area high school students curious about manufacturing careers with manufacturers offering paid summer internships.
A total of 281 job placements took place with 33 area manufacturers over the three-year period than ended last summer, and more than a few of those students went on to full-time jobs with those same employers.
It’s my pleasure to report that this successful program is continuing.
The Illinois Community College Board has agreed to fund it going forward – in fact, the application period for this summer began earlier this month.
The Foglia Center was MCC’s second ribbon-cutting in as many months that will turbo-charge our ability to train the next generation of skilled workers.
On August 1 st of last year, the college welcomed students to its new University Center.
Located next to Woodstock Square, the facility allows students to pursue four-year college degrees, right here in McHenry County, from NIU, SIU Carbondale, Aurora University and Roosevelt University.
And there’s more – the building is also home to the MCC Catalyst Campus, which hosts the Career Spark Center to help people launch and advance their careers, and the Talent Impact Center to help employers train their workers with new skill sets to help them strengthen their workforces.
For now, it is also home to the Illinois Small Business Development Center; in the coming months, it will relocate to the MCC main campus, right along with the MCEDC, which also moved to the MCC main campus.
Two of our premier organizations dedicated to helping our businesses grow and thrive will therefore be next to one another, partnering and pooling their resources to take their missions to the next level.
As long as we’re talking about the Catalyst Campus, it hosted in October the first meeting of the newly resurrected Economic Development Growth Experts, or EDGE, Group.
The group is made up of Chamber of Commerce presidents, municipal economic development leaders, and other major workforce contributors, with the goal of advancing and coordinating regional economic growth.
The group had stagnated, but is now reconvened and meeting quarterly to offer sage counsel and ideas – thank you to Mark, and to our County Coordinator Chalen Daigle, for getting the group back together.
Talking about working together to grow the economy for everyone is a great place to wrap up talk about jobs and the economy.
More than two years ago, McHenry County agreed to join the Greater Chicagoland Economic Partnership, along with Cook County, the collar counties, and the City of Chicago, to pool our world-class resources together to attract business and investment for the advancement of all.
We have now entered the third and final year of our agreement, and GCEP’s leadership, along with their partners at World Business Chicago, are hard at work crafting the next phase of bringing the businesses of the world to McHenry County and the rest of GCEP’s member governments.
I’m enthusiastic about the opportunities this will present.
As I said in my introduction, collaboration and fiscal prudence get results.
But as important as growing the economy and jobs is to McHenry County’s future, it is equally paramount to work together to improve the health and welfare of the people of McHenry County.
It’s not enough to create great jobs in McHenry County.
We also have to do our best to ensure that our workers can afford to live in McHenry County.
Last summer, we reached a significant milestone in pursuit of this goal.
In July, we joined the City of McHenry, and our partners at the Housing Opportunity Development Corporation, Northpointe Development Corporation, and the Illinois Housing Development Authority, in breaking ground on the Taylor Place Apartments.
When completed, Taylor Place Apartments will create 50 housing units available to individuals and families whose incomes fall within 30 and 80 percent of the county median.
These units will include energy-efficient appliances and wireless Internet, and the common amenities will include a fitness center, an outdoor play area and a community garden. In yet another shining example of collaboration and public-private partnership, we contributed $800,000 in Advance McHenry County funding to this project, and helped secure with another $1.2 million from the federal government.
As I had said when I had the honor of speaking at the groundbreaking, we’re taking a small but very important step toward ensuring that the workers who make McHenry County go – the workers who patrol our streets, educate our children, grow our food, staff our businesses, and manufacture goods for customers around the world – can pay their rent or mortgage, and enrich our communities with their presence.
The availability of workforce housing in McHenry County is an issue we take very seriously – and Taylor Place wasn’t the only step we took in 2024.
Several weeks before we broke ground in McHenry, the Workforce Housing Workgroup we created in 2023 released its findings, which conclude that McHenry County faces a shortage of housing that’s affordable for jobs located here.
McHenry County is the best place to live, work and raise a family, and we’re going to continue to work hard to ensure that our workforce has quality housing options right here, close to their jobs.
The Taylor Place Apartments are just one of the many ways that we wisely leveraged our Advance McHenry County funding to promote the health and well-being of our residents.
In October, our McHenry County Department of Health cut the ribbon on a new mobile health clinic, paid for in large part by a $450,733 Advance McHenry County grant, with available balances covering the remainder. This clinic will address long-standing challenges of healthcare access for people challenged by socioeconomic status or lack of transportation by bringing health care directly to their communities.
The clinic will provide immunizations, health screenings, WIC assistance and more.
Through Advance McHenry County funding, the Department of Health also created a Community Health Grant program to fund community health efforts, and allocated a total of more than $1.2 million to
- Home of the Sparrow,
- NAMI McHenry County,
- the Youth and Family Center,
- Cycling Without Age,
- Veterans Path to Hope,
- Family Health Partnership Clinic,
- the Community Health Partnership of Illinois,
- Cultivating Health Ministries, Advocate Health Care,
- New Directions Addiction Recovery Services, and
- WARP Corps.
These grant awards are making a direct and meaningful impact on programs addressing
- homelessness,
- domestic violence,
- suicide,
- mental health,
- senior care,
- veterans in need,
- diabetes,
- healthy eating, and
- substance abuse.
And when it comes to the scourge of substance abuse, McHenry County has been tackling it head-on, from the aforementioned grant to our State’s Attorney’s Office’s exemplary efforts to ensure that the pharmaceutical companies that helped create the ongoing opioid crisis help reimburse our costs for the damage they caused.
Last August, McHenry County Coroner Michael Rein took the initiative to help by working with a private company to place a drug disposal bin in the Annex A building where the Coroner’s Office is located. People can dispose of their unused medications safely and anonymously, and this service comes at no cost to the county and its taxpayers.
Given that the US Department of Health and Human Services estimates that about three out of four heroin users get their first experience with opioids from the medicine cabinets of family and friends, expanding citizens’ ability to safely dispose of unused drugs is an important part of this fight.
While I’m talking about working together, I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge other McHenry County elected officials who have come together to help advance our goals.
Since taking office as Treasurer, Donna Kurtz has worked hard to make sure that property owners know about the many exemptions that exist to lessen the blow of property taxes – she is currently holding workshops countywide to educate homeowners, and to tell seniors about the state’s Senior Citizen Real Estate Tax Deferral
Program. Last August, she teamed up with County Clerk and Recorder Joe Tirio to hold a workshop on exemptions, ways to pay, and how to protect their property deeds.
Thank you to Mike, Donna and Joe for being important players on our great McHenry County team.
At the start of my address, I mentioned the Regional Training Center where I’m speaking to you, and a little of the history of the collaboration and cooperation that made it possible to finally give our law enforcement personnel a local facility where they can hone their skills.
In 2024, we made even greater investments in public safety to give our Sheriff’s Office and law enforcement the tools they need to keep our communities safe.
As part of our agreement with Cary to purchase the former Village Hall, village leaders also graciously greed to give us some spare land at its Public Works campus so that we could build an indoor firearms range.
Our sheriff’s office has been asking for one for many years, and last May, it became a reality.
It’s 11,000 square feet of training space and classrooms, specifically designed and built with law enforcement training in mind.
The days of our sheriff’s deputies having to drive across Chicagoland to train, rent private ranges, or shoot in January at the Sheriff’s outdoor range, are over.
Cary isn’t the only local government that has partnered with our Sheriff’s Office.
This summer, when boating resumes on the Fox River and the Chain O’ Lakes, the Sheriff’s Office Marine Unit will be patrolling the waters from a new facility in McHenry.
The old facility was no longer suitable, and last year, County Government and the Sheriff’s Office worked with the City of McHenry to build it.
Thank you to the McHenry City Council and city administration for their hard work and cooperation.
The summer of 2024 marked the second year of operation of our groundbreaking McHenry County Police Social Work Program, which supports the Sheriff’s Office and 16 other participating county police departments with six full-time social workers to help bridge the gap between law enforcement and McHenry County’s network of social service providers.
It was another successful year, and this program is really making a difference – 71% percent of active clients have had fewer police contacts a year after involvement with a police social worker.
The Community Foundation of McHenry County graciously agreed to host the Police Social Work Program when it first started, but as the program has continued to thrive and succeed, it’s become obvious that it needs a new home – and some of the available space at the Regional Training Center would be the perfect fit.
We have been working closely with our representatives in Congress since the training center’s opening to secure funding to cover the cost.
In fact, just a few weeks ago, I joined Sheriff Robb Tadelman in giving a tour of the center and the Firearms Training Facility to US Representative Darin LaHood – we’re confident that our continued efforts will bear fruit.
New facilities, of course, mean nothing without top-notch, dedicated law enforcement officers – and McHenry County is making a major investment this year.
In the 2025 budget, the County Board added three new sheriff’s office deputies.
We take fiscal prudence very seriously – this is the first expansion of the sheriff’s deputy roster in 20 years – but we take public safety just as seriously.
By the way, those jobs are posted and the Sheriff’s Office is accepting applications through March 21 st – if you’re interested, visit www.mchenrycountysheriff.org to apply.
When it comes to working together and making sure the taxpayers’ dollar goes as far as it can, McHenry County shined in 2024 when it came to improving our infrastructure.
Just over the border in neighboring Kane County, the Longmeadow Parkway Bridge opened to traffic last fall, officially completing the 5.6-mile Longmeadow Parkway Corridor to relieve congestion on Route 62 by creating an east-west bypass through Algonquin, Carpentersville, and Barrington Hills.
As the final stages of building the bridge began, workers took down the toll signs, because we helped ensure the toll’s elimination with a $1 million Advance McHenry County grant to help cover the outstanding amount due so that charging a fee to cross the bridge was no longer necessary.
This wise investment will save daily commuters hundreds of dollars a year, and encourage motorists to take the bypass, which not only improves travel times, but also helps boost business and commerce reliant on transportation.
Work will start soon on the second and final phase of the Randall Road Improvement Project to improve flow and ease congestion on the vital economic corridor that runs from Crystal Lake to Lake in the Hills and Algonquin.
Thanks to our work with US Senator Tammy Duckworth and Representative Jan Schakowsky, as well as the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning and other partners, outside funding will cover 80% of the $63.4 million price tag. As for the remaining 20%, your taxes will not go up – McHenry County has been saving for years to pay for this.
The money is in the bank.
We don’t rest on our laurels when it comes to securing federal and state funding – we’re proactive, and always looking for it.
In fact, at our February 18 th County Board meeting – five days from when I officially deliver this address – U.S. Representative Bill Foster will be coming for a ceremony to hand us an $800,000 check to help cover the costs for the future relocation of the Metra rail yard on the Union Pacific-Northwest Line from Crystal Lake to Woodstock, where more space and a new facility will result in a tremendous boost in service for the line that connects McHenry County with Chicago.
Likewise, two of our state Representatives, Dave Syverson and Joe Sosnowski, have been hard at work to secure funding to help cover the costs of the ongoing work to extend utilities south from Marengo to the full interchange at Route 23 and I-90.
Once that work is done, we can move full speed ahead with turning the interchange, located between O’Hare and Rockford airports, into a manufacturing and logistics hub that will mean even more quality jobs and economic growth.
Marengo isn’t the only municipality we’re working to assist – we’re supporting our municipal partners secure funding for their own projects to help keep their taxes down, such as needed water system improvements in Wonder Lake and Cary.
Collaboration with our state lawmakers, when it comes to transportation, is more vital than ever, given the ongoing discussions in Springfield to reform the mass transit agencies that provide service to McHenry County and the Chicago region.
We have been working with our local representatives and state Senators, as well as our colleagues in the collar counties, to ensure that McHenry and the collar counties get the quality mass transit service that we deserve.
I’d like to close our list of transportation accomplishments with yet another milestone we achieved in serving residents facing travel challenges.
Four years ago, McHenry County, in partnership with Pace Suburban Bus, expanded its trailblazing McRide dial-a-ride service to cover the entire county, making it so much easier for people without reliable transportation to get to where they need to go.
In 2024, we further bolstered this amazing service by introducing MCRide Connect, an on-demand program that uses ride-sharing services like Uber.
One of my favorite parts of my annual address is talking about McHenry County’s blossoming tourism and recreation sector.
In 2023, McHenry County welcomed 2.4 million visitors, who generated more than $34.2 million in economic impact, which created $15.4 million in local tax revenue and directly supported more than 2,200 jobs.
Their latest endeavor, a series of specialty trails featuring our local businesses, have become a big hit.
There’s
- the Craft Beverage Trail that showcases our award-winning locally made beer, wine and spirits,
- the Coffee and Tea Trail featuring locally owned coffee and tea shops, and more recently,
- the Tacos, Tamales and Tortas trail featuring half a dozen of Harvard’s best Mexican restaurants.
Naturally McHenry County constantly develops innovative and catchy ideas to draw tourism dollars here, and our tourism industry wouldn’t be where it is now without them.
And I’m excited to report that, this April, Naturally McHenry County will be relocating to a new home in the Old Courthouse Center in Woodstock.
We can’t think of a better home for Naturally McHenry County’s staff to work their magic, right in the middle of the county on the historic and picturesque downtown Square.
Their impending move gives me another opportunity to talk about growing business and jobs.
Naturally McHenry County’s old home in Huntley is going to be turned into a business incubator to give small and startup businesses a taste of what it’s like to operate a brick-and-mortar location.
Huntley will be joining the cities of McHenry and Woodstock, which have started incubators of their own – a number of participating businesses have since relocated to physical locations to continue writing their success stories.
When businesses come to McHenry County, or existing businesses decide to grow, government needs to make it easy for them and help them along, not get in the way with bureaucracy and red tape.
The same especially goes for getting the needed permits to build and expand homes and businesses. County government has long realized this, and in 2025, we’ll be taking even more steps to streamline the process.
Our Planning and Development Department just went live with a new digital permitting system for permits, applications and inspections.
Property owners, contractors, architects and engineers can now manage applications, communicate with the department, and schedule inspections whenever they need through an integrated online portal.
Besides the portal, we’re going to be installing kiosks at the County Administration Building where applicants, if they wish to do so, can upload or fill out applications.
Making the entire process digital, from application intake to inspection and granting permits, will make the process smoother, easier and faster.
The advent of artificial intelligence technology has the potential to reshape how work is done, just like how the internet revolutionized it thirty years ago.
Like any new technology, AI presents opportunities, but challenges and pitfalls as well.
Recognizing this, a working group made up of employees across multiple offices and departments crafted policy regarding the use of AI in county government, which the County Board approved in November.
As county government begins using AI to improve work flow and interaction with the public, rest assured that it will be used transparently, appropriately and ethically.
I began my address by introducing the new county government officials who were elected in November.
They were sworn in on December 2nd by Judge Michael Feetterer, who had just began his term the previous day as the new chief judge of our 22nd Circuit Court.
He has served for the past 20 years on the McHenry County bench with distinction and honor, and he currently presides over our specialty courts –
- our Mental Health Court,
- Adult Drug Court,
- DUI Court, and
- a new Assisted Outpatient Treatment Program
– which give nonviolent offenders a chance to clear their records by successfully completing court-supervised treatment programs.
These courts have proven results, reducing recidivism while giving well-deserved second chances.
And like everything else I’ve covered, it’s done with collaboration and fiscal prudence.
Just last month, the County Board and I, along with Judge Feetterer and Court Administrator Dan Wallis,
had the privilege of honoring Director of Special Projects Kelly Scimeca and Finance Coordinator Courtney Knopp for securing more than $4 million in grants to keep these specialty courts going, and saving lives, without relying on local taxes.
As long as I’m taking about groundbreaking initiatives, let’s take a minute to talk about one of the 22nd Circuit’s newest employees – the golden retriever on the leash in the photo.
Her name is Honey, and she joined the staff in September as a facility dog for the Michael J. Sullivan Judicial Center.
Honey will assist in alleviating stress and providing emotional support to members of the public, employees at the judicial center and attorneys.
Court is a very stressful and emotionally intense environment, and McHenry County joins a growing number of courts and judicial centers to introduce service dogs to foster a more supportive and comforting atmosphere.
Honey’s a welcome addition to our workforce – and more importantly, she’s a good dog.
In my State of the County Address last year, I said that McHenry County had officially made its comeback from the COVID-19 pandemic, and that it’s now time to thrive. With 2024 now in the rearview mirror, I can unequivocally say that we’re off to a great start.
And we have even more to look forward to in 2025.
Over the past decade or so, McHenry County, through solid planning and working with our state and federal partners, has turned many of its transportation dreams into reality – from
- widening Rakow Road to
- the Route 31 Algonquin Bypass and
- the widening of the Charles Miller Road Bridge over the Fox River,
just to name a few.
Starting this year, IDOT will begin another long-needed project – the rebuilding and widening of Route 47 through Woodstock.
For so many years, we and the City of Woodstock petitioned the state to get this much-needed project going. Its time has come.
The first phase, paid for by IDOT and the city, will widen and improve two miles of Route 47 between Route 14 and Route 120, improving traffic flow and adding pedestrian accommodations.
We very much look forward to seeing this project progress.
Earlier, I mentioned the impending start of work on the northern segment of the Randall Road improvement project.
Construction will start this spring to widen and improve 1.3 miles of Randall Road between Alexandra Boulevard in Crystal Lake to Acorn Drive in Lake in the Hills.
The multi-year project will add travel lanes, a sidewalk and shared-use path to link bike and pedestrian paths in surrounding neighborhoods, intersection improvements, and more.
While spring will mark the start of these long-desired projects, it will also mark the accomplishment of another long-sought goal – the completion of our new memory care unit at Valley Hi Nursing and Rehabilitation.
After years of planning, and multiple feasibility studies concluding that there was a growing need for affordable and certified memory care in McHenry County, we broke ground in October 2023 on the new unit.
And it’s going to open this spring – a 21-bed, state-of-the-art facility that will complement, not compete with, private memory care facilities.
And like the Randall Road project, we paid for the $4 million project entirely through existing fund balances – we did not raise taxes to do this.
And finally, all of these accomplishments I’ve laid out in my address wouldn’t have been possible without the guidance of the McHenry County Strategic Plan.
The plan, which covers six categories vital to our never-ending mission to make McHenry County the best it can be, contains benchmarks to accomplish – if you’d like, you can read the plan and check out the report cards charting our progress by visiting the county website.
We update the plan every four years – and as you can tell, we take it very seriously.
This most recent plan is expiring, and the County Board, with the invaluable input of our talented staff, will begin working hard to craft the next four-year plan.
I’d like to end my address this year with an invitation to you to come work for us.
Throughout this address, I’ve laid out the tremendous accomplishments we’ve made together, and looked ahead as the best is yet to come.
This was done by hundreds of passionate and dedicated people working hard and working together behind the scenes to make McHenry County an exceptional organization and community.
If we sound like a team you’d like to join, we’re always hiring.
You can visit our job portal at www.mchenrycountyil.gov/employment at any time to check out, and apply for, open positions.
In closing, I will again say how I never stop being amazed by everything we’ve gotten done together – making sure our services are top-notch while being as efficient and economical as they can be.
We’re always looking to do more, while always keeping costs down and seeking out every possible way to lower our tax burden, to ensure that McHenry County remains the greatest place to live, work, visit, start a business, and raise a family.
Thank you.
