Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Stadium update


And now the news that Woodstock has been waiting for!

Will Woodstock have a baseball stadium in the lifetime of anyone now living in Woodstock?

Rick Zirk, representing Merryman Aggregate, presented a revised plan to the City Council tonight as "information" for them. (To enlarge the drawing, click on it; then click the "Back" button on your browser to return here.)
Zirk said that Merryman had two letters from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that the wetlands were not under their jurisdiction. And then the Corps changed its mind and decided that it did have jurisdiction. Merryman has appealed, Zirk said, but the problem is not resolved yet.
Zirk said that the stadium group had its financing lined up and could build this summer, if Merryman could get the pad constructed in time. Later in the meeting Mark Houser, representing the baseball group, said they didn't have the funding in place and that he cannot guarantee that the construction will be finished in 2011.
Merryman proposes to move the stadium from the northwest portion of the property (well back from U.S. 14 off Lake Shore Drive) to a point close to U.S. 14 and east of Doty Road, where Centegra Hospital-Woodstock is located.
There is also discussion of a possible Metra station. Metra is expected to present to the Woodstock City Council in either January or February. Watch the agendas that are published prior to meetings; the agendas can be viewed online through a line at the bottom of the City's website homepage on the Friday before a City Council meeting.
Alan Belcher, Executive Director of Transitional Living Services, Hebron, was present to explain a new proposed veterans' facility in Woodstock. See the separate article about the Wounded Warriors facility.
The City Council made it plain to Merryman Aggregate that it wants to see a detailed timetable for this project, and the Council re-stated its position that it gave Merryman a real break by approving its project with 51 conditions to be met after approval, instead of holding up the project until the conditions were complied with. There are now deadlines of March 1 and April 1 for various portions of the project.
Kim Willis, of the McHenry County Defenders, spoke in defense of the wetlands on the property. She asked about any on-site expert delineation of the wetlands, whether the letters from the Army Corps of Engineers were out-of-date, the absence of identification of detention basins and the potential for contamination (of groundwater?), because aggregate has been removed.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps some more meaningful and long term JOBS would be more in order than a stadium and ballplayers who make too much money and dont know what to do with it?
Ya know, if it weren't for professional sports, we wouldnt have enough prisons. Doh.

Richard W Gorski, M.D. said...

In the end it all comes down to people who have enough money wanting to make more money so that they can then make more money...ad nauseam. Nothing ever changes.