Merryman is right to resist City

Much as I hate siding with Merryman Aggregate in its resistance to (or rejection of) the desires of the City of Woodstock to fiddle with the Ordinance by which the City approved a gravel pit two years ago, after reading the December 2nd Plan Commission Minutes and today's article in the Northwest Herald (www.nwherald.com/2010/12/20/woodstock-wants-changes-to-merryman-permit/an9wwy6/), I'm going to have to take up with Merryman.

First though, Merryman should abide by the conditions in the Special Use Permit. That would mean no early hours' movement of noisy trucks on its site, ensuring that loads are tarped before leaving the property (state law, may not be a Condition), no dumping of outside fill without permission, keeping Lily Pond Road clean, etc.) and resolving other reasonable complaints from the neighbors, who seem to be keeping a closer eye on activity than City employees.

In October, as I recall, the City Council told the City staff to report on what's going on. That report was prepared and submitted to the City. The Plan Commission met on December 2. Minutes of that long meeting can be read at the Woodstock Public Library or City Hall in the packet for the December 21st City Council meeting.

When two parties make a deal, it is only fair for each to rely on the terms of the deal, unless they can agree to change it. The City is trying to jam changes down the throat of Merryman Aggregate. Merryman is right to object and resist.

The Plan Commission Minutes report the Mayor's words to calm tempers and soothe feelings. I may have to make another trip to the Library to read again what he said. As I recall, it was along the lines of "Play nice, everyone."

According to the Northwest Herald this morning, “'I think it’s incumbent upon municipalities to constantly be reviewing various agreements that are made with individuals or developers that are aggressively pursuing projects in the city,' Mayor Brian Sager said.

"He said the review was part of protocol and planning to ensure that projects were proceeding on time and that all terms of the agreement were met.

“'It was part of the normal review process that we did that in the first place,'” Sager said.

No, municipalities cannot "constantly be reviewing various agreements", if they think they can just try to change them and add restrictions. Also, the review done in October was not part of the "normal review" that the City did before it rushed through Ordinance 08-O-79. October's review was caused by neighboring residents' complaints.

There are many problems with that whole deal. The Plan Commission thinks that Merryman is trying to distance itself from the stadium deal. Financing for the baseball stadium isn't showing up. The U.S. Corps of Engineers is protecting the wetlands, which must have been identified before the deal even went to the table. The veterans' treatment/care center talk seems to have evaporated. There are mountains of dirt to rival the Rockies. Is the groundwater at risk? Is Merryman extracting below the top of the water table, whereas it was not to encroach within two feet of the water table (as I recall)?

Some chatter about a Metra station is included now; where did that come from? The possible Metra station is at Ridgefield, isn't it? Does the City now think there might be a second Metra stop between Crystal Lake and Woodstock? Metra needs riders to consider a stop. No riders; no stop.

Warning issued to gravel pit operator

At Tuesday night's Woodstock City Council session a stop-work order was threatened, if the gravel pit operator doesn't come up with a solid plan for developing the site along U.S. 14 that is to be the home of a baseball stadium and the County fairgrounds.

The Woodstock City Council is frustrated with the slow progress on the rest of the site, after they rushed to approve the gravel extraction request of Merryman Aggregate a year ago. The Council acknowledged that it had altered its usual approval plan by granting the extraction approval with 51 conditions, rather than requiring that the conditions be met before approving Merryman's request.

Now the Council is finding out why it shouldn't have done that, and perhaps the lesson has been learned. I don't think I was the only one who questioned the rush.

On Tuesday night the phrase "gravel pit" was used. This should create a huge yellow flag at City Hall. The extraction operation there is not supposed to be a "pit."

But when you look at the new "mountains" east of Woodstock, don't you have to wonder just where all that dirt is coming from? Is it really coming just from scraping the ground down to the rock that Merryman wants? And just when will those "mountains" be leveled? Or will they?

They seem to be about where Merryman would like to move the stadium and fairgrounds. They will have to be leveled, unless ball players are going to get a lot of exercise chasing flyballs downhill and then running back up to throw out a runner. And will a hill climb replace the demolition derby at the County Fair?

The City Council established deadlines for specific development actions by Merryman. One Councilman (Dick Ahrens, I believe) suggested that the City might issue a stop-work order on the extraction business, if Merryman doesn't get cracking with progress. That's Progress, not just Talk.

The threat of a stop-work order did not go un-noticed by Merryman's representative, and I'm sure the Councilmen didn't miss his response that I picked up on as, "Oh, yeah? See you in court, if you try to stop us."

K-Nines go begging

Remember the rush, rush, rush for the Woodstock City Council on approve plans for a baseball stadium (and a gravel no-pit pit)? How it just "had" to be approved immediately?

Now the ball team folks are trying to hit up the McHenry County Board for $15,000,000. Didn't the Council wonder at the time whether the organizers had the big bucks to make the project fly?

Be sure to read Cal Skinner's excellent article on http://www.mchenrycountyblog.com/ and the comments of a Research Fellow of the Heartland Institute, which included, in part,
"I could quote dozens of economists and public policy researchers to show how bad it would be for the County Board to grant this greedy, self-serving request for $15 million of stimulus bonds for that baseball stadium."

Be sure to read Cal's article and the other quotes. Then decide for yourself what factors are really at work in this whole deal.

Ballpark - Underway?

Doln Peasley wrote in today's Northwest Herald that he is "being asked whether the goal of locating a baseball stadium and a new site for the McHenry County fairgrounds still is a viable project."

What was his answer?

"The answer is workers do plan to move gravel on a portion of the 240-acre site before building the sports entertainment stadium."

Wait just one minute! Just what does that mean? Hey, okay if they move gravel for a week or two or three. But when is ground-breaking for the stadium?

Remember the rush to push this project past the Woodstock City Council? Isn't this the project with 50 (that's FIFTY) conditions attached to it?

The City was licking its chops over the proposed stadium, not the gravel "not-a-pit" pit. As I recall, the stadium project is to be on the west end of the project, and the gravel scraping will be on the east end near Lily Pond Road. Who cares when Merryman starts mining? Only Merryman (and the folks expecting to be paid for the property).

I don't see how one is connected to the other from a development standpoint, only from a property acquisition association. When the stadium is built and when the gravel is mined are two separate operations. Aren't they?

According to the article, Kate Halma, president and CEO of McHenry County Community Foundation, announced a meeting of the multi-purpose events venue community partners for March 19, 8:30AM, at the Woodstock Public Library.

Let's hope the stadium project proceeds on its rush time-table. If it doesn't, the City had better pull the plug on the gravel pit. Err, the "not-a-pit".