Entertainment & Sports Complex

What's really planned for the land north of the Centegra Memorial Medical Center (now to be known as "Centegra Woodstock")? Take a look at this! (Click on the image to enlarge it; then click on Back on your browser)

First class, eh? As it should be.

What's interesting is that, in the rush to pass this project through the Plan Commission and the City Council, did anyone ask about lighting? Will we have an Arlington Racetrack lighting situation? Probably. For your safety; right? Will it be low-level lighting? Will it be bright all the time or only as needed? And by sections, as needed, rather than the entire area?

And what about the impact on police services? Is one of the conditions a kick-in for increased police needs (traffic, security, emergency response)? Woodstock PD's Beat 24 will be much busier!

Stadium Traffic

Somewhere in Tuesday's pitch (no pun intended) for the stadium I think I heard one of the petitioner's representatives say the traffic impact would only be 500 cars. Click on the image to enlarge it (then hit Back on your browser).

A little later in the program possible attendance numbers were thrown out, including lawn seating for 10,000.

And, yes, if buses were used to bring spectators to the stadium, each bus might replace the use of seven cars.

The traffic impact of the baseball stadium will be huge. Let's hope it's huge. And let's hope it is planned for, with adequate parking, sufficient entrances and exits to parking, and multiple lanes for exiting U.S. Highway 14 into the stadium parking lanes. All we need is a back-up on U.S. 14 to prevent emergency personnel from using the highway, getting to Memorial Medical Center (what is its new name?) and even to the stadium itself.

No one mentioned the transportation route just north of the stadium's location. Right there, already in existence, is the Metra track. How about a new station right there and then local people-movers to the stadium and the proposed fairgrounds?

Arlington Track was crafty enough to get a stop on the Metra schedule. Start planning now, folks.

Remembering how long it took Jack Franks to persuade IDOT to spend $1,000,000 on the light at Doty Road, does anyone think that U.S. 14 will be widened and lights will be installed by Opening Game in May 2010?

Musta Missed It - Filing Deadline

This week's The Woodstock Independent carries a short "For your information" piece about the 2009 local elections. Mark Indyke will challenge Brian Sager for the Mayor's spot, and Mike Turner, Dick Ahrens and RB Thompson will not have opposition. For this reason there will be no primary.

Last Monday at 5:00PM was the closing date/time for nominating petitions. Will that get the prize for one of the best kept secrets in 2008 around Woodstock?

Where were the drums to round up challengers and contest the seats? Hello? Is anyone home? The lights are on. I think they're still on.

Let this be the last year that incumbents run for office without challenge. Every major position in the City, County or State should have more than one candidate.

The December 15 deadline should not prevent write-in challengers. Does anyone know the rules, if any, to qualify for write-in candidates? Or if you, as a write-in candidate, get more votes than either Indyke or Sager, will you be Woodstock's next Mayor?

Of course, after last Tuesday's marathon until 1:00 A.M., who'd want to be mayor or a member of the City Council?

Crime Reporting in Woodstock

Efforts continue to obtain crime reports in order to report currently what is going on in Woodstock related to crime and arrests, but, man, is it ever hard to pry information out of the Woodstock Police Department!

Back on September 22 I emailed the P.D. and asked how to be placed on the distribution list for press releases and crime reports. I prefer email, but by fax is OK; or I'll even pick them up.

When I didn't receive a reply, I emailed Chief Lowen on October 3 and requested access to these for www.WoodstockCrimeLog.info

Chief Lowen replied on October 9 that he would continue to "supply arrest reports to the news media". When I did not begin receiving them, I re-read his email, including the message that was between the lines.

I wrote to him on November 5 and have not yet received a reply.

I wrote to him again on December 14 and have not received a reply.

Sometime back (2-3 years?) City Manager Tim Clifton told me that City employees would not reply to my repeated requests for information or action; they would acknowledge my initial request and wouldn't response further. At the time I was following up on code enforcement requests, after allowing about 30 days for action. When no apparent action had been taken on visible violations (the pick-up truck with the snowblade backed into the driveway at 721 N. Seminary is a good example; it has been there about three years), I would send in a follow-up request.

Has Chief Lowen been instructed to follow that procedure and to just ignore my follow-up requests? He has never said he would not provide these reports, only that he would continue to provide them to the media.

If that's the case, there is another way to skin the cat. The Illinois Freedom of Information Act is a powerful tool and is often used to obtain information that government entities either don't wish to divulge information or are slow to do so.

If it is necessary to file FOIA requests every week with the police department, I can do that. No problem. I can just fax the request every week, just like clockwork. Then they have the statutory period within which to respond. How much easier it would be just to provide the information.

How was this problem handled in San Diego last year?

In a message today from a San Diego resident who had found my websites, he wrote: "Our (police) department took a beating about 1 year ago in the San Diego Tribune regarding the same issue. Now we issue press releases for everything it seems like! We have a book at the front counter that people can look at that is our CAD printout for the last 30 days. I'm pretty sure it is all public records so they have to release it!"

The people of Woodstock are entitled to know of crime activity. I'll publish it quickly.

Deputy Schlenkert v. Merit Commission

It took all day but I finally learned from the McHenry County courthouse that Judge McIntyre did rule in the case of Deputy Bob Schlenkert against the McHenry County Sheriff's Department Merit Commission. Unfortunately, I learned this too late in the day to get to the courthouse before it closes at 4:30PM.

The decision seems to be in our local Bermuda Triangle. Court Administration told me it was mailed out; a very friendly and accommodating clerk told me they don't have it/can't find it. She is going to look for it, having already checked Imaging for it.

Gotta wonder where things go. It's not that far down the hall, but maybe it's on some mail delivery person's cart and he already took off for Christmas vacation. Hopefully, it didn't get mailed to the office down the hall.

In cases like this, somebody wins, somebody loses. Will the loser be a "good loser"? Only time will tell.

Stadium - Any taxes?

What are the tax ramifications of the proposed multi-purpose event venue (MPEV) and baseball stadium?

As a mining operation, the land is clearly taxable as real property. How few acres will be mined?

Will a MPEV and baseball stadium go for tax-exempt status?

At the Deember 16 City Council meeting the attorney for Merryman said the project was "privately funded" and "no tax dollars" would be involved.

Three speakers later, Bill Lee, Frontier League Commissioner, said "with tax dollars involved" and (oops!) quickly followed that with "privately funded".

Anyone else catch that? No one on the City Council did. That night would have been the time to ask questions about that!

The writer of a comment (realisticoptimism) on nwherald.com (12/17/08 1:09PM) quoted Councilman Dick Ahrens as having said, "... I'm just not sure that I want a 120 acres of what could potentially be a strong commercial or industrial corridor in Woodstock taken up with a nonprofit organization, something that doesn't have the ability to generate potentially high-paying jobs [or] strong property taxes to contribute to our tax base."

As for the jobs that will be created, if they are construction jobs, will McHenry County laborers be employed? Or will Chicago-area or even out-of-state construction workers build it? And the jobs at the MPEV? We're talking most minimum-wage jobs. How much skill does it take to hold an electronic ticket-counter or serve hot dogs?

The City Council sniffed around the edge of a ticket tax. You can count on this one. The mayor said, cleverly, that the City wouldn't aim a ticket tax just at the baseball stadium. You have to read between the lines here.

No, the City will tax all sales of tickets for any professional or semi-professional baseball games played within the corporate limits of City of Woodstock. Is that broad enough for you?

Schlenkert's case - over or still next week?

Rumor has it that Judge McIntyre had ruled in favor of McHenry County Sheriff's Deputy Bob Schlenkert in his case against the Sheriff's Department Merit Commission. But when I called the courthouse later in the day, a court clerk told me the case is still scheduled for next week.

I thought it strange that Judge McIntyre would have ruled early and issued a decision on a case that was continued from last Monday, Dec. 15, until next Tuesday, Dec. 23. If she did, that deprived the press of an opportunity to be present when the case was heard again (as scheduled) and to hear her decision in her own words. Is this what happened?

Certainly, this is an interesting twist of events. When more is available, you can read it here.