The Woodstock Tax Man Cometh

Here's the news that you all have been awaiting! Will your taxes go up in Woodstock?

That black-bordered notice of doom appears this week in The Woodstock Independent. You know the one. "Notice of Proposed Property Tax Increase". That one.

If you want to get your two-cents' worth in, you'll want to keep Monday night, December 1st, free. "Free" is probably not the right word to use, but you know what I mean.

The standard, passion-less, annual, fill-in-the-blank, boiler-plate announcement can be read on Page 14 of the November 18, 2009, Independent. The public hearing will be December 1st at 7:00PM in City Council Chambers.

Read how innocuous and bland the second paragraph is... "Any person desiring to appear at the public hearing and present testimony to the taxing district may contact Finance Director, (sic) Roscoe Stelford between 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., weekdays at 815/338-4300."

If I were writing notices for the City, I'd invite "Any person wishing to raise hell about a property tax increase during a depression and vent his anger at the City Council for even considering such a move should notify Finance Director Roscoe Stelford that he'll show up and tell it like it is."

The City is proposing to increase the amount of corporate and special purpose property taxes to be extended or abated by 10.8%.

What does "extend or abate" really mean? Does this mean it goes on the books as property taxes unpaid that will be collected in the future? Or does "abate" mean forgiven? If it is to be collected in the future, when will that magical future date be? And what will the economy be at that time?

Isn't this a time to freeze tax levels or even lower them?

The problem with that is the City has all of its expenses locked in and its employees want raises. Well, so do the rest of the folks. And they aren't getting raises. Some of them aren't even getting to keep their jobs!

Will anyone show up on Monday, December 1? I'll bet there won't be five residents there to complain!

McLeft coming off the menu

The week's The Woodstock Independent reports McDonald's plan to improve its Woodstock restaurant and to close the exit from the restaurant onto Route 47 right at the traffic light at South St./Country Club Rd.

That exit has been a danger for years, and McDonald's, IDOT and the City's Public Works Department have not been willing to put their noggins together for a solution. Actually, I think that McDonald's would have, but the City wouldn't get behind the effort.

Some drivers, who are too busy and rushed in their lives to park and walk into the restaurant, will wait minutes longer in the drive-thru line (using up gas and polluting the air), and then roll up to the corner, look both ways (maybe), and then turn left out of McDonald's!

To do that they must cross three lanes of southbound traffic. And, often, they have a huge blind spot in the form of a stopped truck or car in the southbound left-turn lane, and they cannot see northbound traffic; so they stop and impede southbound traffic while waiting for a gap in northbound traffic. Or they pull into the southbound left-turn lane and stop, meeting left-turn traffic head-on until they can move over.

Other drivers pull out of McDonald's, make a wide right and try to enter the southbound left-turn lane, so that they can go east on Country Club Road.

In 13 years I have never seen a driver stopped for either maneuver. Pleas to the Woodstock Police Department have not resulted in any enforcement that I know of.

McDonald's could have installed No Left Turn signs at the exit to discourage those turns, even if they had no legal effect, but they wouldn't. Perhaps their lawyers warned them off that idea, because a driver getting into a crash would then go for McDonald's deep pockets and claim Mickey Dee was at fault for not having a bigger sign!

The new McDonald's building and driveway configuration for double drive-thru lanes will solve this problem, because the exit will be closed. Hopefully, the new driveway design will alter the entrance on Route 47, so that northbound traffic cannot turn left into McDonald's. I've lost track of the number of times I have been in the southbound left-turn lane on Route 47 and have had to stop for a vehicle facing me head-on, waiting to turn left into McDonald's.

The Woodstock Zoning Board of Appeals has already approved parking setback variations, according to the TWI article this week. I'm not a frequent customer of McDonald's, but I don't recall seeing any Hearing Notices. Were they there?

McDonald's claims that 70% of its customers use the drive-thru, instead of eating in. The article was unclear whether that is a national, regional or Woodstock figure.

The current building will be closed and demolished, and redevelopment on that corner may take 3-4 months. Better get your fry fix before March.

Save another date - March 27

There is a new organization in McHenry County, set up to serve family members of persons who are incarcerated. Participants include employees from Family Services, FamiliesETC, AmeriCorps, Family CARE and others. The group is called KIF (Kids with Incarcerated Family Members) Support Group.

KIF organizers would like you to know about a Restorative Justice Event being planned for March 27, 2010, by the Joliet Diocese Peace and Social Justice Ministry and the Restorative Justice Committee.

The subject for the event will be CHILDREN: How They Are Affected by the Criminal Justice System.

Initial details are
Date: Saturday, March 27, 2010
Registration: 9:00AM
Program: 9:30AM until 2:30PM
Lunch included

Location: Sacred Heart Parish Hall, 337 S. Ottawa St., Joliet, IL 60436

The program will feature a panel of speakers, break-out sessions, and will include lunch. Suggested donation is $15 for adults. $10 for students. All teachers, catechists, youth ministers, those working with prisoners, advocates for restorative justice, family members of people incarcerated, persons formerly incarcerated, and those interested in learning more, are invited.

RSVP deadline: March 18, 2010

by phone: 815-834-4028
by e-mail: jenruh@dioceseofjoliet.org
by mail: Peace & Social Justice Ministry, Diocese of Joliet, 402 S. Independence Blvd., Romeoville, IL 60446-2264

Save the date - Jan. 30

Just a heads-up about the People in Need Forum, planned for Saturday, January 30, 2010, from 8:00AM-12:30PM at MCC.

To learn more about the People in Need Forum, monitor www.peopleinneedforum.org/

Watch for more information in January.

Catch a greyhound (not the bus)

Dairyland Greyhound Racetrack in Kenosha, Wisconsin, will be closing on December 31, 2009.

About 500-600 greyhounds will need to be adopted; otherwise, they will be euthanized. Now is a great time to consider adopting a greyhound.

They are very loving and laid back. They don't need the space people think they need. They are great for an active family because they have been crated almost all their lives and they sleep about 18 out of the 24 hours a day. They are just looking for someone to love them and supply them with a warm bed!!!!

They test the dogs to see if they are cat friendly and or small dog friendly. They also know if a dog should be a single dog or if they would be great in a 2, 3, or 4 dog house!!!

Please help get the word out; there are only 6 weeks to get this task done!!

For information about adopting a greyhound, call (262) 612-8256

Deputy Seipler - back to work?

I think it was about a month ago that an arbitrator ruled that Zane Seipler should not have been fired by Sheriff Keith Nygren and that, instead, three days off without pay would have been the appropriate discipline.

There is considerable difference between getting canned and being told to stay home for three days! The arbitrator ruled that Zane should get his job back and receive all his back pay.

That's over a year's back pay, and now plus a month's more pay.

Is Zane back on duty yet? Is he now working for his pay? Are the County residents (taxpayers) now getting value for the compensation owed to Zane?

When I was looking around for a full-time cop job in Colorado, a year's pay was only $23,000. I think it's a little more now.

I had applied to the Littleton (Colo.) P.D., and I took the written test. I was #3 on the written test, and they refused to process me further. Their reason (excuse)? I earned too much as a life insurance salesman, and they didn't think I'd be happy on a cop's pay.

I should have sued them, but I figured that if I won, they'd have me washing police cars instead of driving them!

Cops racing? Two dead

Speculation in the New York Post is that two Milford, Conn. police cars were racing on June 13, when one of them hit a car turning left in front of it, killing the two 19-year-olds in that car.

The police car involved in the crash was traveling at 94MPH, according to an article in the New Haven Register. The speed limit on the four-lane divided roadway in front of a Target store was 40MPH, according to the same newspaper.

The in-car videocamera in a second police car, Car 22, was operating, and it showed a police car passing it on the right and accelerating away from it.

See the New York Post article and the in-car video, which was obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request. Watch the video; it's chilling. www.nypost.com/p/news/local/video_speeding_conn_cop_in_killer_46VZsd1vq4waops50GDfYO
The Milford police chief said, "State law requires police officers traveling without lights and sirens, and not dispatched on a call, to obey prevailing speed limits."

We have the virtually the same law in Illinois, although it is regularly disobeyed by officers of most, if not all, jurisdictions.

See this article in the Connecticut Post: www.connpost.com/ci_13807681

The display on the video shows Car 22 accelerating from 51MPH to 72MPH. Both police cars were returning from a call and were enroute to headquarters.

Does this ever happen around here? Have you ever seen two police cars engaged in a speed contest (racing)? Or operating at what appears to be excessive speed for the conditions present?