Spring Trip To Cherry Blossom Festival

McHenry County College’s Trips and Tours office is offering a spring trip to the Washington, D.C. Cherry Blossom Festival from April 7-11, 2010 featuring the Cherry Blossom parade from reserved seats.

Experience one of the most popular times of the year when visitors come from all over the world to view the cherry trees at their peak of bloom. The famous cherry trees were a gift from Japan in 1912 and now symbolize the natural beauty of our nation’s capital.  Enjoy staying in one hotel, and each day the tour director will escort you to the famous sites of the area. Some walking is involved. 

Home pick-up and return, round trip airfare from Chicago, nine meals and tours around the D.C. area are included. Cost is: $2,154 for double; $2,479 for single; and $2,134 for triple.  All prices are per person and are guaranteed through Dec. 28.  Cost includes an optional cancellation/interruption insurance premium of $193.

For more information or to register, please contact Claudia Terrones at (815) 455-8782. 

Imagine A Stack of 11 Million Pages

Phyllis K. Walters, McHenry County Recorder, and her staff now have more than 100 years of indexed and imaged documents on the Recorder’s computer system. Approximately 2.8 million documents containing more than 11 million pages of information dating back to 1909 are available to search, retrieve and print within seconds in the Recorder’s Office, or on the internet.

 “This is a major accomplishment for our office and we are on target to reach completion of all recorded document indexes and images, dating back to 1839, on computer by 2012,” said Recorder Walters. While current documents are recorded on the day they are received and returned within 3 business days, the office continues to work back-in-time adding information prior to the year 1909.

While all recorded documents can be searched in the Recorder’s Office, the office offers the following online services: Recorder’s “free search” at www.co.mchenry.il.us/departments/recorder where indexed land records can be searched by grantor/grantee name, without images; LAREDO – a quarterly subscription service for those who access information often, images can be viewed and printed; and Tapestry – visit www.landrecords.net for a pay-as-you-go land records search.

More information on any of these services can be found on the Recorder’s website or by calling the office at (815) 334-4045, or (815) 334-4109. 

Matters Before Crystal Lake City Council On Tuesday

A number of matters regarding zoning requests will be before the Crystal Lake City Council on Tuesday evening when it meets beginning at 7:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers of the Municipal Building 100 Woodstock Street.

Included are:

A simplified residential variation at 1764 Andover Lane is requested to allow a deck and pool to encroach 11 feet five inches in a 20 foot rear yard setback in order to provide access to a pool for two handicapped children. Approval was recommended by the Planning and Zoning Commission.

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Twisted Stem Floral at 407 East Terra Cotta Avenue is requesting approval for a grant application under the City's Facade and Commercial Tenant Improvement program.

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Straight Shooters Gallery at 560 Beechcraft Lane is seeking a special use permit commercial recreation use for an indoor shooting range. The Planning and Zoning Committee recommended approval.

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The Planning and Zoning Commission recommended denial of a request to allow a minimum of two feet instead of the required eight feet in order to add to a garage for a third parking stall to an attached garage at 567 Larium Lane.

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The City Council is being requested to provide the go ahead for a 1.48 acre parcel of property on US Highway 14 to be rezoned by the County from agriculture to B-3 Commercial. The property is catty-cornered from McHenry County College. It is located within the Crystal Lake Watershed and will have to follow those requirements.

An objection from the City Council would require a three-quarter vote of approval by the County Board. The matter is to be heard by the McHenry County Zoning Board of Appeals on November 10.

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Water and ice complaints on the surfaces of sidewalks and streets have caused the City Streets Division to consider an addition to the City's Residential Code. Language is to be added to the City Code to address issues related to algae and ice on city sidewalks and streets caused by discharging of sump pumps. All premises are to be maintained to prevent the accumulation of water from sump pumps, downspouts, sprinklers, hose or other devises which may create a safety hazard on sidewalks and streets.

Notices of the needed correction would be made to the property owners to correct the problem by connecting to an existing storm sewer or to connect to a storm sewer the City will have to provide.

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An amendment to the City Code is proposed to incorporate addressing guidelines as proposed by the City Fire Chief. The proposed changes would apply to any new building or structure that needed an address or a new occupancy that would correct an inconsistency with the address system. The proposed changes would not affect any existing business or residential address unless requested by the property owner or the postal service. There would be no added costs to businesses or property owners.

The primary goal of this change is to provide emergency service agencies with a tool to ensure that emergency victim can be located with the greatest efficiency.

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Why The November 2 Election Is Called General Election

A general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are up for election.

General election is also a term used in opposition to primary election. In the United States, primary elections serve to narrow down a field of candidates, and general elections actually elect candidates to offices. The general election is usually held on Election Day, the Tuesday after the first Monday in November of even-numbered years.

It meets the above definition of "general election" in that the entire United States House of Representatives is elected on Election Day, though not the entire United States Congress. Prior to the 17th Amendment, members of the United States Senate were not directly elected by the people but rather by their state legislature. Though Senators have been directly elected since then, only one-third of them are up for election on any given Election Day. The U.S. President is also chosen during a November general election that follows primaries.

On November 2, or prior to that date, voters made choices for various elected offices on the Federal, State and local areas. This Primary Election, as opposed to the General Election, was held February 2.

In the Primary Election voters chose candidates to be included on the ballot for the General Election. During the period between the two elections other candidates could be added under certain terms. For instance candidates could file for candidacy as an independent or an entire slate for a Party that does not have a slate selected.

FOIA Request Refusal By ICE

McHenry County Board members are not the only ones denied requested FOIA information. The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) recently charged Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of illegally preventing the public from obtaining information that would show what the government is doing and not doing to enforce federal immigration laws. TRAC is a data gathering,data research, and data distribution organization at Syracuse University.

The charge and supporting information were outlined in a letter from TRAC to the agency's Freedom of Information director, Catrina M. Pavlik-Keenan. The letter noted that in violation of the FOIA law, ICE had ruled that anonymous statistical data which the agency formerly released -- such as the city or state where an alien was arrested, the details of any criminal charges, and the facility where the alien is currently being detained -- were now "unavailable." Such a blanket ruling violates long-standing provisions of the FOIA, agency rules and the transparency policies and guidelines promulgated by President Obama and Attorney General Holder.

For TRAC's press release, the September 22 letter from ICE announcing its current position and TRAC's October 4 responsego to

TRAC is self-supporting and depends on foundation grants, individual contributions and subscription fees for the funding needed to obtain, analyze and publish the data we collect on the activities of the US Federal government.

Public Information Meeting on Area 4 of Crystal Lake Flooding

The City of Crystal Lake will be hosting a public information open house to provide residents with an update to the City’s flooding study for Area 4 which is located south of the lake and focuses on Crystal Creek. A copy of the final flooding study is located at on the City's Flood Study Page.

The meeting will begin at 6:30 pm on Monday November 1, 2010 and will be held in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 100 West Woodstock Street. For more information, call the Engineering Division at 815-356-3615 or email at engineering@crystallake.org.

Law and Justice Committee Meeting Monday Morning

The Law and Justice Committee of the McHenry County Board is slated to meet at 8:30 a.m. Monday in a Conference Room of the County Administration Building, 667 Ware Road, Woodstock.

The agenda includes a presentation by Dr. Joe Williams, currently the Assistant Superintendent of the Regional Office of Education. This relates to the McHenry County Compulsory Attendance Program.

Matters related to law enforcement division of the County includes the appointment of 13 individuals representing McHenry County law enforcement agencies to the McHenry County Emergency Telephone System Board. Also the 2011 McHenry County Emergency Operations Plan is being presented for review before it goes on public display until December 21 when it will be considered for approval by the Committee and the County Board. This action is necessary in order for McHenry County to receive between $70,000 and $90,000 a year income for emergency operations.

The Committee is also to consider the continuation of the Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan and the continuation of the related committee. Approval of this plan by the County is necessary in order for the County to receive Federal Mitigation funding of approximately $65,000.

Another resolution to be considered by the Law and Justice Committee is for the continuation of the position of a Commission for the Accreditation of Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) within the Sheriff's Department. The cost for this position of $73,000 is included in the 2011 county budget.

There also could be more discussion on courtroom space and utilization as well as a discussion on judicial review and expenses.