Posted in 220, Resident Surveys, School Districts, Taxes on December 22, 2015| Leave a Comment »
According to a survey, parents, students and employees in Barrington School District 220 want classes to start later in the morning, allowing middle and high students more sleep.
The committee known as Input 220 sent the questionnaire out Nov. 12-30 and members are studying the results in offering final options to the Barrington Board of Education ahead of a February meeting.
Read more here.
Posted in Commercial Horse Boarding, Cook, County, FRVPC, Legal Expenses, OP/Ed, Politics, Resident Surveys, Riding Club of Barrington Hills, Taxes, Village Attorney, Village Board, Zoning Board on November 30, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Following are some of the articles published by The Observer in November in the last few years. These articles, gathered from various publications and editorials, are noteworthy for residents in that they remind us of where we’ve been as a community.
The Village of Barrington Hills now faces another equestrian related legal battle due to a lawsuit filed by a resident over property rights related to the keeping of horses. Walter Dale “Rick” Hardy III filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court against members of the Zoning Board of Appeals and several neighboring residents on November 4, 2011.
Read the original article here.
On November 2, 2012, The Observer published the results of the Barrington Hills 2012 Resident Survey. For those who might not have seen the opinions of over two hundred residents who participated, a copy can be downloaded here.
Residents from all four counties participated in proportions close to those of recent voter turnouts by county. With few exceptions, all indicated they had voted in prior Village elections, so clearly the survey respondents take interest in Village matters.
Read the original Observer article here.
Many Illinois seniors on fixed incomes are actually paying more property taxes these days because of the drastic decline in the value of their homes in recent years.
That’s because a state program designed to stabilize property tax burdens for homeowners 65 and older on limited incomes doesn’t work — and actually has an opposite effect for participants — when property values decline for everyone like they have since the housing market crash in 2008, a Daily Herald analysis of tax records shows.
Read more here.
Last month during a special Village Board meeting, the Board of Trustees had the opportunity to ask questions of three law firms who were invited to present their qualifications to serve Barrington Hills. Board members asked representatives of Zukowski, Rogers, Flood & McArdle their opinion on whether the Village should undertake legislation changing our Village Code related to horse boarding when there is active litigation occurring between two private parties if such legislation might affect one party over the other.
David McArdle, a partner with the firm, responded, “We wouldn’t recommend that you pass a rule, pass a law, that favors one party over another.” When asked again in a different way, he stated, “We wouldn’t recommend that.”
Read the full editorial here.
-The Observer
Posted in 220, Board of Education, Press Release, Resident Surveys, School Districts, Taxes on November 11, 2015| Leave a Comment »
From Barrington School District 220:
Have an opinion on the topic of a later school start time for middle and high school students? Let it be heard at the Input 220 late start public forum at Station Middle School Thursday, Nov. 12 at 7 p.m.
The idea of a later start time for Barrington 220 adolescent students is something the district is diving deeply into through the Input 220 Advisory Council this year. The discussion is the third and most complex topic stemming from the board of education’s strategic value of creating optimal time for learning. Adjusting the school calendar to allow for high school finals to fall before winter break was implemented in 2014, and the option of kindergarten enrichment began this fall.
The Input 220 Advisory Council is assisting the board in determining whether the school district should and could optimize the defined time and configuration of an instructional day based on student and organizational needs, understanding the system-wide impact on grades preschool through 12.
The public forum on Nov. 12 is an opportunity to learn about research the Input 220 group has gathered and hear examples of benchmark districts that have implemented a late start. There will be a public comment portion of the evening where community members can express their opinions and ask questions.
A survey on the topic of changing start times will be emailed to all district staff, parents and students following Thursday’s forum. Attendance at the event is not necessary to receive the survey. If you are unable to attend the public forum, you can watch it live online at barrington220.org/live.
Note: Readers wishing to provide comments online on changing the start time for schools may do so by clicking here (scroll down for the input form).
Posted in 2015 Elections, BACT, BH Polo Club, Bicyclists, Commercial Horse Boarding, Conflict of interest, Deception, Elections 2011, Ethics, Kane, Land Use, LeCompte/Anderson Commercial Horse boarding amendment, Longmeadow Parkway, One Barrington Hills, Politics, Resident Surveys, Riding Club of Barrington Hills, Road construction, Roads & Bridges Committee, Roads and Bridges, Save 5 Acres, SOS Party, Village Board, Village Code, Zoning Board on March 28, 2015| 5 Comments »
Most residents who have paid even a little attention to our Village government over the last few years recognize we have some ethical issues with certain members of our Village Board. Two of those current members, and a newcomer, are running as the SOS Party, and so far, their campaign has focused mainly on distorting facts in various media, yet they advise residents to not be deceived.
Part three of our series, “Don’t be deceived,” continues with more distortions spread by the SOS party as follows:
SOS Spin: “Kalaway Cup Polo Event Killed in Barrington Hills.”
Reality: This is likely the most cockamamie campaign stunt ever pulled in the history of Barrington Hills politics, and why has SOS consistently called this event by its incorrect name? It’s been the ”LeCompte Kalaway Cup” for some time now, so why is SOS omitting the name of the host of the event?
SOS political campaign committeeman and Polo Club President John Rosene’s application for a renewed special use permit for the event is on the Village Board’s agenda for a vote at Monday night’s meeting. Assuming at least four of the five “Save 5 Acres” Trustees use their block voting power, the permit will be granted two weeks after it was declared “dead” by the SOS spin masters, and we can expect another mass campaign announcement the following day.
SOS Spin: “According to the 2014 Village Survey, 64.1 percent of residents responding believe that ‘Equestrian Boarding’ in Barrington Hills helps to ‘protect open space and maintain large land parcels.’”
“’I think it’s important for all residents to read this survey report,’ states Mary Naumann.”
Reality: Clearly SOS candidate Mary Naumann didn’t read the complete survey. If she had, she’d recognize the fact that the numbers were stacked by people taking the survey multiple times, and many non-residents from anywhere in the world could have taken it.
What SOS candidates fail to mention is, according to the survey, 57.8 percent of respondents stated they own horses. Since this percentage is highly inflated (by a factor of roughly 3 times), unfortunately all the data in the report is suspect, despite Village Hall staff’s best efforts to accurately gather data from residents. A copy of the 2014 survey report, which the SOS Party neglected to provide to residents, can be viewed here.
SOS Spin: (One Barrington Hills candidates will) “Use eminent domain to widen roads, install bike lanes and make our village more developer-friendly”
Reality: SOS candidate Patty Meroni is already using eminent domain for the Cuba Road Bridge project robbing adjacent landowners of property in exchange for funding. Had her proposal to the McHenry County Council of Governments for funding Haegers Bend roadwork succeeded in 2012, eminent domain would have taken acres of property from homeowners.
One Barrington Hills candidates Bryan Croll, Michelle Nagy Maison and Brian Cecola, have made it abundantly clear they are against bike lanes, and in favor of Heritage Corridors to protect against road widening for any purpose. In fact, Brian Croll is seated on the Board of Directors of the Barrington Area Conservation Trust, which has made establishment of Heritage Corridors within the Village a top priority, so the SOS allegations are false.
SOS Spin: “Our opponents have not stated their position on feathering and have received campaign donations from pro-development contributors.”
Reality: One Barrington Hills candidates solidly support land conservation and will protect five-acre zoning. Period. Sadly over the last few election cycles, SOS (and Save 5 Acres before them) has made a habit of unfounded fear-mongering and false accusations about any opponent being less committed than they are to preserving the minimum lot sizes that everyone supports.
As for the ridiculous allegation that “pro-development” contributors are funding the One Barrington Hills campaign, a simple study of State Board of Elections filings proves this to be another falsehood.
Frankly, we don’t understand why they would even raise this as an “issue”, since the largest single contributor to the SOS campaign ($10,800) and members of his family sit on the board of the organization that purchased the “Duda Property” in 2014 (most of which is adjacent to Barrington Hills in unincorporated McHenry County).
SOS Spin: (SOS candidate Meroni) Longmeadow Parkway Project: Informed residents; coordinated communication between residents and Kane County engineers; held meetings to work for resolution on critical issues impacting residents.
Reality: SOS candidate Patty Meroni only spoke of the Longmeadow Parkway project once progress was announced in the press, (and on this website), when she had no alternative.
The Observer has provided press updates on the project dating back to January of 2013. Yet Meroni fails to mention that, until December 2013, she expressed no knowledge of the timeline or progression of Longmeadow, despite the fact that former President Abboud had signed a resolution of support for the project back in 2006. If Barrington Hills had taken an active role in the ongoing planning for Longmeadow Bridge, perhaps we could have eliminated any routing through the village completely.
The initial meetings with residents she references were by invitation only, and not posted to the Village Calendar. It was only after she was pressured did she announce Longmeadow meetings for all interested residents to attend. This is hardly being proactive, and once again, residents will lose parts or all of their properties as a result of her tenure as Roads & Bridges chairperson.
Part four of this series continues soon in the Barrington Hills Observer.
Posted in Animal Welfare, BH Polo Club, Board of Health, Commercial Horse Boarding, Conflict of interest, Equestrian Commission, Ethics, FRVPC, Horse Boarding, Land Use, Legal Expenses, OP/Ed, Plan Commission, Politics, Resident Surveys, Riding Club of Barrington Hills, Save 5 Acres, Village Code, Well Water Quality, Zoning Board on December 1, 2014| 1 Comment »
The latest horse boarding text amendment proposal prepared by Kurt Anderson will be subject to a public hearing before the Zoning Board of Appeals on Tuesday evening. We’ve previously documented most of the highlights of his proposal and those can be viewed in a previous article here.
We take exception to many aspects of this latest proposal, including:
Expanded operating hours: Employees are permitted to work from 6:00 AM to 9:00 PM, including weekends. Boarding customers can make use of the facility or receive training from 7:00 AM to 8:30 PM every day, and it can be assumed most of the work and training will occur outdoors most of the year. Machinery can be used from 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM.
These far exceed the current hours generally prescribed under the Home Occupation Ordinance allowed of 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM.
Horse density: While Anderson’s proposal has limits to the number of boarded horses to 2 horses per acre on ten or more acres to one on smaller properties, it still doesn’t limit the total number of horses allowed on any R-1 property. This differs significantly from nearly all “equestrian communities” in the Chicagoland area and horse rescue organizations where a limit of one horse per acre, boarded or owned, is enforced, and when it comes to differentiation, how is the Village zoning officer to discern a boarded horse from one that is owned?
Comprehensive Plan adherence: ZBA chair Judith Freeman expressed her vehement desire that any amendment to the horse boarding and keeping codes support the Village Comprehensive Plan. Excerpts from the plan related to keeping of horses include:
Anderson’s proposed amendment will not address these issues, since there are no guidelines for the overall ratio of space to be used for horse keeping compared to the gross property acreage.
Retroactivity: Anderson’s amendment calls for retroactive application if enacted to June 26, 2006. Clearly this seems to be for the benefit of one large-scale boarding operation currently involved in litigation with its neighbors, namely Oakwood Farm.
Public interest: Three other boarding proposals submitted by residents were dismissed a vote by the Zoning Board, ostensibly because they did not represent the good of the public interest. They were the Drury, Elder/Riding Club and Hammond proposals, and Anderson initiated motions to dismiss all three.
We’d like to remind Mr. Anderson, members of the Zoning Board and our readers of the results of our 2012 resident survey when we asked participants what their motivation was to move to Barrington Hills:
Click on image to enlarge
The overwhelming response to this survey question was open spaces drew residents to Barrington Hills.
Yet the Anderson amendment allows for the size of the stable or barn to exceed that of the dwelling to maximize capacity for horses, thus, presumably increasing the fenced area of a typical five-acre property.
A quarter of respondents moved here for privacy. Anderson’s amendment will only protect those property owners for nine hours a day per year. The rest of the day, neighbors will be subjected to customers and employees of the boarding businesses with no recourse.
Thirteen percent stated they moved here to keep horses. (And should anyone question the response opinions, a link to the 2012 open survey was sent directly to every Riding Club of Barrington Hills resident member from their directory of that year.)
So, where must we go from here and what conclusions do we have?
Our Zoning Board needs to stop rushing to quick, reactive fixes benefiting a minority of commercial horse boarding facilities, whether the fixes are meant to help with their private legal matters or to eliminate uncertainty of their futures, perceived through misinformation.
Further, the ZBA either needs to rely on the vast, pragmatic information that has been submitted to them by residents, or to do research using their own resources or those of the Board of Health, Plan Commission or an independent ad hoc body to provide balanced guidance.
In other words, a sound approach needs to be taken, beginning with creating a process that will ensure the resulting codes are supportive of the Comprehensive Plan, and more importantly, one that all residents can live with. Failure to do so will only protract this divisive issue in our Village for years to come.
– The Observer
Posted in Agendas, Finance Committee, Financial Reports, Pension Funding, Resident Surveys, Taxes on August 12, 2014| Leave a Comment »
The Finance Committee will be holding a special meeting this Thursday beginning at 2:00 PM at Village Hall. Topics for discussion include:
A copy of their agenda can be downloaded here or viewed via the Village Goggle calendar here.
Posted in County, McHenry, OP/Ed, Politics, Resident Surveys, Road construction, Roads and Bridges on July 10, 2014| 1 Comment »
As previously reported by The Observer, Village officials who are directly charged with oversight of the roads and bridges in our Village – Trustee Patty Meroni, Administrator Bob Kosin and Village Engineer Dan Strahan – are hosting a public hearing next Wednesday, July 16, at Village Hall beginning at 6:00 PM to discuss proposed plans for Haegers Bend Rd improvements and proposed bicycle plans.
In advance of the meeting, Village Hall staff have now posted a link to background documentation on the subject to the Village website homepage. That link can be accessed here.
There are twelve documents provided for interested residents to review, most of which date back to 2012, under the previous administration, and many of which were prepared by Gewalt Hamilton or subcontractors at the time. While Haegers Bend is the primary subject of the studies, some other Village roads in McHenry County are cited with regard to possible bicycle plans, mainly consisting of signage.
Among the twelve downloadable documents that presumably will be presented to attendees of the hearing, there is also a Haegers Bend Roads questionnaire, and that can be downloaded here for completion and submittal.
Given the time intensive and likely costly detail contained in these study reports, we must question how many tens of thousands of residents’ tax dollars were spent at under the prior adminstration for a proposal that only recently surfaced that most residents who will be directly affected clearly do not want?
More importantly, why didn’t Village officials extend the courtesy of asking Haegers Bend or other residents their opinions back in 2012 before even considering this? These are the questions that should be asked next Wednesday evening.
– The Observer
Posted in Audubon Society, BACT, Barrington Hills Park District, Citizens for Conservation, Cook, Equestrian Commission, FPDCC, Friends of Forest Preserves, FRVPC, Resident Surveys, Riding Club of Barrington Hills, Spring Creek Stewards on April 4, 2014| 6 Comments »
The Forest Preserve District of Cook County has recently released their “Trail Master Plan & Policy.” The plan addresses current and planned changes for paved, unpaved and mowed trails as well as equestrian and mountain bike friendly trails.
The report also provides results of their 2013 survey of trail usage and satisfaction throughout the greater Cook County forest preserves areas.
A copy of the plan can be downloaded here.
Posted in Kane, Longmeadow Parkway, McHenry, Resident Surveys, Road construction, Village Board, Western Bypass on March 14, 2014| 1 Comment »
Very little has been communicated to Village residents about the Longmeadow Parkway Project until the last twelve months. Even less has been communicated to residents about the Algonquin Western Bypass due for completion later this year unless they hear muffled references to the project in Village Board meeting recordings.
Nevertheless, both projects will have dramatic, unavoidable impacts on currently congested rush hour traffic congestion from County Line Rd. south in our Village.
Click to enlarge
The IDOT funded Algonquin Western Bypass (inset left) will be completed in the fall of 2014. It is designed to eradicate the traffic bottleneck at the intersection of Rte. 31 and Algonquin Rd. by bypassing that intersection to the west to improve north/south congestion for commuters. It also promises to “double time” the east/west traffic signals at that intersection to improve traffic flow to our west on Algonquin Rd.
This is the first train headed our way.
Planning for the Kane County Department of Transportation (KDOT) sponsored Longmeadow Parkway Project began in the late 1990’s due to limited bridge options for motorists needing to cross the Fox River. The impetus for the project was rapid development of housing in the western Fox Valley corridor, primarily in McHenry County but also Kane County to alleviate congestion in the northern portion of the county.
Click to enlarge
Longmeadow Parkway, currently in Phase 2 engineering which should ensure it’s going to happen, will bring thousands more commuters to Algonquin Rd at the intersection of Autumn Trail Road once completed (see graphic inset left). The planned traffic light in the image might provide extremely brief pauses in traffic on Algonquin Rd for those traversing the road on Helm, Bateman or Old Sutton Rds. but it will be seconds – not enough to matter.
Longmeadow is the second train heading for the Algonquin Rd. tunnel.
As the Longmeadow Project has been more exposed in the last year to residents, some have questioned why Barrington Hills has not opposed the plan. Unfortunately, this is not an option since our Village has supported it for years.
Communications between Barrington Hills and KDOT go back over ten years, but in 2005, the Village commissioned Gewalt Hamilton to create the following maps showing the Longmeadow path to Algonquin Rd within our borders:
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Additionally, in 2006 and 2007, our Village Board approved two separate resolutions supporting the progress of Longmeadow Parkway Project planning.
Resolution 06-06, “Resolution Supporting a Bridge Study Corridor and Project in Dundee Township for Construction of the Longmeadow Parkway (Bolz Road) Bridge, and Route 62 Traffic Corridor Study from Route 68 to Route 31” passed in 2006 can be downloaded here. Resolution 07-10, “Resolution Supporting Evaluation of Longmeadow Parkway Bridge Corridor Toll Bridge Funding” passed in 2007 can be downloaded here.
Even on the slightest chance the Longmeadow project was to be scrapped, there is still the Western Bypass which will significantly increase traffic on Algonquin Rd. It’s estimated that the two lanes of Algonquin Rd in the Village are running at fifty percent more than capacity.
Anyone who regularly travels this corridor in the morning or evening during the week will attest to the fact it is a bottleneck, and with the recent widening of Algonquin Rd. in South Barrington, ours is the now only two-lane configuration between Huntley and Des Plaines.
For recently elected officials like Konicek, Harrington and President McLaughlin, this situation is something akin to trying to catch a falling safe. For the rest of the board, it presents the question of why this is all really coming to light now. Nonetheless, something has to be done.
During last Wednesday evening’s Longmeadow open house, participants were given a questionnaire seeking guidance on how to go forward with IDOT and Algonquin Rd. Readers of The Observer can add their suggestions too by downloading a copy of the questionnaire here and sending it to Village Hall on or before next Friday, March 21. The fax number at Village Hall is 847.551.3050.
– The Observer
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