Posted in Barrington Hills Farm, Barrington Hills Polo Club, Big Red, BraveHearts, Conflict of interest, Cook, County, Crime, Deception, Equestrian Commission, Ethics, Fox River Valley Hunt, FPDCC, Friends of Forest Preserves, FRVPC, Fundraisers, Horizon Farm, Land Use, Politics, Property Taxes, Public Safety, Riding Club Commission, Riding Club of Barrington Hills, Transparency, Unions on June 12, 2022| Leave a Comment »
The Riding Club of Barrington Hills (RCBH) recently released their April newsletter. Topics covered this month include:
A copy of the RCBH newsletter can be viewed and downloaded here.
Posted in Barrington Hills Country Club, Building Department, Equestrian Commission, Ethics, Plan Commission, Police Pension Board, Riding Club Commission, Roads & Bridges Committee, VBHPD, Village Attorney, Village Board, Village Code, Village Engineer, Village Government, Village President, Village Treasurer on August 23, 2021| Leave a Comment »
The Village Board of Trustees will be conducting their regular monthly meeting this evening at 6:30 PM. Some of the topics on their agenda include:
A copy of the agenda can be viewed and downloaded here.
Related: “Barrington Hills Country Club Celebrates Its Centennial”
Posted in Agendas, Animal Welfare, Barrington Hills Polo Club, Entertainment, Equestrian Commission, Ethics, Fox River Valley Hunt, FRVPC, Land Use, Politics, Public Safety, Riding Club Commission, Riding Club of Barrington Hills, Unions, Village Government on August 19, 2021| Leave a Comment »
The Village Equestrian Commission meets this evening at 6:30 PM. Topics on their agenda include:
The chair has submitted her summary of the “Equestrian Trail License” topic beginning on page three of the agenda which can be found here.
We have our own perspective(s) on the license matter, but for now, we’ll sit back and observe.
Related: “Riding Club August newsletter released”
Posted in 2021 Elections, Building Department, Conflict of interest, Deception, FPDCC, Personnel Committee, Politics, Property Taxes, Riding Club Commission, Roads & Bridges Committee, Topics Of Interest, Transparency, VBHPD, Village Attorney, Village Board, Village Clerk, Village Code, Village Engineer, Village Government on July 24, 2021| 1 Comment »
The Village Board of Trustees will be conducting their monthly meeting Monday evening at 6:30 PM. Some of the topics on their agenda include:
A copy of the disappointing agenda can be viewed and downloaded here.
Why disappointing you may ask? Because for the third month in a row this administration has failed to step up publicly to address a clear conflict of interest existing at our Village Hall. Matter of fact, there isn’t even a place on the agenda to report what was discussed at the specifically nonspecific Personal Committee meeting held Monday.
Residents deserve better.
Posted in Agendas, Building Department, Conflict of interest, ePacket Agendas, Equestrian Commission, Ethics, Financial Reports, Land Use, Longmeadow Parkway, Minutes, Plan Commission, Police Pension Board, Property Taxes, Public Safety, Real Estate, Riding Club Commission, Roads & Bridges Committee, VBHPD, Village Attorney, Village Board, Zoning Board on May 24, 2021| 4 Comments »
The Village Board of Trustees will be conducting their monthly meeting this evening at 6:30 PM. Some of the topics on their agenda include:
A copy of the agenda can be viewed and downloaded here. The meeting is open to those wishing to attend or readers can listen in by calling 508-924-1464.
Posted in 2021 Elections, Barrington Hills Park District, Politics, Riding Center Advisory Committee, Riding Club Commission, Riding Club of Barrington Hills, Roads & Bridges Committee, VBHPD, Village Board, Village Government, Village President on April 5, 2021| 1 Comment »
Current Village of Barrington Hills Trustee Brian Cecola
Races for mayor and village president have been some of the most hotly contested showdowns in the Northwest suburbs this election cycle.
Here’s a recap of a handful of the headline-grabbing contests.
Two candidates are vying to become Barrington Hills’ next village president.
Brian Cecola, a business owner and six-year village trustee, is taking on Dennis Kelly, the Barrington Hills Park District board president and a local insurance broker.
Incumbent Martin McLaughlin won the state House 52nd District race in November and isn’t seeking reelection.
Cecola touted his hands-on experience in village government. Kelly touted his experience serving on the park board for eight years, saying he would bring a new set of eyes to village hall.
Cecola said the village has lowered its tax levy and cut spending during his tenure on the board and as chairman of the public safety and roads and bridges committees, while at the same time ramping up its road program.
Kelly, the former chairman of the Barrington Area Chamber of Commerce board, said he would emphasize transparency (WHAT TRANSPARENCY?) and participation by residents if elected.
Read more here.
Related: “Endorsement: Cecola for Barrington Hills village president”
Posted in 2021 Elections, Animal Welfare, Audio Recordings, Building Department, Commercial Horse Boarding, Conflict of interest, Deception, Ethics, Financial Reports, Land Use, Police Reports, Politics, Public Safety, Riding Club Commission, Riding Club of Barrington Hills, Roads & Bridges Committee, VBHPD, Village Attorney, Village Board, Village Clerk, Village Code, Village Engineer, Village Treasurer, Zoning Board on January 8, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Recordings have been released from last month’s Board of Trustee’s meeting (12.17.2020), and the Village Attorney’s report contained the following update:
“Just really quickly, the Drury litigation versus the Village discovery is now closed. It’s moving in to motion practice, so we’ll hopefully get some kind of ruling in February, March-ish.”
To listen to the recording of the December 17th BOT meeting, click here.
Related: “Things may get very interesting after Thanksgiving…”
Posted in 220, Accidents, Agendas, Appointments, Barrington Hills Park District, Board of Health, Crime, ePacket Agendas, Equestrian Commission, Financial Reports, Heritage and Environs Committee, Insurance Committee, Intergovernmental agreements (IGA), Land Use, Legal Committee, Legal Expenses, Minutes, Pension Funding, Plan Commission, Police Pension Board, Police Reports, Public Safety, Public Safety Committee, Riding Club Commission, Road construction, Roads & Bridges Committee, Roads and Bridges, School Districts, Uncategorized, VBHPD, Village Attorney, Village Board, Village Code, Village Government, Village President, Zoning Board on May 21, 2017| Leave a Comment »
The ePacket agenda containing links to documents to be discussed during Tuesday evening’s Village Board meeting has been posted. To access the ePacket link, click here.
Posted in 2015 Elections, BH Polo Club, Commercial Horse Boarding, Conflict of interest, Ethics, FRVPC, Horse Boarding, Land Use, LeCompte/Anderson Commercial Horse boarding amendment, OP/Ed, Politics, Real Estate, Riding Club Commission, Riding Club of Barrington Hills, Save 5 Acres, Taxes, Village Board, Village Government on January 2, 2015| 15 Comments »
With the passage of the Anderson-LeCompte Amendment allowing horse boarding businesses to expand their operations and proliferate throughout the Village, the Riding Club of Barrington Hills can claim “victory”—but hopefully only a temporary one. The Riding “Clubbers” (we’ll see why that term in a moment) can celebrate that the goals they established in a 2005 white paper have now come to fruition (a copy of that white paper can be viewed here).
In that white paper written by John Rosene—yes, husband of Karen Rosene on the ZBA, who voted to expand horse boarding businesses— he urged his fellow Clubbers to take “aggressive” action under a “new strategy to ensure and enhance its future.” The strategy was political. As Rosene wrote: “With the election of Bob Abboud to the presidency of the Village Board, along with supportive trustees who include Fritz Gohl” and others, the Clubbers would have important political allies.
Having political allies works. It was the “supportive” Trustee Fritz Gohl who, with some help, scheduled a special board meeting last month where the Anderson-LeCompte abomination was passed. And it was a very “special” meeting indeed, conducted with minimal public notice when President McLaughlin could not attend, and with public comment relegated to the end of the meeting, after a vote had occurred.
And, of course, the other trustees who voted for the Anderson-LeCompte Amendment included the three (Messer, Meroni, and Selman) who accepted and then affirmatively concealed campaign contributions from LeCompte, the primary beneficiary of the new law.
Back to the white paper. The Clubbers’ spokesman Rosene told members in 2005 that those who did not share equestrian interests were not really neighbors, but rather were the enemy. What was the mission? Read it in the white paper: “I believe our mission is to ensure that all new residents of Barrington Hills are, in fact, equestrians.”
And how to accomplish that mission? Here was Rosene’s violent recommendation:
One approach is to ally ourselves with another “special interest group,” the National Rifle Association, and simply shoot in-coming non-equestrians as they arrive with their moving vans. This is probably the most cost-effective way to go.
Or we can convert the “heathens.”
We can only hope these remarks were the product of bad judgment in using sarcasm to make a point. We can be sure, however, that these comments reflect the level of compulsion that those who would make such statements, and publish them, have about the perpetuation of an equestrian lifestyle, to the exclusion of everything and everyone else. “Heathens.”
We may not have been the victims of the physical assault advocated in the Rosene white paper, but our Village was surely “Clubbed” into submission through the passage of the Anderson-LeCompte Amendment, with help from “supportive” Trustee Gohl and the LeCompte-financed Trustees Messer, Selman and Meroni.
Fortunately, we have a timely opportunity to make the Clubbing only temporary with a Trustee Election in April. We believe it’s time to elect new, unencumbered trustees to restore balance to Barrington Hills governance.
– The Observer
Posted in BH Polo Club, Commercial Horse Boarding, Elections 2011, Equestrian Commission, FPDCC, FRVPC, Horse Boarding, Land Use, OMA, OP/Ed, Politics, Riding Club Commission, Riding Club of Barrington Hills, Save 5 Acres, Topics Of Interest, Village Code, Village Government, Zoning Board on May 31, 2014| 16 Comments »
Mark Twain once wrote, “A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” Twain was right, but in our case its half way or more around our Village.
Ever since an appellate court recently denied a request to reconsider their March 28 decision on a matter between two neighbors regarding one particular horse boarding business in the Village, unnecessary fear and propaganda has been spread throughout our community.
Past and present elected Village officials, and some in local social riding clubs, apparently have been working feverishly to hoodwink those who board horses into believing that the possible fate of this one large boarding operation will force their operations to close.
One thing for sure is they’ve certainly caused a lot of noise lately.
The owner of the boarding operation involved in the private litigation recently implied in a letter that Village President or Board refused to take action on changing our zoning to his benefit. A newly circulated online petition on the other hand states it was our equestrian-dominated Zoning Board which “refuses to amend its zoning code to allow boarding.” Next thing you know our Police Pension Board will be roped into this unnecessary campaign of fear mongering.
Even the social media cloud is buzzing with wild speculation that the Village wants to outlaw even the keeping of personal horses. Commenters are questioning why and what will Barrington Hills do to augment the alleged significant tax revenues that will be lost from the boarding operations, tack shops, feed stores, restaurants and gas stations which are patronized by boarders.
Clearly, these individuals are very unfamiliar with our community and are not aware that the village receives no taxes from any boarding facilities.
It’s a shame that so much needless effort and emotion is being devoted to a non-issue, and that fabrications of reality is now being spread purely for political gain. Horse boarding and training have been and are now allowed under our Home Occupation Ordinance within reasonable neighborly limitations.
Our Zoning Board, whose May meeting was held despite an apparent violation of adequate notice, is currently accepting the input of residents toward goal of amending our code as it relates to boarding. They will be reviewing this and other matters at their next meeting on June 16th, but we believe this is just going through the motions.
Drafting of the horse boarding text amendment desired by some (or perhaps just one) began shortly after the March 28 appellate court ruling. It’s likely been proofed and edited by handful of “interested parties” already, but the lawful process which needs to be followed will take months, and some apparently cannot wait that long since the courts won’t wait.
The absolute shame of this whole nasty and ultimately costly situation is that it could have been averted.
Trustee Messer, the loudest of the Save 5 Acres Trustees at recent Village Board meetings on this matter, committed along with his running mates in their 2011 campaign that “We think the village should determine how both backyard boarding and large scale boarding should be regulated.”
Over three years have passed since that commitment with the trustees taking no action on boarding, and now, quite suddenly, boarding is the most immediate and important matter to be addressed in our Village.
Sorry to inform you, Trustee Messer, but lack of fulfillment of a campaign promise on your part should not, and will not, create an emergency on any board or residents’ part, so please do your best to curtail any fear and smear campaign within your power, and please let any properly considered text amendment process to our code take its course to what we expect to be the likely predetermined outcome.
– The Observer
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