It’s been some time since we posted recordings from Board if Trustee meetings. But considering it’s been some time since residents could phone in to meetings and actually hear anything remotely audible, we thought we’d go “old school” again.
Since it’s been nearly impossible to dial in to meetings to participate for months, the only conclusion we can arrive at is the Cecola admiration would rather we didn’t. As a result, no effort has been made to remedy the documented technology issues. None.
The recording of the July 25th Board of Trustees meeting can be accessed here.
The Zoning Board of Appeals meets this evening at 6:30 PM. Topics on their agenda include:
Public hearing and meeting: Text Amendment – MKES Investments, LLC – Amending Section 5-6-4(C) Special Uses, B3 District, to add Canine Daycare and/or Doggy Daycare with Grooming, Training and Boarding; Day Care/Child Care/After School Care; and Church/House of Worship, and
Members of the Barrington School District 220 Board of Education Barry Altshuler, from left, Mike Shackleton, Sandra Ficke-Bradford, President Penny Kazmier, Superintendent Brian Harris, Angela Wilcox, Gavin Newman and Leah Collister-Lazzari are pictured July 30, 2019. Shackleton, Ficke-Bradford, Kazmier and Newman were up for reelection in 2021. Kazmier and Newman did not run. Ficke-Braford unofficially retained her seat in the April 6, 2021 election while Shackleton did not. (Steve Sadin / Pioneer Press)
One incumbent and three others who would be new to the Barrington School District 220 Board of Education are emerging as top vote-getters in Tuesday’s election, according to unofficial results from the Cook, Lake and Kane county clerks’ offices.
The district, with its headquarters in Barrington, serves surrounding towns that are in part or all of each county. Also, a small portion of the district is in McHenry County but unofficial results do not include any totals from McHenry because of what the clerk’s office there called “some anomalies in [Tuesday’s] unofficial election results.”
The top four vote-getters include incumbent Sandra Ficke-Bradford, the current board vice president, with about 12% of the combined Lake and Cook county vote, and newcomers Erin Chan Ding, with about 13%, and Katie Karam and Steve Wang, both with about 12% of the vote, according to unofficial results from each county clerk’s office.
The race had been rancorous, with charges by the League of Women Voters and others of strong partisan involvement in what some expected to be a non-partisan race, and complaints by some parents and candidates over what they saw as unseemly endorsements from the Barrington Education Association teachers union. The union endorsed Ficke-Bradford, Chan Ding, Klauer, and Thomas Mitoraj.
Ficke-Bradford said she wasn’t sure if the BEA endorsement hurt or helped. Chan Ding said she thought the endorsement had little effect overall, but she found it personally affirming that the teachers group saw her as someone with whom they could work.
Read more of the Barrington Courier-Review report on the 220 election here.
Editorial note: So far, the Daily Herald, Barrington Courier-Review/Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times or the Northwest Herald have not commented on what Alex Strobl shared with this and other publications last weekend.
Additionally, forty-five minutes of Tuesday evening’s Board of Education meeting were devoted to the topic (See “District 220 Board discusses Strobl documents”), so we’re really looking forward to their reports (though we’re not holding our breath).
The Zoning Board of Appeals will hold their regular monthly meeting Monday evening, October 17th, at Countryside Elementary School beginning at 6:30 PM. A copy of the agenda can be viewed here.
The ePacket agenda containing documents to be discussed by the board can be viewed and downloaded here.
Partial audio recordings* from the Sept. 20th Zoning Board of Appeals meeting at Countryside Elementary School are available for review, however the quality of the recordings is very poor. This likely contributed to the fact that the only recording available is the meeting in its entirety, and not edited by meeting agenda topic.
The meeting began with member David Stieper withdrawing his motion from the August 30th meeting. He stated he was doing so “for the sake of simplicity.” From what we can gather, the better path was to vote on the amendment before them as originally proposed, and not amend it, as Stieper had previously moved.
In the discussion that ensued, it appears the direction some on the Zoning Board wished to pursue was twofold:
Restore boarding codes to pre-2015 language, or the Home Occupation Ordinance, and
Draft new codes based on historical information already gathered and new information available
One member stated they had reviewed the “Anderson II”/”LeCompte/Anderson” language and stated the longer it stays on the books the more problematic it may become due to multiple “loopholes” and “ambiguities” in the drafting.
Another member chose to take the matter entirely away from the topic of horse boarding when they stated, “I think what it comes down to is, are we a residential community or a commercial community? I think everyone sitting here would agree first, and foremost, we are a residential community.”
We strongly encourage readers to listen to his full remarks on the matter by clicking here.
Multiple members also concurred that smaller or “backyard” boarding operations should be left alone for the most part, as should most of the larger scale “commercial” boarding businesses.
After an hour (as measured by the recording) of discussion, member Stieper made a fairly detailed motion to effectively repeal the current, newly enacted horse boarding codes and revert back to the Home Occupation Ordinance management of boarding. His motion can be heard here.
Once his motion was seconded, he handed out printed copies of new language for the board to review before their next meeting in October. This contrasts greatly with what occurred at the September 2014 Zoning Board meeting when a new amendment draft (Anderson II) was distributed and voted upon at the same meeting, before some board members had an adequate opportunity to review and consider it.
To access the recording of the full meeting, click here.
The Zoning Board will meet on October 17th at 6:30 PM at Countryside Elementary School to discuss this latest proposed horse boarding amendment.
*According to the Village website, only a portion of the meeting was recorded, presumably due to some technical malfunction. The recording of the unanimous vote to not accept the proposed Drury commercial horse boarding text amendment apparently was among the missing recordings.
Perhaps since some of the recordings are barely audible at times, the Village might consider publishing the transcript of the meeting at some future date.
The transcript from the September 11 meeting of the Zoning Board of Appeals has been posted to the Village website. A copy can be downloaded here for those who could not make anything out from the recordings.
