McHenry County issues same-sex marriage licenses
TUESDAY, JUNE 3, 2014
NWHERALD.COM
The only daily newspaper published in McHenry Co.
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Ethics bill headed to governor
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Measure would give counties power to remove appointees By KEVIN P. CRAVER
What it means
kcraver@shawmedia.com
Sarah Nader – snader@shawmedia.com
A water tower on Sioux Lane in McHenry has multiple cellphone antennas attached on top. Many area municipalities are using water towers as locations for cellphone antennas and leasing the space to cellphone companies. The revenue source can mean hundreds of thousands of dollars to municipalities.
Leased tower space a revenue source By JOSEPH BUSTOS
By the numbers
jbustos@shawmedia.com High above Sioux Lane in McHenry, sitting on top of the water tower that has the town’s name, are several antennas broadcasting signals for a handful of cellphone companies. Companies such as AT&T, T-Mobile and U.S. Cellular are leasing space on top of the tower and providing the city with a source of revenue to help pay for the ongoing maintenance of the water tower. Long-term leases of space by cellphone companies on municipal properties, especially on water towers, has become a common source of revenue for towns as a way to help their bottom lines, while helping towns minimize the amount of towers from being built in an area. McHenry has been leasing space on municipal property to cellphone companies for several years, said Deputy City Administrator Doug Martin. “These companies require tall structures to provide their services in order to overcome physical obstructions, trees, tall buildings, as well as topographical changes, which inhibit providing clear signals,” Martin wrote in an email. Antennas need to be close to hightraffic areas and high population centers where there is high demand.
Current year revenue for area municipalities that lease space to cellphone companies.
$303,906.30
$105,459.45
Crystal Lake
McHenry
$270,000
$27,149
Cary
Harvard
$201,494.40
$3,600*
Lake in the Hills
Lakewood
$193,939.88
$1,464*
Algonquin
Wonder Lake
$185,804 Fox River Grove
*Revenue is generated from companies that provide high-speed internet
“Water towers are a natural match because they are located at high points throughout the city plus it’s much less intrusive and more aesthetically desirable to locate antennas on an existing water tower than constructing a monopole tower,” Martin said. In McHenry, money from antennas located on water towers goes toward maintenance for water towers and the city’s water system. There is a monopole at the city’s public works building that generates rental revenue that goes toward
both the city’s general fund and water utility operations. McHenry’s City Council recently approved a lease with New Cingular to locate on a water tower in Tonyan Industrial Park. The company has an option to pay $300,000 up front to place antennas for 10 years. Dave Nelson, the city administrator for Harvard, said money the town receives from Sprint for leasing space on its water tower goes toward costs related to the city’s water utility. “We’re not using [the top] of it,” Nelson said. “There’s space available for these companies. ... When it is there, it’s like an asset you have. It’s an opportunity to get revenue out of the asset.” Individual cellphone towers are not pleasant to look at, Nelson said. The last tower the city approved included provisions that required co-location and subleasing to other companies, Nelson said. “It’s a sight that sometimes you don’t notice them, but when they’re looked at, they’re ugly,” Nelson said. When cellphone companies determine they need to have an antenna location in a particular area, they prefer to put that antenna on an existing structure, said
See TOWERS, page A4
WOODSTOCK – Collar county board chairpeople angry over the Metra Board’s mishandling of back-to-back scandals found frustration as well when they asked their representatives to resign. They discovered after the 2010 scandal surrounding former Metra CEO Phil Pagano that while their county boards had the power to appoint their representatives to the Metra Board, they had no legal authority to remove them should they refuse to step down. The problem is hardly unique to one mass-transit board. While the McHenry County Board appoints about 250 people to at least 35 boards and commissions, many of which have multimillion dollar budgets, its ability to remove appointees is questionable at best. For some boards, no such power exists. Others allow for removal in cases of “abuse or neglect,” but the law offers no concrete definition of what rises to such an offense. In many cases, a county board’s only recourse if it wants to remove underperforming appointees is to ask them to resign, and if they refuse, wait until their term expires to appoint someone new. A bill approved by lawmakers last week is set to change that. Senate Bill 3552 gives larger counties the ability to draft standards of conduct that appointees have to honor, and provides a mechanism by which violators can be re-
Senate Bill 3552, if signed into law by Gov. Pat Quinn, will give the McHenry County Board the power to create standards of conduct for its appointees to boards and commissions, and a mechanism by which those who violate it can be removed.
On the Web You can read the text of Senate Bill 3552 at www.ilga.gov. moved. It is headed for Gov. Pat Quinn’s desk for final approval. While the bill began at the behest of the Lake County Board, the McHenry County Board supported it, Chairwoman Tina Hill, R-Woodstock, said. One of Hill’s priorities upon her election in December 2012 was improving the County Board’s accountability over the commissions to which it appoints. One of her first requests was for the State’s Attorney’s Office to compile a list of all statutes that govern how appointees are dismissed. “I think you’ve got to be able to know that your interests are being represented on a board,” Hill said. “If you see one of your board members not doing the job, you want to have the ability to make that change.” The law is modeled off standards of conduct that the Lake County Board adopted last fall for its 300 appointees
See ETHICS, page A4
Cary motorcyclist dies after colliding with pickup truck Alcohol, drugs do not appear to be factor in accident By JOSEPH BUSTOS jbustos@shawmedia.com A motorcyclist involved in a crash near Marengo on Sunday
has died, the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office said. William Hurley, 55, of Cary, was going east on a Suzuki motorcycle on Route 20 about
9 a.m. Sunday when he collided with a Chevy pickup truck driven by Alifonso Morales, of Marengo, the sheriff’s office said.
LOCALLY SPEAKING Marengo’s Mariah Dionne
Sarah Nader – snader@shawmedia.com
Morales was waiting at a stop sign to turn left onto Route 20 from Meyer Road, when he proceeded into the intersection after he thought it was clear, according to the sheriff’s office. Hurley, who was wearing a helmet, was unable to
avoid Morales. Hurley was taken to Centegra Hospital – Woodstock, and later flown via Flight for Life to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville. Hurley later died of his injuries, the sheriff’s office said.
CARY
WOODSTOCK
VICTIM ID’D IN FATAL CAMPING ACCIDENT
D-200 WORKER HEADS TO NATION’S CAPITAL
Wisconsin officials identified Allison Spahr as the 11-year-old Cary girl who died Sunday morning after a tree limb fell on her family’s tent at Devil’s Lake State Park in south central Wisconsin. Allison’s 13-year-old brother, Kyle, and 51-year-old father, Kevin, also were injured in the incident. For
Melinda Parrent will take a sharpened aptitude for research through the nation’s library when she starts at Northwood Middle School in the fall. The library media specialist was chosen from more than 400 applicants to attend the Primary Source Summer Teacher Institute in Washington D.C. For more, see
more, see page B1.
page B1.
MARENGO: Indians prepare for sectional game with one goal in mind: winning a state title. Sports, C1
The crash is still under investigation, but it appears alcohol and drugs were not a factor in the accident, the sheriff’s office said. Morales was charged with failing to yield at a stop intersection.
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