Metra Set To Buy Crystal Lake Commuter Station Land without Public Input

So I'm trying to track down what is going to happen about the proposed purchase of the Ridgefield commuter station site that the Northwest Herald says is half owned by McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler.

I'd like to know what's at the end of the tunnel before my tax dollars get there.

I went to the search engine and typed in the location of the proposed site: "Ridgefield." Below you see what I found.

"Your search for ridgefield did not match any documents,"

was the message on the screen.

The Metra agenda is not published online, as is the agenda of McHenry County College.

McHenry County College does not have a stellar record of publishing its agenda and board packet before its meeting, but it usually does so.

Media relations woman Meg Reile emailed me the agenda for tomorrow's board meeting says,

Ordinance authorizing a Purchase and Sale Agreement between Metra and Amcore Bank as Trustee of Trust No. 3582.

That's it.

I called the Metra Board Secretary Lisa Murphy and was told the board packet would be online starting in September. That would be good.

But I'm interested in tomorrow's board packet, so, asking for whatever would be in the board packet concerning the Ridgefield station, I gave her my phone and fax numbers.

Comments may be sent to Metra Board members here metraboard@metrarr.com

Published first on McHenry County Blog where links to articles on the subject that might be of interest appear below:Articles that might be of interest:

Alexander Lumber's Move to Ridgefield, Proposed Metra Station Implications

Musings on the Proposed Ridgefield Metra Station

Ridgefield Businessman Takes on McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler over Proposed Metra Station

$1.5 Million Being Paid for Ridgefield Metra Site Half-Owned by McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler

Read more...

In Remembrance

Part 1 of this article can be found here.

The Wednesday before last, when I was computer-impaired because of Microsoft's Vista, Governor Rod Blagojevich agreed to the suggestion of the NIU president to use $40 million to tear down and replace Cole Hall, where the massacre took place, and build another lecture hall and an on-campus memorial in its place.

Maybe it is because I was on the House Appropriations Committee through which big capital expenditures flowed in the 1990's, but I immediately thought of how much $40 million would buy.

It would have been bought 40 right-turn lanes back at the turn of the century.

It would go a long way toward re-building and widening Route 31 between Crystal Lake and McHenry, surely the most needed road improvement in McHenry County. (And, yes, leaves have been on the trees sometime in the distant past before Narnia's White Witch turned our area into what seems like a perpetual winter.)

Then, Sunday morning, I woke up thinking of how $40 million (or, maybe it was only $20 million in the late 1990's) would have paid for an underpass in Fox River Grove. Fox River Grove is the only town on the Union Pacific main northwest line without any underpasses or overpasses.

Even though the state managed to come up with money for an overpass for Cary in the 1990's when Route 14 was widened, as you can see above, and Metra officials discussed an overpass in Fox River Grove, it was apparently too much money.

Despite the tragedy.

That would have been an appropriate memorial, it seemed to me.

Instead Fox River Grove residents did what they always do. They did what they could with what they had.

There is a rock with bronze plaques on two sides at the accident site that this little girl is looking at with her mother watching her.

There is also a small plaza in front of the library a block away built with donations and some legislative initiative money, otherwise, known as “pork,” from my allotment.

Five innocents died in DeKalb.

Seven died as a result of the Fox River Grove school bus-Metra train crash.

I think most of the $40 million the NIU president and Governor Blagojevich propose spending tearing down and replacing Cole Hall and building a memorial could be spent better elsewhere.

Instead, in addition to a memorial on campus, why doesn't the legislature pass a law replacing Governor Blagojevich's name on the open road sign with an appropriate memorial message before the NIU exit (built on land I have been was owned by former Republican State Senator Dennis “Denny” Collins)?

One something like the one you can see to the left of the photograph at the O'Hare Oasis above or at the top of this story.

Each Blagojevich sign cost about $15,000.

Then people off campus could be reminded of the tragedy, too.

= = = = =
All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them. Posted first on McHenry County Blog.

Read more...

CTA Fare Hikes

Click on the ad the Chicago Transit Authority spend oodles placing in Chicago’s newspapers and you will see what CTA riders will have to pay to get to and from work.

How does it compare with what you have to pay?

It looks like $6 a day on a rapid transit train and $5 per day, if you take a bus.

Get a monthly pass, however, and the cost is $84. With twenty working days a month, that seems to be about $4 a day, assuming one doesn’t use bus or train service any time else during the month.

What do you pay to get to work each month?

When you fill up your motor vehicle with gas, how much does it cost?

Did your cost of gasoline increase 50% this year?

Do you have to fill it up at least twice a month?

Do you have car payments?

Even if you don’t, there is obviously depreciation on your car as you use it. when it wears out, you'll have to buy a new one.

Just wondering.

Is keeping CTA, Metra and Pace fares down worth it to have your RTA sales taxes tripled from one-quarter of one percent to three-quarters of a percent,
even if half of the increase is going to be given to the McHenry County Board to spend improving the roads of its choice?

Just wondering.

It's going to cost the average McHenry County family about $200 a year if the CTA bailout bill is passed.

And for those reading from outside the Chicago area in Illinois, part of your share of the sales tax will be ripped off. In that Governor Rod Blagojevich's spokeswoman is correct.

The Metra engine is pulling into Crystal Lake's train station from Chicago. The Pace buses are on Bull Valley Road at the McHenry spur's grade crossing. Tell us where the CTA bus is, Chicago readers.

You know this went up on McHenry County Blog first.

Read more...