Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water: Transparency Group To Reveal Membership

ALAW is a self-described "grassroots" group organized in 1996 against McHenry County's stillborn 2020 Plan for development. It turned up again two years ago in the battle over a failed Kishwaukee Valley Water Authority to regulate water supplies in Boone, DeKalb and western McHenry County.

Berendt said she would post the names of ALAW members on the group's website except for two "silent members", one a government official and one a "prominent member of the community".

Click on the following for more of this story:  FirstElectricNewspaper: Transparency Group To Reveal Membership

ALAW’s web site is:  https://sites.google.com/site/landagricultureandwater/home  To date no list of directors or members has been posted.  The following description is taken from that site:

Welcome to the Alliance For Land, Agriculture and Water (ALAW).  Our mission is to inform, educate and influence the use of area natural resources, for the purpose of preserving and protecting open land, agriculture and water.
We first organized in December 2005 to defeat a destructive, environmentally unsustainable McHenry County, Illinois, 2020 Land Use plan with our
Fix-It-Or-Nix-It campaign.  We went on to petition and campaign for the Kishwaukee Valley Water Authority (KVWA), and although the measure was defeated, we succeeded in raising awareness of the critically sensitive nature of our water supply. For more information on the Kishwaukee Valley Water Authority effort or the Fix-It-Or-Nix-It campaign, click on the links at the left.
As the County Planning Commission works to develop a 2030 Land Use Plan our task force, 
The McHenry County Green Alliance continues to monitor the 2030 Plan progress. The McHenry County Green Alliance is a task force of McHenry County residents who want to preserve the rich farmland and open space that defines the historically rural character of the McHenry County.  In doing so, we will protect our future drinking water supply, which comes solely from underground aquifers.
The Planning Commission has turned over the plan to the Planning And Development Committee of the County Board where it will be subject to review and changes prior to one more public viewing, round of comments and then a vote by the full county board.  For details on the recent changes including the reduction in population projections (which will save more farmland) please click the Green Alliance link. For text of
Amendments submitted by the Alliance click here.  We must continue to be vigilant and proactive. The global movement toward heightened awareness of the importance of farmland and water protection has not yet reached our county realtors, developers, builders and their attorneys.

ALAW's current project is the Conflicts Disclosure Ordinance that was submitted to the County board on Thursday, December 1, 2009.  Right or wrong, the perception that public officials in this county control land use and other decisions for their own personal gain is becoming pervasive. We hope to put a stop to this with a requirement of full disclosure and recusal from discussion and voting on decisions that affect the owned interest.  For more details and to view the ordinance click here or on Conflicts Disclosure.
Since submitting the Conflicts Ordinance, we have been asked "who is ALAW?" More specifically ‘who are these people?” We didn't know that our identities were secret, but will publish the Board of Directors list as requested.  Current Board Members are Patricia Kennedy, Emily Berendt, Kim Willis, Joseph Daleiden, Richard Brook, Nancy Jung and John Kunzie.

As we did last year, we will be sending out a Candidates Survey in the next two weeks on environmental and related issues for County Board candidates in the February 2 primary election.  We will publish the results and any endorsements we make on this site and follow up with a second survey for the general election.

Manzullo Secures $4.8 Million in Defense R&D for Rockford-Area Manufacturers

Fuel System Component Manufacturing Technology Improvement Program $1.6 million for the Northern Illinois University ROCK program (Rapid Optimization of Commercial Knowledge)

Thermal and Energy Management for Aerospace program (THEMA) – $3.2 million for a Defense Department research project – The project, which will be completed by Hamilton Sundstrand in Rockford,

Click on the following for more detailsManufacturing 2.0 » Manzullo Secures $4.8 Million in Defense R&D for Rockford-Area Manufacturers

Open House for new Boone County Administrative Building

Come see what $2,500,000 PLUS BROUGHT.

Open House at 1212 Logan Avenue, Belvidere, Illinois.  Saturday, January 16, 2010, 10Am-2PM. 

Logan Avenue Administration Building

Boone County is proud to present the new Administration Building located on Logan Avenue. The new portion of the building will be powered by geothermal energy for heating/air-conditioning and is environmentally friendly. Geothermal energy is heat from within the earth. We can use the steam and hot water produced inside the earth to heat buildings or generate electricity. Geothermal energy is a renewable energy source because the water is replenished by rainfall and the heat is continuously produced inside the earth.
The building will house the Administrative, Building, County Clerk & Recorder and Treasurer's Departments and will include space for a County Board Room.

U.S. Said to Reconsider Quick Sale of Citigroup Stake - NYTimes.com

The new stock is expected to be priced at $3.15 a share — below the $3.25 price at which the government assumed its one-third stake in Citigroup. The Treasury is now expected to retain its stake and try to sell the stock over the next 6 to 12 months.

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority had filed a multi-billion dollar arbitration claim claiming “fraudulent misrepresentation” on the part of Citigroup after the government-run fund’s $7.5 billion investment in Citigroup went south.

Click on the following for more details:  U.S. Said to Reconsider Quick Sale of Citigroup Stake - NYTimes.com

Blog Count for the last 30 days: 1356 visits; 948 separate visitors.

The major increase was due to the NDK explosion,  There were 173 visits on Monday December 7, 2009, the date of the blast.
Since September 1, 2009:  2491 visits, 1440 separate visitors
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Boone County moves on Recovery Zone Bonds

Since June 10, 2009 this blog has been requesting action from the county board on this federal stimulus program.  See the posting at: http://boonecountywatchdog.blogspot.com/2009/06/northwest-herald-recovery-bonds-clear.html  It looks as if at long last the board will vote on the issue tonight.  Please read the next posting regarding what Sterling, Illinois did with the private portion of their Recovery Bonds.  There also is a public portion which could be used by a school district or other government unit.

 

Click on the photocopy to enlarge:

Recovery Zone Bonds 1

recovery bonds 2

Sterling 
gets bond authority 
to develop: Unnamed retailer interested in east end

The city of Sterling was given authority Tuesday to issue $6.2 million in federal economic stimulus bonds to an undisclosed retail builder interested in moving into the city’s east end.  The unanimous vote by the Whiteside County Board does not release the money, but it gives Sterling the authority to issue the bonds if the builder commits to the project.

Click on the following for more details:  saukvalley.com | Sterling gets bond authority to develop: Unnamed retailer interested in east end

China stretches the imagination with world's longest sea bridge

Barely 18-months after completing current record-holder, work begins on link between mainland, Macau and Hong Kong --Y-shaped link between Hong Kong, Macau and China will be around 50km (31 miles) long in total, 35km of which will span the sea, said the state news agency Xinhua. Due to be completed by 2015

Click on the following for more details:   China stretches the imagination with world's longest sea bridge | World news | The Guardian

CORRECTION---CORRECTION TO ARTICLE: Unpaid service has cost

 

This article was posted on Monday.  It mistakenly indicated that Elgin Community College expended more than $31,472 last year for trustee expenses.  I apologize to ECC for this inadvertent error.

 

school districts and colleges spend anywhere from $3,000 to more than $31,000 to cover board member expenses, including travel, conferences, hotel rooms and banquets

Carpentersville-based Community Unit School District 300, with 32 percent of its population considered low-income…Over the past five years, the district has spent $18,114 on board member travel expenses and conference registration fees

Elgin School District U46, with nearly 50 percent of its population considered low-income…spends "well under" $10,000 each year on board members,

St. Charles-based Community Unit School District 303, with 8 percent of its population considered low-income, its board member budget is more flexible….It spent more than $25,000 on items related to board members,

Elgin Community College spent $31,472 during 2008-09 on conferences and travel for the Board of Trustees. This covers the cost for their attendance at American Community College Trustees and Illinois Community College Trustee Association meetings and annual conferences. Additionally, the cost of tickets purchased by the College of Trustees to attend college-sanctioned events totaled $3,150.

Click on the following for the complete story:  Unpaid service has cost :: The Courier News :: Local News