Who Says You Can't Fight City Hall?

One tote over the Island Lake line resident Bob Wargaski didn't lie down and take it when people made that suggestion to him.

Be steamrolled by Mayor Tom Hyde and his majority?

No way.

And on December 23rd, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency agreed with arguments he had made to the Lake County Health Department that the well casing installed wasn't good enough for a permanent well.

OK for a test well, I was told by the EPA, but not good enough for a well to draw drinking water for the public.Want to see what a letter ending a fight that probably cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars looks like?

Here it is:

Even the Daily Herald recognized the significance of Wargaski's victory.
Entitled

“Lessons learned from pig farm dispute”

Daily Herald editorial writers characterize the disputed “a pretty good example of government hardheadedness.”

I must admit that I have not seen a pig farm used as an anti-development tool before.

POV, a commenter under the editorial lays out what happened:

“follow the money. The Village had plans to put is somewhere else, but a $developer$ petitioned them to move it so he could build $ a development without the eyesore of a water tower to detract from his bottom $ line.

“So because the village wanted to accommodate $ the developer $ and make more $ tax revenue from the new homes, they decided to aquiesse to the request from the $developer$ and move it to Mr Wargaski's back yard.

“But they did not figure on the $ power of Mr Wargaski or his creativity and gonads to fight them.

“It is always about $money and $power.

“I hope some lessons were learned.”

The editorial said,

“Wargaski emerges as a folk hero to any suburbanite ever bullied by a government agency in the name of the public good.

“Whether or not you agree with him, Wargaski's lesson is an individual thinking creatively can take on a heavy-handed government.”

All images can be enlarged by clicking on them. You can find links to other McHenry County Blog articles on this subject here.

Read more...

New Tribune Format Minimizes Impact of Island Lake Mayor's Arrest

In the old Chicago Tribune, this story would have been on the front of the Metro section.

In the new Chicago Tribune, it is buried inside.

So the impact of the story is less now than it would have been a couple of weeks ago before the Tribune “went Sun-Times” (as in “went ballistic”).

“What's next? What else don't we know?" Laurie Rabattini, who blogs about Island Lake at “What's Happening in Island Lake? is quoted as saying by reporters Courtney Flynn and Susan Kuczka.

That's after reprising the arrest of Vietnam Vet Greg Kachka for wearing a threatening tee shirt and pointing his finger to make a point, plus Bob Wargaski's pig farm to stop a water tower from being erected across the road from his unincorporated property.

Mayor Tom Hyde, who leads the Democrats who control the village board, was arrested for forgery and official misconduct for using Wite-Out on a liquor license so he could change the name of the licensee.

Just before that happened, the Tribune reports,

“...the village clerk filed a lawsuit claiming the village owes her nearly $200,000 in back pay.”

The man Hyde beat for village president almost four years ago, Tom Martin, gets in this delicious quote:

"The Hyde group are like the black cats that came into town to take over."

Read more...

All Island Lake Mayor Tom Hyde and Illinois Sarah Palin Have in Common Are Pigs

Knowing what I do about the regime of Island Lake Mayor Tom Hyde, I was astounded that the Daily Herald's Burt Constable decided to compare him with former Wasilla, Alaska, Mayor Sarah Palin.

If she had had retired Vietnam Veteran Greg Kachka arrested for pointing his figure at her and wearing a threatening tee shirt at a contentious Wasilla council meeting, surely the Left Stream media would have reported it.

If an adjoining property owner were so enraged with the relocation of a proposed Wasilla city water tower from highly prized high ground in a development to low ground across the street from such a property owner and that property owner had decided to construct a pig farm to try to disqualify the site of the relocated water tower and well, I am sure that that same Left Stream media would have put it on world news tonight.

So, I wasn't completely surprised that the blog “What's Happening in Island Lake?” decided to do a story.

With permission, it is reprinted below:

Tom Hyde Is
No Example of a
Small Town Mayor

The Daily Herald, in my opinion, failed miserably in its attempt to compare the small towns governed by VP candidate Sarah Palin to that of Mayor Tom Hyde.

Was there a shortage of Mayors who aren’t under grand jury investigation (as reported in the Pioneer Press)?

Perhaps the Daily Herald could have chosen a Mayor

• who hasn’t been at the center of so much controversy;
• one who has not been accused by the Attorney General of Open Meetings Act violations, suggesting OMA training not once, but twice, to his administration; or
• one that during his tenure as trustee, was not ticketed for an oversized boat motor and instead of paying the fine and moving on, asked police officers to “lose” evidence against him.

Was there not a Mayor available who hasn’t run the village into a half-million dollar deficit without a plan to recover? One who isn’t arguably the root cause of record lawsuits against the village?

Was Tom Hyde really the best example Burt Constable and the Daily Herald could find?

This administration will no doubt go down in Island Lake’s history as the worst ever.

With so much controversy surrounding one Mayor—under Hyde’s administration,

• multiple trustees have resigned,
• accusations of corruption from the bottom up (backed by documentation),
• bad business deals,
• poor judgments,
• multiple grand jury investigations,
• nepotism (which he promised to put a stop to),
• questionable ethics,
• issuance of liquor licenses to businesses next to schools,
• unfavorable national headlines, and in
• what seems to be a never ending legal battle with neighboring pig farmer, Bob Wargaski

—all of these failures and disappointments are costing the village in deep legal fees and an unflattering national reputation. This administration has failed the good people of Island Lake.

The article also eluded that Hyde simply retired from GMAC after decades of service; lacking any hint that the circumstances surrounding his retirement were also controversial.

Failures of this administration and resistance to promote open, honest and transparent government and the letdown of the media prompted me to get involved—start a blog and videotape village meetings.

In the article, bloggers are compared to pit bull hockey moms, only less tame. Are there hungry sharks in the comment pool of the blogs? You betcha—but no more than any blog fueled by the wrong doings of any administration or campaign.

When I wrote this story Wednesday, there were 29 comments below it. Read them and you'll learn more about Island Lake than you probably want to know.

The Daily Herald had 20 comments.

= = = = =
On top you see Vietnam Veteran Greg Kachka pointing as he talks to Fox News reporter Greg Totter. The photo of Mayor Tom Hyde is from the village web site. Below is prospective pig farmer Bob Wargaski on the day he broke ground.

Posted first on McHenry County Blog this rainy weekend, where there are all sorts of other political articles.

Printed first this rainy weekend on McHenry County Blog, where you can read my take on "Lipstick on a Pig," not to mention a story about a Murphysboro firm that has found a way to use a Dick Tracy-like wrist radio to help police find wandering Alzheimer, Down Syndrome and Autistic residents.

Read more...

Chilling Free Speech in Island Lake

Chilling Free Speech in Island Lake

I haven't seen the complaint against disabled Vietnam Veteran Greg Kachka made to the Island Lake Police Dept., but reportedly it was stimulated by Village Trustee Debbie Herrmann and Clerk Christine Kaczmarek a month and a half ago.

Kachka had been critical of the village board.

Was the arrest for disorderly conduct retribution?

As my son says, “You're not in my mind.”

But it certainly will have a chilling effect on free speech at village board meetings.

Wonder where the ACLU is when they could be useful.

Kachka called me this afternoon to tell me a Fox News crew would be coming out to do a story.

I decided to drive over.

But, before I went this is part of what Kachka told me.

“This Debbie Herrmann is really famous for making faces at people.”

Although he is Polish, Kachka said, “I talk with my hands. They're saying I made my hand into a gun and I was shooting at (them).”

He explained that nothing was said at the meeting.

“It wasn't until Monday, (March) 17th that he (a policeman) started an investigation.”

He came over and “I showed him my guns (and my) FOID card.

“I FOIed (filed a Freedom of Information request) for a copy of the report to Christie Kaczmarek. She denied it due to the privacy of the people accusing me. (So much) for my rights.”

He appealed to Village President Tom Hyde. No luck there either.

Kachka talked to a policeman the day before he was arrested and this is what he heard:

“The state's attorney (Lake County's) said we could arrest you on disorderly conduct. We could do it the easy way. You could come I with $75.”

Kachka said he wanted to talk to his lawyer first. The prepaid legal services folks told him had to be arrested before they could help him.

He finally called the Island Lake Police and said, “I didn't do anything wrong. I'm not turning myself in.”

At this point in our conversation, his cell phone rang. It played the Marine hymn. You know, “From the halls of Montezuma...”

By then I was trying to produce a map to find his home.

When I arrived in Island Lake, there was a crowd in front and the Fox News crew was inside while Kachka was trying to find the part of the village meeting which had been called into question. The story I got was that the village officials thought he was pointing his had like kids do when they don't have a gun. (Kids probably get sent home from school for that in some school districts, zero tolerance and such.)

They had probably picked up the story from the Daily Herald, which had a picture of Kachka wearing the offending tee shirt—the same one he wore when taken to jail to post $500 bond. So far, nothing in the Northwest Herald.
Fox reporter Darian Trotter and his crew had made the 2-hour trip out. I told him the second time it wouldn't seem so long.

He interviewed police sergeant Anthony Sciarrone, who said the complaint was more about Kachka's hand gesture than his tee shirt.

I wonder why it took so long for the powers that be in Island Lake to act on whatever fear that the complaining village officials supposedly perceived.

But remember, Island Lake has "friendly people."

In the group shot on Greg Kachka's flag bedecked front lawn are Laurie Rabattini, who has the "What's happening in Island Lake?" blog, her finance, who was filming also, Rob Rekosiewicz, Tom Martin, a former trustee, Bob Wargaski pointing with his unloaded hand, Dave Labuz, and Teresa and Village Trustee John Ponio the current trustee, plus homeowner Kachka.

The Tribune ran a story today on page 3 of the metro section, but is featuring a full-color version of Kachka in his tee shirt on its web page. No credit to the blogger who broke the story, although Laurie Rabattini, who writes "What's Happening in Island Lake?" is quoted in the story.

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

Read more...