McHenry County roads group takes a road trip

Members of the McHenry County Better Roads Coalition tried a new job Wednesday: delivery guys.

The group brought 230 boxed lunches from Crystal Lake down to legislators in the state Capitol.

The cuisine? Ham and cheese sandwiches served with a side of guilt.

"Each and every lunch is marked with a senator or representative's name," said Chris Manheim, coalition member and chairman of the McHenry County Economic Development Corporation.

"If they don't stop by our table in the Capitol lobby to pick it up, we'll personally deliver the lunches to their office and have a nice chat."

Besides lunch duty, coalition members spent the day meeting with lawmakers to plead for funding for McHenry County's roads -- which, according to U.S. News and World Report, have the seventh-most traffic congestion in the country and the worst in Illinois.

"McHenry County has no interstate access except for its southwest corner. We're a booming county that contributes more than its fair share of tax money," group member Chip Eldredge said. "All we're asking is that we be treated fairly."

Plus, Eldredge said, now could be an opportune time to start road improvement projects. "There's a lot of new development coming. Now's a perfect time to fix these roads before it gets even more crowded out here."

At a 1:30 p.m. meeting with John Harris, Gov. Rod Blagojevich's chief of staff, Coalition Chairman Bill Dwyer delivered a stack of 255 petitions signed by McHenry County residents to the governor's desk. These were accompanied by a list of 516 names that have signed online petitions.

"In general, I think the meeting went very well," McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler said. "Harris was receptive and did a lot of good note-taking. He did recognize that now was a good opportunity for a capital plan to be accomplished."

Dwyer, a former McHenry County Board member, said the grassroots group formed in the past few months in response to the state removing the Algonquin bypass from its five-year improvement plan.

U.S. Sens. Barrack Obama and Dick Durbin and U.S. Reps. Don Manzullo and Melissa Bean were able to secure $19 million in federal funding for the project in the past eight years, but the state has not responded in kind.

Failure to match the federal grants could cause the county to lose those federal dollars, officials have warned.

Funding for the proposed Algonquin bypass is included in the $13 billion state capital improvement plan, approved Sept. 20 by the state Senate. The construction spending would be financed by gambling expansion.

It will proceed to the House in the next few weeks, where leaders have rejected previous expansion plans.

"We have three goals here today," Dwyer said.

First, they want to thank state Sens. Pam Althoff and Frank Watson for including funding for the bypass in the $13 billion state capital-improvement plan.

Second, now that the bill for the capital improvement plan has passed to the House, "the main thrust is to keep funds for the project in the plan," Dwyer said.

Third, he said, is to make sure the governor "doesn't take the plan off the budget again."

The fact that some of the state funding for road money could come from gambling profits is a controversial issue. The coalition views it with a "beggars can't be choosers" mentality.

"This is a grassroots organization," Dwyer said. "We're here to fix McHenry County's roads. If that's paid for by gambling money or not, it doesn't matter. Whatever way the Senate or House passes a capital bill, we'll take."

Althoff voted against the gambling expansion plan Sept. 20.