McHenry Co. moves mental health board expansion forward

A controversial addition to the McHenry County Mental Health Board's Crystal Lake headquarters is closer to reality after county board members Tuesday cleared another obstacle to its funding.

The county board voted 13-8 in favor of a deal obligating the mental health board to reimburse it for a proposed $4 million bond issue to pay for the planned 22,000-square-foot, two-story addition, a project that's divided many in the county's community of social service agencies.

The decision sets up another vote, likely in March, at which the board will be asked to issue the $4 million in bonds authorized through the federal economic stimulus package, then turn the money over to the mental health board for the addition. The mental health board intends to repay the bonds through money that will come available once it finishes paying off the debt on its existing Dakota Street building.

Opponents of the measure say that the mental health board can find far better uses for $4 million than expanding its own size, especially when the state is cutting assistance to agencies that assist the mentally ill and developmentally disabled.

"Tax dollars will have to be directed to bond repayment and the expense of services," said Susan Krause, executive director of the McHenry County Youth Service Bureau. "What are our priorities here?"

Supporters, however, say using the federal bonding authority made available to the county allows the agency to add much-needed space at an interest rate that will ultimately save taxpayers a significant amount of money. Mental health board President Don Larson said issue isn't so much whether the addition will happen - the board has already agreed to it - but whether it will do it at a lower cost.

"This is about whether we build with a (interest) rate that is very reasonable or whether we build with a bank loan that is going to cost us more," he said. "This building is coming."

Like many in the mental health community, county board members were split Tuesday between taking advantage of the opportunity for low-interest funding and whether a larger building is the mental health board's biggest need.

County Board member Barbara Wheeler fell into the latter group.

"It's just a really bad time to see government wanting to expand," she said.

Expansion: Some say there are better uses for bond money