McHenry County Board gets update on strategic plan

McHenry County leaders reviewed the county’s three-year strategic plan and set initiatives it wants to see addressed in the near future during a board meeting this week.

County administrators presented an update on the strategic plan Friday, which includes goals for transportation, livability, service delivery and economic development. The county made considerable strides in some areas, like replacing aging bridges, but county leaders concede other areas lag behind due to the economy and other factors.

“I am pleased with the progress we have been making,” County Administrator Peter Austin said Friday afternoon. “We are making progress across all areas and where we’re not making progress we’re communicating with the board to slow down on those issues.”

An area that the county has backed off from is the construction of a new Community Safety Center to house the sheriff’s department and other offices to make room in the county’s judicial center. But county officials said the economy and the county’s actual growth over the last decade means a new facility is not feasible in the next year.

“As the county grows, the plan was to move the sheriff’s department out of the courthouse and into a specific building of their own that would include other offices, as well,” McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler said. “But with the way the economy is and the fact that we want to be conservative with our spending and borrowing, that’s not going to happen. We want to be cautious as we move forward.”

Board members identified implementing a countywide high-speed broadband infrastructure as a major focus in the future.

Donna Kurtz, a board member from Crystal Lake, said the project could be achieved if the county worked with other local governments to implement and install the expensive materials.

“If we plan ahead we could do this in a much more efficient and effective manner,” Kurtz said. “That’s why we do a strategic plan three to five years out. We can rearrange the deck chairs in an effective manner. This is a little beyond the drawing board, but with enough planning it could have a huge impact on the county in attracting businesses here.”