McHenry leaders look to gambling to quell congestion

When I learned I'd be joining this newspaper's Elgin bureau, I understood I'd be piling many miles onto my aging, gas-guzzling car.

Commuting from Chicago is almost 30 miles. It's a 22-mile round trip from our office to Algonquin's village hall. Nearly 30 to Lake in the Hills. And 40 to McHenry County College and back.

Luckily, reporters are reimbursed for business travel.

There's no compensation, however, for time spent in traffic.

U.S. News and World Report has rated McHenry County's traffic congestion as the worst in the state, and the seventh worst in the country.

Driving up and down Route 31 and Route 47, I see this is no exaggeration.

Local officials and residents are all tearing their hair out at finding a way to fix the county's roads -- fast.

There's no lack of ideas -- plans for the Algonquin western bypass, Route 47 improvements and the Richmond bypass were outlined years ago.

There's no lack of federal funds, either.

It's what's going on in Springfield -- or rather, isn't -- that's creating the holdup.

In his 14 years on the Algonquin village board, Village President John Schmitt said road funding has always been a major component of the village's goals. The Algonquin western bypass, a project that would relieve congestion by moving Route 31 out of downtown Algonquin, has ballooned in cost from about $45 million in 1999 to more than $67 million today.

In Washington, Illinois lawmakers Sen. Dick Durbin and Rep. Don Manzullo have together secured $19 million in federal road money for the project. That funding, however, awaits a state match.

"Durbin and Manzullo have really stuck their necks out to get funding for our project, " Schmitt said.

"And Durbin knows he has nothing to gain. He's not going to get a majority of votes from McHenry County."

Right now, Schmitt said, all he sees in Springfield is "people stomping their feet."

It's little surprise to me that local leaders like Schmitt and Lake in the Hills Village President Ed Plaza see gambling expansion as the only feasible way to finance road expansion.

"I don't have a problem," Plaza said this week of gambling expansion in the area. "We've been waiting for road (funds) for an inordinate amount of time."

But State House Speaker Michael Madigan, who has been lukewarm on gambling expansion, recently called gambling a social evil that ruins families.

I'm somewhat inclined to agree with him.

But the reality that families are spending unnecessary hours apart from one another because of traffic jams is a societal problem as well.

And one of the most unnecessary ones I can think of.

It's a trade-off to live in spacious, scenic McHenry. A lower cost of living means, for many, a longer drive to the office.

Choices and consequences are a necessary part of life. It's time legislators in Springfield stopped stalling and learned that too.