McHenry County Conservation District Youtube Fun - We explore Fel-Pro RRR , The Hollows, and some behind the scenes of MCCD.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Here's a song coming your way right now, Nowhere to Run to by Martha and the Vandellas.
(00:11):
Yes!
Hey, you know what I mean!
Too much?
Nowhere to run to baby, Nowhere to run to baby, Nowhere to run to baby.
It's not love I'm running from, It's the heartbreak I know will come, Cause I know you'll never fall for me, Cause you've become a part of me.
(00:46):
Every cry I hold, Your face I see, Every stop I take, You take with me. Nowhere to run to baby, Nowhere to run to baby.
(01:09):
I know it will be good for me, To see you, I'll never be alone, Each night as I sleep, Into my heart you breathe, I wake up feeling sorry I left you, I'm feeling soon,
Now that I forget you, I'm looking in the mirror, To pull my hair, I see your face, It's just a smile in the mirror.
(01:39):
Nowhere to run to baby, Nowhere to run to baby, Nowhere to run to baby.
(02:02):
I'm gonna fight for love, That shouldn't be, And it's so deep, so deep, Deep inside of me, My love reaches so high, I can't get over it, So I can't get around it, no.
(02:24):
Nowhere to run to baby, Nowhere to run to baby, Nowhere to run to baby. I know it will be good for me, To see you, I'll never be alone, Each night as I sleep, I wake up feeling sorry I left you, I wake up feeling soon,
Metro computers, your attention please. The next Metrotrain approaching your station will be a Metra Express train and will not stop.
(03:01):
The train is moving.
That's the gravy train does not stop and carry anymore. Welcome. My name is Randy Scott. This is Voices Carry Live in Illinois, beautiful village of carry Illinois. This is your megaphone. This is your microphone.
And I am here joining you on a beautiful Friday. It's supposed to get really cold tomorrow, but we had some summer, some summer feeling today and the sun was out it was beautiful. And what better than to have a little ending of the night with yours truly from voices carry in this warehouse.
(03:37):
What is voices carry it's pretty much to bridge the gap between social media and talking with your neighbor. I think we can all agree that the days of who's ever at the helm, or taxing bodies making decisions on any interest other than the best interest of their citizens
is completely unacceptable and outdated and obsolete. I think we're all, we're all on that same page. And the, the only thing to do after we admit that that we're done with that is to get mad.
(04:13):
And not to the point to where there's violence, but get mad to the point to where you want to stand up, go outside and start talking and start going to your public meetings and being respectful and respecting the people that are let's face it, it's a tough job.
It's really complex. It's a ball of rubber bands. And, you know, they're navigating it. So we have to respect that but then it's also, we have to get involved. So that's what I'm doing here for the future of my family and yours.
(04:47):
And I want to, the phones are open the text is open. We're going to be taking a look at the board meeting agenda drop today.
For the village board meeting and the committee of the whole meeting for March 4, and we have a platform that goes out to quite a few people, other than people living in Cary so I like to put this disclaimer.
(05:11):
If you see what we're doing here and you want to do it for your own town. Do it, you can start it on your cell phone, and it's just about talking, being consistent and great things happen when you talk.
It's, it's, it's not good. Just keeping all that angst inside you about seeing your school district get, you know, having, having be on the back burner as an afterthought, having the road out in front of your house, not as highly prioritized as maybe some
(05:47):
other streets in town, like a main street. And I think we can have the best of both worlds.
Once we all get on the same sheet of music.
And we have to figure that out for the sake of our, our future, our future generations, so that they have a strong foundation.
(06:11):
And that's what I'm here. I'll stop with my spiel. So yeah, we have the committee in the village board meeting minutes.
So we'll go through that and then also what I'm going to do is, we're going to take a look at some McHenry County conservation districts that are in Cary, we have a lot of conservation districts that are in Cary, and with how warm it was today.
(06:39):
We've got a little taste of that and tomorrow it's going to be like 20 degrees so I figured what better than to take a look at that together. And maybe you, you know, we might have not all been in some of these places so if you see something on there and be like hey I want to check that out myself.
I'll bring it to you.
And what I'm going to do is I'm going to kick off.
(07:05):
Probably one of these videos because I have to. Of course I go live I swear when I go live. It, there's like a signal that goes to the heater which is abnormally loud actually like really funny loud for a studio so I'm going to go turn that off we're going to take a look at.
(07:27):
We'll do all this board stuff later.
But let's take a look at the McHenry County conservation area.
The hollows.
And there's a few of them, there's quite a few in Cary and the conservation district has done this.
It's like a tour.
(07:50):
For the area.
And they have a whole bunch of services like the hollows has camping I get, oh that that's actually clever they have the logos here.
They have camping fishing.
You can go boating they have shelters you can rent out hiking, a whole bunch of stuff and it's all in your backyard.
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Let's take a look.
There's a lot of stuff there.
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A lot of hiking.
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This used to be a quarry.
And there's a part of the hollows back here that I swear it's so immersive it feels like you're in a different world.
When you're when you go back there.
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They just finished doing a whole bunch of construction right there where you saw the trail and is where they actually paved the rest of the trail so it's fully ADA, you can bring a walker back there, wheelchair or stroller.
It's a real experience.
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They nailed the music.
This is where I'm talking about it being very immersive. This is where you can go camping.
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They request a week advance of camping.
This is the hollows right off of 14.
You carry into groups you can do.
It's like on average like 30, $20, $30 a night.
(11:19):
The hollows.
If you've never been back there, I'm glad I got to bring it to you firsthand on voices carry live.
I have never I actually went camping back there once when I was in a program.
My dad and I would go camping.
But it's it's actually a beautiful place back there.
It's slowly but surely getting better every year like it.
(11:43):
It used to be a gravel pit, but now there's vegetation growing and it's great for groups or just doing a family camping outing.
And like I said, it feels like you you can.
Like you've driven like 400 miles to go camping, but it's in your backyard and you can just it doesn't feel like you're in carry it like it on a clear night.
(12:10):
It's simply amazing. And I'm going to be requesting a royalty check from the McEnner County Conservation District.
For the spot.
But I did turn off the abnormally loud heater.
(12:31):
And then I have a few I have a few more of those, but we can go through the fun stuff.
The agenda and I like to go through these.
We do live board meeting watch parties and it's to I'm trying to bring it to a different platform to where you have the ability to be involved with your community instead of just I mean let's be let's be honest.
(12:59):
It's kind of dry material.
And there is a lot of there's a barrier to entry to where there's some terms used and if you don't if you're not in that arena.
Like it's kind of confusing. So that's why I like to kind of break down those barriers and that's what I'm looking forward to sinking my teeth into is is breaking down that fourth wall like in like in movies like or TV shows when an actor looks at this looks
(13:33):
at directly at the camera after acting the entire show but then they look at the camera at the audience at the viewer at you and then they say something to you. That's called breaking down the fourth wall.
And I want to do that with the village of Kerry to where you have your more empowered to be involved. You're more empowered to not only go through the motions of speaking and and making your voice heard, and then ultimately not having anything happen as a result
(14:05):
to that.
Not having like actionable results from the populace, or even from voices and Kerry so just to break down that barrier. And I really hope I get the privilege of doing that.
(14:30):
So here is the village board meeting minutes, or the agenda.
Michael Scott said, roll call pledge of allegiance and then it goes into an open forum and that's where you can come and talk, literally about anything.
They usually don't do it's not a question answer.
(14:54):
It's, you can bring up.
Anything I got a pothole.
I got anything.
If you want to say thank you if you want to say
something that's on your mind.
That's, I want to make like these, these board meetings, the dates are there, pushed out on social media, but that's very limited on limited where you find them it's.
(15:27):
There's not a conscious effort, you can see, it's really funny. Like from the home rule thing you can see when they want to push something, they can push it.
And for when it comes to your village board meeting and stuff that actually where the rubber meets the pavement on things.
(15:49):
It's not as.
There's not as much attention, or there's not as much power put behind that messaging.
I think, I think we can do something about that.
(16:10):
Because ultimately there's really no reason to
once you once you change the reason why you're doing things.
You want to hear that dialogue.
But if you have like a whole, if all your tentacles are out doing things that are
(16:34):
doing things for other reasons.
It may be, it may be, you know, for the community, but there's other reasons and you have, you're answering other people other than your community.
Then you might want to not have as many people in these board meetings.
But I'm looking forward to lopping off some of those tentacles and hyper focused on to what affects you at home.
(17:02):
So mayor's report.
There's an employee recognition director of Community Development Brian Simmons for 10 years.
Congratulations to him.
Consent agenda consider for approval.
The warrant dated March 4th.
A warrant is a fancy name for just a detailed list of how they spent your tax dollars.
(17:24):
It's literally just an itemized list of what they spent money on to make the gears turn.
Consider for approval the February 4th village board meeting minutes.
Every meeting there's a detailed set of notes that are taken and then the next meeting they approve the prior meeting minutes and then those get lost.
(17:45):
Logged.
And then that's what they approve in this consent agenda.
So like if you if you look here, you have like consent agenda A through G.
That could be in one swoop.
It's like I want to make a motion to approve items on the consent agenda items A through G.
(18:07):
And then they say they make they they approve it and then they go on to the next thing.
And then you could be left being like, well, what the heck just happened?
And I think there's some more there's more context needed there.
There's a little bit more.
Well, and I think a lot of problems go away.
(18:29):
Like, I think there's things that are done here for that are good for the village of Kerry.
But I always enjoy having like with my kids.
I'll I'll tell them like the reason why something needs to be done so that it's not just well, daddy says it needs to be done this way.
(18:52):
And then it's like, well, daddy always tells me that it has to be done this way.
It's actually like now they know they have like a vested interest of like a purpose of like, well, I'm doing it this way because of that.
And that's something that I've implemented in the parenting.
It's something that I really looked up to and leaders that I've worked for in the past.
(19:20):
That I've tried to implement in in business as well, and I look forward to implementing and into the village as well.
So, item C here, I consider the approval February 11th, 25 special village board meeting budget workshop meeting minutes.
We actually the last I'll make a playlist with just this workshop video, but we had a three part series. It was like a two, two and a half hour meeting.
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And we went through the entire thing with commentary.
I'll make a playlist for that on YouTube and I'll put some links on it on Facebook.
So once again, they're just approving those minutes from that from that meeting.
Consider for approval the partial closure of portions of Three Oaks Road, South Ross and Bridge Road and Crystal Lake Road on Sunday, March 16th.
(20:16):
With the time and extent of closure per the police chief's discretion to allow the Hillstriders Running Club March Madness Half Marathon.
And that's another reason that it's fun being involved in this stuff because you get you get to see some inside baseball of what's coming.
What's in the pike? What's coming down the pike? And what's in the hopper? I guess they say.
(20:41):
Consider for approval a resolution authorizing the village administrator to award a contract for 2526 sludge hauling services to Dam Enterprise in
that's not D.A.M. It's D.A.H.M. Enterprises and Woodstock not to exceed seventy seven thousand.
(21:06):
Sludge is a byproduct of wastewater treatment.
I believe municipalities can sell that sludge and then that sludge goes into making other products.
Vitamins. Yeah. Vitamins other products and stuff like that and it's all traded and I think they actually make money by selling that sludge.
(21:31):
I don't know if Kerry does it, but that is a thing to where.
Byproduct of waste is used.
Consider for approval class F temporary liquor license permit to the Carey Park District for Stars and Stripes Fest.
Kerry Grove Park on Saturday June 28th. Little inside baseball here.
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So it looks like they're setting up for a tent.
For some for some booze and then G.
George consider for approval a resolution authorizing the village administrator to enter into a contract for the purpose of electricity from the lowest cost electric
electricity provider for the purposes of street lighting and commercial accounts through the Northern Illinois Municipal Electrical Collaborative bid process.
(22:23):
This Northern Illinois Municipal Electric Collaborative is that
sheet that if you didn't rip it up that I kept that your electrical provider a ways a while back Illinois opened up
electricity being provided to you by other companies other than ComEd to try to
(22:49):
provide some competition and try to bring in some green energy sources.
And as with everything there can be some some some dance and some ballet with that.
And that's why I wasn't a big fan of them just saying we know how to run your household.
We're going to come in and just change your electricity provider.
(23:12):
You're welcome.
That's why I kept that letter and said that's that's kind of a slippery slope.
Once you start making decisions like that for households and it's it's actually it's the village I believe gets a rebate or some credit.
(23:35):
And then who knows what happens with that company that is providing the electricity.
But there's there's a whole I did I did like a comparison once and the actual fees there's there's like Gurney does this and it's it's all how it's negotiated.
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So with electricity they can claim to where OK your rate will stay the same as ComEd selling it and it will never go higher.
And then they'll market it to you as like hey you're getting green energy and your rate will never go higher than ComEd's.
You're welcome.
But then after that letter has passed in a few months gone by or a year and you're still opting opted in to this because you didn't opt out.
(24:28):
There's other fees that gradually get tacked on or increase a little bit over time and now you're paying more than what ComEd is charging you.
And that's the whole idea of that like if if you if you know that's going to happen or like the fact that these are set up in the first place.
(24:59):
That's just not right.
It's not right to do that to to kind of it all it all started with like I don't know if any of you out there share the same frustration as me.
But you buy it you buy a nice car.
Like I'm talking like a Chevy and then you come up on a stoplight and it turns off your engine.
(25:29):
And you well I don't like that so I'm going to turn it off.
But then you turn the car off and you turn the car back on and it's reset.
Forgetting your preference.
Knowing fully well that the manufacturer of that car knows how to save that preference.
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But we know best.
We're going to kick that back on.
That's no different from here.
It's like no you don't know best.
And I want to run my household how I want to run it.
And even though you get the opportunity to opt out like you have to you have to you have to keep in mind that there's like everybody's busy.
(26:14):
Everybody has lives and everybody everybody's going through.
They have kids they have their traveling.
And to get one little opt out clause in the mail.
And you do it for a certain percentage of households just to be able to to meet that threshold.
So you can get that.
(26:36):
Well the village of carries green designation is not right.
I think if you if you were to just put in the legwork of like marketing it to residents like hey we have this opportunity.
I think you would get even more initially to come on to that.
(26:58):
It's it's more work.
Yes.
But you would one empower your resident.
You'd get more on the back end.
And then you wouldn't have people that are pissed off on the back end that don't forget because big cities you know people might forget but small towns people don't forget.
(27:21):
So that's why I just I like respecting property rights of homeowners and I like that being shown in the actions of what a villager town does.
So that was G.
And then administrators report department had reports.
(27:49):
Future agenda items discussion by village board and then adjourn.
And then there is a committee the whole meeting called order roll call Pledge of Allegiance.
This immediately follows that board meeting.
And then this is for a discussion regarding private property tree preservation requirements.
(28:13):
And then I have that right here.
Says here recently a request was made by a resident during a village board meeting for the village to carry to adopt a private property tree preservation ordinance.
The request stemmed from another property owner who had removed several trees on their own property private property within the village.
(28:36):
Currently the village has adopted landscape regulations within section 1444 of the unified development ordinance which is this beautiful big thing.
Eight hundred some pages.
This section includes landscape and tree preservation requirements however the section of the code apply specifically to allow to all new multifamily and non residential development.
(29:04):
For discussion purposes staff will present the villages existing landscape regulations and an example of other communities which have implemented private property tree preservation requirements.
So this this is actually this dovetails perfectly into.
(29:25):
Property rights.
Like I'm I'm all for we've all seen that picture right we've all seen that picture of the stump the tree stump with all the rings on it.
And it's like when this tree was planted over here.
You know the Civil War here.
And then when the when the person that was that cut this tree down was born here.
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And then when the when the person cut the tree down here.
Like I'm all for keeping trees I love trees I love older trees.
But what this is I'll read the rest of it staff will present the concept for discussion proposed.
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Proposes and review of potential modifications to the villages current regulations.
So they're talking about adding more pages to this 800 page document about what you can and can't do on your property.
(30:33):
And it's often disguised as something just like this.
Trees.
I'm all for I love I love keeping trees I love
I love keeping trees I love keeping trees.
And you know I think we have a lot of land and carry that doesn't need to be mowed and can be left for prairie for butterflies to to reap reap the benefits from
(31:05):
bees to help them out. I think we turn a lot of stuff to grass that doesn't need to be grass.
But it's things like this that kind of intrude into private property.
And it's often tied with something just like this with with that kind of just pulls on the heart string a little bit.
(31:34):
That's that's where it starts.
So that's why I say it's it's a complex issue it's like, do you like you're pretty much going to be the village of Kerry is going to be a homeowners association.
And you're literally just going to be existing in your house.
(31:58):
And don't do anything to your property unless it's cleared by that 800 page document. And if it's not in there, we'll bring it up next meeting and it'll be in there shortly after.
So that's that's why it's kind of a it's kind of a weird issue.
Because, you know, somebody that appreciates nature like me, but also appreciates property rights.
(32:29):
This this deserves some TLC with with how it's approached and enforced.
Otherwise, like, there's no scaling back folks, unless you get involved.
There's no reason for them to throttle back on anything.
(32:53):
So that's why elections matter.
And then that's the thing, you know.
A lot of things are interesting.
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The fact that, like how old the villages old. They managed to create that document.
And then March 4th, they want to save the clock tower.
(33:55):
I just firmly believe that it deserves care and attention. And you do not want the same people creating a document that says you can or can't do it something on your property that is willing to run your household for you with electrical or whatever else is in that document.
(34:21):
Like how big your compost pile can be days you can burn.
So it's it's it's something that deserves loving care.
As much as we love the trees as well.
(34:42):
I may have fallen into a trap.
Close that YouTube video was fun to go through and you can you can rent tent, you can rent camping back there you can do.
And it's fully immersive in the hollows. And then they were going to look at a triple fell pro triple R, which you may have been to it has a disc golf.
(35:09):
And we'll take one more look at that.
Well, we'll take another look at that.
At the McHenry County Conservation District there's a whole bunch of fun stuff here let's let me switch over so you can see.
(35:32):
So fell pro.
Let's take a look.
(36:04):
Let's take a look.
(36:34):
Well, my stream kicked off but I was able to pull it back up.
(37:00):
And I'll go ahead and finish that there.
And we just looked at the triple R.
But I wanted to.
Let's take a look at what we maybe get some more people that got kicked off but then they join again.
(37:31):
Yeah, so the stream kicked off but I pulled it back up.
Give me one moment while I pull up everything.
And there's some streaming services that will continue live streaming and then it'll connect like if you reconnect. So that's why I'm going to I'm going to finish this out.
(38:01):
So I apologize for that.
Interruption.
Pull up that.
Second another look at another conservation video.
(38:46):
Yeah, the Conservation District has a whole bunch of like even as of seven days ago well that's their Board of Trustees meeting.
Here's one for just this golf.
(39:07):
Is this the same one.
(39:37):
Yeah.
(40:04):
I think they're actually walking through all 18 holes so let's watch this again.
I didn't have it on the screen. The first time it went through so let's take a look at the whole golf course here at Triple R.
(40:33):
I had no idea this was this extensive of a golf course.
(41:02):
I just always had seen like a few holes from watch walk walking the trails but I think I need to get out there and play this one.
(41:30):
The Conservation District at Phil Pro Triple R and Kerry.
There's quite a few I was trying to go through and find all the ones where they did.
Like tours or the conservation Conservation District in in Kerry and.
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There's only a few of them remarkable paper for Triple R and the hollows but ultimate paper.
Let's take a look at.
Some other videos from the hollows or from the Conservation District.
(42:18):
We got some behind the scenes some BTS here.
After storm rolls through our number one priority is public safety number two would be getting all the sites trails roadways parking lots clear and opened up for the public to get in and do what they came to do.
(42:44):
So some of the areas that could be impacted by storms that roll through would be obviously trails and roadways but we also have picnic groves parking areas those types of things will have fence damage bridge damage you name it.
We can land on it it probably will at some point we'll be cleaning up after it this last storm that rolled through I would say we had close to 20 spread out through our region.
(43:14):
Not all of our storm damage actually occurs during the storm will have a lot of damage that you won't be able to necessarily see some of it you can you can see a tree hung up or it's just a crack in the trunk somewhere a day or two strong winds.
Maybe for no reason, it just comes down. So we have a period usually a week when we can be dealing with storm damage.
(43:38):
So when we clean up a tree, we have a few different options of what we can do with it.
We'll cut it and chip it or we'll cut it and pilot or burning later in the fall.
We also will leave some for habitat by habitat. I mean, animals are going to move in, use it, live in it, whatever would happen in the wild.
(44:02):
If we weren't here to clean up the tree. We practice safety whenever we cut 100% of the time as Rangers and assistant Rangers were annually trained for chainsaw use.
We wear an array of PPE. So we have our helmets, hearing protection, eye protection, chainsaw chaps to protect our lower body, Kevlar line boots.
(44:26):
We try to get on storm damage immediately right away. It will take number one priority over anything we have.
We aim to have trails roadways open for the public. If we can keep from interrupting any activities on a daily basis, we do it.
So if you see us out, that's what we're trying to do. Be safe. If you need to get around us, check with us. If you can come through, if you see us cutting, if you see any storm damage, please call it in.
(45:00):
That's got to be a fun job to just be outside all day and work, you know, working, sweating and throwing logs around.
That's we thank them for keeping our trails and our parks nice and clean to enjoy with our families.
So that kind of also dovetails into trees and our tree maintenance. I'm sorry for that glitch.
(45:23):
Our stream went down for a second, but it hopped back on and some streaming services will continue the live stream. Some will it will be blocked in the two.
But this will be part two. We were also we were looking.
We looked at the village of Kerry is going to be discussing private property tree preservation requirements.
(45:45):
And we talked about how that's kind of a that's a it's a topic that deserves TLC.
And to to have that, that's what that's why you want people in there that understand the value and the slippery slope of property rights once they start getting taken away.
(46:08):
But then you also want somebody that appreciates nature and understands the value of mature trees and how much that means for the community and like green area.
You hear the green area and I mean, we got to see them taking care of trees.
So what I did while that video was playing, I pulled up the village, the city of Crystal Lake.
(46:38):
It's called Unified Development Ordnance Tree Preservation.
And let me see if I can.
(47:06):
I just know how to like physically zoom on the camera. I want to see if it had an optical zoom without being distorted.
I'll just do that for now. But I thought I'd bring to the city of Crystal Lake because that's that's most likely what they're going to be modeling it after.
Because it was the same.
(47:30):
When I when I pulled how many pages is the village of Kerry code. It was 800 and some pages and I went to Crystal Lake and it was also 800 some pages.
I think they're kind of on the same.
I think maybe the same service took care of them and I don't know if it's maintained by the same service. It looked like a different platform.
(48:00):
It looked like a different platform, but let's take a look at what the city of Crystal Lake has for their tree preservation.
I mean, what else would you rather be doing on a Friday night, right?
(48:30):
So the city of Crystal Lake, we're going to take a look at this because the village of Kerry is considering adding on to adding on to their code a tree preservation.
And I thought I'd just read briefly to you what they have in here and kind of give you the feel of what they have here.
And it says the purpose of this section is to establish high tree preservation standards for the development and redevelopment within the city and to preserve trees as an important public resource, enhancing the city's natural character and heritage.
(48:59):
The article is hereby determined to be significant in the following manner and protecting the public health, welfare and safety.
Preserving the essential character of those areas through the community, which are wooded and in a more natural state with an intention of preserving the visual and aesthetic qualities of the city generally.
(49:23):
Reducing soil erosion, storm water runoff, protecting the habitat of its existing wildlife and migration corridors, enhancing and preserving the air quality through the filtering effect of trees on air pollutants, creating a sound buffer to noise pollution, providing protection against natural elements such as the sun, wind, rain, protecting and increasing property values.
(49:52):
My button stopped working.
But what the village is looking at doing is doing a
private property tree preservation.
And this looks like it's more of the development and redevelopment.
(50:20):
It says here the following properties and entities shall be exempt from the tree preservation requirements of this article.
Single family residentially zoned parcels that are less an area than three acres and were created prior to September 3rd, 2002.
(50:46):
Parkway trees.
And some of the exemptions include property owned by the Crystal Lake Park District.
McKinney County College. So they put their exemptions in there.
They have a tree removal permit.
(51:10):
The removal permits shall be issued for the following reasons. The tree, you need to get a permit if your tree is dying to remove it.
Tree is damaged.
So I think this is what we're looking at here.
(51:34):
So the village wants to do private property tree preservation. When I typed in private property tree preservation into the Crystal Lake zoning, it did not populate anything for private property tree, which was my search query.
But this kind of says single family residentially zoned parcels that are less than three acres.
(52:01):
So that's your majority of your suburban area.
So it looks like they did do some TLC here. So it'll be interesting to see how the village implements this tree order.
(52:23):
And it does show good listening to the residents.
Not a huge fan of needing a permit if you live on more than three acres and your tree was struck by lightning. So you're already having a good day, but then you have to go get a permit. That's not a huge. I'm not a big fan of that.
(52:53):
I wonder if they have preferred contractors.
What they used to do, which
pretty much all municipalities did this back in the day was that they had a list of preferred contractors that you had to go through.
And they don't do that anymore.
(53:16):
But that was a conflict.
I could see like you want it done. You want it being done safe and you want it being done appropriately. But for them to just, I would rather them give you the criteria of they must be licensed, bonded, insured.
(53:40):
Then, hey, you have to, you know, I got a guy. That's pretty much what that is. I got a guy.
But their, their tree preservation
is 13 pages long, so I guess
(54:02):
we'll see how that rolls out in the village. But, like I said, if you,
like, I think, like we all want.
You don't want a developer coming in just cleaning house with with trees. But at the same time you also don't want your residents
(54:25):
being burdened with
fees and that's where that disconnect comes in to where, like, if you if you look at the the revenue and expenditures, like if you look at the money coming in from municipality.
It's so miniscule in the grand scheme of things of how much these permits bring in.
(54:47):
It's
and what it often does, it just leaves a bad taste in the mouth of of the resident. And I'm not saying that you have to clean the board of it, but it deserves like a well thought out reason of why
that thing to explain like why why is this here?
(55:11):
Like the money here is to sustain this instead of just your tree, your tree was struck by lightning, you own three and a half acres of land, we need $100.
So that's that's why I enjoy going through, I would, I want to crack open that 800 pages and just go through it.
(55:34):
Make sure that everything's going right by you, the homeowner, and
respectfully and thoughtfully
bring out the pruners.
So, sorry for that interruption in between there. We can do a little bit more browsing, since it's a nice Friday night.
(56:02):
Coming up on 10 o'clock we can end with a video.
Oh, there's already one playing.
And get a pretty good representation of what's in that stream. When we're doing the survey we
I'm done spending an obscene amount of money on takeout every done.
(56:31):
Okay, so you got a free ad there.
So what's this one?
Let's end on a strong conservation video here.
Let me go back in the, I like that behind the scenes one.
(57:00):
I'm going to hop back in the playlist. And if you think of anything you want to add or
provide some context, you can text and recall that's still open and we'll
we'll talk about it.
(57:29):
Behind the scenes. Take a look.
Here's a cool one.
(57:52):
Winter Operations.
Hello, my name is Ben O'Day. I'm Parks and Fleet Supervisor for the McHenry County Conservation District.
And today we're going to talk a little bit about how we tackle winter operations.
(58:21):
The work for the Conservation District starts well before the actual winter season.
The rangers begin in the fall by prepping ski trails, removing leaves, debris, sticks.
They're also installing winter signage, plow markers, all in preparation of snow removal activities.
In addition to that, the mechanics are prepping the trucks both with plows and salt spreaders so that when the snow does fly, we're able to hit the ground running.
(58:46):
Once the snow has arrived, staff is busy packing and tracking ski trails, obviously doing snow removal in the sites, plowing, salting, as well as checking our sled hill at Glacial Park.
That requires daily inspections just to make sure that that's safe for site users.
(59:07):
Snow removal for us in the winter is a big part of our job. We have a lot of sites that we need to open up for the public to enjoy.
A few of the trainings that we'll do every few years are plow safety training, and every year or so we'll do effective salt training with the county just to make sure we're not putting too much salt down, too little.
(59:29):
We want to make sure we use best practices for salting our sites.
Too much salt can kill off some of our native plantings. Too little salt causes hazardous road conditions.
We have about 25 parking lots that need to get plowed after every snowfall between about eight people.
This takes quite a bit of time, and we ask everybody be patient. Take your time in the parks while driving. If they haven't been plowed, we will get to them as soon as we can.
(59:58):
McHenry County Conservation District has 40 miles of cross-country ski trails, over 16 of our sites. Two of them are open until 9 p.m. They're solar-lit trails.
We have Hickory Grove Highlands and Pleasant Valley.
And we offer three candlelight ski events throughout the winter at different sites. They change every year.
(01:00:20):
After a snow event, we'll come through and we will pack our trails with this roller first to set a good base, and we will follow up with the tracking machine, which is two tracks where the skis go in.
As a courtesy, we please ask that snow-surers or hikers, dog walkers, please stay out of the tracks that we put out and walk off to the side so we can keep a good trail for the skiers.
(01:00:46):
After we're done packing and tracking the trails, we'll update the website with the trail conditions.
Our sled hill here at Glacial Park is one of only a handful in the area and the only one that provides such a beautiful view that only Glacial Park can deliver.
Our sled hill slope is not too extreme, yet still provides a fun, exhilarating ride for children and families of all ages.
(01:01:09):
We do recommend hard plastic sleds. We do not recommend any inflatables due to the occasional puncture that can happen.
For preparation for our sled hill in this fall, we do a very fine, low cut to remove any debris.
In the winter, we do daily checks of our sled hill and check for any debris that has been left over, any moguls or jumps, and if possible, we try to remove them with any hand tools so that the sled hill can remain open.
(01:01:35):
We also check for sled conditions, so if the snow is a little bit too fast or too slow, we will unfortunately have to close it.
Our sled hill is open when we have approximately four inches of snow on the ground or when conditions allow.
The truck preparation starts well before the snow falls. Early November, we get the plows on, the salt spreaders on, just to make sure everything's working well before we actually need it.
(01:02:03):
In order to be fiscally responsible, we have to stay on top of the maintenance on these vehicles in order to keep them as long as possible.
In addition to these salt trucks that the district has, we also maintain the Polaris Rangers that groom trails for cross-country skiing.
We also do fabrication here in the shop. We have made the snow grooming, the roller packers here as well.
(01:02:28):
So it's important for the mechanics to keep the vehicles maintained and ready to go for the Rangers in order to keep all the sites open for all the site users out there.
The district also offers snowmobile trails. We have over 17 miles of trails in Glacial Park, the Praetrol North, and the Hebron Trail, along with numerous connections throughout the county.
(01:02:52):
We work in cooperation with the McHenry County Snowmobiles Association, the Huntley Penguins, and the Marengo Snowgoers.
The district also facilitates a grant through the IED&R on behalf of the McHenry County Snowmobile Association. This goes towards helping cover costs for trail maintenance.
The work district staff performs on snowmobile trails largely happens before the season starts. Staff completes a lot of bridge repairs, some trail rerouting over wet areas, as well as installing culverts and mowing in preparation for the season.
(01:03:21):
McHenry County Snowmobile trails are open from December 10th to March 10th. In order for these trails to be open, several conditions need to be met.
We need to have four inches of snow on top of frozen ground or six inches of snow on top of unfrozen ground.
A few things to keep in mind when snowmobiling on district property. We want to make sure everybody stays on marked trails, number one, and be sensitive to the environment you're in.
(01:03:43):
Also, please make sure you have your registration sticker displayed on your snowmobile and follow all state laws.
Our staff's goal in the winter months is to ensure that people are able to get outside, enjoy the winter activities, and do it in a safe environment.
Well, I learned something. I had no idea that they did cross-country skiing trails like that. I thought it was just made from like the prior person skiing, but they actually pack it and then make the ski trail.
(01:04:21):
So that's cool. We also thank the Conservation District and our Cary Park District for taking care of everything throughout the winter, especially as it comes to a close and as things start to turn green.
All the kids start getting excited for getting to be able to go outside and not freeze their fingers off. We thank all of them for taking care of it.
(01:04:45):
And this Friday show was fun. We got to take a little tour of the conservation area in our town and look at some of the board meeting minutes as well as some tree regulations that might be coming down the pike.
So we'll take a look at that. That board meeting is on March 4th. So we will bring that to you live. We'll do a live watch party of that.
(01:05:12):
And I thoroughly enjoy being here, taking care of, you know, bringing stuff together to bring to you, no matter where you may be. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
It's a Friday night, and I completely thank you for the support that you show me on social media, and I can't do it alone. So if you share the feed or share, no matter on what platform you are on, if anything resonated with you in any of the other videos, share that.
(01:05:53):
And then also, just talk with your neighbor.
Even if it's, even if it's not about voices carry, or anything like that, just just talk.
Talk about something that pertains to the community and start going to your village board meetings and get involved with this place where we call home.
Thank you for joining me today on voices carry live, and I will see you on Monday have a wonderful weekend.
(01:06:24):
Counting 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.
(01:06:47):
It's busted.
That's right.
(01:07:30):
So play nice.
(01:08:00):
So play nice.
Here's a song coming your way right now, Nowhere to Run to by Martha and the Vandellas.
(00:11):
Yes!
Hey, you know what I mean!
Too much?
Nowhere to run to baby, Nowhere to run to baby, Nowhere to run to baby.
It's not love I'm running from, It's the heartbreak I know will come, Cause I know you'll never fall for me, Cause you've become a part of me.
(00:46):
Every cry I hold, Your face I see, Every stop I take, You take with me. Nowhere to run to baby, Nowhere to run to baby.
(01:09):
I know it will be good for me, To see you, I'll never be alone, Each night as I sleep, Into my heart you breathe, I wake up feeling sorry I left you, I'm feeling soon,
Now that I forget you, I'm looking in the mirror, To pull my hair, I see your face, It's just a smile in the mirror.
(01:39):
Nowhere to run to baby, Nowhere to run to baby, Nowhere to run to baby.
(02:02):
I'm gonna fight for love, That shouldn't be, And it's so deep, so deep, Deep inside of me, My love reaches so high, I can't get over it, So I can't get around it, no.
(02:24):
Nowhere to run to baby, Nowhere to run to baby, Nowhere to run to baby. I know it will be good for me, To see you, I'll never be alone, Each night as I sleep, I wake up feeling sorry I left you, I wake up feeling soon,
Metro computers, your attention please. The next Metrotrain approaching your station will be a Metra Express train and will not stop.
(03:01):
The train is moving.
That's the gravy train does not stop and carry anymore. Welcome. My name is Randy Scott. This is Voices Carry Live in Illinois, beautiful village of carry Illinois. This is your megaphone. This is your microphone.
And I am here joining you on a beautiful Friday. It's supposed to get really cold tomorrow, but we had some summer, some summer feeling today and the sun was out it was beautiful. And what better than to have a little ending of the night with yours truly from voices carry in this warehouse.
(03:37):
What is voices carry it's pretty much to bridge the gap between social media and talking with your neighbor. I think we can all agree that the days of who's ever at the helm, or taxing bodies making decisions on any interest other than the best interest of their citizens
is completely unacceptable and outdated and obsolete. I think we're all, we're all on that same page. And the, the only thing to do after we admit that that we're done with that is to get mad.
(04:13):
And not to the point to where there's violence, but get mad to the point to where you want to stand up, go outside and start talking and start going to your public meetings and being respectful and respecting the people that are let's face it, it's a tough job.
It's really complex. It's a ball of rubber bands. And, you know, they're navigating it. So we have to respect that but then it's also, we have to get involved. So that's what I'm doing here for the future of my family and yours.
(04:47):
And I want to, the phones are open the text is open. We're going to be taking a look at the board meeting agenda drop today.
For the village board meeting and the committee of the whole meeting for March 4, and we have a platform that goes out to quite a few people, other than people living in Cary so I like to put this disclaimer.
(05:11):
If you see what we're doing here and you want to do it for your own town. Do it, you can start it on your cell phone, and it's just about talking, being consistent and great things happen when you talk.
It's, it's, it's not good. Just keeping all that angst inside you about seeing your school district get, you know, having, having be on the back burner as an afterthought, having the road out in front of your house, not as highly prioritized as maybe some
(05:47):
other streets in town, like a main street. And I think we can have the best of both worlds.
Once we all get on the same sheet of music.
And we have to figure that out for the sake of our, our future, our future generations, so that they have a strong foundation.
(06:11):
And that's what I'm here. I'll stop with my spiel. So yeah, we have the committee in the village board meeting minutes.
So we'll go through that and then also what I'm going to do is, we're going to take a look at some McHenry County conservation districts that are in Cary, we have a lot of conservation districts that are in Cary, and with how warm it was today.
(06:39):
We've got a little taste of that and tomorrow it's going to be like 20 degrees so I figured what better than to take a look at that together. And maybe you, you know, we might have not all been in some of these places so if you see something on there and be like hey I want to check that out myself.
I'll bring it to you.
And what I'm going to do is I'm going to kick off.
(07:05):
Probably one of these videos because I have to. Of course I go live I swear when I go live. It, there's like a signal that goes to the heater which is abnormally loud actually like really funny loud for a studio so I'm going to go turn that off we're going to take a look at.
(07:27):
We'll do all this board stuff later.
But let's take a look at the McHenry County conservation area.
The hollows.
And there's a few of them, there's quite a few in Cary and the conservation district has done this.
It's like a tour.
(07:50):
For the area.
And they have a whole bunch of services like the hollows has camping I get, oh that that's actually clever they have the logos here.
They have camping fishing.
You can go boating they have shelters you can rent out hiking, a whole bunch of stuff and it's all in your backyard.
(08:18):
Let's take a look.
There's a lot of stuff there.
(08:49):
A lot of hiking.
(09:17):
This used to be a quarry.
And there's a part of the hollows back here that I swear it's so immersive it feels like you're in a different world.
When you're when you go back there.
(09:43):
They just finished doing a whole bunch of construction right there where you saw the trail and is where they actually paved the rest of the trail so it's fully ADA, you can bring a walker back there, wheelchair or stroller.
It's a real experience.
(10:17):
They nailed the music.
This is where I'm talking about it being very immersive. This is where you can go camping.
(10:40):
They request a week advance of camping.
This is the hollows right off of 14.
You carry into groups you can do.
It's like on average like 30, $20, $30 a night.
(11:19):
The hollows.
If you've never been back there, I'm glad I got to bring it to you firsthand on voices carry live.
I have never I actually went camping back there once when I was in a program.
My dad and I would go camping.
But it's it's actually a beautiful place back there.
It's slowly but surely getting better every year like it.
(11:43):
It used to be a gravel pit, but now there's vegetation growing and it's great for groups or just doing a family camping outing.
And like I said, it feels like you you can.
Like you've driven like 400 miles to go camping, but it's in your backyard and you can just it doesn't feel like you're in carry it like it on a clear night.
(12:10):
It's simply amazing. And I'm going to be requesting a royalty check from the McEnner County Conservation District.
For the spot.
But I did turn off the abnormally loud heater.
(12:31):
And then I have a few I have a few more of those, but we can go through the fun stuff.
The agenda and I like to go through these.
We do live board meeting watch parties and it's to I'm trying to bring it to a different platform to where you have the ability to be involved with your community instead of just I mean let's be let's be honest.
(12:59):
It's kind of dry material.
And there is a lot of there's a barrier to entry to where there's some terms used and if you don't if you're not in that arena.
Like it's kind of confusing. So that's why I like to kind of break down those barriers and that's what I'm looking forward to sinking my teeth into is is breaking down that fourth wall like in like in movies like or TV shows when an actor looks at this looks
(13:33):
at directly at the camera after acting the entire show but then they look at the camera at the audience at the viewer at you and then they say something to you. That's called breaking down the fourth wall.
And I want to do that with the village of Kerry to where you have your more empowered to be involved. You're more empowered to not only go through the motions of speaking and and making your voice heard, and then ultimately not having anything happen as a result
(14:05):
to that.
Not having like actionable results from the populace, or even from voices and Kerry so just to break down that barrier. And I really hope I get the privilege of doing that.
(14:30):
So here is the village board meeting minutes, or the agenda.
Michael Scott said, roll call pledge of allegiance and then it goes into an open forum and that's where you can come and talk, literally about anything.
They usually don't do it's not a question answer.
(14:54):
It's, you can bring up.
Anything I got a pothole.
I got anything.
If you want to say thank you if you want to say
something that's on your mind.
That's, I want to make like these, these board meetings, the dates are there, pushed out on social media, but that's very limited on limited where you find them it's.
(15:27):
There's not a conscious effort, you can see, it's really funny. Like from the home rule thing you can see when they want to push something, they can push it.
And for when it comes to your village board meeting and stuff that actually where the rubber meets the pavement on things.
(15:49):
It's not as.
There's not as much attention, or there's not as much power put behind that messaging.
I think, I think we can do something about that.
(16:10):
Because ultimately there's really no reason to
once you once you change the reason why you're doing things.
You want to hear that dialogue.
But if you have like a whole, if all your tentacles are out doing things that are
(16:34):
doing things for other reasons.
It may be, it may be, you know, for the community, but there's other reasons and you have, you're answering other people other than your community.
Then you might want to not have as many people in these board meetings.
But I'm looking forward to lopping off some of those tentacles and hyper focused on to what affects you at home.
(17:02):
So mayor's report.
There's an employee recognition director of Community Development Brian Simmons for 10 years.
Congratulations to him.
Consent agenda consider for approval.
The warrant dated March 4th.
A warrant is a fancy name for just a detailed list of how they spent your tax dollars.
(17:24):
It's literally just an itemized list of what they spent money on to make the gears turn.
Consider for approval the February 4th village board meeting minutes.
Every meeting there's a detailed set of notes that are taken and then the next meeting they approve the prior meeting minutes and then those get lost.
(17:45):
Logged.
And then that's what they approve in this consent agenda.
So like if you if you look here, you have like consent agenda A through G.
That could be in one swoop.
It's like I want to make a motion to approve items on the consent agenda items A through G.
(18:07):
And then they say they make they they approve it and then they go on to the next thing.
And then you could be left being like, well, what the heck just happened?
And I think there's some more there's more context needed there.
There's a little bit more.
Well, and I think a lot of problems go away.
(18:29):
Like, I think there's things that are done here for that are good for the village of Kerry.
But I always enjoy having like with my kids.
I'll I'll tell them like the reason why something needs to be done so that it's not just well, daddy says it needs to be done this way.
(18:52):
And then it's like, well, daddy always tells me that it has to be done this way.
It's actually like now they know they have like a vested interest of like a purpose of like, well, I'm doing it this way because of that.
And that's something that I've implemented in the parenting.
It's something that I really looked up to and leaders that I've worked for in the past.
(19:20):
That I've tried to implement in in business as well, and I look forward to implementing and into the village as well.
So, item C here, I consider the approval February 11th, 25 special village board meeting budget workshop meeting minutes.
We actually the last I'll make a playlist with just this workshop video, but we had a three part series. It was like a two, two and a half hour meeting.
(19:52):
And we went through the entire thing with commentary.
I'll make a playlist for that on YouTube and I'll put some links on it on Facebook.
So once again, they're just approving those minutes from that from that meeting.
Consider for approval the partial closure of portions of Three Oaks Road, South Ross and Bridge Road and Crystal Lake Road on Sunday, March 16th.
(20:16):
With the time and extent of closure per the police chief's discretion to allow the Hillstriders Running Club March Madness Half Marathon.
And that's another reason that it's fun being involved in this stuff because you get you get to see some inside baseball of what's coming.
What's in the pike? What's coming down the pike? And what's in the hopper? I guess they say.
(20:41):
Consider for approval a resolution authorizing the village administrator to award a contract for 2526 sludge hauling services to Dam Enterprise in
that's not D.A.M. It's D.A.H.M. Enterprises and Woodstock not to exceed seventy seven thousand.
(21:06):
Sludge is a byproduct of wastewater treatment.
I believe municipalities can sell that sludge and then that sludge goes into making other products.
Vitamins. Yeah. Vitamins other products and stuff like that and it's all traded and I think they actually make money by selling that sludge.
(21:31):
I don't know if Kerry does it, but that is a thing to where.
Byproduct of waste is used.
Consider for approval class F temporary liquor license permit to the Carey Park District for Stars and Stripes Fest.
Kerry Grove Park on Saturday June 28th. Little inside baseball here.
(21:56):
So it looks like they're setting up for a tent.
For some for some booze and then G.
George consider for approval a resolution authorizing the village administrator to enter into a contract for the purpose of electricity from the lowest cost electric
electricity provider for the purposes of street lighting and commercial accounts through the Northern Illinois Municipal Electrical Collaborative bid process.
(22:23):
This Northern Illinois Municipal Electric Collaborative is that
sheet that if you didn't rip it up that I kept that your electrical provider a ways a while back Illinois opened up
electricity being provided to you by other companies other than ComEd to try to
(22:49):
provide some competition and try to bring in some green energy sources.
And as with everything there can be some some some dance and some ballet with that.
And that's why I wasn't a big fan of them just saying we know how to run your household.
We're going to come in and just change your electricity provider.
(23:12):
You're welcome.
That's why I kept that letter and said that's that's kind of a slippery slope.
Once you start making decisions like that for households and it's it's actually it's the village I believe gets a rebate or some credit.
(23:35):
And then who knows what happens with that company that is providing the electricity.
But there's there's a whole I did I did like a comparison once and the actual fees there's there's like Gurney does this and it's it's all how it's negotiated.
(23:59):
So with electricity they can claim to where OK your rate will stay the same as ComEd selling it and it will never go higher.
And then they'll market it to you as like hey you're getting green energy and your rate will never go higher than ComEd's.
You're welcome.
But then after that letter has passed in a few months gone by or a year and you're still opting opted in to this because you didn't opt out.
(24:28):
There's other fees that gradually get tacked on or increase a little bit over time and now you're paying more than what ComEd is charging you.
And that's the whole idea of that like if if you if you know that's going to happen or like the fact that these are set up in the first place.
(24:59):
That's just not right.
It's not right to do that to to kind of it all it all started with like I don't know if any of you out there share the same frustration as me.
But you buy it you buy a nice car.
Like I'm talking like a Chevy and then you come up on a stoplight and it turns off your engine.
(25:29):
And you well I don't like that so I'm going to turn it off.
But then you turn the car off and you turn the car back on and it's reset.
Forgetting your preference.
Knowing fully well that the manufacturer of that car knows how to save that preference.
(25:51):
But we know best.
We're going to kick that back on.
That's no different from here.
It's like no you don't know best.
And I want to run my household how I want to run it.
And even though you get the opportunity to opt out like you have to you have to you have to keep in mind that there's like everybody's busy.
(26:14):
Everybody has lives and everybody everybody's going through.
They have kids they have their traveling.
And to get one little opt out clause in the mail.
And you do it for a certain percentage of households just to be able to to meet that threshold.
So you can get that.
(26:36):
Well the village of carries green designation is not right.
I think if you if you were to just put in the legwork of like marketing it to residents like hey we have this opportunity.
I think you would get even more initially to come on to that.
(26:58):
It's it's more work.
Yes.
But you would one empower your resident.
You'd get more on the back end.
And then you wouldn't have people that are pissed off on the back end that don't forget because big cities you know people might forget but small towns people don't forget.
(27:21):
So that's why I just I like respecting property rights of homeowners and I like that being shown in the actions of what a villager town does.
So that was G.
And then administrators report department had reports.
(27:49):
Future agenda items discussion by village board and then adjourn.
And then there is a committee the whole meeting called order roll call Pledge of Allegiance.
This immediately follows that board meeting.
And then this is for a discussion regarding private property tree preservation requirements.
(28:13):
And then I have that right here.
Says here recently a request was made by a resident during a village board meeting for the village to carry to adopt a private property tree preservation ordinance.
The request stemmed from another property owner who had removed several trees on their own property private property within the village.
(28:36):
Currently the village has adopted landscape regulations within section 1444 of the unified development ordinance which is this beautiful big thing.
Eight hundred some pages.
This section includes landscape and tree preservation requirements however the section of the code apply specifically to allow to all new multifamily and non residential development.
(29:04):
For discussion purposes staff will present the villages existing landscape regulations and an example of other communities which have implemented private property tree preservation requirements.
So this this is actually this dovetails perfectly into.
(29:25):
Property rights.
Like I'm I'm all for we've all seen that picture right we've all seen that picture of the stump the tree stump with all the rings on it.
And it's like when this tree was planted over here.
You know the Civil War here.
And then when the when the person that was that cut this tree down was born here.
(29:49):
And then when the when the person cut the tree down here.
Like I'm all for keeping trees I love trees I love older trees.
But what this is I'll read the rest of it staff will present the concept for discussion proposed.
(30:11):
Proposes and review of potential modifications to the villages current regulations.
So they're talking about adding more pages to this 800 page document about what you can and can't do on your property.
(30:33):
And it's often disguised as something just like this.
Trees.
I'm all for I love I love keeping trees I love
I love keeping trees I love keeping trees.
And you know I think we have a lot of land and carry that doesn't need to be mowed and can be left for prairie for butterflies to to reap reap the benefits from
(31:05):
bees to help them out. I think we turn a lot of stuff to grass that doesn't need to be grass.
But it's things like this that kind of intrude into private property.
And it's often tied with something just like this with with that kind of just pulls on the heart string a little bit.
(31:34):
That's that's where it starts.
So that's why I say it's it's a complex issue it's like, do you like you're pretty much going to be the village of Kerry is going to be a homeowners association.
And you're literally just going to be existing in your house.
(31:58):
And don't do anything to your property unless it's cleared by that 800 page document. And if it's not in there, we'll bring it up next meeting and it'll be in there shortly after.
So that's that's why it's kind of a it's kind of a weird issue.
Because, you know, somebody that appreciates nature like me, but also appreciates property rights.
(32:29):
This this deserves some TLC with with how it's approached and enforced.
Otherwise, like, there's no scaling back folks, unless you get involved.
There's no reason for them to throttle back on anything.
(32:53):
So that's why elections matter.
And then that's the thing, you know.
A lot of things are interesting.
(33:19):
The fact that, like how old the villages old. They managed to create that document.
And then March 4th, they want to save the clock tower.
(33:55):
I just firmly believe that it deserves care and attention. And you do not want the same people creating a document that says you can or can't do it something on your property that is willing to run your household for you with electrical or whatever else is in that document.
(34:21):
Like how big your compost pile can be days you can burn.
So it's it's it's something that deserves loving care.
As much as we love the trees as well.
(34:42):
I may have fallen into a trap.
Close that YouTube video was fun to go through and you can you can rent tent, you can rent camping back there you can do.
And it's fully immersive in the hollows. And then they were going to look at a triple fell pro triple R, which you may have been to it has a disc golf.
(35:09):
And we'll take one more look at that.
Well, we'll take another look at that.
At the McHenry County Conservation District there's a whole bunch of fun stuff here let's let me switch over so you can see.
(35:32):
So fell pro.
Let's take a look.
(36:04):
Let's take a look.
(36:34):
Well, my stream kicked off but I was able to pull it back up.
(37:00):
And I'll go ahead and finish that there.
And we just looked at the triple R.
But I wanted to.
Let's take a look at what we maybe get some more people that got kicked off but then they join again.
(37:31):
Yeah, so the stream kicked off but I pulled it back up.
Give me one moment while I pull up everything.
And there's some streaming services that will continue live streaming and then it'll connect like if you reconnect. So that's why I'm going to I'm going to finish this out.
(38:01):
So I apologize for that.
Interruption.
Pull up that.
Second another look at another conservation video.
(38:46):
Yeah, the Conservation District has a whole bunch of like even as of seven days ago well that's their Board of Trustees meeting.
Here's one for just this golf.
(39:07):
Is this the same one.
(39:37):
Yeah.
(40:04):
I think they're actually walking through all 18 holes so let's watch this again.
I didn't have it on the screen. The first time it went through so let's take a look at the whole golf course here at Triple R.
(40:33):
I had no idea this was this extensive of a golf course.
(41:02):
I just always had seen like a few holes from watch walk walking the trails but I think I need to get out there and play this one.
(41:30):
The Conservation District at Phil Pro Triple R and Kerry.
There's quite a few I was trying to go through and find all the ones where they did.
Like tours or the conservation Conservation District in in Kerry and.
(41:52):
There's only a few of them remarkable paper for Triple R and the hollows but ultimate paper.
Let's take a look at.
Some other videos from the hollows or from the Conservation District.
(42:18):
We got some behind the scenes some BTS here.
After storm rolls through our number one priority is public safety number two would be getting all the sites trails roadways parking lots clear and opened up for the public to get in and do what they came to do.
(42:44):
So some of the areas that could be impacted by storms that roll through would be obviously trails and roadways but we also have picnic groves parking areas those types of things will have fence damage bridge damage you name it.
We can land on it it probably will at some point we'll be cleaning up after it this last storm that rolled through I would say we had close to 20 spread out through our region.
(43:14):
Not all of our storm damage actually occurs during the storm will have a lot of damage that you won't be able to necessarily see some of it you can you can see a tree hung up or it's just a crack in the trunk somewhere a day or two strong winds.
Maybe for no reason, it just comes down. So we have a period usually a week when we can be dealing with storm damage.
(43:38):
So when we clean up a tree, we have a few different options of what we can do with it.
We'll cut it and chip it or we'll cut it and pilot or burning later in the fall.
We also will leave some for habitat by habitat. I mean, animals are going to move in, use it, live in it, whatever would happen in the wild.
(44:02):
If we weren't here to clean up the tree. We practice safety whenever we cut 100% of the time as Rangers and assistant Rangers were annually trained for chainsaw use.
We wear an array of PPE. So we have our helmets, hearing protection, eye protection, chainsaw chaps to protect our lower body, Kevlar line boots.
(44:26):
We try to get on storm damage immediately right away. It will take number one priority over anything we have.
We aim to have trails roadways open for the public. If we can keep from interrupting any activities on a daily basis, we do it.
So if you see us out, that's what we're trying to do. Be safe. If you need to get around us, check with us. If you can come through, if you see us cutting, if you see any storm damage, please call it in.
(45:00):
That's got to be a fun job to just be outside all day and work, you know, working, sweating and throwing logs around.
That's we thank them for keeping our trails and our parks nice and clean to enjoy with our families.
So that kind of also dovetails into trees and our tree maintenance. I'm sorry for that glitch.
(45:23):
Our stream went down for a second, but it hopped back on and some streaming services will continue the live stream. Some will it will be blocked in the two.
But this will be part two. We were also we were looking.
We looked at the village of Kerry is going to be discussing private property tree preservation requirements.
(45:45):
And we talked about how that's kind of a that's a it's a topic that deserves TLC.
And to to have that, that's what that's why you want people in there that understand the value and the slippery slope of property rights once they start getting taken away.
(46:08):
But then you also want somebody that appreciates nature and understands the value of mature trees and how much that means for the community and like green area.
You hear the green area and I mean, we got to see them taking care of trees.
So what I did while that video was playing, I pulled up the village, the city of Crystal Lake.
(46:38):
It's called Unified Development Ordnance Tree Preservation.
And let me see if I can.
(47:06):
I just know how to like physically zoom on the camera. I want to see if it had an optical zoom without being distorted.
I'll just do that for now. But I thought I'd bring to the city of Crystal Lake because that's that's most likely what they're going to be modeling it after.
Because it was the same.
(47:30):
When I when I pulled how many pages is the village of Kerry code. It was 800 and some pages and I went to Crystal Lake and it was also 800 some pages.
I think they're kind of on the same.
I think maybe the same service took care of them and I don't know if it's maintained by the same service. It looked like a different platform.
(48:00):
It looked like a different platform, but let's take a look at what the city of Crystal Lake has for their tree preservation.
I mean, what else would you rather be doing on a Friday night, right?
(48:30):
So the city of Crystal Lake, we're going to take a look at this because the village of Kerry is considering adding on to adding on to their code a tree preservation.
And I thought I'd just read briefly to you what they have in here and kind of give you the feel of what they have here.
And it says the purpose of this section is to establish high tree preservation standards for the development and redevelopment within the city and to preserve trees as an important public resource, enhancing the city's natural character and heritage.
(48:59):
The article is hereby determined to be significant in the following manner and protecting the public health, welfare and safety.
Preserving the essential character of those areas through the community, which are wooded and in a more natural state with an intention of preserving the visual and aesthetic qualities of the city generally.
(49:23):
Reducing soil erosion, storm water runoff, protecting the habitat of its existing wildlife and migration corridors, enhancing and preserving the air quality through the filtering effect of trees on air pollutants, creating a sound buffer to noise pollution, providing protection against natural elements such as the sun, wind, rain, protecting and increasing property values.
(49:52):
My button stopped working.
But what the village is looking at doing is doing a
private property tree preservation.
And this looks like it's more of the development and redevelopment.
(50:20):
It says here the following properties and entities shall be exempt from the tree preservation requirements of this article.
Single family residentially zoned parcels that are less an area than three acres and were created prior to September 3rd, 2002.
(50:46):
Parkway trees.
And some of the exemptions include property owned by the Crystal Lake Park District.
McKinney County College. So they put their exemptions in there.
They have a tree removal permit.
(51:10):
The removal permits shall be issued for the following reasons. The tree, you need to get a permit if your tree is dying to remove it.
Tree is damaged.
So I think this is what we're looking at here.
(51:34):
So the village wants to do private property tree preservation. When I typed in private property tree preservation into the Crystal Lake zoning, it did not populate anything for private property tree, which was my search query.
But this kind of says single family residentially zoned parcels that are less than three acres.
(52:01):
So that's your majority of your suburban area.
So it looks like they did do some TLC here. So it'll be interesting to see how the village implements this tree order.
(52:23):
And it does show good listening to the residents.
Not a huge fan of needing a permit if you live on more than three acres and your tree was struck by lightning. So you're already having a good day, but then you have to go get a permit. That's not a huge. I'm not a big fan of that.
(52:53):
I wonder if they have preferred contractors.
What they used to do, which
pretty much all municipalities did this back in the day was that they had a list of preferred contractors that you had to go through.
And they don't do that anymore.
(53:16):
But that was a conflict.
I could see like you want it done. You want it being done safe and you want it being done appropriately. But for them to just, I would rather them give you the criteria of they must be licensed, bonded, insured.
(53:40):
Then, hey, you have to, you know, I got a guy. That's pretty much what that is. I got a guy.
But their, their tree preservation
is 13 pages long, so I guess
(54:02):
we'll see how that rolls out in the village. But, like I said, if you,
like, I think, like we all want.
You don't want a developer coming in just cleaning house with with trees. But at the same time you also don't want your residents
(54:25):
being burdened with
fees and that's where that disconnect comes in to where, like, if you if you look at the the revenue and expenditures, like if you look at the money coming in from municipality.
It's so miniscule in the grand scheme of things of how much these permits bring in.
(54:47):
It's
and what it often does, it just leaves a bad taste in the mouth of of the resident. And I'm not saying that you have to clean the board of it, but it deserves like a well thought out reason of why
that thing to explain like why why is this here?
(55:11):
Like the money here is to sustain this instead of just your tree, your tree was struck by lightning, you own three and a half acres of land, we need $100.
So that's that's why I enjoy going through, I would, I want to crack open that 800 pages and just go through it.
(55:34):
Make sure that everything's going right by you, the homeowner, and
respectfully and thoughtfully
bring out the pruners.
So, sorry for that interruption in between there. We can do a little bit more browsing, since it's a nice Friday night.
(56:02):
Coming up on 10 o'clock we can end with a video.
Oh, there's already one playing.
And get a pretty good representation of what's in that stream. When we're doing the survey we
I'm done spending an obscene amount of money on takeout every done.
(56:31):
Okay, so you got a free ad there.
So what's this one?
Let's end on a strong conservation video here.
Let me go back in the, I like that behind the scenes one.
(57:00):
I'm going to hop back in the playlist. And if you think of anything you want to add or
provide some context, you can text and recall that's still open and we'll
we'll talk about it.
(57:29):
Behind the scenes. Take a look.
Here's a cool one.
(57:52):
Winter Operations.
Hello, my name is Ben O'Day. I'm Parks and Fleet Supervisor for the McHenry County Conservation District.
And today we're going to talk a little bit about how we tackle winter operations.
(58:21):
The work for the Conservation District starts well before the actual winter season.
The rangers begin in the fall by prepping ski trails, removing leaves, debris, sticks.
They're also installing winter signage, plow markers, all in preparation of snow removal activities.
In addition to that, the mechanics are prepping the trucks both with plows and salt spreaders so that when the snow does fly, we're able to hit the ground running.
(58:46):
Once the snow has arrived, staff is busy packing and tracking ski trails, obviously doing snow removal in the sites, plowing, salting, as well as checking our sled hill at Glacial Park.
That requires daily inspections just to make sure that that's safe for site users.
(59:07):
Snow removal for us in the winter is a big part of our job. We have a lot of sites that we need to open up for the public to enjoy.
A few of the trainings that we'll do every few years are plow safety training, and every year or so we'll do effective salt training with the county just to make sure we're not putting too much salt down, too little.
(59:29):
We want to make sure we use best practices for salting our sites.
Too much salt can kill off some of our native plantings. Too little salt causes hazardous road conditions.
We have about 25 parking lots that need to get plowed after every snowfall between about eight people.
This takes quite a bit of time, and we ask everybody be patient. Take your time in the parks while driving. If they haven't been plowed, we will get to them as soon as we can.
(59:58):
McHenry County Conservation District has 40 miles of cross-country ski trails, over 16 of our sites. Two of them are open until 9 p.m. They're solar-lit trails.
We have Hickory Grove Highlands and Pleasant Valley.
And we offer three candlelight ski events throughout the winter at different sites. They change every year.
(01:00:20):
After a snow event, we'll come through and we will pack our trails with this roller first to set a good base, and we will follow up with the tracking machine, which is two tracks where the skis go in.
As a courtesy, we please ask that snow-surers or hikers, dog walkers, please stay out of the tracks that we put out and walk off to the side so we can keep a good trail for the skiers.
(01:00:46):
After we're done packing and tracking the trails, we'll update the website with the trail conditions.
Our sled hill here at Glacial Park is one of only a handful in the area and the only one that provides such a beautiful view that only Glacial Park can deliver.
Our sled hill slope is not too extreme, yet still provides a fun, exhilarating ride for children and families of all ages.
(01:01:09):
We do recommend hard plastic sleds. We do not recommend any inflatables due to the occasional puncture that can happen.
For preparation for our sled hill in this fall, we do a very fine, low cut to remove any debris.
In the winter, we do daily checks of our sled hill and check for any debris that has been left over, any moguls or jumps, and if possible, we try to remove them with any hand tools so that the sled hill can remain open.
(01:01:35):
We also check for sled conditions, so if the snow is a little bit too fast or too slow, we will unfortunately have to close it.
Our sled hill is open when we have approximately four inches of snow on the ground or when conditions allow.
The truck preparation starts well before the snow falls. Early November, we get the plows on, the salt spreaders on, just to make sure everything's working well before we actually need it.
(01:02:03):
In order to be fiscally responsible, we have to stay on top of the maintenance on these vehicles in order to keep them as long as possible.
In addition to these salt trucks that the district has, we also maintain the Polaris Rangers that groom trails for cross-country skiing.
We also do fabrication here in the shop. We have made the snow grooming, the roller packers here as well.
(01:02:28):
So it's important for the mechanics to keep the vehicles maintained and ready to go for the Rangers in order to keep all the sites open for all the site users out there.
The district also offers snowmobile trails. We have over 17 miles of trails in Glacial Park, the Praetrol North, and the Hebron Trail, along with numerous connections throughout the county.
(01:02:52):
We work in cooperation with the McHenry County Snowmobiles Association, the Huntley Penguins, and the Marengo Snowgoers.
The district also facilitates a grant through the IED&R on behalf of the McHenry County Snowmobile Association. This goes towards helping cover costs for trail maintenance.
The work district staff performs on snowmobile trails largely happens before the season starts. Staff completes a lot of bridge repairs, some trail rerouting over wet areas, as well as installing culverts and mowing in preparation for the season.
(01:03:21):
McHenry County Snowmobile trails are open from December 10th to March 10th. In order for these trails to be open, several conditions need to be met.
We need to have four inches of snow on top of frozen ground or six inches of snow on top of unfrozen ground.
A few things to keep in mind when snowmobiling on district property. We want to make sure everybody stays on marked trails, number one, and be sensitive to the environment you're in.
(01:03:43):
Also, please make sure you have your registration sticker displayed on your snowmobile and follow all state laws.
Our staff's goal in the winter months is to ensure that people are able to get outside, enjoy the winter activities, and do it in a safe environment.
Well, I learned something. I had no idea that they did cross-country skiing trails like that. I thought it was just made from like the prior person skiing, but they actually pack it and then make the ski trail.
(01:04:21):
So that's cool. We also thank the Conservation District and our Cary Park District for taking care of everything throughout the winter, especially as it comes to a close and as things start to turn green.
All the kids start getting excited for getting to be able to go outside and not freeze their fingers off. We thank all of them for taking care of it.
(01:04:45):
And this Friday show was fun. We got to take a little tour of the conservation area in our town and look at some of the board meeting minutes as well as some tree regulations that might be coming down the pike.
So we'll take a look at that. That board meeting is on March 4th. So we will bring that to you live. We'll do a live watch party of that.
(01:05:12):
And I thoroughly enjoy being here, taking care of, you know, bringing stuff together to bring to you, no matter where you may be. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
It's a Friday night, and I completely thank you for the support that you show me on social media, and I can't do it alone. So if you share the feed or share, no matter on what platform you are on, if anything resonated with you in any of the other videos, share that.
(01:05:53):
And then also, just talk with your neighbor.
Even if it's, even if it's not about voices carry, or anything like that, just just talk.
Talk about something that pertains to the community and start going to your village board meetings and get involved with this place where we call home.
Thank you for joining me today on voices carry live, and I will see you on Monday have a wonderful weekend.
(01:06:24):
Counting 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.
(01:06:47):
It's busted.
That's right.
(01:07:30):
So play nice.
(01:08:00):
So play nice.
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