Voices Cary Illinois Live with Randy Scott February 26th 2025

Voices Cary Illinois Live with Randy Scott February 26th 2025

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
The next Metra train approaching your station will be a Metra Express train and will not stop.

(00:24):
Welcome to Voices Carry Live. My name is Randy Scott. We are broadcasting to you live from the beautiful village of Kerry.
It is currently raining. Let's take a look at the weather.
We've got some inclement weather coming in, but rain is nice, especially on a metal roof inside a studio, which is the best roof for a studio.
What is Voices Carry, you ask? Great question.

(00:47):
This is a podcast. It's an independent venture from myself to try to bridge the gap between social media, which we all know is a whole lot of fun.
And bridge the gap from that to talking with your neighbor, which we can all do more of, I think.
Just starting the wave again and passing cars. This show is marketed to folks in Kerry, you at home.

(01:16):
But if we have a broad reach, we broadcast live on XRumble, YouTube, Facebook, and the RSS feed for those of you that like to watch without seeing my face for radio, which I don't blame you.
If you're watching and you don't live in Kerry, fear not.
This is, I enjoy doing this. I have a family, you're busy, but you're providing people with a platform.

(01:46):
So start it on your phone if you live somewhere that you think can benefit from that.
And then, yeah, this is your megaphone. This is your microphone. We have the text lines open and phone call lines open.
If it's a rainy night, it's kind of like a sleepless in Seattle. I'm not going to get, I'm not like relationship advice, radio talk in call-in, or there's no contest or anything.

(02:14):
But if you want to talk and say what you like about Kerry, if you want to vent about something about Kerry, or just want to say hi, feel free to.
We have some other things. Right before I went on, it was kind of like a mad dash. I have tape here.
And this tape is currently holding up this camera angle because I was just, like when I was just about to go on, I checked the camera angle and it was like off to the side.

(02:48):
So I was literally standing on this right before I said hello to you. So things go without a hitch here.
But it's a nice raining day. I was like, what better than to talk about TIF districts as one does?

(03:10):
TIF districts, I'm not going to start with that. But I am going to, I have some fun stuff actually at the top here instead of just talking about TIF districts, which is something a municipality uses to kind of bring life into an area.
But it can also, it has some downsides as well. It takes money away from schools and parks and other infrastructure. So I thought it deserved a little bit of time.

(03:38):
And then if you had any comments, you can chime in on that. And then also the text, the messages are also on. So if you, whatever platform you're watching on, you can chime in as well.
So what are we going to look at?
I have this news article from the Daily Herald from July 23rd of 23. And it's titled, Will Proposed TIF District Costs Carry its Small Town Feel.

(04:14):
And there's a few good nuggets in there. And then I have a timetable of all the TIF districts in the Village of Carry starting from, starting from the 1997 here.

(04:35):
A whole burlap bag full of them.
And then number three here, I have, how do we compare to surrounding communities? Crystal Lake, Fox River Grove, Lake in the Hills, Algonquin and Carry when it comes to TIF district usage.
And then this was a photo that we used yesterday on the show.

(05:01):
It shows the going trend from 23 to 25. How are the roads doing?
And we'll take a look at that at the end.
And then also if you want to make the show more interesting, call in.
I just thought it'd be, it is a unique thing to try to do this by yourself.

(05:31):
But if you want to chime in, just call in.
I've been doing it for a while, but I try to, I'm kind of like, I'm writing a fine line here between like, do I put time and energy into like making it entertaining and like having fun?

(05:55):
I like to have fun and make it entertaining, but at the same time there's a lot of stuff to go through and unpack.
And that's what we're doing here. That's kind of the main goal here. Maybe on the back end we can have some fun.
And I look forward to that.
This photo here, my mother got me into, before I even opened the ice cream shop, I was always collecting Carry memorabilia and like just every so often, hop on eBay, see what's going on in Carry.

(06:30):
For historical stuff and I'm kind of a history buff.
And my mom found these online and said, hey, use these on your podcast. And I was like, you got it. So here they are.

(06:52):
This is a resort on the Fox River near Carry, Illinois.
I believe this is the one at the end of Pitner Road off of Hickory Nut.
I believe they converted these. This was like back in the mob days, people used to come down here and hide out. There's really only one way in, one way out on a gravel road.

(07:25):
And it's all nice back there now it's converted into apartments and it's beautiful back there. But that's that right there.
There was a matchbook also available on eBay. So that's on Incorporated Carry down by the river, not in a van.

(07:51):
And then this is the Northwest Passage Restaurant Lounge.
It says here, Northwest's newest and most unique supper club is located on Northwest Highway.
And let me show you before I read that, I have a picture here. I'm going to show you.

(08:18):
So where this is, is where the bank is now, the vacant bank. And that's that hot corner right there.
And that's West Main by downtown.
And where the bank is now on the left is where that restaurant used to be, along with the Ralph's Service Station, which we see in the intro,

(08:44):
with the horses. And then back to the picture here.
I love older descriptions. It's like Elaine Benes writing for a magazine. It's very elegant. Let me bring this to you.

(09:06):
Northwest's newest and most unique supper club is located on Northwest Highway, Route 14, 45 miles northwest of Chicago's Loop.
Chicago is open seven days per week, or the club is open seven days per week, and superb food and music may be enjoyed in the splendor of elegant surroundings.
Electric decor, antique galore, leaded glass, ornate 1800s bar, and many other indescribable artifacts.

(09:37):
Items dating to early 1800s have been incorporated both in construction and decorating, with special emphasis on Chicago and Midwest artifacts.
Examples are the stained glass windows, which have been converted to ceiling lights from a local church, which survived the Chicago fire in 1871.

(09:58):
Stained glass bronze scrolls and numerous wood carvings from St. Mary's Church in Chicago, built prior to 1870.
Curved stained glass, a lot of stained glass here. Screen and cut glass windows from the Miller Estate.
That's right there off East Main. And then stained glass from, more stained glass from Grand Central Station.

(10:22):
A Victorian door front decorates the foyer, while Louis Chandler beckons those who enter.
I wish to pause for a moment for the circa 1850 Australian couch.
Sit down, look at the hand carved menu, and choose our specialties, prime rib or fresh whole catfish.

(10:47):
Perhaps you would rather visit Northwest area's biggest and best salad bar.
We feature the best of music for your listening and dancing pleasure, featuring nationally famous groups, Monday through Saturday.
Monday nights featuring a jazz jam session by the pros.
Whether you're liking it as superb dining, music, or listening and dancing, or just socializing with fine drinks,

(11:15):
you will find it all in an atmosphere that is pleasing, intimate, and unsurpassed in the area.
That's Northwest Passage. I believe they, these guys owe me like ten cents now for that spot.
That's a live read. They don't make them like that anymore.

(11:37):
We don't describe that. Maybe Carrie Derry needs like a long intricate, maybe get some stained glass.
It's a, it's not, we don't do that anymore.

(12:03):
And then I brought this up in a prior show about like our kids are growing up without inspiration now.
And I touched on this briefly like the around the clock sign in Crystal Lake.
There's no way. Like say, like say I came to Carrie and this is just an example.

(12:25):
This pretty much anywhere now. But like, hey, I want to, I want to make a around the clock sign for the ice cream shop.
And they'd show, they'd laugh. And stuff larger than life like that, I think is inspiring to kids.
I don't know. I really don't think it's gaudy. I think it's, I think it's cool how they still maintain it with the neon.

(12:51):
I mean, that's not cheap. Neon is like an art form. And to be able to stay true to that is big.
I think NBC, they're marquee. They just changed that from neon in New York, neon to LED.

(13:12):
And they received a whole bunch of backlash for that.
I think the investment in how much it costs to burn the LED, the neon is worth the people you draw in because of the fact that you have that.
And we just need to get back to doing cool stuff.

(13:38):
Going to the TIF districts, I was going to bring you this article here.
Give me one second.
So, TIF districts, it's TIF stands for tax increment financing and municipalities leverage them for, it's pretty, they can come in and they, I think the overall average lifespan of one in Illinois is 23 years.

(14:21):
So, it lasts quite a while. Yeah, 23 years is the lifespan of like the max. You can always come in and cut it short, which they've done.
If it's not performing or if you have other things you want to play with to where you don't want to have too many on the books and you want to kick one off and bring another one on.
And what it does is that you pretty much draw a, say you have a map. Here's raw 14. And this is just for example, say like these buildings are getting older.

(14:58):
And what a village can do is literally draw a zone here and say like, hey, we want to revitalize this area. And that gives powers to potentially
endowment domain these properties or usually it's not done like in a hostile environment, like hostily, hopefully most of the time.

(15:28):
But that gives those powers as well as whenever like say somebody comes in and says, okay, we're going to redevelop this property and they build a nice brand new whatever five story apartment building, for example.
Those taxes that are generated in this whole district are frozen at the time of adopting that TIF district.

(15:55):
So all tax revenues that would be going to 26, 155, I believe Park District and PD, I believe are frozen at that point when they adopt the TIF district.

(16:20):
So now you're taking away funds from schooling and other services and what that those funds get frozen and used within this area to improve it until it's deemed satisfactory by the powers that be.

(16:42):
So that's a TIF district in a nutshell. And we have had quite a few of them in the area.
And they are quite invasive to the area and they should be used with care. And I have this article here I wanted to bring this to you.

(17:08):
I carry residents and business owners showed up in numbers last week to express concerns about what the latest proposed tax increment financing district for the village could mean for their homes and organizations.
When asked repeatedly village board members held firm that there are no plans to tear down any homes or businesses.
They said carries residents and business owners will have the choice and developer.

(17:31):
If a developer wants to come in and offer a price for their property.
A TIF district is an economic development tool that freezes property taxes within the district boundaries at their current level for a set period, usually 23 years as property values rise in the district.
The additional revenue goes to a special village fund to pay for improvements within that area.

(17:55):
The proposed district would stretch along.
They're talking about district number three here in this article along Route 14 from the Fox River to carry Algonquin Road.
Kerry Elementary School District 26 Superintendent Brandon White.
He is the current superintendent, very active with the kids and the community said that the district potentially could lose eight million in tax revenue.

(18:23):
I think that's a conservative estimate personally if the district is created.
Because remember, you're going over 23 years.
As an educator for over 20 years, I've been driven.
This is a quote from Brandon as an educator for over 20 years.
I've been driven by the moral purpose that if you make decisions based on the fundamental goal of doing what's best for kids, you cannot go wrong.

(18:51):
White said he said that the losses could be even more problematic if student enrollment increases due to districts, which they want to with this said district.
They want to sign on about 400 apartments slash town homes.

(19:16):
He's also quoted saying even if it's half that, that's still impacting the education that we're able to provide our students.
District 26 board member said that the schools currently are in a stable financial situation, but the TIF could change that.

(19:41):
Jason Jasnik said I quote I worry about the loss of an estimated eight million will push carry schools back into those dark days.
He said referring to steep cuts of district face in 2010.
That means large classes eliminating specials.
We're going to look at that specials large classes, which means your ratio between students and teacher are higher.

(20:09):
And a revolving door for teachers.
Others at the hearing expressed concerns about carry losing its small town feel.
They said they don't want carry to end up like larger northwest suburbs communities that use TIF districts to grow their downtowns.

(20:30):
Quote from our mayor. We're not going to be Arlington Heights. We're not going to be Mount Mount Prospect.
The carry mayor Mark Connick replied we are going to be carry and do what's right for carry.
They voted on that August 15th. They passed it through.
And then I have a chart here of.

(20:57):
It says below is a detailed timetable of all the districts created in the village carry including their establishment dates and end dates in some brief notes.
So going.
Those dark days the dark days that that article mentioned.

(21:19):
We were under a TIF district. This is TIF district one.
Also referred to as the Northwest Highway TIF district from 1997 to 22 covered land along Route 14 corridor between the Fox River and East Main Street and the spurred development in eastern gateway areas.

(21:40):
Areas that carry notable notable projects included redevelopment of the Miller's Hill subdivision construction of a CVS pharmacy reconstruction of Janus Cut-Off Road sidewalk improvements along 14 cleanup of the Selke property, which is where the Thortons is now.
And a regional lift station for future commercial development, which is for like a water handler.

(22:04):
Assisted with over 2.3 million improvements ran for its full term of 23 years expiring in 22.
Says it might have closed in 21 likely due to fiscal reporting.
Parcels from this TIF were later incorporated into TIF number three, but then we were also we had some overlap here so you had 22 and then 2006 to 2003.

(22:37):
If you look at.
They were voting on this August 15th for TIF district number three.
But this one this TIF district ended in August 1st.
So TIF district number two, which had some overlap with one was created to support a proposed redevelopment project for properties fronting Route 14 and downtown Cary.

(23:08):
It was hit by the 2008 economic recession, which stalled planned development property values declined below the initial base level, limiting its effectiveness.
It was terminated early on August 1st, 23 via an ordinance rather than running its full 23 year term.
Parcels from this TIF were also incorporated into the central Cary TIF district three after termination.

(23:33):
So you're you're pulling in TIF three that we're going to about to look at.
You're pulling from both of these.
Some of them, some areas are made into TIF district three in it.
It did not achieve its original redevelopment goals.

(24:00):
And then TIF district three August 15th, 23 through present day.
It currently has an ending of 2046.
It covers the US Route 14 corridor with the original 1893 corporate limits of Cary bounded by Cary Algonquin Road, Silver Lake Road, Park Avenue, Pearl Street, East Main Street, Spring Beach Bay, the Fox River, and Cary Road, Charlotte Place, Crenns Avenue, Norman Drive South.

(24:33):
Incorporates parcels from the expired TIF one and TIF two.
It aims to implement the village's 2015 comprehensive plan, which we've looked at and the 21 downtown Cary strategic plan.
Forty three percent of structures in the area are over 100 years old.
Targeting revitalization of aging infrastructure and economic growth.

(24:59):
So February 26th, 25, it remains active.
Both district 26 and the Cary Youth Baseball and Softball raised concerns about the TIF district.
The Maplewood property received five point five million for their property.

(25:25):
And that was associated with that district. And I wanted to bring to you some like comparisons of how we stack up of usage in the area.
You have Crystal Lake.
This is 1997. I pulled the same year that ours started.

(25:55):
This is 1997 to present. Crystal Lake had four.
And then there's three active of 20 of today.
And then one was terminated.
The one that was terminated was pre 1997 dissolved.

(26:18):
And it was included in the four, I believe, because later in this article it says I'll show you in a minute.
The Fox River Grove had one. And there's currently one on the books.
Lake in the Hills.
Two with two current Algonquin two with two still running.

(26:40):
Cary had three with one active TIF incorporating plots of land from the other two.
And then there were two dissolved.

(27:11):
In this conclusion that this report gave me. And this was from X.com. You can recreate this.
What I typed in, if you want to recreate it, can you make me a timetable with detailed notes of every district that the village of Cary has created with and when it ended.

(27:35):
And then for this one with the other ones I just added the villages, the other towns.
And then the conclusion for this report gave me from 1997 to the present.
Cary had the most TIF districts three reflecting its use active use of this tool.

(27:56):
Though only one remains.
Which I was like, it said Chris Lake had four, and it said Cary had three. It goes by total of time ran.
I found out from this report. So Cary leads with the amount of time ran for a TIF district.
And what does that do for the community that puts when not used carefully and used with care that can put a strain on the school districts with which is what Mr. White, the superintendent for district 26, expressed his concerns about.

(28:36):
Which I completely agree with. And then also, it's kind of, it's kind of, and I've touched on this before, it's kind of using the, it's kind of forcing the subject.
Instead of letting the invisible hand of commerce do its thing.

(29:00):
You're kind of forcing it. And with the Cary one going dating back to 1997.
I remember teachers picketing.
I believe in 2002.
And now we have like a retention issue.
Currently, but you're starting to see the effects of that you're starting to see.

(29:25):
Hey, PTO, we need some money for infrastructure that we should probably be maintaining at a school level.
But PTO, you need to go out and raise funds for a playground.
Like we saw at Three Oaks.
Whereas I think PTO funds that are hard earned PTO dollars from families and Dine and Share nights and all that should be going to things that help teachers in the classroom.

(30:00):
Like the parent teacher, it shouldn't be going to infrastructure that those people that are raising those funds are not going to see that lifespan of the 20 years that that playground equipment is going to last.
They should see that immediately affect the quality of learning and helping those teachers out with that money.

(30:27):
So.
And then also with the Cary Junior High like we saw.
When the Cary Junior High opened.
They had a wood shop. I have a lamp. I want to bring the lamp in. I made it in Cary Junior High.
And they had a wood. They had woods.
We made balsa car like balsa race slot cars that we race in the hallway.

(30:55):
They had an art program that was more involved than it is now.
They had computer automated design.
Like CNC designing where we actually turned a chess piece in a CAD.

(31:17):
What else we had? We had drafting.
To where you actually had a drafting table and like you had to set up the sheet.
And I think all those things, those hands on vocational things turn into problem solving.
Like that doesn't mean that you have to. And that could be coming down from.

(31:39):
It could be a result of the TIF districts of like reduction in funding or it could be coming down from up high from where our Department of Education was tinkering around with what needs to be done at these grade levels.
Which we're seeing change now a little bit.
But I think a combination of that, you can't really dispute the fact that we're like putting an unnecessary strain on our school districts.

(32:08):
And then not to mention not playing nice in the sandbox for 13 years and like leaving Maplewood property up in limbo to where the school district has no idea what to do with it because they don't know what the village is going to do.
And they're pretty much just waiting for the village to get everything lined up with who they want to work with and the right time to slingshot these apartments, which all have all these apartment projects are scheduled to be launched pretty much next year.

(32:54):
So all these things are waiting on the on the taxi runway to take off. And that's what I'm doing here is just try to give you give everybody a voice.
I see it on all sides of the spectrum from, you know, I have seen in the game from wanting to see the school district succeed.

(33:18):
If you live in Cary and you don't have kids and you're like, why is he always talking about school districts? I'm still the same way with property rights.
I'm still the same way with business owners not getting chastised.
Yeah, that's that's that's where I stand with that is.

(33:41):
And I've touched on this, too, like the the why like why why the growth and you have you have it coming from the top down a little bit saying you need to conform to all these you need to have this type of housing and things like that.
But if you're just if you're going along to get along with with these with these agencies that are literally trying to dismantle your village, you're not necessarily doing best by the people who you represent in the village.

(34:24):
You're slowly being conquered and you don't even know it. You're you're just following these and checking off these boxes.
So I'm pro growth. I want to get families in here. I just want to do it to where they're not going to be
sitting in a sitting in a compound watching TV with a Wi Fi router mounted above their head that they can't even control their own Internet.

(34:54):
And when you move into a place like some of these apartment buildings that I lived in the springs in Crystal Lake for a while behind Wal-Mart briefly and the not only the construction is like paper thin walls and stuff, the people above us were just living their normal life and we could hear everything that they were doing.

(35:19):
And I've touched on that before, along with the you could see how long they intend to be investment properties for these folks because I just I saw some indications of like how they mounted the air conditioner unit on the side.
And it was just gravel and I'm like that gravel is going to wash away and it's going to be tilted. It's going to cause issues and AC is not going to be level and I'm like they're they're planning on getting out of here before that issue becomes a problem for them.

(35:51):
And it's going to be somebody else's problem. It's going to be our problem.
Because
excuse me.
The management company and the ownership is going to lose interest in that property once the economy gets better and people want houses.

(36:12):
So that's what I'm trying to kind of intersect
is get get that conversation going to where we have the opportunity to be that village to where you can move to and get some equity in your in your pocket and have a house.
Have have you know if you want to downsize that's great we'll have some apartments, you can downsize, but it's just, we don't need to sign on to the to the global agenda of

(36:43):
you need to have a thousand apartments in your community.
And this
this was a map that we saw from yesterday.
I'll touch on it briefly again.

(37:04):
So what's going on, like, when you have all these apartment projects.
Like if you work at the village of Kerry, and you have four active apartment projects you have to do to district active.
You're tasked with a whole bunch of other things other than the road outside the front of your house.

(37:25):
And it's starting to show here.
This was from.
This is a map from 2023.
And this is a map from 2025.
The
it's kind of hard to see but these are both maps and they're color coded.
But if you look here, the trending.

(37:47):
These are failed roads and 23 it was 0.2.
Roads that are considered to be failed.
Not failing failed.
And then 25 that went up to 1%
that have actually failed.
Roads that are in serious condition 1.6%
and 23 and 25 6%

(38:10):
in serious on their way to being failed.
Very poor.
14%
from 9% in 23
in 23 poor
15.8 poor 18%

(38:34):
and so on.
And this trend, I'm not a big
I see what could possibly be going on.
Is that they're setting up.
And I don't like to play games when it comes to like infrastructure.

(38:55):
And I know there's a whole bunch of fancy footwork that can be done to justify like if we show
that these roads are getting out of control with serious and failing conditions.
Maybe we can qualify for some other funding or do something else in that arena.

(39:16):
And that's not really that's not really fair to you.
And like if we were just to scale back
and take the blinders off
of what we have been given from you know from the city from from the from the county from
the world actually like the

(39:42):
like what the WEF wants us to conform to
if we just take a step back
and say
these TIF districts that have been implemented since 90
actually
yeah if you think about it
from 97

(40:09):
said it ran its full term 23 years 97 to 22
but then they signed on
properties from TIF 1
and the TIF 3
so now you now you have you've completely

(40:32):
you're looking at
straining your your school district and other services for from 97 and you're not even staying within the
the context of the 23 year
cap that that's given
you've just
doubled down on it and you just kicked it out for another 23 years so yeah I can see where Mr. White has had a little bit of frustration

(40:59):
and he's
he was voicing it and you know Kerry gave him a quick five mil
completely taking away
that piece of property that they had
to where they did
make an effort to try to make it into where the scoreboard came from

(41:21):
they had they made an effort to try to
make it into a another school
make it into their bus
lot
have an administration building and keep some baseball fields
everybody's happy
the school districts happy
because now

(41:42):
they have that land to play with
that includes a school
for all those a thousand departments of families coming into this area
but now what you have is
the village of Kerry giving him five mil
5.5 million
saying here's your this is where your bus lots going to be because we know best

(42:07):
it's going to be by Aldi right by the railroad tracks
Aldi didn't like it but that's okay we'll pay the 50 grand to get out of that contract
and now district 26 is left with
no property to have a school on
so they might have if they want to expand I wouldn't be surprised if we're seeing

(42:32):
trailers
at one point
down the road
you know those those temporary schooling trailers
I think it might get to a point to where you have such an influx of children
and you have your nice brand new shiny bus lot

(42:54):
and your
class ratio gets so overwhelming between student and teacher
that you're going to have to bring in some mobile school units
all be and and then you know what the story is going to be shame on district 26
but don't pay attention to what the village of Kerry has put these guys through over the last

(43:19):
1315 some odd years
the good news is is that everybody's starting to look out their window
everybody's starting to
put the phone down turn the TV off
talk with their neighbor
start asking questions
and everybody's awakening which is great

(43:41):
and that's why I bring this platform to you to where you can call in text
and do it at nine o'clock every night
and I enjoy it

(44:02):
I wish you know
I wasn't like it goes from from family time to get the show ready to go on air to break it all down
and then do it again the next day
and I wouldn't I I you know wouldn't rather be anywhere else right now than to

(44:26):
try to navigate this for my kids and and my family and your family
but I can't do it alone so if you
have the you know the means to talk with your neighbor talk with your neighbor
and just start asking questions and you know

(44:48):
we're all a bite we're all in this human experiment together
and these are good problems to be having honestly
you know compared to the other countries these are good problems to be having
these are good discussions to be having
the fact that we get to have these disagreements

(45:09):
are good
and
it's it's good to disagree and it's also good to let them know when they're doing good
but you know we're going to have to get involved if
we're not going to be subject
to the

(45:32):
going trend of the carbon copy cookie cutter approach to how
cities are going all and villages are going all all over the nation
so that's what I'm here for I'm here for you and
that's all I have for you today

(45:53):
and let me know we broadcast on X rumble YouTube Facebook and you can also we have some folks that
listen on their train ride to work on RSS
download so I appreciate have a great day at work if you're going there
to you at home thank you for joining me today
and I will see you tomorrow on voices carry life have a wonderful evening

(46:17):
you're confirmed
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it's

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