Cary Loses to Greed and Money

I am a high school history and civics teacher. In this world, it is very difficult to get young people excited about government. Even at such a young age, high school students are cynical about their voice and their influence in the very affairs that can affect their lives. "My vote doesn't count," they say. "No one listens."

And the Village of Cary last night proved them right in a vote that was for greed and against the well-being of many Cary residents---residents who have, over the last several months, expressed concern and outrage over the proposed extension of a gravel pit within the borders of the village.

Despite the petitions, despite the letters, emails and phone calls, the village of Cary decided to side with Meyer in a unanimous vote in favor of the corporation's plans. So much for Cameron Davis' proclamation that Cary is a "great quality of life community."

Tom Kierna admitted that some residents will feel "pain" during the mining of the pit. That's comforting to know that at least he acknowledges our pain. But then he also revealed the true nature of his vote: "It’s going to generate $2.5 million for the village of Cary, and that’s not small potatoes." He then went on to express admiration for the deal, "looking forward to a prosperous relationship with Meyer."

A prosperous relationship with Meyer? Wow. That's a big "screw-you" to the residents of Cary who put him into office. Apparently, his "relationship" to a corporation with headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, now outweighs his relationship to the very people in his own community.

I wonder what this "long-term" relationship includes? Perhaps further extension of the pit into Hoffman Park? All that has to happen is the Cary Park District sells that land to Meyer and we are going through this all again. Only this time there will be less opposition, because people will know that the concerns and well-being of the community are secondary to the whims and wishes of a faceless corporation.

I know what some people are going to say: "you don't understand the intricacies of the situation." "The village could be sued." "There were people in Cary who supported the pit." "You are a nimby." Yada Yada Yada.

The fact is, this vote came down to an issue of morality, plain and simple.

Eighteenth century moralist Emmanuel Kant tackled the issue of morality and law during the Enlightenment. He believed that morality was something one was born with; it was not something learned. With his "Categorical Imperative," Kant outlined a way in which one can "test" the morality of an action or a law: if you can will that action as a "universal law" to be followed the world over, then that law is "moral."

In other words, if you can imagine a world in which it is followed that, in exchange for large sums of money, gravel pits are dug near residential homes over the protests of the residents, then you believe that that Village of Cary's actions last night were moral. If you can envision this as the rule rather than the exception, then the vote taken by the Village of Cary was the right thing to do.

Greed over people. That is what this vote comes down to. It doesn't matter that there may be a lake or a park there sometime in the future. The fact is, those residents who live nearest the pit overwhelmingly were against it. They are the ones who should have figured most into the decision. Apparently, they were not.

I am not too surprised by the fact that Meyer will be extending their pit. I am surprised, however, by the unanimous nature of the vote. Even Deb McNamee, a Fox Trails resident, voted for it. However, after a long period of time in executive session, she admitted that her vote was based upon the "advice" of Cary's attorney, Mike Coppedge.

It's a shame that my tax money is helping to pay for his salary and who knows how much he has billed the village for his "advice." I guess we are stuck with his mediocrity.

But at least we can vote the others out of office.

On the Brink

When the village of Cary annexed some land on February 5 that once belonged in Lake in the Hills, Village Administrator Cameron Davis announced that the acquisition of this land will add "to the village's reputation as a great quality-of-life community."

However, many of us in Fox Trails are doubtful of Davis' assertion as we stand on the brink of having a gravel pit back up to our own back-yards, drastically reducing our quality of life.

Don't get me wrong, the addition of the 180 acres of Hoffman Park into the village is good news. However, that still leaves about 100 acres belonging in Lake in the Hills. Although the Cary Park District owns it, who can say that they won't sell that land to Meyer in the future and the proposed pit will get even bigger.

It can happen. Unless we stop it now.

We are standing on the brink of the final decision. Possibly the last meeting regarding Meyer Material's petition will be held on Tuesday, February 19 at 7 pm. This time, the meeting is being held at D'Andrea Banquets in Crystal Lake. D'Andrea is located on Route 14 and Route 31.

This has been a very long road. It's been monotonous. It's been difficult. It seems that many of us have grudgingly accepted the fact that we could have an eyesore next to our houses.

Some of us have apparently accepted the possibility that in this housing market our home values will fall even further and we will be forced to live next to a dusty, hazardous pit.

Some of us may have accepted the possibility that we will lose.

If we give in to defeat now, then we have given up on our homes, our neighbors and our community.

If we give into defeat now, we have let corporate greed highjack the democratic process.

If we give into defeat now, we will have allowed Cameron Davis to tout the Village's quality of life reputation for the papers while disregarding the truth.

We cannot let that happen. We can still win.

Please come to the meeting on Tuesday. Call the Village Hall at (847)639-0003 and tell them that we hope the village lives up to Cameron Davis' statement about Cary's quality of life reputation and insist that if the village believes that, they will vote no to Meyer's petition.

The only thing that stands between a "yes" or "no" vote is us.

And together, we can tip the scales in our favor.

Protect Our Standards

The following is a recent letter that appeared in the Northwest Herald:

Dear Editor:

The Tuesday, Feb. 5, edition of the Northwest Herald shared a quote with readers from Cameron Davis, Cary’s village administrator, about the Hoffman Park proposed annexation agreement with the Cary Park District. He was quoted as saying that gaining the property “certainly adds to the village’s reputation as a great quality-of-life community.”

What about Fox Trails residents’ long standing pleas to the village to deny Meyer Material’s request for a conditional use mining permit? Please, Village of Cary Board of Trustees, reassure us that our quality of life is as equally important. Vote no and allow us to get on with our lives.

Residents, please attend the next board meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 19, at D’Andrea Banquets at Routes 14 and 31 in Crystal Lake.

Our standards of living should not be compromised.


Cheryl Janu

A Holiday Wish

Our homes are our most cherished investments.

When we began looking for a community in which to buy our first house and start a family, Cary figured predominately into our decision making. My wife grew up in Barrington and knew the area well. We toured the village, looked into the schools and immediately fell in love with Cary's charm and small town appeal.

We moved here in 2002. Since then, we have started a family and are busily raising two small boys.

And now the idyllic town that we fell in love with may no longer hold the same appeal that brought us here.

We may become neighbors to a large, noisy, dusty gravel pit. An eyesore, much like the one that exists to the south.

Our homes are our most cherished investments. In these troubling economic times our house value has plummeted as homes all over Cary sit vacant or at reduced prices.

A pit will only exacerbate the situation.

Anyone living near the pit will not be able to sell their homes. They can only sit and helplessly watch the value of their investment fall.

In the meantime, Meyer Material will add millions of dollars to their bottom line. Cary will get a kickback.

And the homeowners will suffer.

The suffering will continue when Meyer Material looks to expand further North into Hoffman Park. Greenfields and Cimarron will be next.

And what is the root of this? Plain and simple: greed.

Money talks. And Meyer has plenty of it and can get the best lawyers, bribe village officials with annual payments, produce flashy presentations that magically turn their eyesore into a beautiful park that will "benefit" Cary for years to come.

In the meantime, the citizens of Cary are held hostage. If this truly was a representative government where the will of the people was rooted in all decisions, it would not be the middle of December with this issue still on the table.

The issue would have been decided months ago with a resounding "no!"

As we get ready to celebrate this holiday season, the Village of Cary stands ready to approve a plan that will irrevokably change the entire nature of this village and threaten our most cherished investment.

This isn't Bedford Falls. There isn't a George Bailey to stand up to the sinister Mr. Potter here. This is not the the realm of Mr. Cratchit or Jacob Marley's ghost.

This is Cary, Illinois.

And all we hope in this holiday season is for the happy ending that we have seen over and over again in reruns of Chistmases past.

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE VILLAGE OF CARY

I am an American history teacher and have spent the last 17 years of my career trying to get kids to understand not only the values upon which this country was built but also understand the basic ideas behind what the founders called "a republic of virtue."

I am afraid that in the modern era, the founders would have difficulty recognizing this country as the values upon which they created the structure for this federal system have slowly eroded away over the last several decades.

And the current issue with Meyer Material Company regarding the building of a gravel pit echoes this erosion.

Although the founders established safeguards to prevent mob rule, the structure they created was to reflect, at all levels, the will of the people. This would be especially true at the local level. The local level was the level that Jefferson thought was most important because it was there where people would have the greatest voice in determining their political lives.

However, this does not seem to hold true anymore as those entities with more resources---money, legal representation, etc---have taken that voice away from where it truly belongs.

And that is a problem.

Meyer has far more resources than anyone in the village. They have money. They have a cadre of lawyers that we can never hope to match.

But they also lack the virtue upon which this country was built. They are not out to create something for the "general good," which is the cornerstone of republican virtue, but for their own profit.

In this never ending quest for profit, the will of the people is disregarded and bulldozed: the ultimate violation of the republic of virtue. Profit becomes the virtue over everything else. And profit then trumps quality of life, property values and basic self determination for the citizens. The decision making is taken from the voice of the people and replaced by the voice of profit. Corporations have hijacked the democratic voice of the people. And they do it through money, bribery and threats.

Meyer bought the land over ten years ago knowing the zoning laws in regard to that land. And those zoning laws and the Chally Farm Agreement reflected the will of the people--the idea that the Chally Farm land should never be used for mining purposes. Indeed, it is that very agreement which prohibited mining on the land that persuaded many of us in Fox Trails to purchase property near the land in question in the first place. Maybe that is because many of us believed that the law was supreme, that the village was in the business of not only protecting the residents but also adhering to the basic principle that the government represents us, the people.

And now Meyer wants the village to go against the will of the people and they will use whatever it takes to do so---because for them, the profit is more important than ethics. Profit is more important than virtue.

And profit is more important than the people.

All that we ask is for you to recognize this for what it is: an attempt by Meyer to increase profits at the expense of the people of Cary.

You will need to make a decision: Do you represent the people of Cary or do you represent the interests of a multi-billion dollar international corporation--a corporation that has no ties to this village other than the fact that they own some land they wish to strip of its resources?

You know where we stand.

And we hope you will stand with us.

The End is Near

We are nearing the end of this journey, ladies and gentlemen. And Meyer has become desperate. As we know, they will say and do almost anything in order to get the pit approved by the Village of Cary Board. After all, they need 5 out of 7 votes to get the original Chally Farm agreement amended. If they don’t get those votes, they cannot mine on that land.

So, they use fear and rumor. They have employees tell us that this is a “done deal” and that the “equipment has already been bought.” They spread rumors about de-annexation to Lake in the Hills or Algonquin. Don’t be fooled. This is a scare tactic designed to get support for their proposal and to make us think that we cannot get a better deal.

But we can get a better deal. And the better deal would be NO PIT.

To Meyer, this is a matter of profit: the materials under the ground could get them upwards of $100 million. So they try to sell a plan to the people of Cary and to the Cary Village Board so that they can make that profit. They try to portray themselves as benefactors who will bequeath to Cary land that will be more valuable once they are done mining. They show us beautiful designs of a park and a lake. They discuss landscaping and park access. This, they say, will be Meyer’s “gift” to Cary.

This is a façade. One need only to look at the current pit on Klasen Road. The new pit will merely be an extension of the old. That pit is not beautiful. There are steep, dangerous cliffs. The land surrounding the pit, including the berms that were established to shield the pit from Fox Trails residents are overgrown with weeds and not maintained.

And, there is no "lake." Look carefully at that pit. Next time you drive down Klasen, slow down and look at Cary's future. The water that sits at the bottom is not a lake that can be used. If there is no usable lake in the current pit, one can surmise that there will not be much of a lake when this pit is expanded. It is that simple.

So Meyer is getting desperate. They made an offer to “protect” home values in Fox Trails. However, like so much of what Meyer has promised, this proposal is empty and does not at all protect property values. What it does is makes Meyer a controlling party in the home selling process; a dangerous idea to say the least.

As for the rumors in regard to de-annexation? Although this is something that theoretically can happen, a lawyer has told us that the probability of it succeeding is almost zero. Why? If that land is de-annexed, that would leave parts of Cary no longer connected to Cary. And that makes the probability of success for Meyer very slim.

So Meyer is desperate. They are throwing proposals around to try and hook potential votes on the board and to sway public opinion in their direction. The Mayor submits his own plan that allows Meyer to mine but forces some minor concessions on Meyer. Again we are made to think that this may be the best we can get. The Mayor’s plan may be nothing more than a behind-the-scenes deal with Meyer from the beginning. It is smoke and mirrors. The Mayor is Meyer's biggest salesman.

The fact remains that Meyer needs 5 votes to get the Chally Farm agreement changed.

That means that only 3 votes can defeat Meyer.

Only three votes stand between the people of Cary and an ugly, harmful pit.

It is hoped that three people on the Village board have the courage to stand up to Meyer and simply say “no.”

For that is the right thing to do.

The Evidence Against the Pit

Tomorrow the fate of Cary will be decided. The board is expected to vote on the Meyer petition. The meeting will be held at 7 pm at the Holiday Inn in Crystal Lake again.


Here is some of the accumulated evidence against the pit (all of which is public record):

• At the last meeting, definitive evidence was present to the board regarding property taxes. An employee of Meyer petitioned McHenry County to have his property taxes lowered because his proximity to a gravel pit lowered the value of his house. The board agreed. His taxes were lowered.

Not only are we going to contend with lower property values. The new pit is a "potential" for contamination of Cary's drinking water. This affects not just Fox Trails, but all of Cary.

The Village engineer stated in testimony on July 12 that a gravel pit located in the recharge area of the well can be an avenue for contamination of our water.

Richard Cobb, Deputy Director of Ground Water for the Illinois EPA concurs. In a letter dated August 24, 2007, he writes:

"Sand and gravel operations represent a potential threat of groundwater contamination. In 1987, Governor Thompson signed legislation for protection of Illinois groundwater from contamination. The Illinois Groundwater Protection Act (IGPA) defined any excavation for the discovery sand or gravel as a Potential Route of Groundwater Contamination (415 ILCS 5/3.350). In addition, the IGPA required the Illinois EPA to develop and the Illinois Pollution Control Board (Board) to adopt comprehensive groundwater quality standards (35 Ill. Adm. Code 620) including non-degradation requirements. These regulations include contaminants such as total dissolved solids (TDS) and chlorides which can be increased when excavating sand or gravel." (Proposed Gravel Pit. Letter. Richard Cobb. August 24, 2007)

The IEPA recommends that the Village of Cary extend the setback zone around well #10 in order to lessen the possibility of contamination.

But it is the evidence from Valley View Elementary School in McHenry that provides us with a glimpse of what is in store for homeowners in Cary. There are three gravel pits near the school. The school district did some independent evaluations of the situation to determine if the gravel pits owned and operated by Meyer Material Company had a negative effect on the school. Here is what they discovered:

"These results indicate that the quarry operations produce considerable particulate levels that can be carried on the prevailing winds onto school property. Additionally, the EPA prohibits the emission of visible particulate matter across property lines. Therefore, the quarry operations appear to be outside compliance parameters for particulate matter based on the results of this study." (Air Sampling Survey Report. McHenry Community Consolidated School District 15, McHenry Illinois. Valley View School. September 3 through 8, 1997. CIH Professional Services. Yorkville, Illinois)

Furthermore, Jack Barnette, EPA Chief for Radiation and Indoor Air, visited the school in the Spring of 1999. This is what he told the city:

"One obvious problem was the amount of dust and sand that had accumulated near the doors and windows of the school. the principle source of dust was the gravel pit that was adjacent to the school property. This gravel pit surrounded the building on three sides. The maintenance staff told me that they cleaned up the dust and sand everyday. They also indicated that dust from the pit impacted the school or the playground on a regular basis. Though the indoor conditions of the school suggested a well maintained facility, the outdoor source, that is, the gravel pit, was definitely having a negative impact on the building and grounds of this institution." (Valley View School, McHenry County. Letter. Jack Barnette. September 17, 2002)

Furthermore, it was revealed that Meyer was not "a good neighbor" on several occasions:

• October 15, 2003. In a meeting before the IEPA about Meyer Material Company, the IPEA admitted that they don't inspect gravel pits more than once every three or four years, barring any complaints. Instead, they rely on the company to report any noncompliance to IEPA rules and regulations. (Transcript. Before the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. Hearing involving the issuance of a new construction permit by Meyer Material Co. McHenry, Illinois. October 15, 2007 p. 30)
  
• At this meeting, it was discovered that Meyer had added "21 conveyors" to their operations without notifying the IEPA and had been in violation for some time with no inspections or consequences. (Transcript. Before the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. Hearing involving the issuance of a new construction permit by Meyer Material Co. McHenry, Illinois. October 15, 2007 p. 48)
  
• May 22, 2002. The IEPA concluded that due to the amount of fugitive dust coming from the pit onto school property, that Meyer Material Company could be "cited for nuisance violation." And "their sand stockpile...emits fugitive dust during strong wind current that could cause nuisance and affect the health of school children of Valley View School." (IEPA. Tier 1 Inspection. May 22, 2002. Complaint# 02051404)
• 1994. Meyer cited for "insufficient spray bar capacity." The inspectors noticed "visible fugitive dust emission on the top of the conveyor." Also, "visible emissions were observed off the conveyors." (IEPA. May 25, 1994)
• 1986. Lack of operating permit violation. (IEPA. July 24, 1986)

It must be noted again that most violations that are found in gravel pit operations are not discovered by the IEPA or the EPA during routine inspections, but after residents file complaints. Meyer will be expected to do much of the monitoring itself.

That's like having the fox guard the hen house, so to speak.

In summation, the gravel pit proposal by Meyer Material Company will adversely affect the residents of Cary, Illinois. Lower property values will be the first reality. Next, gravel pits will negatively affect the standard of living in Cary, especially to those residents nearest the pit. Fugitive dust will be another daily reality. This dust will not just be a nuisance, but could have negative health impacts as well. Meyer has shown itself not to be the "good neighbor" it claims, but has violated regulations several times. Lastly, the "potential for contamination" of Cary's groundwater should be enough to vote this pit down. If the groundwater does become contaminated, this could bring costly ramifications on the Village of Cary, Illinois.


A copy of this brief has been sent to the Village Board and the area newspapers. If you would like a .pdf version of the complete paper, click here.