The Huntley Farmside

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Thursday, September 24,1998
The Himtley Famiside
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Volume 37 Issue 76
Huntley Democrat makes second run for county seat
Steve Brosinski
Press Publications
Diane Oilman Ayers knows that her bid to unseat one of two Republican opponents in the District-6 race for the McHenry County Board will be an uphill battle.
The Huntley Democrat is running against incumbents Mary Lou Zierer of Marengo and Ann Oilman of Harvard. Ayers said her campaign is focusing on "rational/responsi¬ ble growth" throughout the county.
"Rational means not all growth is bad, but it has to make sense," said Ayers, who lost her first attempt to unseat a board member in 1996.
"Putting residential develop¬ ments 10 miles away from infra¬ structure improvements doesn't make sense."
She is critical of the County Board for not playing a more active role in the commercial and residential development that is affecting the entire county.
"The county does have an overall plan. They said just because we have a plan we don't have to follow it," she said. "We should revive and revise the plan. Developers with megamil- lions of dollars are playing one community off another."
Ayers said recent board rul¬ ings have left an appearance of "backdoor deals" being struck.~
"We've seen a number of backdoor deals in the past few months," Ayers said. "The board has a committee that was sup¬ posed to consider the gas tax, but they were called into execu¬ tive session. Then early in a spe¬ cial session, the gas tax was
Photo by Steve Brosinski
Diane Oilman Ayers of Huntley is running as the Democratic candidate ' for the District 6 seat of the McHenry County Board. Her two Republican opponents, both incumbents, are Mary Lou Zierer of Marengo and Ann Oilman of Harvard.
imposed.' Taxes went up ovemight and now we pay 5-6 cents more a gallon than we paid before."
Ayers cited the board's han¬ dling of the Hebron Gravel Pit that led to 4he sale of property from a former board member as another example  of political
maneuvenng.
"County residents, and par¬ ticularly rural residents, are real¬ ly disenfranchised and not being heard. Political decisions are made based on political parti¬ sanship and political access, and not based on the public inter- see Democrat—page 2
Library, village reach compromise on Ruth Road issue
Steve Brosinski
Press Publications
Village and Huntley Area Public Library representa¬ tives agreed to an apparent compromise Monday that ends a conflict over possible improvements to Ruth Road that could havf cost the library an additional $50,000.
The conflict arose when village officials wanted the library to pay for a tum lane in front of the building, which the library opposed.
The agreement also means there will not be any cuts in the library budget that could have led to a cut in services or the purchase of books, Library Board President Michael Fleck said.
"It went very well," Fleck said about the joint meeting with the village. "We came up with a solution that appears to make everybody very happy. We have to make some changes, but the net impact is that it will not impact the budget."
Fleck said the library offered to drop plans to build a second entrance if another entrance could be placed along Main Street in the future. The village is propos¬ ing to someday extend Main Street south past the library.
Library representatives will appear before the Planning Commission on Oct. 12 to present the changes, he said.
In the meantime, Fleck said the search for a new
"It went very
well. We came up
with a solution
that appears to
make everybody
very happy. We
have to make
some changes, but
the net impact is
that it will not
impact the budget"
Michael Fleck
Library Board President
librarian was narrowed from 20 to two finalists.
"We hope to make our selection by the Oct. 14 meeting," he said.
The new librarian could be on board by November to begin preparation of moving out of the current building on Algonquin Road and into a new 15,000-square-foot building on Ruth Road.
"Construction is going fairly well. We are relatively on track," Fleck said.
The $2.4 million stmcture was designed to ntodel much of the current architecture in town. Library officials are hopeful the doors of the new library will be open in late spring 1999.