An immediate issue for Tina Hill, new County Board chairwoman, is working with the state’s attorney on the moratorium of a McHenry County ordinance prohibiting big trucks to be driven at night.
The moratorium would put local companies back to work on the Interstate 90 tollway in Huntley. Bids are invited for contracts for gravel and other necessary products. If these trucks are not allowed to deliver and transport at night, the companies will not be selected.
Hill’s father was John Licastro, assistant attorney general for the county for many years. He practiced law more than 30 years, 14 years on the Woodstock Square.
Hill graduated from McHenry West High School in 1978. She attended Western Illinois University in Macomb two years and graduated from the University of Illinois-Chicago in 1982 with bachelor of science degree in political science. She married her high school sweetheart, Alan, in 1980.
Their four children are Keith, 30, who works at Abbott in supply chain management; Garret, 27, communications analyst for the Illinois House of Representatives; Casey, 22, who works at Jewel and Woodstock North High School; and Alina, 20, a student at the Art Institute of Chicago culinary program.
Hill’s background includes legal secretary with Narusis & Narusis and Bill Hubbard, Jr.; legislative assistant to state Representatives Ann Hughes, Mike Brown and Mike Tryon; substitute teacher, campaign manager for states attorney Gary Pack and candidate Rosemary Kurtz; and as a pastoral care chaplain. She was liaison to the Youth Council and worked with Metra and Union Pacific Railroad to add and improve weather shelters at the Woodstock train station.
Hill was elected to the County Board in 2002 and assumed leadership as chairwoman for Management Services in 2004. She became chairwoman for Planning and Development and led the board through the 2030 Land Use Plan.
For the past eight months, Hill has been working on the zoning ordinance to match the 2030 Land Use Plan called the Unified Development Ordinance. Hill has earned the trust and respect of her colleagues.
As County Board chairwoman, she is confident she will protect the county’s agricultural resources while leading the future of our growing urbanized county. She said the environmental and agriculture versus the business community is an ongoing battle that needs to be balanced.
She is the third woman to be County Board chairwoman (Ann Hughes and Diane Klemm).
Other issues include rewriting the storm water ordinance to make it less regulatory, space needs in the administration building, the future of Annex A building that houses the Department of Health and Parole Division, renewal of the jail contract for federal prisoners and the possibility of having traffic courts in Huntley, Algonquin and Crystal Lake.
Don Peasley has been editor, columnist and historian in McHenry County since October 1947. He began his association with Shaw Publications in 1950.
