Environs focus of new county panel

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WOODSTOCK – The McHenry County Board’s new Natural and Environmental Resources Committee came to an important realization at its inaugural meeting Monday morning.

Mondays aren’t good for its seven members – only three attended. Although it did not have a quorum, its members spent about an hour hearing about county environmental programs that will be its responsibility.

The second realization that Chairwoman Mary McCann had was that a lot of the committee’s work was going to be getting county governments to communicate and cooperate.

Preserving the county’s resources, especially groundwater, will require agreement and consensus from the county’s numerous governments, she said.

“I think we got an overview of the different areas, and I think the people got a pretty good idea of what the challenges are going to be,” said McCann, R-Woodstock. “The challenges – 60 to 70 percent of this committee’s work – is going to be building intergovernmental relations.”

McCann, who owns McCann Berry Farm outside of Woodstock, is a former McHenry County Conservation District board member, and worked as a liaison to McHenry and Lake counties for the Metropolitan Planning Council.

The environment committee will henceforth meet at 8:30 a.m. on the second and fourth Friday of each month at the county administration building, 667 Ware Road, Woodstock.

Committee assignments for the newly-seated County Board were finalized last week.

Issues such as groundwater and stormwater management have been reassigned from other committees to the new one created by County Board Chairman Ken Koehler, R-Crystal Lake, as have the county’s fledgling efforts to implement a groundwater conservation plan and promote an energy – and resource-efficient county government.

Water Resource Coordinator Cassandra McKinney told the committee about ongoing efforts to preserve groundwater and better map its availability. The county has finished the first year of a three-year project with the Illinois State Geological Survey to map the county’s aquifers, and has finished a countywide network of observation wells with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Two other County Board committees also changed their meeting schedules. The Human Resources Committee now will meet at 8:15 a.m. on the second Monday of every month, and the Public Health and Human Services Committee will begin meeting at 8:15 a.m. on the third Monday of the month, starting in March.

Both committees decided to meet once a month instead of twice.