Thursday, April 13, 2006
Of Gay Games' Iceberg and Keeping Agendas Hidden from Crystal Lakers
Although the Gay Games were not mentioned as being interested in using the lake by the Crystal Lake Rowing Club in its $14,900 grant application, Northwestern University, Wheaton College, North Park University and “masters programs that will draw crowds from out of state, therefore adding to the frequency and amount of patrons using Crystal Lake hotels, restaurants, and other businesses.”
(This was the size of the teen event. The Gay Games will be 1,000 meters, a bit more than half of what is show here.)
Not only that, but
"The CLRC’s (rowing club's December 22nd) application for hotel funds includes a long list of future events," Lori Phelps points out, "all except for the Gay Games. No mention of the Gay Games event at any time, even though planning was well under way (see below; click to enlarge).
Part of the early planning included a registration form
designating Crystal Lake as the rowing location. This was being advertised at the Gay Games website at least Feb. 28th and March 1st, before the board approval process even began, before the Park District was even approached with the proposal.
According to Phelps, "Gay Games organizer Ms. Nancy Harris publicly stated at the Village of Lakewood meeting on April 11th that the website registration mentioning 'Crystal Lake' as the location was advertised for, in Harris' exact words, 'only one day.' Yet many individuals found it online on a variety of days as people were directed to it to see for themselves."
In January, 2006, the City Council conducted a workshop to discuss how applicants would use their potential hotel funds. This included a discussion of many other proposed events, such as the 2016 Olympics and others, "all except the Gay Games", Phelps stressed.
Phelps was forced to file an official Freedom of Information request with city hall to extract the grant application document.
"I can only surmise," said Lori Phelps, "that the reason rowing club officials remained quiet about the Gay Games event was to protect their $14,900 request of Crystal Lake's hotel tax subsidy, not wanting to risk losing it in the same manner that the Chicago Gay Games organizers lost their $450,000 request for the State of Illinois’ Bureau of Tourism’s tax subsidy last year."
Phelps points out
Ironically, the rowing club also promotes the following benefit on its grant application:
Well, at least they got that part correct, except the grant application gives no hint that the Gay Games application will be the method of achieving the goal.
Of course, the rowing club knew one of those “larger regattas” would be the mid-summer Gay Games, but they conveniently left this out of the application. (Here is the evidence that the Crystal Lake Rowing Club knew about the Gay Games’ interest in using Crystal Lake the August before the Dec. 22nd grant application was submitted. See Page 4.)
Nevertheless, it appears that most of the $7,000 of Crystal Lake tax dollars given the club (out of the requested $14,900 requested)--money which presumable has already been spent--will be used to subsidize the Gay Games and numerous other regattas about which the lake-using public have no clue.
The Crystal Lake Rowing Club seems to be in the process of leveraging Crystal Lake tax dollars into a series of profitable regattas (see page 6 of the Gay Games minutes below; click to enlarge) on Crystal Lake, the next one being the mid-July Gay Games.
According to an application for Crystal Lake Hotel Tax dollars, filed December 22, 2005, the local rowing club--which achieved tax exempt status just last March 30—sought a $14,900 subsidy, mainly to be spent on re-useable equipment.
As Lakewood Police Chief Lawrence Howell pointed out here, using the lake costs the Crystal Lake Rowing Club nothing.
The money was sought to bring the Greater Chicago Juniors Rowing Championships to Crystal Lake. It is unknown which of the following were purchased with the $7,000 granted.
Here are the spending requests:
Evidence of this is in Gay Games rowing minutes from August 25, 2005, (the link seems to have been taken down from its regular site, but through the magic of Google’s "caching," that is, storing, feature, it is still available here and, for back-up, here’s the page 4 the organizers don’t want you to be able to see.)
Unlike the subsequent Dec. 22nd application for financial assistance for the April high school regatta, the Gay Games committee minutes from Nov. 18th say
The Crystal Lake City Council grant may help explain the reason for its lop-sided a vote in favor of the Gay Games last week. Once a government invests money in a project—in this case agreeing to make Crystal Lake the high school rowing regatta with its application's promise to make Crystal Lake a major regatta center for the Midwest—it seldom admits to making a mistake. And, voting against the Gay Games might have been considered such a mistake.
Indeed, as Lori Phelps points out,
After the Gay Games were announced, Mayor Shepley talked to the Northwest Herald for a Feb. 22nd article. It reported:
"According to City Council minutes, the hotel tax subsidy was awarded to Walt Gary on February 7th," Lori Phelps points out. "Within one week, Mr. Gary (president of the Crystal Lake Rowing Club) was announcing his intentions to host the Gay Games event by approaching the Park District to begin the board approval process. It would appear that this was the first time Mr. Gary let this information be known, though planning had begun 6 months prior."
"In my opinion, this timeline would indicate that Mr. Walt Gary deliberately and intentionally withheld his knowledge from the public and media of the planned Gay Games event until he was guaranteed of the city hotel tax subsidy. Legal, yes…ethical, NO."
"I would really like to stress that due to their (CLRC) keeping this a secret until the last minute," Phelps continued, "the controversy turned into a circus, the very circus they now condemn."
"Certainly the City of Chicago had more time to deal with the idea/proposal...and to learn that the secret was undoubtedly due to their not wanting to damage their chance at being awarded the City's financial subsidy is very troubling and an insult to the decent people of our community who pay taxes and support our municipalities/businesses on a daily basis."
Crystal Lake Park District Board Member Scott Breeden (not a member of the ruling faction) said he knew nothing about the Gay Games approach to the park district until he read it in the Northwest Herald on February 22nd. (Here is McHenry County Blog's Feb. 21st story.)
The club’s application said that there would be 65-100 overnight visitors for the high school regatta. It estimated 650+ spectators would attend one place and 400+ another, plus 320 participants.
There is no information about how many stayed in hotel rooms, but a park district official estimated about 1,100 people attended Sunday to see the end of the 1900 meter races.
The application said that Sunday’s event would cost $16,100, of which the $14,900 would have paid for about 93%.
Cost to the city was estimated to be “nil,” although two firemen were at the beach.
The club predicts it will become self-sustaining “though income derived from the event,” although future needs listed include $6,000 worth for launches, $5,000 for docks, plus $20,000 for “a better buoyed race course.”
To return to McHenry County Blog, click here.
(This was the size of the teen event. The Gay Games will be 1,000 meters, a bit more than half of what is show here.)
Not only that, but
The potential exists for Crystal Lake to be the 2016 Olympic Rowing, Flatwater Kayaking and Racing Canoe venue, if Chicago were to be selected to host those Olympics…Crystal Lake is the only body of water within three hours of Chicago that has the potential for hosting all of the(m).The following question has been emailed the local rowing group:
Why didn't the CLRC include the Gay Games regatta as a possible future regatta in its application for a Crystal Lake hotel tax grant?No reply has been received received after more than a day.
"The CLRC’s (rowing club's December 22nd) application for hotel funds includes a long list of future events," Lori Phelps points out, "all except for the Gay Games. No mention of the Gay Games event at any time, even though planning was well under way (see below; click to enlarge).
Part of the early planning included a registration form
designating Crystal Lake as the rowing location. This was being advertised at the Gay Games website at least Feb. 28th and March 1st, before the board approval process even began, before the Park District was even approached with the proposal. According to Phelps, "Gay Games organizer Ms. Nancy Harris publicly stated at the Village of Lakewood meeting on April 11th that the website registration mentioning 'Crystal Lake' as the location was advertised for, in Harris' exact words, 'only one day.' Yet many individuals found it online on a variety of days as people were directed to it to see for themselves."
In January, 2006, the City Council conducted a workshop to discuss how applicants would use their potential hotel funds. This included a discussion of many other proposed events, such as the 2016 Olympics and others, "all except the Gay Games", Phelps stressed.
Phelps was forced to file an official Freedom of Information request with city hall to extract the grant application document.
"I can only surmise," said Lori Phelps, "that the reason rowing club officials remained quiet about the Gay Games event was to protect their $14,900 request of Crystal Lake's hotel tax subsidy, not wanting to risk losing it in the same manner that the Chicago Gay Games organizers lost their $450,000 request for the State of Illinois’ Bureau of Tourism’s tax subsidy last year."
Phelps points out
One of the opponents of the State’s subsidy is State(While the Gay Games have been denied a state grant for this fiscal year, which runs through the end of June, the adminstration of Governor Rod Blagojevich has encouraged them to apply for the money again for the fiscal year that starts two weeks before the Gay Games take place.)Representative Mike Tryon, who just happens to represent the very same Crystal Lake that would be hosting the Gay Games rowing event. Tryon wrote the Governor to state that tax dollars should not be spent to promote any sexuality lifestyle.
Ironically, the rowing club also promotes the following benefit on its grant application:
National awareness for the Crystal Lake area.
Well, at least they got that part correct, except the grant application gives no hint that the Gay Games application will be the method of achieving the goal.Of course, the rowing club knew one of those “larger regattas” would be the mid-summer Gay Games, but they conveniently left this out of the application. (Here is the evidence that the Crystal Lake Rowing Club knew about the Gay Games’ interest in using Crystal Lake the August before the Dec. 22nd grant application was submitted. See Page 4.)
Nevertheless, it appears that most of the $7,000 of Crystal Lake tax dollars given the club (out of the requested $14,900 requested)--money which presumable has already been spent--will be used to subsidize the Gay Games and numerous other regattas about which the lake-using public have no clue.
The Crystal Lake Rowing Club seems to be in the process of leveraging Crystal Lake tax dollars into a series of profitable regattas (see page 6 of the Gay Games minutes below; click to enlarge) on Crystal Lake, the next one being the mid-July Gay Games.
According to an application for Crystal Lake Hotel Tax dollars, filed December 22, 2005, the local rowing club--which achieved tax exempt status just last March 30—sought a $14,900 subsidy, mainly to be spent on re-useable equipment.As Lakewood Police Chief Lawrence Howell pointed out here, using the lake costs the Crystal Lake Rowing Club nothing.
The money was sought to bring the Greater Chicago Juniors Rowing Championships to Crystal Lake. It is unknown which of the following were purchased with the $7,000 granted.
Here are the spending requests:
$6,000 for “a powerboat that produces little wake”All but the two $800 expenditures seem to also be destined for use by the Gay Games.
$5,000 for materials to build “an additional low-clearance floating dock”
$1,800 for “a 10hp motor for the launch”
$500 for a “six-lane wide set of buoys”
$800 for “traveling trophies”
$800 for “referees”
Evidence of this is in Gay Games rowing minutes from August 25, 2005, (the link seems to have been taken down from its regular site, but through the magic of Google’s "caching," that is, storing, feature, it is still available here and, for back-up, here’s the page 4 the organizers don’t want you to be able to see.)
Existing docks, boats, and floating barges could be used for handheld starts, and obtaining funds for buoys appears feasible since it would benefit the local community going forward.The part about the Gay Games not having to pay for the docks, barges and buoys seems to have been learned at a November 18th meeting with the Crystal Lake Rowing Club at the Main Beach. It appears that the August 25th reservation about “the major drawback” of being so far from Chicago and, therefore, “would have limited exposure” has been eliminated by the recent controversy.
Unlike the subsequent Dec. 22nd application for financial assistance for the April high school regatta, the Gay Games committee minutes from Nov. 18th say
the Crystal Lake Rowing Club sees the Chicago Games Regatta as the perfect opportunity to showcase their venue.Not exactly the chain of events that rowing club leaders presented to the public.
The Crystal Lake City Council grant may help explain the reason for its lop-sided a vote in favor of the Gay Games last week. Once a government invests money in a project—in this case agreeing to make Crystal Lake the high school rowing regatta with its application's promise to make Crystal Lake a major regatta center for the Midwest—it seldom admits to making a mistake. And, voting against the Gay Games might have been considered such a mistake.
Indeed, as Lori Phelps points out,
Hinting, but not revealing, what Mayor Shepley might have known in early February is this quote from the February 9th Northwest Herald:"On April 4th, City Councilwoman Cathy Ferguson stated that she was voting to support the Gay Games event because it was in line with CLRC’s request to use hotel tax funds to generate even more events."
“We’re intrigued by the possibilities” that the teenage rowing “contest could lead to other events on the lake.”Thirteen days before the Northwest Herald ran the third story (the first was in the Tribune, the second in McHenry County Blog) on the Gay Games regatta wanting to come to Crystal Lake, Mayor Shepley gave no indication of knowing anything about the Gay Games wanting to come to Crystal Lake.
After the Gay Games were announced, Mayor Shepley talked to the Northwest Herald for a Feb. 22nd article. It reported:
"The news of the proposal came as a surprise to Crystal Lake Mayor Aaron Shepley, who said Tuesday that he had not heard about the Gay Games’ intentions to use the lake."Lori Phelps puts it this way,
Shepley was in the same workshop meeting only a month earlier when Walt Gary spoke about his plans for future events, all events - except for the Gay Games, the very event that would be, in Gary’s words, “the perfect opportunity to showcase CLRC’s venue."So, what does this mean?
"According to City Council minutes, the hotel tax subsidy was awarded to Walt Gary on February 7th," Lori Phelps points out. "Within one week, Mr. Gary (president of the Crystal Lake Rowing Club) was announcing his intentions to host the Gay Games event by approaching the Park District to begin the board approval process. It would appear that this was the first time Mr. Gary let this information be known, though planning had begun 6 months prior."
"In my opinion, this timeline would indicate that Mr. Walt Gary deliberately and intentionally withheld his knowledge from the public and media of the planned Gay Games event until he was guaranteed of the city hotel tax subsidy. Legal, yes…ethical, NO."
"I would really like to stress that due to their (CLRC) keeping this a secret until the last minute," Phelps continued, "the controversy turned into a circus, the very circus they now condemn."
"Certainly the City of Chicago had more time to deal with the idea/proposal...and to learn that the secret was undoubtedly due to their not wanting to damage their chance at being awarded the City's financial subsidy is very troubling and an insult to the decent people of our community who pay taxes and support our municipalities/businesses on a daily basis."
Crystal Lake Park District Board Member Scott Breeden (not a member of the ruling faction) said he knew nothing about the Gay Games approach to the park district until he read it in the Northwest Herald on February 22nd. (Here is McHenry County Blog's Feb. 21st story.)
The club’s application said that there would be 65-100 overnight visitors for the high school regatta. It estimated 650+ spectators would attend one place and 400+ another, plus 320 participants.
There is no information about how many stayed in hotel rooms, but a park district official estimated about 1,100 people attended Sunday to see the end of the 1900 meter races.
The application said that Sunday’s event would cost $16,100, of which the $14,900 would have paid for about 93%.
Cost to the city was estimated to be “nil,” although two firemen were at the beach.
The club predicts it will become self-sustaining “though income derived from the event,” although future needs listed include $6,000 worth for launches, $5,000 for docks, plus $20,000 for “a better buoyed race course.”
To return to McHenry County Blog, click here.
# posted by Cal Skinner : 7:58 AM
