McHenry County EDC - McHenry County, IL - Strategically Located in the Center of the Business Triangle Between Chicago, Milwaukee & Rockford

September Successes

REMINDER - ONLY WEEKS AWAY!  Register today for our Annual Dinner on October 11th.    Keynote speaker is the senior VP of The Boeing Company, Rick Stephens!  Click here to register!  

Fifteen buses, 9 high schools and 844 students later, we can say, based on student and teacher responses and thank you notes, that the MCEDC effort to bring our McHenry County high school students to the Illinois Technology Manufacturing Show in Chicago was a success. 

Our goal was to create an understanding of the importance of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education and to create an appetite for manufacturing careers.  Many wrote that they now how an interest in manufacturing, commented on the high tech machines and the variety of products created. 

To set the stage for the day, MCEDC created a video which was shown on the buses as they traveled to Chicago.  The video, is on our website (click here) featured Doug Oberhelman, CEO of Caterpillar, and showcased some of our manufacturers. 

Thanks to our partners for supporting this effort financially - Scot Forge, Sage Products & Wells Manufacturing.  We appreciate the access provided to us by our video partners -  Astro Craft, Inc., Chirch Global Manufacturing, LLC, Chroma Corporation, Corporate Disk Company, Knaack Manufacturing, PEP Wauconda Tool, Sage Products, Scot Forge, and WM Plastics, Inc.    We also want to thank JA Frate & Scot Forge for mentoring students on the buses.

The Algonquin Western Bypass Groundbreaking took place on September 17th, 2012 with over 100 leaders in attendance.

This was the founding project of the MCEDC 21 years ago.  It took perseverance, collaboration, cooperation and the efforts of many, many people to bring it to fruition.

Gary Overbay, MCEDC Chairman of the Board, welcomed everyone and provided history of the project. Senator Dick Durbin, Congressman Don Manzullo, Senator Pam Althoff, Village of Algonquin President John Schmitt, County Board Chairman Ken Koehler and IDOT Secretary Ann Schneider spoke at the event. The late Bill Dwyer, MCEDC Transportation Committee member and leader of the McHenry County Road Warriors was remembered and recognized for his leadership.  His widow, Joyce Dwyer was introduced and participated in the groundbreaking.  To see a video of the event, please click here. 

Another infrastructure project which MCEDC has been spearheading relates to broadband and connectivity.  The Illinois Century Network received a $96 million grant under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to bring high speed fiber to Illinois' Community Colleges.  The original route submitted for McHenry County College proved to not be viable.  In January 2012, the ICN group met with representatives from MCEDC, McHenry County government, municipalities, and MCC to discuss alternative routes.  During the next few months, there were many additional meetings, emails, conference calls and efforts to ensure that the route to MCC would be included in the project.   

On Tuesday, September 11, we received a call confirming that an amended route has been approved and the project will move into the construction division to schedule construction of the route.   This is great news for MCC and McHenry County.  On September 27th, the  Broadband Group will meet again to discuss additional opportunities this fiber route presents for increased speed, redundancy, disaster recovery operations, etc.
The ICN representatives are extremely pleased that McHenry County is thinking about additional function, benefits and opportunities this project will present, which was the basis for this grant from the beginning.  Success again because of cooperation, collaboration and consistency of direction.

Be on the lookout for the 2012 Economic Census forms from the U.S. Census Bureau.  Selected companies will receive forms in October, but most will get them in December.  Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke has called this census "indispensable to understanding America's economy." Taken every five years, the Economic Census "assures the accuracy of the statistics we rely on for sound economic policy and for successful business planning," said Bernanke. 

PLEASE REGISTER AS SOON AS POSSIBLE FOR THE OCTOBER 11TH ANNUAL DINNER - Deadline OCTOBER 2nd, 2012 - Call -  815.893.0895