UPDATE: The McHenry County Coordinated Investment Study is complete!

Through CMAP’s Local Technical Assistance program, the McHenry County Council of Governments and McHenry County are leading an effort to develop a coordinated investment study. The goals of the project are to ensure that McHenry County residents and businesses can enjoy a high level of efficient public services at a low cost by studying ways to streamline intergovernmental cooperation, increase efficiencies, and reduce costs while maintaining and elevating the quality of services.

The project’s goal is to identify strategies for coordinated investment and service provision in light of constrained resources and rising costs. The project will assess current service sharing practices of local governments in McHenry County, analyze new opportunities for sharing services and coordinating transportation-related improvements and maintenance, outline a process for implementing shared service delivery, and build capacity for collaboration to achieve land use and transportation goals. The study will include, but is not limited to, the following topics:

• Shared service delivery;
• Coordinated investment in capital projects;
• Joint procurement;
• Joint contract bidding;
• Consolidated services; and
• Coordination with special districts.

The coordinated investment study will implement ON TO 2050’s recommendations to build local government capacity, use collaborate leadership to address regional challenges, and encourage partnerships and consolidation. Achieving the goal of ensuring capacity to provide a strong quality of life requires significant collaboration at the local level, such as coordinating decisions and investments related to infrastructure operations and maintenance. Improved coordination can speed up the construction and maintenance of infrastructure, reduce the number of times that roadways must be reconstructed, and improve system reliability. Integrating shared service projects across capital plans, as well as future comprehensive, strategic, and operational plans, will maximize the benefits that residents of our seven counties see from public investments, while helping our communities achieve their land use, transportation, and housing goals.

The planning process will consist of several phases to be completed over the course of 18-24 months, with guidance from a project advisory committee made up of McHenry County stakeholders. The beginning phases center on project initiation and background research on existing government services, assets, and procurements in the county. Following phases involve extensive outreach in the form of stakeholder interviews and working groups and a public meeting to gather input from the community. The plan will then compile research findings and public input into a key recommendations memo, followed by creation of a draft coordinated investment study. Lastly, the final phase includes plan review and approval by the advisory committee and McHenry County.

There will be several opportunities for the public to provide input and participate throughout the planning process. The project team will hold public outreach events and open houses at several points during the planning process to highlight recent successes of shared service delivery in McHenry County, solicit community opinions and ideas on future intergovernmental collaboration and shared service activities, and report on the study’s findings and recommendations.

Chalen Daigle, Executive Director, McHenry County Council of Governments (cdaigle@mchenrycountycog.org or 815-788-4390)

Peter Austin, County Administrator, McHenry County (pbaustin@mchenrycountyil.gov or 815-334-4226)

Brian Daly, CMAP Project Manager (bdaly@cmap.illinois.gov or 312-386-8810)