McHenry Mayor Wayne Jett considered, then rejected, the idea of putting an ordinance on a future McHenry City Council agenda regarding donations to the city and signs recognizing the donations.

“There are more important things in the city to get done than [things] like this,” Jett said.

The discussion of donations and signs came up over the weekend. Jett posted to Facebook a letter from 4th Ward Alderwoman Chris Bassi, in which she expressed concern that boards at the Miller Point Park ice rink are in fact advertisements for donors who paid to get it installed. The question was based on a resident complaint, according to Bassi’s letter.

Jett said he received Bassi’s letter Saturday morning.

Bassi’s letter reads, in part: “There is an important distinction between donations and sponsorship, and advertising businesses in a city-owned park in exchange for funding is sponsorship. These signs are, to my understanding, a violation of city ordinances. Not only do the advertising signs hinder the public’s ability to enjoy public spaces without being marketed to, they also provide those businesses an unfair advantage.

“These advertising signs are visible from outside of the ice rink structure.”

Her letter included the city ordinances that she said were violated and questions she had regarding approval of those sponsors and the signage.

Funds for the Miller Point ice rink – just less than $80,000 for the purchase and $10,000 for installation – were raised over the course of two weeks in late 2023 via Jett’s RISE Up Foundation.

Between Nov. 13 and Nov. 22 of that year, the foundation secured $67,000 in donations for the 40-foot-by-60-foot ice rink, Jett said at the time. The manufacturer installed the rink while the final funds were secured, Jett said.

All signage noting those donors is inside the rink, McHenry Parks and Recreation Director Bill Hobson said. The signs include the names of individual and family donors who helped fund its purchase, as well as the businesses that helped.

Erecting the rink every season costs McHenry about $6,000, as the city contracts with the manufacturer to put it up, Hobson said. City staff take it down in the spring – usually about two weeks before the ShamROCKS the Fox St. Patrick’s Day festival.

Jett said he’s working to find donors – via RISE Up – who will fund that annual cost.

“I have the relationships to do that,” Jett said.

Bassi’s letter asked who approved “the sponsor’s advertising signs for display in a city-owned park” and why, and if the terms of the sponsorships were approved “by Mayor Wayne Jett or RISE Up Foundation President Wayne Jett?”

In a text to the Northwest Herald, Bassi said a resident in her ward “was downtown earlier in the week and was upset about the advertising, so I looked into it.”

In her letter to Jett, Bassi referenced the agreement between the city and Nielsen Enterprises to place personal watercraft docks west of the Riverwalk bridge over the summer. That agreement included signage noting Nielsen sponsored the docks.

That agreement is different because it was not a donation to the city but a user agreement with the provider, Hobson said.

“[The docks] are still Nielsen’s property,” he said. “At any point, either side could end the agreement, and Nielsen could come pick up the ramps.”

Many features in Miller Point Park and the Riverwalk have been funded by donations and include signage recognizing those donations, Hobson said. Those donations or the signs noting the donations have never gone to the City Council for approvals before, he added.

Funds for the spray pad and the pedestrian bridge were both donated by the Cunat family, the new amphitheater was donated by retired car dealership owner Gary Lang, and the fire globes all have the names of families or businesses that paid for their installation, Hobson said.

The amphitheater donation often is included in the donations that RISE Up has made – via the McHenry Music Festival – to city parks. The Lang donation was rolled into the RISE Up donation for that park’s reconstruction.

When asked about other donor signage at the park, Bassi said via text message that “the complaint was about the large, noticeable signs on the ice rink.”

Miller Point Park falls into 1st Ward Alderwoman Bobbi Baehne’s district.

“There are signs all over McHenry acknowledging the people who make it a better place to live, work and play,” Baehne said. “These are temporary signs that are part of the ice rink and are absolutely appropriate to me.”

The ice rink was put up for the season last week, but it’s not yet open for skating, as its chiller system builds ice a layer at a time. Hobson hopes the ice will be ready for skaters by Thanksgiving weekend.