The McHenry City Council has formalized its agreement with the RISE Up Foundation for operating the Miller Point Park ice rink that the foundation paid for with help from donors.

A licensing agreement gives the foundation – operated by Mayor Wayne Jett and his wife Amber Jett – control over any advertising placed on the rink’s boards, recognizing those who helped pay to purchase it and fund putting it up each season. The agreement was approved recently on a 6-1 vote.

Alderwoman Chris Bassi, 4th Ward, was the lone no vote. The agreement was brought to the council due to a previous concern Bassi raised about the rink’s advertising.

[ Extensive damage by vandals, warmer temps have McHenry rethinking ice rinks ]

In a letter sent to Jett in November, Bassi voiced concern about having advertisements on the rink. At a Council meeting a few days later, Jett dismissed the idea of putting an ordinance regarding donations and signage for city parks on a future agenda.

McHenry City Attorney David McArdle said he wrote the new licensing agreement “after Chris [Bassi] brought it up.” Having the agreement is “dotting I’s and crossing T’s,” McArdle said.

The ice rink has been put up each winter season since late 2023. That November, Jett had posted on his Facebook page, seeking donors to put a small ice rink in at the recently completed Miller Point Park.

Jett ran those donations through the RISE Up Foundation, the nonprofit created to operate the McHenry Music Festival. The $85,000 ice rink, including a freezing system and boards, was installed a few weeks after that first post. The rink is taken down before the annual ShamROCKS the Fox St. Patrick’s Day festival.

The new license gives the RISE Up Foundation rights to install the rink at Miller Point Park for the winter season and recognizes there is a cost for installation, maintenance and taking down the rink. Those costs, and who pays for what, “shall be established annual by a separate ... agreement between Licensee and the City Administrator,” according to its text.

The agreement also recognizes that donors help pay for its purchase and ongoing operations.

“Licensee shall have the right to place the names, logos or other identifying marks of its donors or sponsors on the perimeter boards of the Ice rink installed on the Premises,” according to the agreement. “The City shall have no editorial control over the content of donor recognition displayed on the Ice Rink boards.”

In her vote against the agreement, Bassi said she was concerned about the clause that put final decisions between the city administrator and the licensee, Jett.

“The administrator reports to the mayor on a daily basis,“ Bassi said, causing what she called a ”power issue” between the two. She would be more comfortable if costs and who is responsible were spelled out in the agreement, Bassi said.

City Administrator Suzanne Ostrovsky said her authority to approve expenditures goes up to $20,000. By keeping those spending decisions between her office and the licensee, it prevents things from having to come back to the council for routine approvals, she added.

The city did pay an emergency repair bill, for $1,900, after a pump failed in March 2025. The foundation will be repaying the city for that expenditure, Jett said.

At some point, he will sign the rink over the the city – probably when RISE Up discontinues the concerts.

“We do not know if we will do a show in 2027,” Jett said.