Crystal Lake residents line up for annual vehicle stickers

A line started to form at Crystal Lake City Hall the morning of June 1, all people waiting to buy their annual vehicle stickers.

Adrienne McCauley-MacInnes had her children waiting in the car, ready to go swimming at Three Oaks Recreation Area’s beach. She stopped at City Hall first because with the city sticker parking at the beach is free and her stickers expired that morning.

For those who do not live in Crystal Lake, or who do not pay for the $10 per-car sticker, parking at Three Oaks is $5 a day.

The perk seems to work for Crystal Lake. The city makes a net profit of $100,000 to $120,000 each year off its vehicle sticker program, Director of Finance Jodie Hartman said. The profit goes to street maintenance via the city’s road/vehicle license fund.

“When they get the added benefit of the Three Oaks parking it is more motivational to follow the law,” she said.

Crystal Lake pays a vendor $40,000 each year to operate the vehicle sticker program, including sending the reminders and stickers to residents, Hartman said.

It also is one of the few McHenry County towns that has continued the oft-derided vehicle sticker program.

“When they get the added benefit of the Three Oaks parking it is more motivational to follow the law,”

—  Crystal Lake Director of Finance Jodie Hartman

McHenry used to have a vehicle sticker program, but did away with it as of March 18, 2019. According to a Northwest Herald story at the time, it generated a net revenue of $127,783 the previous year, on a $24,000 operational cost, and had a 71% compliance rate.

Woodstock never has had a vehicle sticker program, City Manager Roscoe Stelford wrote in an email. “We have discussed them a couple of times over the last twenty years, but there has been no effort to move forward,” Stelford wrote.

Huntley got rid of its vehicle stickers “over 20 years ago,” Village Manager David Johnson said.

Among the county’s smaller towns, Richmond decided to end the sticker program in March, Mayor Toni Wardanian said.

Richmond was printing the stickers itself and sending out reminders to residents, but never got great compliance, Wardanian said.

Because police, at least in Richmond, would not ticket cars in their own driveways, the only place police could enforce the program was for those living in rental units, she added. “That is pretty unfair.”

The Village Board “tinkered with” the cost to make the program more worthwhile, but “it was not working. If we got 100% compliance it would have worked, but we were spending more money trying to get compliance for a program people actually hated,” Wardanian said.

Harvard has a vehicle sticker program, but only for its downtown parking lots, said City Manager Lou Leone.

“For employees of the businesses, it’s free. For overnight parking/apartment residents, it’s $45 a month,” Leone wrote in an email.

“Parking is limited in the downtown areas and the goal of limiting to keep the downtown accessible for patrons,” by requiring the stickers, he added.

In Crystal Lake, compliance comes with a carrot – free parking at Three Oaks.

Last year, the city netted $123,000 from parking fees at Three Oaks. “That is all non residents” paying the fee, Hartman said.

Stragglers – and the city knows who they are because its vendor tracks cars registered there – are “subject to fines and penalties” if bought after July 15.

Although residents do line up at City Hall on the first day to buy their stickers, they don’t have to. Residents can buy them online through the city website, or by sending a check to City Hall with the printable registration form, also found online.

Amy Mengler picked up three vehicle stickers on that Thursday morning – including one for the new sports car she bought for her 73rd birthday.

“I like getting it for the beach,” she said of the vehicle stickers, adding she would rather pick it up in person than pay an online convenience fee. “The $10 is not much and it goes to the roads. It is all part of helping your community.”

Some of those residents who just paid the fee and got the sticker said they were happy to do so.

Jim Hayes, 82, pays only $1 a year for the sticker on the one family car because he’s a senior citizen.