Monday, May 11, 2015

Another Open Letter to the Grant Township Assessor

We received another open letter to the Grant Township Assessor:
Assessor Barr,
Almost 12 years ago in July 2003 I bought 3 Wooster Lake properties in the Village of Fox Lake.
05-23-100-026
05-23-100-027
05-23-100-034

When I bought, I bought into lake restrictions which were since January 2003 recorded in recording 5094179. As you know and can plainly see, the 5094179 recording is an official recording at the Lake County Recorder of Deeds Office, a Declaration that Cambridge at Holiday Park HOA not only says I am legally bound to but one which the HOA relied on in recent law suits they filed against me. The judge unfortunately did not provide a Declaratory Judgment towards 5094179 or its restrictions in either of these cases. To this day the HOA contends I am legally bound to this Declaration, sending me a bill as recently as February 2015.

**** See pages 33-34, 46 of 5094179 recorded at Lake County Recorder of Deeds Office listing and claiming my above PINs are part of the Cambridge development and also as part of the Wooster Lake Conservation & Control Association. See pages 5, 7-9, 35-47 about the lake properties' restrictions.****

After buying my lake properties I had growing concerns about this recording that are still not fixed today and that is the problem. When States Attorney Nerheim was elected, I met with him in Waukegan in 2013. Nerheim said his Office and every other Office were by law not capable of nullifying anything in 5094179 because it is an official recording active with the Lake County Recorder of Deeds Office. Nerheim said "only a judge with a Declaratory Judgment" could nullify the recording. Now 2 years later I see your Office is off acting as if it is nullifying these recorded restrictions and is supposedly changing the lake to not restricted after all these years being restricted, per the recordings and per the Assessor's Office.

I want you to immediately provide me with a copy of the Declaratory Judgment that issues a judge's opinion of the recording 5094179, a Declaratory Judgment that supposedly gives you the power to have changed my lake properties.

Eye On Lake County,
Can you post my response to Assessor Barr?

Don Rowden
As far as I can tell, this owner has properties on Wooster Lake. At issue is whether or not Wooster Lake is bound to boating restrictions. The homeowner is charging the Grant Township Assessor with valuing his properties against comparable homes on unrestricted lakes. Apparently these homes are assessed at higher values, when compared to homes on restricted lakes.

Wooster Lake had for many years been used as a restricted lake. Furthermore, there is a quasi-legal document filed by a Wooster Lake home-owner's-association with the Recorder of Deeds that purports to establish this.

Since, from a legal perspective, Wooster seems to be a restricted lake, the homeowner objects to the Grant Township Assessor valuing his property against other (higher valued) properties on unrestricted lakes. And he wants the Grant Township Assessor to produce a legal authority as a justification.

I'm going to admit that I understand very little about the guidelines that control how our homes get assessed. And I understand even less about how and under whose authority our inland lakes become restricted. But Wooster Lake just seems to demonstrate to me that there is a lot of arbitrariness baked into both processes.

3 comments:

Just another Illinois Chumbolone e said...

Here's how logic and math works at the Grant Assessor office. Like selling a ham in a synogogue they'll try to convince you 2 = 1. Here's how:

Assume a = b both non-zero
a2 = ab multiply by a
a2-b2 = ab-b2 subtract b2
(a+b)(a-b) = b(a-b) factor
(a+b) = b divide (a-b)
(b+b) = b since a = b to begin with
2b = b combine like terms
2 = 1 divide by b

Voila!

Anonymous said...

This politician is ironically but par for the course trying to lie her way out of her Office's lie that's been in place for so many years. Just keep lying, that's the politicians' way in Grant Township, Lake County.

How convenient for the Assessor to "change" the private lake status without having to enter a court room: where people must testify to tell the truth and answer tough questions from a judge. Where lying politicians fear to tread.

This crook will do anything to stay out of a court room.







Anonymous said...

The best defense against a lie is knowledge....and sometimes some common sense.

Grant Assessor Barr purports the small claims ruling from 2014 legally overturned the historical lake restrictions. That's her latest story.

If she wasn't lying, all the recordings of Wooster Lake restrictions at the Lake County Recorder's Office - the official documents of record - would have been rescinded from that Office.

#5094179 isn't the only Declaration with Wooster restrictions still recorded at the Recorder Office. #6145674 is another Declaration claiming Wooster Lake restrictions. #6924234 is another Declaration claiming Wooster Lake restrictions. #4770860 is a village ordinance mandating Wooster Lake restrictions. All these recordings of Wooster Lake restrictions are today still advertised at and from the Lake County Recorder's Office. Today.

FOIA for your copies today and see for yourself the Wooster Lake restrictions still of record, encumbering all the lake properties.

The liar in public office is simply lying again to dodge a court room!