Busy Saturday Morning

One of the most enjoyable parts of being Mayor is showing up at community events. I went to two today, the first was the installation of a special learning playground being installed at the Early Education Center next to Village School. About 10 months ago Clarice Ornstein (my daughters second grade teacher 7 years ago) mentioned to me how she was looking for $12,500 to purchase the equipment for the playground but did not think she was able to get district funding for it. At the same time the village board was locked in a impasse with the developer of the apartment complex on Fairfield over proper payments, owing to some legal ambiguity. We offered to split the difference with them if the money went to school district 116. Of the $25,000 we were able to steer half of it to this project.

The second event was a play at the Park District called the "The Emperors New Clothes" starring Emily Perkowitz daughter of one our trustees and co-staring Rudy Repa our neighbor. The play was great always fun to see the kids get up and say their parts with various degrees of confidence. I recall two roles in my past in second grade I was the "third turkey" with the line "Cheer up Eva cheer up" and I was the 12th day of Christmas in my senior play in High School. Neither memorable, except for the fact that I have played a turkey!

Groundbreaking for District 46's new school on Townline Road

I was very pleased to be invited to attend the groundbreaking ceremony for District 46's new school building on Townline Road last Monday. When I was the Chairman of the Planning commission we insisted on the land donation by Concord Homes for the community school. The original site was to be for a K-4 facility.

Over time the plans by district 46 changed to make it a K-8 facility. They required more land to make this happen. We explored a land donation with Concord and their Madrona Ridge development in a partnership with the Round Lake Area Park District that ended up sharing land and facilities to bring the total land available to over 13 acres. This package is worth between $1.8 and $2.0 million in free land to the district.

The exciting part for the village is we are going to have two things. The first is a K-8 school near the Concord, Lakewood and Neumann homes development for our kids. Second is we will have a large Park District facility (the school gyms and classrooms) and the playing fields as well. All this is centrally located for our 120 and southwards residents.

So when I shoveled some dirt, with a young man named Nicholas who will attend the school in 2008, I was excited and pleased to see something I had been involved with for 6 years finally coming to fruition. Also in the center of the picture is Sue Facklam President of the 46 school board and to the right is Barb Daudelien President of the Round Lake Area Park District.

The Old Pick & Save at 134 and Fairfield

While rumaging arround in my pictures folder for a picture to publish here to see if I can publish pictures. I came across this picture of the corner on 134 and Fairfield. The Pick and Save supermarket that had been abandoned for 8 years is there. Today the CVS is there with lots of small strip malls and shops and stores on the way.

Dale Multerer and his Health

As many of you know Dale Multerer fell and hit his head on election night and has been in the hospital for the last 20 days, 15 of them in a coma. He is doing much much better and has been moved to a regular room and is up and about although still unable to talk based on all the tubes in his throat. Dale is a friend of mine and an excellent trustee, sadly however he lost the election by 2 votes (he still does not know) owing to a complete breakdown of management at the county clerks office (they double counted one precinct) on election night. They did not determine the actual results until 7 days later.

However the most important thing is that Dale regains his health, and the signs look promising because the first thing he wanted upon regaining consciousness was his cell phone! I also told him he was the perfect trustee at that moment because he could only listen and nod to the mayor and not talk back.

Kidding aside I am so glad he is getting better!

The First Post

Over time I have been thinking about a method to better communicate with Round Lake residents. I am a big believer in the internet and its value as a communication tool. Investigating ways to improve mine and the village's method of feedback, I discovered that there are two other mayors in the United States that blog (according to google.com), the first is the Mayor of Elburn, IL (Mayor Willey) and the Mayor of Reading PA (Mayor Tom McMahon) is another. So perhaps I am the third, I doubt it however. I thought that this venue would allow me the greatest freedom to reach the greatest number of Round Lake residents quickly and efficiently.

So on this blog I am going to try to address issues that are affecting our community and my feelings on various issues in the community and in the area. But as a cavet I want to add that the opinions expressed in this web blog are mine and mine alone, and do not represent official positions of the Village of Round Lake.

Since I have a sense of humor, my guess is I will have some humorous stories as well thrown into the mix, I won't be able to help myself !

If you want to contact me my e-mail address is bgentes@eroundlake.com. Or, leave a message at the Village Hall by calling 847-546-5400.