A Missed Friend-- Bob Rolek

The Round Lake Area Park District renamed its community center after its first executive director Bob Rolek today. The ceremony was attended by hundreds of local, state and county dignitaries and most importantly by Bob's family. Bob was a wonderful friend to me over my first term in office and his sudden death a few short months ago has saddened me and has also been a great loss to the village. I spoke very briefly today and could barely finish what I was saying at that. I was not the only one, tears and laughter were plentiful as we all told "Bob" stories. Goodbye my friend!

CMAQ Grant and the Long Lake Station

Yesterday's passage of the large federal transportation bill should be bringing a few million dollars to the Village of Round Lake. We applied for a CMAQ grant (the Congestion mitigation Air Quality grant) two years ago in a partnership with Lake County, Grant Township and Metra. Unfortunately the first go round of the request for funding Metra decided at the last minute not to include this project in the funding (conveniently forgetting to tell myself and Lake County Board Member Bonnie Thompson Carter until after the submittal date infuriating the two of us!). The second go round was much more successful after Bonnie and I "encouraged" Metra to prioritize the project.

The thinking and basic facts behind the application for the grant was as follows:

1. The Long Lake Metra Station (number 2 on the map above) has roughly 40 parking spots, and residents were complaining about cars being parked on the grass(number 3 on the map above) and illegally along Long Lake Drive.
2. The intersection of Long Lake Drive and 134 (number 4 on the map above) is very dangerous, in fact a few years ago thier was a fatality there.
3. Valley Lakes Neighborhood 13 was located across the street (number 1 on the map above). This was a single family neighborhood platted for 28 homes in the Valley Lakes PUD.

The concept we came up with was for Metra to purchase neighborhood 13 from Pritzer (Valley Lakes Development company owners) and create a parking lot for the station across the street from the station, replacing the 28 homes scheduled to be built at some point on the site. In addtioin the station would be remodeled and improved on. There would be a spot where we could have some small retail for the station as well. In attain the intersection would also get a traffic signal to facilitate people crossing the street from the parking lot safely.

From the village's perspective this is a nice concept which provides us with some positives.

• A reduction of 28 houses.
• Increased parking for Metra inside the village limits, and the revenue for that parking.
• A path from Valley Lakes to the station for any residents who commute via Metra.
• A traffic signal improving traffic flow all along the 134 corridor from Wilson into our downtown.
• Added retail for the area and our bottomline.

Over the next few days we will get a better handle on the status of the funding and the possibility of making the project a reality. Numerous things hinge on the varibles out of our control, these varibles were made increasingly diffucult by missing the first go round of CMAQ funding last year.

A little less then 3 years ago--- We won a race on Long Lake. Today we broke that streak!

Owing to my exceptional crewing skills and my superb coaching of my highly erratic skipper, we were able to beat the fleet across the line in just under 45 minutes over 3.5 laps of Long Lake today. Regular readers of this blog will know that we have been close a few times this year with two seconds and a third, but today we got a good start, and led at every mark over the course.

A Day at the Pool

Today is the Conference Championship for the North Suburban Swim Conference which is being hosted at the Round Lake pool. My daughter has been swimming on the Round Lake team called the Ducks for over 5 years. I am volunteering to be a timer and to sell pizza. Plus at some point I want to see my daughter swim in her races!

Then right after the meet I am hustling "hopefully" down to a gathering of the Lake County Mayors with the McHenry County Mayors in Lake Zurich.

From the Mayors Bedside Table-- A Great Book!

About four months ago I saw a book mentioned on my Mayoral colleague's blog Mayor Wiley of Elburn. I finally waded through the many books and magazines that I read on a regular basis and read the book entitled Newcomers to Old Towns. While the book focuses on communities that are more rural then we are or were, there are some excellent and thought provoking ideas and parallels to Round Lake. Specifically the changes that the village has been under going in the last few years. Its a good read for elected officials, and wonks who love public policy, I fall into both categories.

Downtown Development Summit

Today the village hosted developers interested in our downtown development district. To see the complete plan in PDF format here on the village webpage. I was gratified to see that we had a very positive response with 10 companies showing up with an interest in various parts and components of the plan. After an hour long Q & A at the hall I walked the primary section of the plan with the group and talked about what the village wanted to do in the area and answered quite a bit of additional questions about the village's goals in the district.

All About the Job of Mayor

The above picture is the ceremonial carriage of the Lord Mayor of London. The other picture is the cerromonial golf cart of The Honorable Mayor of Round Lake.

The history of the position of mayor is quite interesting. In spite of its etymology, "mayor" was not a Roman office. It came into use in the large entourages that followed the barbarian leaders who succeeded to the power of the Emperor of the West. The male officer who governed a king or duke's peripatetic household was the major domus, the "major domo". In the households of the Merovingian Frankish kings, the major domus, or praefectus palatii ("prefect of the palace"), gained such power that, in the person of Pippin of Herstal, he ended by evicting his master. He was the "mayor of the palace".

The French form of the word is maire. In Germany and the Low Countries the chief town magistrate is called "burgomaster" (German Burgermeister, Dutch. burgemeester; French-speaking parts of Belgium use bourgmestre), in Italy sindaco, in Bohemia starosta and in Spain alcalde, a term derived from a Moorish post.

Closer to home, here in Round Lake, I am the 13th Mayor of Round Lake in the 97 years that Round Lake has been in existance. When you visit the village hall there is a nice framed picture of all the mayors of Round Lake that was put together by one of my predecessors Mayor Rudy Magna who served for many years.

Some of the more exotic things the Mayor of Round Lake can do.

• When you are the mayor you are a justice of the peace, in theory I can deputise, perform oaths, and marry people. I have only availed myself of these services once, when I swore in my successor on the Round Lake Area Library Board.
  
• We get called "your honor" or "the honorable" at times, we get called other less formal things much more often I have noticed.
• Along with the trustees we get to carry a badge.
• You get to pay for vanity plates specially made for Mayors in the state of Illinois.
  

Are we in the Tropics?

With the extreme heat in the tropical paradise that is Round Lake I thought it appropriate to let everyone know some of the basics for staying safe in the heat.

While the elderly, people with health problems, and very young children are the most vulnerable, heat can affect anyone —even strong, healthy athletes can be stricken. Our bodies are cooled primarily by losing heat through the skin and perspiration. Problems occur when we are unable to shed excess heat. When our heat gain exceeds the amount we can get rid of, our temperature begins to rise and heat-related illness may develop. While the elderly, people with health problems, and very young children are the most vulnerable, heat can affect anyone —even strong, healthy athletes. The following heat disorders are progressive and should be attended to immediately.

• Heat cramps. These are the result of prolonged muscular pain caused by severe salt depletion due to heavy sweating. Treatment includes salt replacement, cooling down and gentle massage.
• Heat exhaustion. This is the most common illness caused by heat and often occurs while the person is working outside or attending outside events in extremely hot, humid weather. The victim may complain of weakness and feel faint. Other symptoms include dizziness, nausea, headache and confusion. The person should be moved to a cooler place, and wet cloths applied for cooling down. Fluid and salt should be replaced. Depending on the severity of the illness, hospitalization and intravenous fluid replacement may be necessary. This condition usually comes just before heat stroke.
• Heat stroke (also called sunstroke). This is a life-threatening condition in which the victim'’s temperature-control system stops working. Sweating stops completely, and the body'’s temperature can rise so high that the nervous system, the brain and other organs can be damaged permanently. Death may occur if the body is not cooled quickly. The symptoms of heat stroke include sudden high fever, dry skin, delirium, convulsions and seizures. Heat stroke is a medical emergency--call 911 and cool the person as fast as you can. Ice, a cold bath, and wet sheets are recommended until medical help arrives.

Those who work, exercise, or participate in strenuous activity, such as football practice, for an hour or more during intense heat may lose or sweat up to two quarts of water. If you must pursue intense activity during hot weather, follow these safety tips.

• Drink plenty of water; fluid replacement is crucial to avoid heat risks. Drink more water than usual before exercising or working in the heat. (If you are elderly or taking medication, ask your doctor about fluid intake recommendations.)

• Schedule your strenuous activity during the coolest time of the day.

• Monitor how you feel. If you have difficulty maintaining your regular pace, slow down.

Elderly people should avoid staying shut-up indoors during heat waves without using air conditioning. More than half of the 700 heat-related deaths in the 1995 Chicago heat wave could have been prevented with an air conditioner in the home, according to a published study. Experts say fans are apparently not effective against heat illness during intense heat waves. If you cannot afford an air conditioner for your home, spend more time in other air conditioned environments.

Do you Speed?

One of my directives to our new Police Chief was to apply technology to policing. We have had a radar trailer called the Speed Sentry for some time. We have used the trailer sporadically in the past. The Speed Sentry has a computer download feature that we are using to pinpoint enforcement. Here is an example of what we found on Linden one of the two streets where the radar unit was parked in the last few days.

• The average speed on Linden on the 15th was 18.5 mph.
• 7.3% of the vehicles on that day on Linden were exceeding the speed limit.
• 16 of the 18 cars exceeding the speed limit were between 1pm and 6pm.
• No cars exceeded 35mph at any time.

So consequently patrol operations have been directed towards enforcement between 1pm and 6pm on Linden. This is an intelligent use of technology and manpower allocation to more effectively patrol the village.

Mailboxes

A resident reader of the blog, Brian Schwartz, asked me a question about why the mail boxes in the newer subdivisions were on one side of the street and in clusters. Communities such as Vernon Hills do not. While I thought I knew the answer right away I double checked with our village planners and then with the United States Post Office. I can tell you that the USPS is encouraging mailbox clusters on specific sides of the street to facilitate delivery for the postman or postwomen and make the routes more efficient. Which I assume is make the delivery person cover a bigger area in the same amount of time.

Host a High School Student in your Home from Abroad!

A former Round Lake resident Shannon Watson contacted me about the program she works on which coordinates High School Student exchanges in the area. She asked me if I could help find a placement for some students. To read about the program go to the website for the CIEE.

Would you like to learn more about another part of the world? Would you like to share your culture and traditions with someone else? High school students from around the world will be arriving in August to study at area high schools and live with local families. Caring families who will provide meals, a bed, and love are greatly needed!

Please contact Shannon Watson at 847-973-1457 or via email at proud2b4family2@gmail.com to find out how you can help.

• Students arrive mid-August and stay until the end of the school year.
• We do have a few students who only come for one semester (either August-January or January-June), but most are 10-month program
• Host families provide the students with a place to sleep (students can share rooms with same-gender siblings, close in age is preferable), meals, and general love and support. The students come with their own spending money for school fees, toiletries, etc. They also all have medical insurance.
• We have students from many places (Sweden, Germany, Thailand, Korea, Slovakia, Poland, Macedonia, Israel, Russia, Ukraine, Brazil, to name a few). Some of them are here on a regular program (i.e. their parents are paying for it) and a few are here on a very competitive US State Department scholarship -- students from the Middle East and former Soviet Union -- and are here to learn about democracy, volunteerism, and free enterprise.
  

Mark your Calendars-- National Night Out

The "22nd Annual National Night Out" (NNO), a unique crime/drug prevention event sponsored by the National Association of Town Watch (NATW), has been scheduled for Tuesday, August 2, 2005 at 6pm at the our memorial monument (corner of 134 and Cedar Lake).

Last year's National Night Out campaign involved citizens, law enforcement agencies, civic groups, businesses, neighborhood organizations and local officials from over 10,000 communities from all 50 states, U.S. territories, Canadian cities and military bases worldwide. In all, over 34 million people participated in NNO 2004.

NATIONAL NIGHT OUT is designed to:

• Heighten crime and drug prevention awareness;
• Generate support for, and participation in, local anticrime programs;
• Strengthen neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships; and
• Send a message to criminals letting them know that neighborhoods are organized and fighting back.

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Click here to find out more about the history of
NATW and National Night Out.

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Along with the traditional display of outdoor lights and front porch vigils, cities, towns and neighborhoods 'celebrate' NNO with a variety of events and activities such as:

• block parties,
• cookouts,
• visits from local police and sheriff departments
• parades, exhibits,
• flashlight walks,
• contests, and
• youth programs.

NNO has proven to be an effective, inexpensive and enjoyable program to promote neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships in our fight for a safer nation. Plus, the benefits your community will derive from NNO will most certainly extend well beyond the one night.

Tour of the new Public Works and Police Facility

Last night before the regular board meeting the village board met for a hard hat tour of the Police and Public Works facility on the Southeast corner of Bacon and Townline Road. We had a tour of the facility from Scott Rubel of our Architects Sente Rubel Bosman and Lee. The facility is moving along quite quickly now and should be complete in October, weather permitting.

Live from the Mayors Outing

Five Mayors and Five First Ladies, the mayors of Grayslake, Hainesville, Round Lake, Round Lake Beach, and Round Lake Heights were hosted in the 4th annual Mayors BBQ hosted by Grayslake Mayor Tim Perry.

You Know I Love Racing!

I have always loved racing of any kind, and have been a big fan of bike racing since a close friend of mine in college was a big racer, and I was always impressed by this training regimen and how fast he rode. The Outdoor Life Network shows the racing live early in the morning, and then replays the race throughout the day, I am addicted! Lance Armstrong is bidding for his 7th Tour de France lifetime and 7th in a row, no one has won more then 5.

In the picture above Ivan Basso of Italy, overall leader Lance Armstrong, of Austin, Texas, Jan Ullrich of Germany and Floyd Landis of the U.S., from right, pedal in their ascent of the Pailheres pass during the 14th stage of the Tour de France cycling race between Agde, southern France, and Ax-3 Domaines, Pyrenees mountains.


Sunday's race has 6 mountains and finishes uphill over roughly 130 miles with 30 miles of mountain climbing! (5 of these mountains would be the equivalent of riding up Hart's Hill if Hart's hill were 3-5 miles long.) I can't wait. The race ends next Sunday in Paris after more then 2000 miles of racing over 23 days.

Transportation Meeting Last Night

Last night State Representative Kathy Ryg hosted a transportation forum for elected officials at the Libertyville high school. There was a nice turnout of about 60 people, numerous state reps and senators, Lake County board members, mayors and township officials.

We heard presentations from Lake County, the Illinois Tollway Authority and the Illinois Department of Transportation. Mayor Elliott Hartstein led the discussion from the mayors perspective, Diana O'Kelly from the Lake County Board talked from the Township's perspective, Suzi Schmidt the Lake County Board Chair talked from the counties perspective, and Senator Terry Link talked about the state issues.

• Some of the major discussion points were the 120 bypass, Route 83, Route 60 and Route 41.
• An equal and fair redistribution of the Motor Fuel Tax (MFT)
• September 16th is a Transportation summit hosted by Lake County Partners where some consensus will hopefully emerge on which project or projects will have consensus.

Overall it was interesting to hear different viewpoints and ideas for solving problems. Hopefully we will start seeing results on getting some highways built in the county and in the Round Lake Area.

Round Lake's New Police Chief Sworn In

On Monday night Lt Cliff Metaxa of the Lake County Sheriff's department was sworn in as Round Lake's new Police Chief by Village Clerk Jeanne Kristan. Chief Metaxa was confirmed in a 4-3 vote (Trustees Brubaker, Del Prato, Perkowitz and Mayor Gentes voting yes the no votes were cast by Trustees Blauvelt, Newby and Shaw). Trustee Newby made a statement before his vote that his vote reflected the "will of the people". He did not elaborate further.

I am excited that we are able to bring on a management professional to provide needed leadership to the department. Cliff has ambitious ideas, one of the best ideas is his goal to make the Round Lake Police Department certified via the Commission on Law Enforcement Accreditation (CALEA). The primary benefits of accreditation include controlled liability insurance costs, administrative improvements, greater accountability from supervisors, increased governmental and community support.

Supreme Court Ruling on Eminent Domain

Last week Carey Guardado emailed me an excellent question for the blog. It concerns eminent domain and the use of it in the new downtown of Round Lake.

What is eminent domain? Here is a definition.

There is an excellent website here on the subject as well.

Since the start of this process I have consistently stated that homeowners in all of Round Lake have nothing to fear from the village using eminent domain. My personal belief is that you own property and you can stay there as long as you want, without government interference as to your ownership.

The village has an overlay district for the downtown development district outlining what a potential future use of the property would or could be. This is not going to happen to the parcel without the owners willingness to let it happen.

Carey commented in the email that it has happened recently in Lake Zurich. The big difference between us and Lake Zurich is the large tracts of vacant land in our downtown that are owned by the village and are the major focus of the development area. We have actively discouraged developers from looking away from parcels that are not vacant and or residential.

If you live in the downtown, you will be affected, because the area around you will slowly change, but no one will enforce eminent domain on you.

We have had numerous public meetings on the Downtown development plan, and I have been asked that question more then once. I have answered it the same throughout.

Just as an observation your Illinois legislators are going to pass a law when they next meet making the type of eminent domain allowed by the recent supreme court ruling, illegal in the next session. So we shall see.

Saturday Night at Beach Fest

Stopped by the Round Lake Beach Festival on Saturday night and saw lots of people including Trustee Bob and Laura Del Prato, Trustee Brian and Lori Brubaker, County Board Representative Bob Powers, Mayor Rich and Mary Hill, Avon Township Road Supervisor Pat Anderson, architectural Review Committee chairman Hans and Dana Zigmund, and ARC member Sean Gillete and RONDARADIO's Bish Krywko in above photo. Of course we also paid homage to the driving force behind the festival in Round Lake Beach Trustee Sue Butler. We also had a ke-bob at the Chicken Run booth which was very tasty

I Came Across this Today and I Liked It!

Get what you like out of the above, today was a beautiful day!

Thoughts and Prayers for the Victims in London

As the news of another horrible terrorist attack rolls in, we should take a moment to think about and pray for the victims famillies. I know all of us here in Round Lake share some portion of the pain the famillies must be feeling today.

Radio the Round Lake Way!

Radio Round Lake or Rondaradio or WRLR will be at the Summer Fest being held by Round Lake Beach this coming July 8th and 9th. They hope to kick off their first broadcast from the fest. WRLR will have a tent where staff will pass out flyers, sign up potential listeners (who get a chance to win a free WRLR 'RadioActive t-shirt by doing so), meet some of the new on air talent and hear more about the station. The public will be able to participate in the stations live reports from the fest and say 'hello' to the family and friends over the air.

I blogged about the station a few weeks ago so you can get more detail here.

Daily Herald Article!

Nice article about this Blog on the front page of the Daily Herald today. (The story is here) If this is your first time visiting, enjoy my articles, read the comments, and bookmark the site! The archives are on the left feel free to read back for prior articles. Because Round Lake is never dull! If you have any questions my email is bgentes@eroundlake.com. Or read this post on the blog with some background and reasoning for the blog (go here).

4 from the 4th on the 5th!

I captured a few of the fireworks from my cell phone, I was going to publish them live, but discovered I could not watch the fireworks and upload them at the same time so I posted this morning!

Grand Ole Time in the Round Lake Area on the 4th

Nice sized crowds were not held off by gloomy weather. A good time was had by all, lots of candy thrown and lots of candy eaten I would imagine! Tonight, thanks to the rain, fireworks sponsored by the Round Lake Area Park District at Hook Lake near the Round Lake Beach Metra station. See you all there!

1-8-7 Trifecta at Venetian Night on Round Lake

Pictured here the number 8 boat from the Alpine Country Club, 14 kids, and Sponge Bob square pants they finished second. The winner not captured on camera by your truly was a stunning Jimmy Buffet styled yacht. Complete with music, dancing girls and guys!

There were 12 boats competing in the first annual Round Lake Venetian Night! Next year, more boats and more fun!

Busy Friday and Busy Saturday

Did a couple of things yesterday first I attended the dedication of the new Branch Court in Round Lake Beach on Nicole Lane right off of Rollins Road. About 150 people attended the dedication. The tour of the facility was quite impressive, it has one courtroom currently. The whole facility was designed so there is a potential for an expansion as well. Good on the county for recognizing the growing need for services in western Lake County and for bringing the project in under budget and on time.

I ran over to the library to get a new book on tape (The Hunt for Red October) and ended up talking library stuff for 20 minutes or so! That's the picture on the right by the way!

As for today its all about the water! I am sailing on Long Lake, then this evening I am judging along with Mayor's Hill and Bauer the first Venetian Night on Round Lake. Following the judging Alpine Country Club will shoot off their annual fireworks. This year they have shifted to a barge in the lake so no danger to yards, homes and or people.

Registration for the boats is at 7:00pm at the Round Lake Park beach, judging takes place from the Round Lake Beach, beach park. The awards will be given out around 8:45pm.