The Year that was-- 2005

2005 was the year of the Rooster, and here in Round Lake we have plenty to crow over. We have two new Trustee's Brian Brubaker and Bob Del Prato a new Police Chief in Cliff Metaxa and a new Director of Public Works Davis Clark. Some of the other highlights are:

• We finally adopted a new human resources plan that encompasses employee reviews, job descriptions a fair an equitable pay plan.
• Restructuring of the Police Department is well under way, with a modern efficient and more effective police department starting to emerge.
  
• We are moving full speed ahead on the Downtown Development Project and hope to have it done by 2008 (our 100th anniversary)
  
• We have familiar faces in new places with Terre Eyzk moving up into the Chair of the Planning Commission (my old seat), Hans Zigmund moving up into the Chair of the Architectural Review Committee (ARC) and Steve Skinner moving from the ARC to the Planning and Zoning Commission, former trustee Dale Multerer is now the president of the Police Board.
• Sean Gillette led a wonderful group of people who planned and organized the second annual Streets of Summer festival this summer. Lonnie Brooks headlined and 1,000's attended!
• New commercial development is coming online at the Centerville Commons on Route 60 and Cedar Lake Road, Curran Commons at 120 and Curran, and more development at the corner of 134 and Fairfield to go along with the CVS Pharmacy. More will be happening in 2006 as well.
  
• The construction of a new $7 million 35,000 square foot Police and Public Works Station on the corner of Bacon and Townline road. This facility is big enough for our current population and for our future needs. It was designed and built so it can and could expand if needed in the future.
• Many of the housing projects that we have been hearing about for sometime are finally complete or nearly so, with Valley Lakes, Madrona, Lakewood Homes, Bradford Place, and Silver Leaf Glen reaching that point.
  

On a personal note I am thankful for the opportunity you gave me in April 2005 to lead the village for another four years. Serving as Mayor is the single most rewarding thing I have ever done in my professional life, and I thank you for your support. I aim to make Round Lake the best possible place it can be.

The Winner of $25 in Park Bucks

Lots of responses to the contest, I had 12 total. I used the random number generator that I used in one of my last contests to pick a number that was 1-12 and then I picked the email that came in 11th in this case since the random number was 11. Drum roll please....Julie Rodgers who lives in Park View is the winner and she additionally says she will use the money towards swim lessons for her sons!

For those of you wondering about the picture, its taken from my helicopter trip this summer. This picture has a picture of every single house in Park View One and Two. So Julie and her sons are down there somewhere!

$25 Dollars in Park Bucks!

Last contest of the year. This prize is $25 in Park District dollars and here are the rules.

1. You must use it.
2. You must be a resident of the Village of Round Lake.
3. I will take any email to bgentes@eroundlake.com within 24 hours of the blogs post time on the web site and then I will do a random drawing. Please reference the contest in the subject of the email.
4. You may not be an elected official of the village. All decisions are final.
5. You can't have won any of the other two prizes.

120 Bypass and a Map

I had an interesting meeting with a couple of companies looking to get involved in the 120 bypass project. What a surprise! An estimated half a billion dollars, potentially, on the table and consultants are interested. The best part of the meeting was one consultant provided me with a map of the entire corridor from US-94 to IL-60 with the route overlaid on an aerial picture. Makes for interesting viewing. I instantly asked for the map in an electronic version! Which as soon as I get I will have here for our viewing pleasure. There are some interesting observations you can make out about where and how the bypass must flow to make sense.

Sewer and Bonds--101

Reader Tim Latta asked a question about the sewer and water bonds that we sold for $3 million a few years ago. To set the stage I need to talk about the bigger picture for a bit. Round Lake developed a comprehensive plan that visualizes its natural borders as Fish Lake Road to the West, and Chardon Road to the South. This comprehensive plan was completed and adopted in late 1999 and early 2000 and had some clear ideas of what the vast majority of the land West of Fairfield and South of 120 would be (we call this our Southwest Quadrant by the way). The land use was primarily commercial and industrial with some residential in the mix as well.

Over time the village has consistently moved forward with this plan. However since 90% of the land in the SW Quadrant is not annexed to any municipality its fair game to any village or the County for development of any kind. I have told you what Round Lake intends to do in the area. But there is another player in the area, Volo, Volo's comprehensive plan involves commercial and industrial development along the Route 12 corridor, and homes starting at Gilmer and 120 going east to almost Fairfield Road. If I were the Mayor of Volo, I would pursue this path as logical for the goals of Volo by the way. I believe that Volo, building homes, in the area we have planned for commercial and industrial development in the SW Quadrant would be counter to Round Lake's future best interest. The other player is Lake County, they are not to be trusted, but they have not shown signs of doing residential development in the last few years out here since the Tanneron Bay and Brooks Farm development.

A major key to development is bringing sewer and water to a parcel. Because if you want to build homes or industrial parks and or office parks you need sewer and water. Septic fields are not the greatest of either of the these for development purposes. So over the last three to four years Volo and Round Lake have been attempting to bring sewer and water to this area so each village can execute its comprehensive plan. The Ryland parcel which was just approved by the village board allows us to get our sewer and water to the SW Quadrant at last.

The village board recognized how important this project was to the long term future of the village and was willing to spend money to do it. Bringing sewer and water from behind the housing behind the CVS at Fairfield and 134 was what $2.5 million of the bonding was for. The project runs south from behind the homes along the right of way for Com Ed, until it crosses Nippersink where it takes a short turn westwards to line up with Dawn Marie. It then proceeds south along the street until it reached a vacant parcel of land we own, and at that time, was the end of Round Lake's corporate boundaries. As Ryland came on board we were able to get them to shoulder the additional cost of bringing the sewer and water the rest of the way to 120 and Wilson. In addtion to funding the connection to the sewer line for the residents of Dawn Marie. All this is a long set-up to answer the question.

This sewer connection has a service area, which bascially covers the SW Quadrant service zone mentioned above. This service area contains a maximum amount of capacity, in other words how much sewage can flow through the pipe. So what is done to ensure that the capacity is not used up is that there is an engineering calculation done that allocates sewer throughout the entire sewer service area. Since the village paid for the sewer to come to the area it should and will get paid for the costs of building the sewer this form of payment is called "recapture". So the $2.5 million we spent to bring sewer to the SW Quadrant will eventually be returned to the village in the form of this recapture. As a parcel gets developed and hooks on to the sewer line, they repay the village the recapture fee which is calculated by a complex formula designed to "recapture" the village investment. This sewer protection zone also has official legal protection via the Lakes Region Sanitary Sewer District (the relevant sewer district in that area) so even if there is development in the area that occurs in Volo or in the unincorporated areas of the county that attaches to our sewer, the village gets paid recapture.

Alert readers will notice that we used $2.5 million of the $3 million for this project. The other $500,000 of the bonding was used to improve and upgrade from an 8" to a 16" line the main north south sewer line that runs down to Madrona and Lakewood homes, but is in the older part of the village along Cedar Lake Road and Goodnow.

Over time, and a municipality can afford to take the long view, the bonding money will come back to the village, and with the renewed push for the 120 bypass, and the increased interest from the parcel owners inside the SW quadrant to do something, I believe the payoff will be quick for the village.

Police and Public Works Complex-- Chapter 2

Many of you have read some of the recent newspaper articles about the Police and Public Works complex. I think its time to give a chronology of what actually went on. I have broken down my posts into 5 chapters. Chapter 1 is how we acquired the land. Chapter 2 will be on how we decided on the building design. Chapter 3 will cover how we bid the building out. Chapter 4 will cover the planning and construction of the project. Chapter 5 will discuss some of the recent events. When there are points of contention in the process, and there are, I will link to the relevant minutes of the board meetings so you can verify for yourself what went on.

Chapter 2
Once the decision was made to move forward with a new facility. There was a debate about doing two buildings. There were numerous concepts discussed, with the then Police Chief Foy lobbying for a separate building since the police did not want to share facilities with the Public Works department. Around that time District 116 was enforcing its policy of no after school meetings for community groups in it's facilities. The concept finally emerged that the two departments share a building with a meeting facility between the buildings to allow community groups to meet in the community (a novel concept). This also made sense to share mechanicals and reduce other expense duplications. Suprisingly this was not adopted for some time by the board (my opinion).

At the same time we narrowed down 18 architect proposals to 4 who then made formal presentations to the board of trustees in executive session. The clear winner of the "interview" process was Sente Rubel Bosman and Lee a large local firm with extensive municipal experience. The artist's rendering above was the concept that the board gave its tentative blessing to.

The thinking for the design of the building then quickly took shape with Police on the east side, Public Works on the west side, and a meeting room in between. In addition the building was also designed with space and thought for future expansion if needed.

Highlights of the Public Works side of the building are:

• Enough space to park all our vehicles indoors.
• Two reapir and cleaning bays with one lift.
• A separate salt storage facility
• Plenty of office and planning space for our managers and employees

The highlights of the Police station are:

• Four cells for prisoners with a booking area.
• Locker rooms for the officers.
• Plenty of office space for staff.
• Large evidence processing area.

The public spaces contain a state of the art meeting room with a built in projector and sound system. The furniture is configurable into many different shapes and sizes, plus you can link your laptop into ports on the desks.

Overall the design of the building is quite close to what we visualized over three years ago. Once we are occupying the building in a few weeks I am sure it will serve our needs for many years to come efficiently and effectively.

I Shall Return

In the immortal words of Douglas MacArthur, who would be "The Blogging General" with his love of the media, I am returning to the blogosphere shortly with tons of exciting new posts for your reading pleasure.

I could not find the picture I wanted of him wading ashore in the Philippines during World War II (I did but it was copyrighted) all I could find was one of Gregory Peck reenactment it in the movies. That did not count I decided, so I went with the Time Magazine cover.
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Seasonal Break for the Holidays

I am going to take a few days off from blogging for the Christmas holidays. I will return to blogging next week. On behalf of my family please have a wonderful and safe Christmas! For your reading pleasure I have added some Christmas facts for your enjoyment.

• The use of a Christmas wreath as a decoration on your front door, mantel or bay window symbolizes a sign of welcome and long life to all who enter.
• Today poinsettias are the most popular Christmas plant and are the number one flowering potted plant in the United States.
• Real Christmas trees are an all-American product, grown in all 50 states, including Alaska and Hawaii.
• Most artificial trees are manufactured in Korea, Taiwan, or Hong Kong.
• For every real Christmas tree harvested, 2 to 3 seedlings are planted in its place.
• In 1836, Alabama is the first state in the USA to declare Christmas a legal holiday.
• The biggest selling Christmas single of all time is Bing Crosby's White Christmas.
• Due to the time zones, Santa has 31 hours to deliver gifts? This means that he would have to visit 832 homes each second!
• In 1937, the first postage stamp to commemorate Christmas was issued in Austria.
• For every real Christmas tree harvested, 2 to 3 seedlings are planted in its place. Each hectare provides the daily oxygen requirements of 45 people.
• Epiphany, 6th January, is the traditional end of the Christmas holiday and is the date on which we take down the tree and decorations. To do so earlier is thought to bring bad luck for the rest of the year. From the middle ages until the mid-nineteenth century, Twelfth Night was more popular than Christmas day, and even today some countries celebrate Epiphany as the most important day of the Christmas season.
• Three years after Thomas Edison invented the electric light bulb in 1879, Edward H. Johnson, who worked for Edison's company, had Christmas tree bulbs especially made for him. He proudly displayed his electric tree lights at his home on Fifth Avenue, New York City. They caused a sensation although some years were to pass before mass-manufactured Christmas tree lights were widely available.
• In America in 1822, the postmaster of Washington, DC, complained that he had to add 16 mailmen at Christmas to deal with cards alone. He wanted the number of cards a person could send limited by law. "I don't know what we'll do if this keeps on," he wrote.

Police and Public Works Complex-- Chapter 1

Many of you have read some of the recent newspaper articles about the Police and Public Works complex. I think its time to give a chronology of what actually went on. I have broken down my posts into 5 chapters. Chapter 1 is how we aquired the land. Chapter 2 will be on how we decided on the building design. Chapter 3 will cover how we bid the building out. Chapter 4 will cover the planning and construction of the project. Chapter 5 will discuss some of the recent events. When there are points of contention in the process, and there are, I will link to the relevant minutes of the board meetings so you can verify for yourself what went on.

Chapter 1
When I was elected it was quickly apparent that we needed a bigger police station and a public works building. Over time the board became comfortable with the concept and we started looking for land. It was difficult to locate a land parcel inside the village boundaries that matched our needs. However we settled on the parcel at the SE corner of Bacon and Townline road. It was a 39 acre parcel owned by the Crowne family. We approached the Crowne Real Estate people and were able to determine a price that met both our needs. The Crowne people eventually sold the 39 acres to us for $30,000 an acre or $1,170,000.

The land was for five central uses:

1. To provide an adequate home for a combined police and public works facility that could be expanded to meet future demands.
2. To facilitate the construction of the extension of Cedar Lake road northwards to Townline road.
3. To bring future Fire District service south of 120 for our residents and recoup some of the land expenses through the sale of the land to the fire department.
4. Provide land for a future maintenance facility for the Round Lake Area Park Districtand recoup some of the land expenses through the sale of the land to the park district.
5. Future sale of 7-9 acres of commercial frontage along the newly extended Cedar Lake Road.

At a similar time the village was deciding to move ahead on three fronts for bonding to accomplish three strategic goals for the village. Goal one was the construction of the Police and Public Works Department, goal two was to bring Sewer and Water to the corner of 120 and Wilson Road and upgrade sewer in some of older areas of the village, and lastly to purchase vacant land in our downtown area to facilitate our transit oriented development program.

To this end we bonded $3 million for the sewer and water projects, $1.5 million for land acquisition for the downtown project, and $6.5 million for the construction of the Police and Public Works facility. In other words we bonded $10.5 million for these projects. We were intending to bond $1 million more for the building construction but when the first pass at the costs by Riley Construction and the Architects Sente Rubel Bosman and Lee came in we were at $6.4 million dollars. More on this in a later chapter. As an aside, the money for the sewer and water bonding will be paid back over time as parcels connect to the sewer and water services. The payback will be in the form of recapture. The money for the land in the downtown will return to the village in the form of a cultural arts center, a new train station and a spectacular downtown along with cash.

At around the same time we were looking at what is now the Bradford Place development with is 170 senior oriented homes at the corner of Curran and 120 by Pulte. I insisted that there be 5 acres of land dedicated to be commercial and that the land be deeded to the village upon annexation. The project was approved and we subsequently resold the land for just under $800,000 or roughly $155,000 an acre. We took that money and applied it towards the purchase of the 39 acre parcel.

Over time the 39 acre parcel will generate the following:

• 39 acres times $30,000 is $1,170,000
• Sale of 5 acres from Bradford Place $790,000 leaves $380,000.
• Sale of 5 acres to Fire District at $30,000 leaves $230,000.
• The sale of the land to the Park District fell apart. (more on that later)
  
• Future sale of commercial land 7-9 acres at "what the market will bear"
• We will still own 10-15 acres for future growth of the police and public work facility.
  

All in all your Board of Trustees and your Mayor did an excellent job acquiring the land for the facility. Even if nothing happens on the 9 acres of commercial we have effectively bought 34 acres of land for $7,000 an acre. When and if we sell the 9 acres we will hopefully have made a profit on the whole land acquisition project and left the village with quite a few benefits. Plus we have 5 acres of commercial at 120 and Curran, that will benefit consumers and the village with tax revenue.

Please note that the prices and costs are close approximations for clarity.

Commercial Update for Cedar Commons

Loyal reader Brian Schwartz asked me about which stores are going in Cedar Commons (60 and Cedar Lake) At the moment the ones confirmed are Rosati's Pizza, a Bakery/Cafe, a 3,000 square foot grocery store, a chiropractor/physical therapist, tanning salon and a cleaners. In addition there are 5 vacant stores still to be filled. The outlots are First American Bank, and a retail center, and there are ongoing negotiations for a daycare center! There are also 4 outlots still to be leased. The picture was one that I took a few months ago when Clarke Mosquito took me arround the village via helicopter. The intersection is 60 and Cedar Lake and the site I am talking about in this post.

No Skating on the Ponds

There are many ponds in Round Lake and especially some of the detention ponds in the newer areas that are frozen over. These ponds do not freeze completely and are quite dangerous. There have been some issues about kids skating on the ponds. To be candid this is just plain stupid and foolish. I have heard about kids being warned off the pond by the police and then returning when the police leave. There is no time that this is acceptable. Please if you want to skate the Park district has a large skating area at Hart's Hill, with a warming shed, and a wonderful sledding hill as well. Please be safe this winter!

Homeowners Associations-- A Short History

When you buy a house in a new subdivision or planned unit development, you may be subject to a host of rules and regulations! Are you shocked yet? I know many of you are, because I get more complaints about the dreaded words "Homeowners Association" or the HOA! I have noticed that there is a typical pattern that HOA's tend to follow over the years.

It starts with the village stepping in to beat up the developer, because of homeowner complaints. The developer runs the HOA until a certain percentage of occupancy is met. Then usually because the village forced the developer to turn over the HOA to the residents the problems and complaints shift to the new "resident board". Usually the first thing that happens is the new HOA board decides the old management company (usually a creature of the developer) needs to take a long walk off a short pier. Then the board goes through a shake out and some energetic resident leadership takes over and things tend to smooth out and normalcy returns.

Some of the things you will look for from your HOA are:

• Maintenance: Once a developer'’s responsibility has expired, the owners have to pay for repairs when things start to break down. Having an adequate reserve and a planned maintenance program is essential to preserving the community and your property'’s value.
• Fees and Assessments: Generally, homeowners associations levy mandatory monthly fees to maintain common property, such as lawns, swimming pools, hiking trails, golf courses, or tennis courts Fees may increase as expenses rise and special assessments may also be imposed for major costs such as a new roof for a community sports center or private street repair.
• Liens and foreclosures: If you fail to pay your association dues, or run afoul of its regulations, you can be charged a fine. A lien can even be imposed on your property resulting in potential foreclosure, sometimes over trivial amounts. If you dispute the charges in court and lose, you may also have to pay the association'’s legal fees.
• Governance: Most homeowners association board members are volunteers elected by the property owners. Sometimes inexperience can cause mistakes, resulting in additional expenses. Often, more than 50 percent of the dues collected by an association are used to pay for the management companies and attorneys it employs.
• Regulations: Together with their management partners, homeowners associations function very much as private governments. Once property owners sign a contract agreeing to comply with an association'’s laws, that often supersedes their individual property rights. It'’s not easy to change community regulations imposed by a homeowners association. To do so generally requires the approval of the majority of members.

My mayoral radar tells me this will be a lively debate on the comment section of my blog so I promise to blog further on the subject since I am sure I will get some ideas from the feedback. A couple of interesting facts on HOA's are that they are:

• The fastest growing form of government in the US in the last 15 years.
• 1 in 6 Americans live in a HOA environment.
• There are at least 20 HOA's in Round Lake.
• The Village has taken over one HOA, Bright Meadows! By the way the residents requested it.
  

Not the Day of my Dreams

Well I did two things yesterday, one was the indoor track and field meet at the University of Chicago. I was over 13 feet 3 times and fouled once in the long jump. I then put the shot over 8 meters 3 times but my best was 8.12 which is 26 feet 7 inches to be candid I was disappointed with the shot. I was pleased with the long jump since I fouled over 15 feet, I missed the board by 2 inches (supposedly) so its a matter of getting my starting marks more organized. I strained my back while doing the shot put so I decided not to sprint in the 55, 200, and 400 since I could not loosen my back in 20 minutes of stretching. All in all a lousy day. Hans Zigmund did well however throwing the shot a personal best of 8.28.

The second thing I did today was go to the WRLR Christmas party. I had a good time, saw lots of my fellow on-air talent and overall had a good time. Bish Krywko throws a good party for his radio station!

Opening Day-- Indoor Track and Field Season

The smell of sweat, creaking tendons, achy hamstring's, and 100's of people much faster and fitter then you! (most of them are like 12 years old as well) What does all this mean? Why its the kickoff of the Indoor Track Season in the Northern Illinois area with the Ted Haydon Classic at the University of Chicago's indoor arena. So tomorrow I am competing in 5 events, the long jump, shotput, 55, 200 and 400 meter dash. I have some goals for each event which I will mention here simply because goals are good and who knows putting them in writing might be beneficial to my psyche!

Long Jump-- 4.27 meters (14 feet) or greater (my best is 3.78 meters or 12'6")
Shot Put-- 9.14 meters (30 feet) my best is 9.28 or (28' 6")
55 Meters-- Less then 7.75 seconds my best is 8.08
200 Meters-- Less then 31 seconds my best is 32.96
400 Meters-- Less then 70 seconds my best is 75.14

Using the decathlon scoring charts I have made this into a pentathlon for myself! My goal is 2300 points for the five events. Special note must be made of Hans Zigmund who is long jumping and throwing the shot with me! His goals are unknown but he has been lifting quite a bit recently so I might be seeing him over 35 feet with the shot!

What do Snow, Shovels, Sidewalks and the Village Code have in Common?

I have gotten a ton of emails and comments on neighbors not cleaning the sidewalks off after a snow storm. So I decided to go to the village code and find exactly what it says. I have already blogged on this a few days ago but I believe its important to be clear about homeowner responsibilities to them and there neighbors.

Village Code 12.04.070 Snow on Sidewalks.
The person occupying the ground floor of any building, the user of any lot without a structure thereon, and the owner of any vacant building or other premises shall remove the snow and ice accumulating on the abutting sidewalks within twenty-four (24) hours after any snowfall has ceased. If snow or ice cannot be removed the surface shall be sanded or otherwise treated to lessen the hazard for pedestrians until the climate permits removal.

If you see an address in which the owner is not removing the snow, please contact the Round Lake Police Dept. at 847-546-8112 and file a complaint. Our first priority however will always be the roads during a snow event.

We Have a Winner--Pool Pass

Lots of responses to the contest, I had 18 total. I rejected one because the lady actually wanted a pony. (no kidding!) I also was able to find this marvelous poster from Taiwan about pool safety, I am assuming the little kid holding the phone and dialing 119 is actually dialing 911 because Asian characters are read right to left.

Anyway I am sure no one is terribly interested in how to dial 911 in Asia. But more then likely they are interested in who won the coveted family pool pass. Drum roll please....Brett Todd who have Julie, Chole, and Colin ready willing and able to use the pool pass the way it was designed to be used by kids! They live in Valley Lakes.

For those of you fascinated in the elaborate double blind system used to determine the winner. I sorted the emails by arrival date, the first email to arrive was number 1, the last to arrive was number 17. I then found this website and generated a random number between 1 and 17 which was 14, then I counted down to number 14 on the email list and lo and behold I had a winner.

Contest for a 2006 Swim Pass starts now!

Every year the village sponsors various events and the like in the village, one of the traditions we do every winter is the fireworks at the Round Lake Area Park District Holiday Fest, which has been going on for years. Every year the village gets freebies from the park district in appreciation of our sponsorship. In addition I win things all the time at the various local golf outings like the Chamber of Commerce etc.
I generally think about people in the community who might be interested in the types of things I win and then I give them to them. Some of you might recall my giving away the concert tickets that were sent to the village for the Forreigner concert out in Woodstock over the summer. Kurt Rodwald of Madrona won them by the way.

This prize is Family Pool Pass for the 2006 season at the RL Pool, and here are the rules.

1. You must use it, I will find out!
2. You have to have kids! No ifs or buts!
   
3. You must be a resident of the Village of Round Lake.
4. I will take any email to bgentes@eroundlake.com within 24 hours of the blogs post time on the web site and then I will do a random drawing. Please reference the contest in the subject of the email.
   
5. You may not be an elected official of the village.
6. All decisions are final.
7. You can't win any of the other two prizes.
   

The remaining contest is $25 in gift bucks at the Park District!

We Have a Winner--Fitness Pass

The winner of the fitness pass is Nancy Mantell who lives in Madrona. The next contest will start tomorrow and will be for the Pool Pass. So say tuned for the next contest.
For those of you interested in how I did the random drawing, I had 6 requests for the pass, I assigned each a number 1-6 based on the time I received the email and then rolled a die! The winning number was 5, and Ms. Mantell was the 5th email I had received ergo...the winner!

New Squad Car Design to Hit Streets

The contest for the new squad car design is complete and the new designed approved by the village board (oddly in a 5-1 vote). The first car is appearing on the street, the old design was great for over 10 years, but the new design reflects the new improved police department image!

Sponsorship Stuff! Free Goodies here.

Every year the village sponsors various events and the like in the village, one of the traditions we do every winter is the fireworks at the Round Lake Area Park District Holiday Fest, which has been going on for years. Every year the village gets freebies from the park district in appreciation of our sponsorship. In addtion I win things all the time at the various local golf outings like the Chamber of Commerce etc.
I generally think about people in the community who might be interested in the types of things I win and then I give them to them. Some of you might recall my giving away the concert tickets that were sent to the village for the Foreigner concert out in Woodstock over the summer. Kurt Rodwald of Madrona won them by the way.

I have three things I have to give away and will give away all three during the week.
The first one is a one years free fitness pass to the Round Lake Area District fitness center.
Here are the rules.

1. You must use it, I will find out, since I work out there!
2. You must be a resident of the Village of Round Lake.
3. I will take any email to bgentes@eroundlake.com within 24 hours of the blogs post time on the web site and then I will do a random drawing. Please reference the contest in the subject of the email. (That means 7am on December 13th)
   
4. You may not be an elected official of the village.
5. All decisions are final.
6. You can't win any of the other two prizes.
   

The other prizes are a Family Pool Pass for the 2006 season at the RL Pool, and the other is $25 in gift bucks at the Park District!

Snow Blowing and Keeping Your Sidewalks Clean

After snowblowing my driveway and one of my neighbors who is away on vacation I took a quick drive through the village to see in general who cleaned sidewalk's and who did not. I was surprised at the number of people who had not.
Please do, its important! Would you rather have kids walking in the road or on the sidewalk? As the snow accumulates kids walking to the bus stops will be in the already narrowed streets. Lets use some common sense!
If you have a snow blower, go do your neighbors sidewalks or anyone's sidewalk who can't, its the neighborly thing to do! Plus loud spinning machines are fun to push around and to see how far you can throw the snow! I woke my daughter up way before her usual wake up time of 1pm today by starting the blower right under her window! Also a bonus if you have teens in the house!

Report on the National League of Cities-- Part One

Last week I attended the National League of Cities annual conference in Charlotte. I was invited to speak on blogging. What I discovered is there are more elected officials blogging then meet the eye. Along with Mayor Jim Willey of Elburn, and the Scott Neal City Manager of Eden Prairie, there are bloggers like Eric Garcetti the president of the Los Angeles City Council, Bob Nowicki a City Councilman of Rochester Minnesota, Sandy Carmany of Greensboro, NC among others. While I think I know a lot about blogging, I learned more from the questions and the discussions that went on around the room before and after the program.

I attended an all day workshop on Wednesday entitled Public Problems, Democratic Decisions: The Role of Mayors and Council Members, which was excellent. The first part of the day was setting up a public policy matrix with four ordinal points’ liberty, prosperity, equality and community. You then evaluated the issue based on a four step process which involved critical decision making, definition of the issues impacts, mapping the issues, addressing them and then developing a consensus. The afternoon focused on 7 examples, that were to be honest quite good and challenged the small groups (5-6 people) we were broken up into. Interestingly, with all group members being relatively sophisticated elected officials, all the groups missed things that might or might not have been crucial.

The premise of the program was that our democratic system has a built in tension that causes tension. The tension is a good thing because when an issue comes up, this tension forces all issues out in to the open and thus all points are raised which then in turn can/should lead to responsible decision making.

There were a number of very interesting points about government that the speaker made throughout the day which I will pass on here.

• What is the fastest growing area of government in the last 15 years? Home Owners Associations!
• If you counted all the elected state senators and state representatives in the United States by party you would have roughly 3,500 democrats and 3,500 republicans, and it’s been this way for quite awhile. The point being that this is the "tension cause" which leads to decision making.

My Voyage Home from the National League of Cities

I spoke yesterday on Blogging with a nice crowd with lots of questions. Got some good feedback with some good ideas. I think I have some converts as well. The good stuff started afterwards however. It reminds how much I enjoy not traveling.
The village Christmas Party was last night so that was why I was hustling home. So here is it in a nutshell...surly cabbie...was asked for ID 4 times in 20 feet in the same line for security...flight was 1 hour late...luggage delayed 45 minutes....parked in the remote lot...snow on car (not exactly like the picture however)... no gloves and or hat in car... left rear tire almost flat...30 minutes to leave airport owing to merging and the tollbooth...showed up 3 minutes before scheduled dinner! Perfect timing!

As the Room Fills up

Please note I had to fix the picture later because I had limited connectivity in the room. This was taken about 15 minutes before the presentation started

Blogging Presentation Today

Well today I talk about blogging to elected officials at the National League of Cities. I wanted to do more on the post today but I am blogging from an awful internet modem connection so here is my sparse post. A little cut and paste from the program and here it is. I promise to blog more when I get home tonight.

Can Blogs Improve Your Constituent Communications?
11:00 a.m. --12:30 p.m. Room 211A-212B
This session will focus on web logs or blogs which are a new type of Web content typically created by independent writers. Attend this session and learn if and how this fast-growing technology can be of use to local leaders as one more way to communicate vital information to your constituents.
Moderator: Philip Tate, Vice President, Luquire George Andrews, Charlotte, NC
Scott Neal, City Manager, Eden Prairie, Minnesota

Busy Day Today at the National League of Cities

I had an excellent full day at the seminar, I have at least 10 new ideas on my legal pad that I want to evaluate when I get back to Round Lake.

Today I have a few things going on, first thing in the morning is the Illinois Municipal League breakfast. Then I am off to the convention center to hear the key note speaker former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich speak and then I am going to walk the show floor along with attend a session entitled "So you don't run the schools, how municipal leaders can make a difference!" (Just for loyal reader Tim Latta). Then I am going to attend a seminar on "Small Cities with Big Ideas".

I met numerous mayors today, from diverse places such as New Orleans LA, Washington DC, Coolidge, AZ, Holstein IA, Clackamas WA, Colton CA Darlington SC and Lavergne TN. Its entertaining to hear all the ways they do business and run there communities.

National League of Cities this Week

In my never ending quest to learn more about being a better mayor (like thats possible) I am attending the National League of Cities Annual Conference in Charlotte NC. I am speaking on blogging on Friday, which got me a comped registration which tipped the scales on me going. I have been to the National Mayors Conference a few years ago and of course I go sometimes to the the Illinois Municpal League as well, so I am currious what this is like. Tommorrow I am attending an all seminar on the following topic:

Public Problems, Democratic Decisions: The Role of Mayors and Council Members
Growth, economic development, animal control, red light cameras, skateboarding, the list goes on. The complexity and time pressures of public office don’t often leave you much time to think through public problems, much less your role in leading and effectively governing your city or town. Even at the local level, public debates are getting more difficult as discussions on important decisions frequently deteriorate into hostilities that leave council members and the community itself very divided. Governance suffers and the community is weakened. When public officials possess a framework for discussing public problems, you are more likely to engage in effective problem solving before you vote, and consequently are at less risk of making false choices. Understand that to make good decisions, councils must use public values to solve problems and identify good public choices. To govern well, learn how you can lead and facilitate public conversations about the values that underlie public problems and choices.
Instructor: Phillip Boyle, President, Leading and Governing Associates, Inc., Adjunct Professor, School of Government, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC.

Funny side note...I am here to talk on cutting edge technology and the hotel I am in has no internet...so I am blogging via a modem! How stone age, or how ironic!

National League of Cities

I am off today to the National League of Cities where I am a speaker and an attendee. Having some internet connection issues this morning so more later!

Estimated Tax Levy for 2005

Every year we have to estimate what the EAV for the village is in order to past the Tax Levy. The reason we have to estimate is the county will not have the actual number until after we pass the Tax Levy. If you estimate lower that's all you get, so its important to be higher then the actual. However its also important to be accurate because we base the budget and the tax rate on the figures. So we need to be slightly higher then but not dramatically higher.

Fortunately we have the "estimating" expert on staff (she called the 2003 census final numbers in the office pool within 50 residents as well) our Director of Finance Maggie Molidor always is a skilled forecaster. Maggie has been with the village for 12 years as former Mayor Jim Lumber's Finance Director and then 4.5 years as mine. When Mayor Lumber took office the village had roughly $1,000 in our checking account. Today our balance sheet has a bottom line of $35 million dollars (assets, facilities, land etc).

Anyway 5 years ago the village EAV (which is the total taxable value of all the land and structure in the village boundaries) was $75 million. This years estimate is $299 million.

2005-- $299 million (estimated)
2004-- $243 million (actual)
2003-- $177 million (actual)
2002-- $122 million (actual)
2001-- $93 million (actual)
2000-- $76 million (actual)
1999-- $66 million (actual)

If you look at these numbers it parallels the growth.

Breakfast with Santa

Today was the annual Breakfast with Santa sponsored by the Round Lake Area Chamber of Commerce at the Round Lake High School. We have been going every year since we got up here 12 years ago and always have a good time. I have scrubbed pots, made eggs,messed up pancakes served sausage, collected money, bussed tables, but today I reached the zenith, collecting tickets! Very exciting. Saw tons of people including Santa Claus and Mrs Claus. Lots of elected officials as well!

Grand Opening last Wednesday

The brand new apartment complex Coventry Glen behind the CVS had its gala opening last Wednesday evening. The apartments are quite well designed and have some interesting features. If you are thinking upscale apartments then I would urge you to stop by and take a look. The picture is of me wielding the biggest pair of scissors I have ever seen. Heavy as well. In the picture are Trustee Patty Blauvelt, Village Clerk Jeanne Kristan and Trustee Brian Brubaker among others.

Tree Lighting is Today

The Annual Round Lake Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony is today at 6:30 pm. It's always a nice time, generally lots of kids show, we have hot chocolate and snacks and we have a special visitor from the North Pole to talk to the kids. In addition the Round Lake High School Choir will sing Christmas music.

The tree lighting will be at the Village Hall. We all look forward to seeing you there!

Lake County Transportation Alliance Elected Officials Meeting Last Night

Last night I attended the Lake County Transportation Alliance Elected officials meeting with about 50 other Lake County Elected officials. It was interesting as we talked about the progress we have made since the transportation summit held back in September. I have a slide show available of about 670kb so if anyone is interested in seeing the outline feel free to email me at bgentes@eroundlake.com and I will be happy to send it to you. I will be writing a little bit more about some of the outcomes and things that have been going on "transportation-wise".