A Driving Hurry! To fix our traffic problems!

Today is a busy one for me, at 10 I am attending a board meeting for the Lake County Transportation Alliance (LCTA) where I am on the executive committee, then in the evening is the initial organizing meeting for the 120 Bypass Corridor Council. More on that in Thursdays post I would imagine. By the way I have had 33 posts that have the word transportation in it in the last few months....gee I wonder why?

Some background on the Lake County Transportation Alliance
How many times have we heard from State Officials that there is no perceived agreement on priority transportation projects in Lake County? We lose out on funding to other counties that have an organized, single voice advocating for transportation improvements.

As you may recall, the transportation projects voted on at the Transportation Summit were either identified during the seven public hearings conducted by Lake County in the Fall of 2004 and or developed from the 10-year Lake County Road Improvement Plan or during the first Lake County Elected Officials'’ Meeting convened on July 13, 2005 by State Senator Terry Link, State Rep. Kathy Ryg, Lake County Board Chair Suzi Schmidt, Lake County Chair of the Public Works and Transportation Committee Diana O'Kelly, and Mayor Elliott Hartstein of Buffalo Grove.

In order to keep Lake County's transportation needs in front of our legislators, we've set up a new organization to spearhead transportation advocacy. This new membership organization is called the LCTA and among other things, LCTA will develop an Annual Action Plan, work with State and Federal Officials to support them in their efforts to secure transportation funding, and convene an Annual Transportation Summit to develop the next year'’s Consensus Transportation Agenda.

Despite LCTA's very recent establishment, we've already begun taking action. We've already provided Governor Blagojevich and Illinois DOT'’s Executive Director, Tim Martin with a letter detailing Lake County's FY 2007 Transportation Agenda. The signatories include State Senator Terry Link, State Rep. JoAnn Osmond, Lake County Board Chair Suzi Schmidt, and LCTA Chair JoAnn Eckmann.

LCTA is forming the Route 120 Corridor Planning Council to advocate for the Route 120 Bypass, the top regional transportation planning priority identified at the Summit. Twelve communities and the County are on board working cooperatively to pursue a $340,000 Illinois Tomorrow Planning Grant.