High Quality Leadership!

One of the challenges of public service is balancing what you want for your small area, your block or your neighborhood versus the needs of the greater community. It is sometimes very hard to understand the needs of someone who lives miles away from you and exists in a different part of the community then you are involved in. We have about 20 homes that actually either touches the actual Round Lake and or the Channel that leads to it., Round Lake Beach has 100'’s and Round Lake Park has at least as many homes.

So a few years the mayors of the three Round Lakes that touch the lake and founded the Round Lake Management Commission I struggled to find people to serve as our representatives on the board. Each community has 3 seats on the 9 person board I initially wanted to appoint people who lived on the lake and was able to attract a dedicated committed resident Doug Vehlow. But I struggled to pull interested people from that small subset of 20 homes over the years.

So I thought outside the box and started to identify people who demonstrated to me that they were willing to get involved in things outside their neighborhoods and I started to approach them. A couple I approached was not able to get involved based on work commitments, or child care responsibilities and for that I am actually grateful they were candid and honest about it with me. I approached a gentleman who was active in his Home Owners Association and active in local politics last year to serve on the RL management committee named John Gutknecht who lives in Valley Lakes, and he has been exceptional.

My plea a month ago or so brought me Niel Flam also of Valley Lakes who has already impressed me with his enthusiasm. So coupled with Doug Vehlow we finally have an excellent trio of representatives on this board. They/we are working towards restocking the lake this fall, doing the annual clean-up next spring, plus hopefully we will also patrol the lake for safety checks as well.

The moral of this story is "“its good to think outside the box sometimes"” also I am glad I was able to identify people who were willing to get involved in something that did not affect there small area of interest.

Special Census Starting

This week we are starting a special census run by the United States Bureau of the Census. It is the second census we have done in my 5 years as Mayor. Let me talk about the last one since we don't know the results of this one, however this one will be almost identical to the last one although the numbers will have changed. First some facts about the special census and some information on the process.

• The reason so many municipalities do a special census is because MFT (Motor Fuel Tax) funds from the state of Illinois are based on population and the most recent census numbers are used.
• On the average we get between $100 and $120 per person per year from the state in MFT funds. Our numbers are based on the most recent census figures (2003 special census) of 10,100.
• The 2003 special census took us from 5,400 to 10,100, so the next fiscal year we got an additional $120 x 4,700 people or an additional $564,000 to the village starting in fiscal year 2004.
• The best part about this is we receive $564,000 more every single fiscal year until the 2010 census, which is an additional $3.38 million.
• Some of the facts we learned from this census is that the typical single family home in Round Lake has 3.24 people in it, and attached homes have 2.73 people in them, which is quite close to the 2000 census numbers as well.
• The village pays for the entire process, in 2003 it cost us $120,000 to hire, train and actually do the count which was administered by a nice lady from the census. So the board had to weigh the potential for making sure that a special census made financial sense.
• In the 2003 case we knew that we would have to have an additional 1,000 people in the village from the 2000 census figures to cost justifies the up front costs.
• The village has about 1,300 to 1,500 more housing units occupied since the 2003 special census. If you use the people per home numbers above, you can get a rough approximation of a current population of Round Lake of around 15,000. The second way of estimating is how many water bills we mail out.
  
• The difficulty with these estimating techniques is the census in 2003 took about a month and a half and we have no real easy way of determining which homes were built and occupied before and after that time period.

My best guess is that we will be at about 15,000 people, which if correct will bring us, an additional $575,000 per year. This means that the village’s use of the special census has taken our MFT revenue from $650,000 to $1,800,000 in 6 years. By the way the picture is a 1930 census taker meeting a familly of 5 who appear to live in a trailer.

The View from on High of the Spartan Brat Fest

Davis Clark our Public Works Director took these this Saturday. The first is the view up to the tower and the second is the view down from the tower. Spartan Football had a big day with Brian Brubaker Spartan President telling me that they made almost $30,000.

Our State Capitol

I am down in Spingfield today for a series of meetings which I am looking forward to. It's also an excellent opportunity to meet and greet people.

Springfield is an interesting place the streets roll up at 8:00 pm! That's for sure since I tried to grab a bite to eat last night around that time. I was tempted by the new Lincoln Library but I think I need more time for that.

Hopefully I will get what I need to accomplish done and then can get home before traffic builds near Chicago. Hummm maybe I should bring that subject up down here!

Fill the Boot--- Thanks to the Round Lake Firefighters

The Round Lake Area Union firefighters was collecting donations for the Muscular Dystrophy Association at the intersection of Cedar Lake rd. and Route 134. This is thier 3rd year collecting and over the last 2 they have collected over $14,000.00 for this charity. The Organization they belong to is the I.A.F.F. International Association of Fire Fighters and has been collecting for MDA for over 50 years and this is the biggest charity that they collect for besides making donations to the area burn camp. Just some history for you when you see signs that say Fill the Boot for MDA they collect donations in firefighters boots just like they did when they started collecting 50 years ago.

The union and its members have given back to the community in many ways also besides the MDA collection. They have made monetary donations to the cancer charities for one of the fire district employee'’s in her memory and the same for a dear friend that was a Grayslake firefighter who also passed from this terrible illness.

Last year they adopted a local family whose daughter has some major medical problems and her parents weren'’t working for this we collected several hundred dollars from thier own members and used the money to buy Christmas gifts for the parents and their children. They have participated in Habitat for Humanities for the last 3 years.

Riding with the Police

I rode around with Chief Metaxa last night and we had a more eventful night then the last time I went out with him last spring. The highlights (or lowlights) were:

• A rollover accident on Route 120, (see picture in the center you can see the roof of the rolled over car).
• Amorous couple caught flagrante delicto in a parking lot.
• High speed trip from Lakewood to near the High School with lights and sirens on. Every 8 year olds dream!
• Got to see the new squad cars electronic equipment in action, video camera, radar detector, and lightbar array.

Overall it was quite interesting and educational, its excellent to see the tools we are now giving our officers being used effectively and efficiently.

Light up my Life!

I found this yesterday on the WGN site taken by a Round Lake resident Bob Fesus who used to live over by me in Treehouse. There are some unreal pictures he captured during yesterday mornings storms! Unreal! This is in Valley Lakes! If you go to the WGN site there are more pictures like this from Bob.

Round Lake 5K Coming Soon

Just a friendly reminder that the Round Lake Area Park District has its 6th annual 5k Run/Walk coming up on September 10th at 8am. It's tons of fun and I will be back to defend my 45-50 age group third place medal (see picture). By the way that's former Trustee Dale Multerer Current Police Commission President and Round Lake Park District Foundation Board Member in the background. Hopefully I can better the time of 30:47 that I had last year! Proceeds from the race benefit Special Olympics for the Round Lake Area as well. So it's for a good cause as well!

The Frosty 5K on the same course earlier this year was not very good for me, as I was soundly whipped by the entire distaff line (all 3 of them) of Trustee Bob Del Prato's family.

If you are interested in registering for the Run/Walk here is the link to a PDF of the entry form. A few hours later there is a doggie walk as well! I will write more on that later.

Corn and Brat Day is Almost Upon Us!

Saturday August 26th is the Round Lake Spartans annual Corn & Brat Day! It starts at 8am and goes until about 5pm. A full day of football and cheerleading. Everyone is invited. It is at Hart Hill football field across from the main park district blg on Hart Rd. The Actual address is 761 Hart Rd.

They could use volunteers for just about everything. Grilling working the chain gang, raffles, someone to run the brand new scoreboard, someone to do announcing and play by play on the brand new sound system, dunk tank operator, concessions, set up, clean up. The list goes on and on.

Or just come out and sit on the hill and watch these boys and girls show you what they have learned in a few short weeks! You can also watch for Round Lake Trustee Brian Brubaker who is very active in the organization and currently serves as President.

Kick off starts at 8am and games run about every 1.5 hours until 5pm Hope to see you out there. If anyone is interested in volunteering email them at info@rlspartans.org.

Honoring a Round Lake Legend this Saturday!

Brian Brubaker current President of the Spartan Football organization sent me this about the dedication of Dedication of Hart's Hill Football Field in honor of Ron Schmidt.

Ron Schmidt, son of Marion and William Schmidt, was born in Chicago on November 20, 1942. Looking for opportunity the Schmidt family moved to Round Lake Park in 1945. Ron attended Murphy school and Round Lake High School graduating in 1960. Ron was active in the community and played sports throughout high school. Ron worked at Fiat Allis in Lake County which was a manufacturing machine shop. Ron never married nor had children. Probably because he was too busy mentoring and coaching all the kids in the Round Lake area. In early 1963 Ron took his own money, bought some football equipment and found an open field in the area to start a football program. People often ask how the Spartans name came to be. As the team was forming Ron would visit the local schools to recruit kids to play. When asked what the name of the team was he turned it back to the kids and asked what they were studying. It just so happened that the kids were studying about Spartan warriors in class that week, the Round Lake Spartans were born.
In the beginning, practices and games were held at St. Joseph Church and at the Round Lake High School. Today the Spartans play games at Hart Hill and practice at Indian Hill School under lights provided by the Round Lake Area Park District. In addition to being the founder of our organization Ron was involved at St. Joseph School and the ATYB. Ron was an accomplished referee for baseball, football and basketball for area youth programs. On August 30, 1996 Ron suffered a heart attack at a high school football game in Libertyville. To the very end of his life Ron was doing what he loved to do. Ron ran the Spartans from 1963 to 1993.

Dedication of Hart's Hill Football Field in honor of Ron Schmidt.
Event: Annual Corn and Brat Day
When: August 26, 2006 at 12:15 PM
Where: Hart Hill Football Field (across the street from the RLAPD)
814 Hart Road, Round Lake

Regional Housing Assessment

NOTE: This was a post from last October which while I was rereading the blog (shamelessly for ideas on what to write this morning) I thought that this illustrates some of the issues facing the county with transportation.

A few weeks ago I attended the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus. There were numerous presentations that gave some big picture looks at the six county Chicagoland Area. One of the talks was on a Regional Housing Needs Assessment for the region. I got the presenter to send me the slide show, so I could present it to the Village Board because I thought it was important for them to have this overview in the back of their minds. I gave the presentation a few meetings ago to them and the public as well.

However there were some very telling slides that explain exactly what we are facing in the terms of "where we live" and "where we work" and to me this illustrates the need for transportation improvements which in turn will/should lure employers closer which will then reduce congestion even more.

The first slide below shows the housing increase from 1990-2000 taken from Census records. Round Lake is not as colorful since a vast majority of our growth has taken place since the 2000 census. However the Round Lake Area did grow thanks to Round Lake Beach. You can clearly see the area on the graph below.

The next image (below) is where the jobs are in 2000. You can see that they are either along the 294, Lake Cook corridors or downtown. As an observation the Baxter facility on Wilson and 120 does not even register and they have 2,300 plus jobs there.

If you then take the two pictures and graph them over each other, you get a look at the Housing vs. Jobs mismatch for the decade of the 90's

What does this mean to us? It's something that any resident intuitively understands while commuting or trying to drive anywhere during rush hours. However I think it illustrates the need for the 120 bypass and traffic improvements in the area. The construction of the 120 bypass will attract more business/jobs to the area which will reduce our commutes and ease congestion. However large employers are not coming to our area if they don't have road improvements, so its a catch 22 type of situation. Which is why the next 2-3 years are so important as we try to get the Route 120 bypass off the drawing board and on to the ground.

Mayoral Smackdown Challenge-- Are You Ready For Some Football!

What has 12 teams and 11 openings? Why the First Annual Round Lake Mayors Invitational Fantasy Football Smackdown does! I joined a fantasy football league last year for the first time in many years and I loved it, I had two teams and lost in the semis with one and won with the other one. This year I have decide to invite 11 elite members of my blogging audience to come try to best the ego maniac who writse this blog.

I set up a league on Fox Sports Fantasy where I am the Mayor, errrr Commisioner, with 12 teams, an autopick draft, and 11 vacant spots for owners. Here are the rules for those who choose to fight it out for second place.

• You must live in Round Lake.
• You have to be able to talk smack and take public abuse for getting beat by the Mayor.
• The first 11 people to email me get into the league.
• Be able to attend the season ending party where I will personally award myself the trophy, since I am going to be unstoppable.
• I will get a suitable trophy, that I will award to myself each year. If someone else actually got lucky and won it they would be able to keep it for a year.
  

The Cedar Lake Road Extension

This is an old article from last year, but since I attended a meeting of the Lakewood Orchard HOA last night where the Cedar Lake Road extension was a topic of discussion I thought I would reprint it.

I was asked an excellent question by a Prairewalk Resident named Doug Pentek that I decided to respond to here since I am sure many people have the same questions.

The answer requires a full discussion of the Cedar Lake Road Extension and the plans Round Lake has made for the extension and the plans Lake County are making for it. So thanks to John Gutknecht for the updated map!

First however an overview.

When I took office 4 years ago one of the primary commute methods to Route 60 from Round Lake was 120 to Bacon to 60. Anyone who has lived here longer then 3 years recalls that actually the South end of Bacon was actually more dangerous then the North end. When Lakewood homes was in a first draft stage of the their development we were able to insist that Lakewood homes build the extension of Cedar Lake Road to its present point (#3 of the photo above) from Route 60.

Lake County has on its books the extension of Cedar Lake Road north from 60 all the way to 120. (that's the heavy black line on the map) However money is tight, the project is expensive and referendums for more transportation funds keep failing. So the project is going to be done in stages.

Stage 1 which is the 60 to Bacon Road portion right now is done, only some connection work to the Stage 2 and the cul de sac of Bacon (#5 on the photo)

Stage 2 I am pleased to say will extend north to Townline Road (#2 on the photo) and bids will be going out in October of this year, construction will start in the spring of 2007 and finish in the Fall of 2007. The village is going to improve its portion of Townline Road to Bacon to handle the traffic flow westwards from the T intersection and in front of our new Police and Public Works Facility (#6 on the photo). In attain the village required Neumann Homes and Concord Homes to provide funding to improve and enhance Townline Road East of the intersection all the way to Curran.

Stage 3 is scheduled to be bid out in 2008 and finished in 2009. This is clearly a shame but is a direct consequence of the two failed traffic referendums in the county in the last two years. However when it gets done a traffic light will be built at Townline and Cedar Lake (#2 on the photo), and at 120 and Cedar Lake (#1 on the photo).

So once this all get accomplished Bacon Road will be a cul-de sac on the South End about where it merges with Cedar Lake now (#5 on the photo). There has also been some discussion on making it a dead end on the North End as well.

However to finally get to Mr Pentek's question the state has looked at putting a light at Bacon and 120 and is currently doing a tentative survey of it, but my guess is since within 5 years the need for it will have vanished I am thinking it will not get done. My only advice is don't drive that way, I avoid those intersections if I can.

Is Illinois the Gerrymander State?

One of the most fascinating things about the state of Illinois is the sheer volume of taxing bodies there are. This village has an unreal amount of taxing bodies that fall inside our boundaries. I am going to list them, and I am sure I will miss some, in fact I can guarantee I will. The picture is appropriate sometimes when you deal with the number of taxing bodies in the area.

School Districts (8)

• Round Lake District 116
• Grayslake High School 127
• Community School District 46
• Fremont School District
• Mundelien High School District
• Grant High School
• Big Hollow School District
• Gavin School District

Park Districts (1)

• Round Lake Area Park District

Library Districts (2)

• Round Lake Area Library District
• Grayslake Library District

Fire Departments (3)

• Round Lake Fire Protection District
• Grayslake Fire Protection District
• Fox Lake Fire Protection District

Townships (3)

• Avon
• Grant
• Fremont

Sanitary Sewer (2)

• Lakes Region Sanitary Sewer
• Round Lake Sanitary Sewer

Countywide organizations (4)

• College of Lake County
• Lake County
• Stormwater Management
• JAWA-- Joint Area Water Agency

We are also served by 1 Congressman, 1 State Senator, 1 State Representative, 4 County Board Representatives.

$2 Million for the 120 Bypass

We got some good news yesterday from our Congresswomen Melissa Bean on the 120 bypass. She was able to get the 120 CPC $2 million for the Phase 1 study in the form of a fiscal year 2007 Federal earmark. The picture is from the press conference where Congresswomen Bean announced the earmark. In the picture I am talking a little about what the congresswomen has done for transportation in the 8th district. She has delivered $30 million for her district which encompasses parts of 4 counties, but $16 million of it has been here in Lake County! There was a nice crowd of Mayors, County Board Members, media and the general public! The Daily Herald had an article about it here, and the News Sun covered it here.

The Mosquito Cost!

So you wanna be a Trustee or the Mayor? Here is a synopsis of an interesting report all the elected's recieved from Davis Clark in Public Works from Clarke Mosquito which outlines services Clarke Mosquito does for us. I must confess I read most of it, but then I am a sucker for this stuff. But this is the sort of stuff you have to be willing to dive into!

The challenge is to read something like this and be able to recall it when someone complains about mosquitos and then yank the relevant fact out of your head (in my case right next to who played catcher for the New York Mets in 1969, Jerry Grote by the way) and be able to talk about what the village does!

Operation and Surveillance Reports: Attached is a report outlining all services performed year-to-date. These services include the following:

• Complete Site Larval Inspection Service: Inspection service of all potential mosquito larvae development sites.
• Targeted Site Larval Inspection: Inspection of all targeted larval development sites. Culex Site Inspection Service: Inspection of culex mosquito larval development sites for the prevention of West Nile Virus and other mosquito-borne diseases.
• Larval Site Service Call: Special inspection of standing water for mosquito breeding per hot line request.
• Backpack Larviciding: Backpack larviciding for biological control of mosquito larvae sites.
• Hand Larviciding: Hand equipment larviciding for biological control of mosquito larvae.
• Backyard Catch Basin Trmt: Backyard catch basin treatment for larval control.
• Catch Basin Appl: Treatment of street catch basins for seasonal control of mosquito larvae development.
• Backyard Catch Basin Touch-Up: Treatment of a backyard catch basin per the request of the community's resident.
• Helicopter Larviciding: Helicopter larvicide application for biological control of mosquitoes.
• Truck ULV: ULV application for adult mosquito control larvae.
• Truck ULV Service Call: ULV “touch-up” application for control of mosquito annoyance per citizen hotline request.

The report then went on to detail exactly what was done and where, but it was in a spreadsheet which does not work here on blogger.

Round Lake Area Fire Districts

The Round Lake Area Fire Department Fire Fighters have a nice web page from their local. Its an attractive well thought out site with lots of information on what it takes to be a successful fire fighter on a busy department.

Not sure if you know that Round Lake is actually served by three fire departments, Round Lake, Grayslake and Fox Lake.

Curious Photo

Bonus prize if someone can tell what this is a picture of! Not sure what the prize is but I will find something appropriate! Hint: It is not really Round Lake related.

I am off to the Arlington Million today, I have $75 burning a hole in my pocket and I looking at Gorella in the Beverly D and I love Cacique in the Million.

The answer to the question on Saturday night!
Satellite image of crops growing in Kansas, USA. Healthy, growing crops are green. Corn would be growing into leafy stalks by late June (when this photo was taken). Sorghum, which resembles corn, grows more slowly and would be much smaller and therefore, possibly paler. Wheat is a brilliant gold as harvest occurs in June. Fields of brown have been recently harvested and plowed under or lie fallow for the year. The circular crop fields are a characteristic of center pivot irrigation. The fields shown here are 800 and 1,600 meters (0.5 and 1 mile) in diameter. The image is centered near 37.4 degrees north latitude, 100.9 degrees west longitude, and covers an area of 37.2 x 38.8 km. The 'grid' in which the fields are laid out runs North-South/West-East and the dark angled line is U.S. Route 56.

The image is aligned with the satellite orbital track, which is in a 98 degree tilted orbit. North is not "up". Rotate the image about 10 degrees clockwise to align the roads north-south. The image is a false-color presentation made to simulate natural color. The 3 bands that were used are in the green, red, and near infrared parts of the spectrum. ASTER does not have a blue channel, so any blue that can be seen was created from the other bands.

Source: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17006

Class of 76 Reunion Update

A few months ago former Panther Paula (Beal) Nelson sent me some information on a reunion of the RLHS class of 76. She just sent me some updates which you can find here!

The ice-breaker with our classmates, friends, siblings, teachers, school alumni is invited to drop in to say "hi" we get reacquainted will be held on October 6th at Lakes Bowl after 7pm.

The picture is from the class reunion of 1986, I wonder what has changed? She also invited me to stop by for a drink, but I am so young in comparison to them I might not fit in, being from the class of 78 (although not Round Lake High School).

Road Improvements Along 120 and Curran

I have seen some interesting comments about holding developers accountable for traffic issues. Coincidently I got some pictures of the road improvements that we insited on from Pulte and Centerville as a result of their residential and commercial projects. Centerville assumed responsibility for management of the roadwork project. The roadwork was essentially completed on Friday with the final installation of landscaping and grass mat.

I would like to make a couple of comments about past developments that I was involved with and the traffic issues that we held developers accountable for. As a general rule of thumb traffic improvements rank in the top 3 issues we want to address from a potential developer.

• Lakewood Homes-- They were required to do away with Bacon Road, and build from scratch the intersection, the extension of Cedar Lake northwards from 60 and then dedicate the remaining right away for the Cedar Lake Road extension. Off the top of my head Lakewood forked over in excess of $5 million dollars for traffic improvements from 800 homes.
• Madrona Homes-- In some respects we are not seeing the benefit from the traffic improvements from them yet, but hopefully the foresight the village had to make them set aside the 300 foot right away for the 120 bypass comes to fruition. In addtion we also set aside right away for the Cedar Lake Road extension from 120 to Townline Road. In partnership with Neuman Homes at Prairie Walk they also were required to improve Townline road which is a free benefit to District 46's "sometime" new school. I have no idea how much money the right away is, but its substantial based on roughly 800 homes.
  

I do wish that more could be done to route 60 specifically the light at 60 and Petersen. I did get a copy of the Lake County Transportation Plan for 2006-2011, and intersection improvements are slated for 2008. If the counties traffic refererendum had passed the intersection and many other needed improvements would be here much sooner.

Round Lake Bike Patrol Debuts

This fiscal year we have a new addition to the police fleet, bikes! The story of how we got them, reflects the changing environment of the police department. Officer Vanessa Whitten (smiling in the picture) and Officer Jon Zacharias mentioned to the command staff how they thought that a bike patrol would be highly effective in Round Lake.

They researched the idea and submited a formal proposal (including the cost of the program) before the budget process started. These officers did a fine job and their proposal was approved by the police administration and ultimately by the Village Board.

An important component of the officer’s proposal included the reasons why the police department should have a bike patrol. The officers stressed making positive connections with the residents by getting out of the squad cars and seeming more approachable to the residents. The officers also stressed how easy it would be to patrol a festival or downtown area without drawing a lot of attention to themselves and in a stealthly manner.

You might have seen Officer Whitten at the National Night Out event on one of the new bikes. Some of the officers ride recreationally and are looking forward to attending upcoming training to be a bike patrol officer. Keep your eye out as this is a program that the police department will be expanding in the future.

Traffic Warning Number 2!

The second spot (see yesterday's post for the first) we are getting complaints about is making right turns off of 60, and then left turns on to Norwell, then a right onto Raymond to evade traffic on 60.

I have directed that Public Works install stop signs at Arden and Norwell and make it a three way stop sign. With all the appropriate striping. This is where we are going to be running the second part of our "Stop Sign Awareness Program"!
We will have helpful officers making sure that you are obeying the law, and giving you friendly reminders in yellow!

Many thanks for the two maps to Valley Lakes resident John Gutknecht, he was unaware of my nefarious purpose in requesting his google mapping expertise. However he certainly has a talent!

Traffic Warning!

Fair warning! We have been getting numerous complaints about cars racing through the Lakewood neighborhood right off of Cedar Lake Road, turning left on Jonathan, and the left on Kristina and re-emerging on 60 about 10 cars ahead of where they were before. You can see the route on the map that people are taking to move forward in line.

Clever! But its going to cost you. We are going to be running a "Stop Sign Awareness Program" at the intersection. We will have some officers stopping cars who don't obey the sign in the mornings for awhile. With school starting soon we would not want to have cars racing through the streets so we aim to enforce quite strictly! Oh if you live on the streets mentioned, you will pass the test with flying colors. If you seem to be driving down our quiet streets on your daily commute and not obeying traffic laws you may find yourself flunking!

Pictures from the Bike Race

Had a really interesting time watching the bike racing yesterday. Ran into Trent Gillette at the race, he was there to bang on the noise makers. Also saw George and Vicky Ranney, and Dennis Sanquist as well, oh yeah, some guy named Sean, he appeared to be Trent's chauffeur. The pictures are pretty indicative of what was happening, however the one with just one rider in it was the winner crossing the finish line of the Cat 4 race! I almost missed it.

More Bike Racing Today

Interesting day today, I am going to see the 1 day Inaugural Grayslake Cycling Classic at Prairie Crossing in Grayslake. It's Chicagoland's newest and most unique criterium, featuring a fast, flat horse-shoe shaped 1.1 mile course! There are all sorts of age group and gender related races throughout the day with the professionals riding last around 4pm.

I have often thought the village of Round Lake should sponsor a race, although my thinking was a 5K run through Round Lake's neighborhoods, the logistical problems are bigger then you would imagine. How do you cross Fairfield, and 120? I think it would be cool to race right down Cedar Lake through Bright Meadows, Madrona and into Lakewood, or then up to Valley Lakes. Although that might be a 10K. The other thought I had before one of the parades is run the Round Lake Mile...start at Washington and Cedar Lake and run north of Cedar Lake right over the hill and down into Round Lake Beach. Be kinda cool with all the people lining the route waiting for candy. I tried convincing the park district about that one, but no takers there!

I also thought of a beat the Mayor race for charity, but that might be to charitable, judging by my slow run this morning!

Fishing Derby

A few weeks ago the Round Lake Lake Management Commission, Competition Bass Masters and the Round Lake Area Park District sponsors a Fishing Derby. There was a nice turn out as you can see by the picture.

The Fish Tank Gets Wired!-- Plus Secret Mayoral Plot to Take Over Revealed!

The fish tank has been wired! For those of you following this exciting project you can see some of the progess here. A thin steel wire is being wrapped around the building, the cable appears to be about the width of your mouse cord. That's a lot of wire! Here is a close up of the wire. If you followed the link to my brilliant racing stripe post, these are the racing stripes!

Once the wire is wrapped around the water tower elite craftsmen will begin to work a mosaic pattern into the side of the building, it will look exactly like this building, except my face will be replacing the Chairman's.

Finally for those unaware of my sense of humor, the above was a joke intended to amuse.

Sad News

Mary Hill the wife of Round Lake Beach Mayor Rich Hill passed away last night after a long illness. Mary will be missed greatly, she was a wonderful vibrant person. I know Rich and his family must be suffering greatly, and our deepest sympathies go out to him and his family. There is to be a memorial service this Friday evening at 6pm at Cavalry Presbyterian Church.

Nice Article on Blogging in National Magazine

Did a couple of things yesterday village related, but the most important one was the Madrona Homes HOA meeting I attended with Chief Metaxa last night. Good crowd and some nice give and take discussion wise on some important issues.

I got some nice ink on the blog from a national magazine American City and County Magazine. This magazine along with Governing are the two I read cover to cover every month. I have learned quite a few things from them. I was flattered to get interviewed and of course even more interested when I discovered they used my quotes prominently in the article. The link to the article is here.

I noticed my traffic has increased a little bit as well because of the article I would guess, which is always nice to see. I can't imagine articles on backstabbing at Stormwater Management, and the use of flags has caused the spike so it must be the magazine.

Train Station Improvements

One of the goals of my administration has been to improve our Metra station. We have been able to get funding for improvements to the Long Lake Metra Station via a CMAQ grant recently. Hopefully we will be adding over 200 spaces to that station along with a walking path connecting it to Valley Lakes.

We also applied for funding, and got it, via the federal government's Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century provides money for state Transportation Enhancement Programs (ITEP in Illinois). The idea is to enhance transportation systems while building more livable communities and improving the quality of life. NOTE: For the life of me I can't recall how much money we got, its way to early in the morning for that type of thinking!

Davis Clark our Director of Public Works and our Engineering department recently met with IDOT to kick-off the ITEP funded Metra Corridor Beautification and Pedestrian Access project that we recently received funding for.

The scope of work we are comptemplating is as follows:

• Concrete bin and foundation removal.
• Embankment replacement and general grading & leveling and seed the site north of the tracks.
• Extension of paver sidewalk north of the tracks along the west side of Cedar Lake Road.
• Construct an ornamental fence along, and parallel to, the north side of the tracks to prohibit pedestrians crossing at a non-controlled section of the tracks.
• Provide tree and shrub landscaping along the north side of the tracks and possibly additional street lights if necessary.
  

In accordance with the terms of the ITEP fund, the Village can be reimbursed for 80% of the cost for Phase II engineering for the project. However, the village may opt to pay 100% of the engineering which would provide more Federal dollars toward construction and also eliminate the need for an additional agreement to be processed allowing engineering to begin in a more timely fashion. So as you can see the village board has some say on how we proceed and at what speed.

I have a very preliminary concept plan here which might be tough to see but it gives you and idea of what we are thinking about. Please email me at bgentes@eroundlake.com for a copy.