Reading Day at Saint Joe's

One of the best things I get to do as Mayor is go to schools and do fun things with kids. Today along with many others I got to be a guest reader for second graders at Saint Joseph's elementary. I had a great time I read one book and then I asked questions and learned things about what the kids are studying. Fractions and probability, wow, I am impressed!
There were other who attended as well, Village Clerk Jeanne Kristan, Trustee Brian Brubaker, Chief Cliff Metaxa, Deputy Chief Francis Foy, State Representative Bob Churchill among others. Its always a fun time, and it's great to see how involved everyone is.

Where do your tax dollars go?

NOTE: I had a variety of questions about where your tax dollars go in the last few weeks. So I decided to go back to a post I ran back in May 2005 based on an excellent article in the Daily Herald. So here it is.

How do I know this? Because I am getting all sorts of calls about it! I have reproduced a chart from an article that appeared in the Daily Herald on where your tax dollars goes. Its interesting to see that county wide the typical tax bill has 68% of the total dollars goes to schools. Only 10% goes to municipality's. I felt that this article was one of the best I have read on your tax bill, its written quite well and make the process reasonably easy to understand.

I had a blog post on the article when it came out and have created a complete PDF of the article I am going to upload it here so you can download it from this blog.

I also recreated the graphic above, and did not do a real good high resolution job, so my apologies for the bitmaps. I aim to have high graphic standards on the site, and this is clearly not cutting it.

Please note I was able to upload the file here it is!
Article on Taxation from Daily Herald.pdf

20 Years Ago-- The Race to Space Paused

I always believed that space travel would be available to regular people like myself by the year 2020. At least this is what I believed 20 years ago. Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the Challenger space shuttle disaster. I was stunned by what happened, I can still recall exactly where I was standing when I heard about it. My first thought was all the kids watching it live on TV because the first "teacher in space" Christa McAuliffe was aboard.

To this day when there is a space launch of the shuttle I always stop and watch or at least pay attention. The crew of Challenger never made it into space that day and I always think of the danger they faced for science and exploration. While I am not terribly religious, I do keep them in my thoughts every time there is a launch.

Sadly the drive to space has slowed down dramatically and I don't believe accessible space travel will happen in my lifetime, which is a shame, because I always wanted to see the world from space.

Candidate Forum Today at the Community Center

All seven candidates seeking the GOP nomination for Congress in the 8th District are expected to take part in a forum Saturday afternoon at the Round Lake Park District Community Center.

The forum is open to the public and is sponsored by four northwest Lake County Republican organizations in Grant, Lake Villa, Avon and Antioch townships. In addition to the congressional hopefuls, contenders for Illinois governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, the state Senate and House, and judicial candidates also are expected at the forum.

The program is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. and continue until about 4 p.m. in the Community Center's Senior Center at 814 Hart Road in Round Lake.

School Bus Safety

After reading about the horrific accident in Florida where seven kids lost their lives because someone was not paying attention to a stopped school bus, I started paying attention to buses driving today and I noticed quite a few cars being "cavalier" with the bus being stopped.
I asked Police Chief Metaxa to step up enforcement of this issue. As all of you know the village is home to 9 school districts and has Round Lake High School, Village School, the Early Education Center, Saint Joe's and the Round Lake Area Park District as well.
In addition kids ride buses in all our neighborhoods all the time to schools outside of Round Lake. We need to make sure they are at least as safe as they can be in our village. I have also asked Chief Metaxa to report to the board on the status of this enforcement issue. For those of us who need a refresher on the rules, here are some I found on the internet.

• Stop for stopped school busses. Period. If you see a stopped school bus you are required to stop. The only exception is if you are on a roadway with a concrete or raised earth median between your car and the bus'— and even then you should slow down and look out for children.
• Do not proceed until the school bus stop sign is pulled in. Even if it appears all the children have boarded the bus or moved away from it, do not move forward until the bus driver indicates it is safe to do so by pulling in the school bus stop sign.
• Watch for children as you approach or pull away from a school bus. Kids don't always think about safety, and may dart around the bus,unexpectedlyy, into the street. Be on the lookout and ready to react.

While our thoughts and prayers are with the family of the kids in Florida. This can all serve as a reminder to be vigilant of our kids and our neighbors kids!

Senior Utility Rebate Available

If you have not yet applied, village residents over the age of 65 are eligible for a two dollar exemption ($1 on the administrative sharge and $1 on the recylcing charge) on their village utility bill. If you have lived here for more then 6 months in 2005, you might also be eligible for the annual senior citizen untility rebate. If you have not filled out the application forms before they are available at the village hall. All we need is proof of residency. If you have been involved in the program before, call the Village Hall at 847-546-5400 to re-activate. You have to do this by March 31st however.

Bingo at the EEC

The last few years I have been the Bingo caller at the Round Lake School District's Early Education Center program where the kids play Bingo for Books. Last night I was the guest caller once again. Each kid walked away with 2 books! I had a great time! The picture is of me with Annette McGinley who is the PTO President for the EEC and a board member of District 116. Special thanks to Clarese Ornstein who invited me (also a former teacher of my daughter's) and Principal Shahran Spears. Hopefully I will have some more action shots of the kids and the books tomorrow.

My Favorite Blog!

I am fascinated by blogs, and the whole medium I have a variety of blogs that I read everyday. So I figured I would share.

The Mayor of Elburn-- My mentor

New (sub)Urbanism-- A commentary on current issues in metropolitan development.

The Place Where We Live-- Buildings, Trees, Sidewalks, Glue . . . . A Chicago, IL Blog Dispatched from the 43rd Ward on the Near North Side.

Google Video of the Day-- Good for laughs!

I read many more but not daily!

Finally I do one of these a day!

The Snow Post

Been busy since early morning and have not been able to post. But I feel I owe it to my public! This photo was sent to me by Bish, of his back yard porch...mine looks the same way.

A Mixed Bag at the Track Today

The medal haul and the athlete in action! I did okay, added 4 centimeters to my personal best in the long jump where I got a second. Ran .14 second slower then my best in the 55 where I also got a second. Someone told me it was hand timed which adds 2-3 tenths of a second to your times and my previous best was electronically timed. I do think however I ran slow.

Hans Zigmund ran well getting a 8.92 in his first race from blocks and his first sprint since high school. He got second in the shot as well. I was crap throwing the shot, barely cleared 28 feet when my best is nearer 31 feet where I placed third. I was quite pleased with my 200 meters lowering my time to 31.40 subtracting a second from my previous best I also got a second in that race. The event I won (the medal in the center of the picture) was the 400 I reduced my time by 3 seconds which I was quite pleased with. I ran a 33-39 split, which I need to work on, I went out way to fast and died the last 100 meters or so.

Overall a very nice day, interesting weather conditions on the way out to Sterling, dense fog at ground level through which you could see about 50 feet ahead of you. However if you glanced up it was sunny about 6-8 feet off the ground. I prudently slowed down from 88 mph to 83 mph.

Its a Track and Field Kind of Day!

Indoors for sure! Today is my first trip to the track of the year. I am competing in five events in Sterling Illinois at the Sterling Park District. The five events that I am competing in are the Long Jump, Shot Put, 55 meters, 200 meters and the 400 meters. I have also convinced Hans Zigmund my usual T&F accomplice to add the 55 meters to his usual shot put and weight throw. I have written two posts about my track and field obsession here and here if you care to follow along.

As always I have goals. They are the same as last December's foray at the University of Chicago.
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

Mayor's Meeting and Speech Yesterday

Mayor Ted Mueller of Hainesville, Mayor Rich Hill, of Round Lake Beach, Jill Gross President of the Round Lake Chamber of Commerce, Mayor Bill Gentes of Round Lake and Mayor Ila Bauer of Round Lake Park pose after the giving speechs about thier respective village's state of affairs. I saw lots of Round Lake residents Yolanda Lomeli, Al Villasenor, Michael Blum and Trustee's Jerry Shaw, Sherry Perkowitz, Brian Brubaker, Patty Blauvelt, and Don Newby. In addtion our Village Clerk the saintly Jeanne Kristan.

Its always interesting to see the other village's projects and viewpoints on issues as well. There were about 100 people or so at the meeting which was nice to see.

Mayors Chamber of Commerce speech's Today

What do these 5 handsome people have in common? They are mayors! From left to right Mayor Rich Hill of Round Lake Beach, Mayor Terry Lumpkins of Round Lake Heights, Mayor Ila Bauer of Round Lake Park, some chunky guy, and Mayor Ted Mueller of Hainesville. This picture was taken at the 2003 version of the Mayor's State of the Village address sponsored by the Round Lake Chamber of Commerce. Its a yearly tradition and this year will be my fifth speech! It will also be covered live on WRLR 98.3 and you can stream it live. It should start around noon.

Round Lake has Company!

We are not alone! There are other Round Lake's in the world, there is a Round Lake New York, population 604! The mayor is named Dixie Lee Sacks!

There is a Round Lake MN. The population of that Round Lake is 472. I was unable to locate who was the mayor of this Round Lake however.

There is a Round Lake WI. The population of that Round Lake is 962. I was unable to locate who was the mayor of this Round Lake however. But they appear to have a different form of government and James Henchel is the Chairman. (They also appear to not have a web page)

There is a Round Lake State Park in Idaho. The population is 0, although they do have 31 campsites.

A lake in Michigan goes by the name Round Lake.

Lastly the Russian Gymnastic Federation has its elite training grounds in Round Lake Russia. I struggled to find links for this place.

Mayors Task Force Created

Last night at the regular village board meeting, I announced the creation of a task force to attempt to attract a hospital to the Round Lake Area. If you throw in Volo, Fox Lake, and the un-incorporated areas in this general area, we have 100,000 to 120,000 people who have to drive a substantial distance to a hospital. Northern Illinois Medical Center appears to be the closest full service one and its a good 10 miles away. I might be wrong as to the closest, but the point being they are all a good ways to go.

With the arrival of sewer and water to our SW quadrant, we have an excellent opportunity to trigger this needed service in the area. The task force will be led by a trustee and I would like citizen involvement on the task force as well so please email me at bgentes@eroundlake.com and I will make sure you are a member of the taskforce. In addition I am going to be inviting other communities to join the task force so we can speak as a group.

Lake County Municipal League Legislative Initiative

The crafting of public policy has been compared to making sausage (thats what is going on in the picture by the way), the implication being that the process may not be quite as attractive as the end result and not necessarily to be witnessed by the faint of heart.
Anyway, Round Lake is a Member of the Lake County Municipal League which is a Council of Government (COG) formed under the Illinois Intergovernmental Cooperation Act.
Its members include cities and villages within Lake County as well as the Lake County organization that represents unincorporated areas. The League enables member municipalities to better fulfill their mission through legislative action, training and information sharing.
Municipalities are subject to a wide range of costly state and federal mandates and our civic responsibilities require resources and tools that are only obtainable through the legislative process. In order to deliver vital services to our constituents, the League has developed a Legislative Initiative that outlines and explains its legislative priorities for the upcoming year. The purpose of the initiative is to raise awareness of the challenges Lake County faces with regard to transportation and our fiduciary responsibilities to the taxpayer.
The League works with a variety of municipal organizations including other COGs, the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus and the Illinois Municipal League. Our Legislative Committee meets regularly, monitoring the progress of important initiatives. This years legislative committee was Thomas G. Adams Mayor Village of Green Oaks (Chair) Terese Douglass Trustee Village of Grayslake Michael J. Ellis Village Manager Village of Grayslake and Bambridge Peterson Village Administrator of Round Lake.

Executive Summary
Lake County has 644,356 constituents, representing just over 5% of the population of the State of Illinois. In addition to being a large population center, the County serves as a major seat of commerce and is home to a number of large global conglomerates such as Abbott Laboratories and Motorola. There are 367,930 registered voters and 320,367 employees in Lake County. Over $1.5 billion in property taxes were collected in 2004.
To support the future prosperity of our member communities, the League has established the following 2006 legislative goals that recognize the importance of controlling the taxpayerÂ’s burden, enhancing economic development opportunities and improving our quality of life:

• Obtaining funding for certain unanimously endorsed Lake County consensus transportation initiatives. Improve the pension funding process, with special attention to controlling the impact on taxpayers.
  
• Secure legislation for certain administrative reforms regarding motor fuel tax funds that will cut costs for both the State of Illinois and local governments.
  
• Restore dedicated funds to their intended purposes and previous funding levels.
  
• Include school districts in the discussions of the Local Government Consolidation Commission.

Sponsorship of needed initiatives and support of our proposals as listed in the 2006 Lake County Municipal League Legislative Initiative will be greatly appreciated. So when you see a statelegislatorr tell them about these issues.

For those of you with an intense interest in the document, I will email you a PDF of it. Since I know I mentioned schools, loyal reader Tim L. will be asking for it I ought to just send it to him now! Lets see if he gets down this far on the article!

Super Special Guests on My Radio Show Last Week

The boys from Cub Scout Den 455 troop 5 all stopped by my radio show Village Voices last Thursday to fulfill one of their badge requirements. They had a great time, but to tell the truth I had a better time! I took three of them at a time into the booth and interviewed them so each one got a 10 minute slice of the radio world!

The Manchester Derby

As many of may or may not know I am a soccer fanatic, I live and die by Manchester City. Tomorrow morning at 630am on Fox Sports Channel I am going to be watching live coverage of one of the most intense soccer rivalries in England and in the world. Manchester City versus Manchester United (preview). I will be wearing my replica jersey, purchased in China during the game. For those of you see me with a black and red scarf this winter that's Manchester City away colors.
City lie 9th and the Scum lie 2nd right now. But City is home so I am cautiously optimistic I am guessing 2-1 City!

NOTE: For those of you on pins and needles about the outcome. I was wrong City did not win 2-1 but rather won 3-1!

Lively Day on the Comments Section of the Blog

There were some interesting comments on yesterdays post about the 120 Bypass Corridor Planning Council and my comments as chairman. I mentioned 3 phrases Consensus, East-West Transportation Solution and Optimism that I thought are going to be key to getting the 120 bypass built. I also used the word inevitable, for a variety of reasons. I believe this word to be an accurate reflection of this project. With the growth over the entire county we need projects like this to accommodate the projected 2030 flows of traffic. If something is not done to address the problems with traffic and the lack of east-west transportation in the county we will suffer, with increased commuting time, less jobs nearby, less companies locating in Lake County, and a general slowing of all economic indicators and progress throughout the county. So for that reason I do think its inevitable that the 120 bypass will be built. We as residents eventually would force elected officals to take action.

Your elected federal, state, muncipal and county officals have gotton on board and are working together to move this forward. However the only way to get this done is hard work, and spending time ironing out the details making this the best project it can be. I believe that we as a community need to sit in the front seat, preferably in the drivers seat rather then in the back seat and wait for others to accomplish it for us.

Its Alive! The 120 Corridor Planning Council is Live!

The organizing meeting for the 120 Corridor Planning Council was tonight. I hosted it at the new Police and Public Works facility. It was very well attended, with the Mayors of Grayslake, Round Lake, Round Lake Park, Hainesville, Gurnee, Waucounda and Mundelein all attending or having representatives there. In addition County Board Chair Suzi Schmidt and the other 4 board members were there as well. The communities of Park City, Volo and Waukegan were unable to have there mayors attend. There were about 30 people in the audience.

The meeting was mostly all organizational with the adoption of bylaws and election of officers. I was elected Chairman, with County Board Member Diana O'Kelly as Vice Chair (she is the Chair of the county boards transportation committee and is an excellent fit), and Mayor Tim Perry of Grayslake was elected Treasurer.

I am very excited about the whole process and over time and it will take time, we are going build this needed transportation improvement. Of course I made some remarks which I will post below, with some edits for clarity.

I want to thank everyone on the council for there confidence in me. When I was thinking about what to say, there were three phrases that jumped out at me

• The first was "“Consensus" --—10 Municipalities and a substantial part of the county board leadership are here today and back the eventual construction of this needed traffic improvement. This is truly impressive and shows the importance we attach to transportation improvements.
• Second is the "East-West Transportation Solution"”-- this project is about exactly that, East-West, not North-South and specifically not 53.
• Third is "Optimism" the Route 120 bypass will get built, I doubt all of us would be sitting here, and staring ahead at a project of this magnitude and timeline if it were not because we are optimistic about the inevitability of this project taking place.
  
• There are many different ideas on how the road should end up. All of these ideas will and should be evaluated by our committee structure and the best solution will emerge. I think we can all promise that they will be heard and evaluated.

Obviously there will be much more happening in the future and of course you will be hearing quite a bit about it when those things happen!

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.

Street Lights Out? Here's how you can help!

We have lots of streetlights in the village. Most of them, are all identically styled by the way, to match the streetlights in the downtown. Some of them have lights out or short circuits or whatever and they don't work. Take a minute and email our Director of Public Works Davis Clark or call the public works department at (847) 546-0962. I can guarantee a quick response! Then there will be light!

The Proposed Route 120 Bypass

As promised earlier here is a map of the 120 bypass as it was constituted when it was a part of the Route 53 bypass a few years ago. The picture above is a rough JPEG of this PDF file of about 1.4 MB.

NOTE: for some reason I can't get the PDF to post here, so email me and I will send you the file

A few disclaimers on the map as you look at it.

• The final version of the route will more then likely not be on this path. There are points that it will have to go through. Such as where it crosses Wildspring in Round Lake.
• All the improvements around intersections are also provisional. In other words how the exits and entrances from the bypass will actually appear is highly speculative.
• This is not I repeat not the Route 53 bypass, it is the 120 Bypass.
  

However in the absence of anything else this shows the intent of the 120 Corridor Planning Council (120 CPC) towards developing a "Pre Phase One Engineering Plan" for IDOT and our State and Federal Legislators. My guess is that this will take us about 18 months.

Next Wednesday the 11th at 7pm is the set-up meeting of the 120 CPC which will adopt the bylaws of the organization, elect officers and get a committee structure manned and moving. Once the housekeeping is done, the 120 CPC will meet on a more formal basis on a regular schedule. Since we are a public entity we will certainly be open to the public and of course entertain public comment. In addition we will be having public hearings where we will actively invite public comment on the plan as the process goes forward. The regular board meetings of the 120 CPC will be held at the new Round Lake Police and Public Works facility at the corner of Bacon and Townline Road in Round Lake.

Riding with the Police

Last night I rode with the night shift of our Police Department. My intention was, as liquor commisioner, to visit the 6 bars in Round Lake and say hi to the owners and bartenders and see what was going on. It was quite interesting not so much for the bar visits but for the zipping around and watching how the officers on the night shift support each other at the various calls they were on. I also got to wear a bullet proof vest as well. I can assure you the novelty of that wore off after exactly 21 seconds. It's heavy, awkward and cumbersome!

It was a slow night in Round Lake, the highlight of the evening was a drunk sleeping on the grass behind an apartment. Some frozen meat and picante sauce were tucked into his pants. The low resolution picture is of him being led away to the lock-up. He then got feisty at the lock-up, which I missed.

When I got home my teenage daughter was up! She immediately started busting me for staying out late and not calling. Which was funny.

Round Lake Library Sponsors "Night at the Movies"

The Round Lake Area Library is sponsoring nights at the movies! The films are screened at the library and have some classics!

January 12 at 6:00 p.m.
The Bandwagon
Fading movie musical star Tony Hunter, down and out in Hollywood, decides to try his luck on the Broadway stage. Starring Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse.
NR Run Time: 112 minutes

January 19 at 6:00 p.m.
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire are taken in by a series of oddball relatives and others after their wealthy parents are killed in a fire. The first to take them in is the dastardly and cunning Count Olaf, who is only interested in their inheritance.
Rated PG for thematic elements, scary situations and brief language. Run Time: 108 minutes

January 26 at 6:00 p.m.
Fargo
A Midwestern policewoman investigates a series of brutal and interconnected crimes. Steadily, she tightens the net on the killers and their accomplices in a kidnapping scheme gone wildly wrong.
Rated R for strong violence, language and sexuality. Run time: 98 minutes

Christmas Tree Mulching

If you have a tree drag it out to the curb, Waste Management will take it away and mulch it! Christmas tree pick-ups will be the next three Mondays only (January 9th,16th, and 23rd).
Trees should be cut into four foot lengths for pick up. It is a separate truck so don'’t be alarmed if they are not picked-up with the regular garbage. Residents south of Route 120 who have a normal pick-up day of Tuesday also need to have their trees out on Mondays. One of the exciting services we get for the community with our garbage contract!

Lake County Municipal League Legislative Meeting Today

Today I am attending the Lake County municipal leagues Legislative Breakfast at University Center in Grayslake. The LCML does this every year and its always quite informative, with some excellent give and take with our county state legislators. After that I am going with Dave Young the President of Lake County Partners to meet with some companies on a variety of issues. Then in the evening I go to the Stormwater Management Commission where I am a mere board member where we debate exciting topics like the Wetlands Delineation Ordinance and its 112 amendments, one by one! Oh baby!
By the way I feel like I am the "Man on the Run" in the movie "North by Northwest", if only I could look that good!

News Years Resolutions for 2006

I am quite a single minded person and while I generally don't need New Years Day to decide on a course of action. I think its a useful way to think about 2006. While I have a few personal resolutions that I have made. I am going to focus on the more "Village of Round Lake" aspects in this post.

• We need to develop more community programs, to do a few things, develop a sense of community. The Downtown Development Project, expanding the Streets of Summer Festival, green programs
  
• I want to focus on taking leadership positions for Round Lake on regional issues, that affect us. The 120 bypass, getting "shovel-ready" sites for business parks, attempting to bring a hospital to the Round Lake Area among others.

I am recovering from the flu, so I will do an chapter 2 of this post that I wrote a few days ago.

The Village Wants You!

The village has a long history of volunteers helping out in the office and at the police department. I am looking for someone who is interested in doing the following.

• Spending 10-15 hours a week at the village hall, the hours are very flexible.
• Professional background.
• Able to use the internet and email with ease!
  
• Organized and detailed.
• Good communication skills.
• Can put up with a goofy elected official (i.e. me)
  

If anyone is interested in volunteering to assist at the village hall please contact me via email at bgentes@eroundlake.com. No need to send me a detailed resume, but a couple of paragraphs about what you done in the past would be appreciated. I am only looking for one person however!

Head Cold

The Regional Picture for Lake County

The Economic Development arm of the county is a highly effective organization that has slowly been positioning the county to solve many of the underlying problems with our economic base. This organization called Lake County Partners recently retained Deloitte & Touche Consulting to segment its business attraction and retention markets based on the Lake County's strengths and weakness (labor force, site, building availability, cost of doing business, quality of life, business climate, etc.).

• A large concentration of Lake County's resident worker force lives in the northwest quadrant (North of Rte. 60 to the Wisconsin Line, west of Route 21 to the McHenry County line) of the county; they go to work in the southeast quadrant of the county.
• 90 to 95% of these communities' EAV is residential based; the fastest growing non-residential uses in this area are retail and personal services, which pay at the lower end of the wage and salary scale.
• 60% of Lake County's existing businesses require only a high school degree for entry level positions; therefore, Lake County is a net importer of these entry level workers.
• 70,000 Lake County residents with a BA degree or higher exit Lake County daily for work because there are not jobs requiring their skills or knowledge in Lake County so we are a net exporter of knowledge workers;
• There is a dearth of large improved shovel-ready sites for new professional office and industrial locations;
• The greatest opportunity to develop shovel-ready sites is in the central portion of the northwest quadrant;
• The prime barrier to these sites being developed is the lack of a transportation infrastructure that would allow companies to cost effectively move components and workers in and out of the area.

• Deloitte & Touche, and the 120+ Lake County public and private business leaders were involved in the process and they identified bio/pharma corporate headquarters, R&D and professional back-office operations; medical diagnostic equipment/services headquarters, R&D and professional back-office support operations; Professional, Technical, IT, FIRE and Logistical Services' divisional/corporate headquarters and back office support operations as Lake County's target industries.
• These industries are projected to grow faster than the projected average growth rate for all industries, for the next 10 years.
• Deloitte & Touche cautioned Lake County's public and private leadership that its long-term economic future was tied to its ability to redress its transportation system deficiencies and the lack of shovel ready sites.
• The State of Wisconsin and Southeast Wisconsin have targeted the same industries that Deloitte & Touche identified as Lake County's growth industries. They have re-structured their incentive programs to attract these industries and are in the process of finalizing the development of Prairies Wood corporate Park, a 500+ acre improved business park at the Rte 165 Exit of I-94 less than 3 minutes off the Interstate, where companies can efficiently transport raw materials, components, finished goods and labor into and out of the area.
• During peak commute periods; from the Gurnee and Grand Ave. I-94 on-ramp it can take a Lake County resident commuting to his or her job in the Route 137, 60, 22 and Lake Cook corridors 45 to 60 minutes to get to their desk; by heading north from the same on-ramp, those same Lake County residents can be at their desk in the new Prairie Wood Corporate Park at the I-94, Rte 165 off ramp, in 15 minutes.
  

These are some interesting facts about the county but a lot of them revolve around traffic improvements, which I believe is the single biggest issue in this county today.