Girl Scouts Invade my Radio Show

Last night on Village Voices I had the girls of of Troop 1580 drop by and pay me visit on the air. The girls were all well prepared and they gave me all sorts of great answers to my questions. The troop however all had cookies on the mind. Over 2,000 boxes in total were sold by the troop! My last three guests were the moms and they told me that the girls are going to take the train down to Chicago, and visit Michigan Avenue and go to a tea at the American Girl store. They promised to come back next year and sell me cookies and be on the radio with me.

Signs and Wasting Village Time and Money

I am sure we have all seen these campaign signs around the village, AFTER the election, not just after the election but well over a week after. So today I asked our Public Works department to pick them up so we did not have to look at them any longer. I am not going to name names, of the candidates who were not picking up signs. But the pictures do speak for themselves.

I would note to the state level candidates that local elections for example set a much better example. The 100's of signs my campaign, Trustee Shaws and Steve Skinner's campaign had for Round Lake office last year were ALL picked up within 24 hours. So it can be done, and it should be done. I am tempted to send a bill to the offending campaigns for time and labor, but that would be a waste of time.

Urville

I was surfing the internet off of one of my favorite sites (Boing Boing) and I came across the following post. Its about a young French man who has drawn and created a fictional city called Urville, with unbelievably meticulous drawings of the fictional community. He has a complete history of the community stretching back to its "founding" in the 12th century BC and moving forward to today! The website is in a variety of languages and the English version while not as complete as the French version is fascinating. Its a good day to go check out the fictional Urville. The images here do not do the artist justice some of the large sized scans on the website are stunning.

Tax Bills are Out

This post originally appeared in May of last year, but I have gotten quite a few questions about the distribution of our tax dollars so I have reproduced it with some minor changes below.


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 comment on this article when it came out here and have created a complete PDF of the article which I would be happy to send you via email (bgentes@eroundlake.com) I am going to upload it here so you can download it from this blog, however I need the village IT guy to fix something so I can actually do it. Which hopefully will happen later this morning.

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

2.5 Million Gallons of Water Will Go Here!

The land is starting to be cleared for our new 2.5 million gallon ground storage tank right off of Nippersink Road. If you look closely you can see the circular outline. The picture was taken by Davis Clark our Public Works director no way you get me that far off the ground! We have 2 water towers and a smaller facility right next to this site, but the village needed to upgrade and this was the most economically feasible way of storing the water. Watch this space for updates through the spring and summer as it gets built!

Rare Photo Unearthed

I stumbled across this website tonight and I loved it, what a find! Conclusive proof... for my ego at least.

The Class of 76 Wants You!

A few days ago I got the following email from a graduate of Round Lake High School asking me to publicize the 30 year reunion for the Class of 1976, asking me to post some information so here it is! The reunion email is at the bottom. So if you know someone from the class of 76 pass it along!

I am a former resident of Round Lake. I graduated in 1976 from RLHS. A planning committee is working on our 30th high school reunion. I was hoping it would be possible for you to post an announcement on your website that about our upcoming reunion.
First we are trying to get the word out that we are having a reunion; to have classmates hold the weekend of Oct 6 & 7 for festivities. We are trying to locate all our classmates.
Then we'’ll follow up with specific information, where the Icebreaker on Friday night will be held and where the dinner/social function will take place on Saturday. Plans are still in the works, we need more help on the planning committee.
I live in Birmingham, Alabama. I'’m working on the committee long distance. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I am looking forward to returning to Round Lake.
Paula (Beal) Nelson
Reunion e-mail RLHSreunion2006@bellsouth.net

Mayors for Meals

Last Wednesday I spent the morning participating in "Mayors for Meals" which was organized locally by Catholic Charities Lake County Senior Community Services and nationally by Meals on Wheels Association of America. We spent a hour or so socializing and listening to information about the program from a national perspective. We paired up with our local community rep as well and then went off to the distribution site. This was the first year that this program was offered and I enjoyed it immensely, along with learning quite abit about Catholic Charities program that are offered here in the Round Lake Area.

• Lake County had more mayors participating then any other site in the United States! 18 mayors participating and only 462 nationwide so we got to pat ourselves on the back for that!
• I delivered 5 hot meals to various seniors in the village and had a good time talking with the seniors, and hopefully they had a good time talking to me as well.
• If you are looking to volunteer with some free time, I can assure you that Catholic Charities located right off of Cedar Lake road in our downtown area will welcome you with open arms.
  
• There are numerous programs and services that Catholic Charities offer outside of the meals program, and if you know of a senior in need of help, I would refer them there for help!
  

All in all I had a worthwhile time! I am already pledged to do it again next year!

Election Night

On Tuesday night I spent the evening over at the radio station (WRLR) where Bish Krywko the station president had asked me to stop by and offer "local political" analysis. He fooled me! I ended up doing most of the talking until about 11pm. There were technical glitches with our Waukegan feed, and the Bish ended up on the phone coordinating. So along with Chris Thelen the WRLR music director we filled up the air with guests. We had Congresswomen Melissa Bean, and her opponent's David McSweeney, Aaron Lincoln and Bob Churchill, Senator Geo-Karris and her opponent Susan Simpson, Sandy Cole and her future opponent Sharyn Elman. We had local politicos like Trustee Brian Brubaker and Steve Skinner, and District 116 CEO Dennis Stonewall.

I had a great time and was amazed at how fast the evening went by. Some of the results that were the hit of the night were District 116's passage of a $17 million dollar referendum for a new building. The defeat of long time lake county Senator Adeline Geo Karris were some of the most startling results of the night.

The picture of election day carnage is of my discarded big gulp, a phone, part of my laptop and the half empty bag of onion rings which I was in the process of demolishing when I took the picture!

Water Report for the Village

On Monday the board heard a presentation on the Village's water usage for 2004 and 2005. It was quite interesting. I don't think this graph reproduces very well, but you can see the dots are the individual days water usage from JAWA, the red line shows the usage as a 5 day moving average. NOTE: the y-axis which is not shown goes from zero to 3.5 million gallons a day of water usage, and the y-axis is sorted by all the dates in 2004 and 2005.

• Our average water usage per day in 2005 was 1.312 million gallons a day.
• The average water usage in 2004 was 988,000 gallons a day.
  
• A couple of times late last summer we used over 3 million gallons in one day!
• We learned that in the next few years we will need more storage in the south part of Round Lake.
• We also need to consider a new receiving station for the JAWA water supply, giving us two stations instead of the one we already have.
  

Bonus points for guessing which periods on the graph represent summer months or which days my daughter takes extra long showers? If anyone wants the actual slide show we saw I would be happy to email it to them.

Election Day is Today!

It makes good sense! It makes a difference! I will be on WRLR 98.3 commenting on election returns throughout out the night starting at 7pm. I am looking forward to that, should be a lot of fun.

A Guided Tour of Tonight's Agenda

Every month on the first and third Mondays of the month at 7:00pm in the Village Hall the board of trustees meets. The agenda for the meetings are always posted at the village hall in public view, in addition we post them on the website as well. So lets take a tour of tonight's agenda. The meeting is divided into 12 parts, some take a few seconds some can take longer.

Once I call the meeting to order, I ask our Village Clerk Jeanne Kristan to call the roll Item 1.0 is basically taking attendance! Its important to note that we need 4 board members to conduct business, the mayor counts for the 4 by the way. If 4 or more are present we have a quorum and conduct business. I then generally ask Senior Trustee Don Newby to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Item 2.0 is concerned with two things approval of the last meetings minutes, the minutes are a general record of the actual meeting in paper form, in addition we record all the meetings for the exact wording of discussions which can also be referred to see what the board actually discussed. The second part of 2.0 is the approval of the agenda, sometimes an item is not complete and we remove it, or we are adding something at the last minute for information only. However no action items are added since they were not posted in advance of the meeting.

Item 3.0 is entitled Notes Commendations and Public Comment-- this is where the meat of the meeting starts. I usually have any people we are honoring recognized here. I put them here as a courtesy on the agenda since they may not want to sit through an unpredictable time-wise agenda. Public comment can be loud and boisterous or it can be non-existent. I always err of the side of hearing everyone out. When there is a contentious issue I will have a sign-in sheet and work through the names in order otherwise its as simple as raising you hand and stating you name and address and telling us what you think.

• Tonight we have no Notes and Commendation, but we usually have public comment.
  

Item 4.0 is the area where the village clerk places thing that are "clerkly" liquor licenses, business licensees, raffle permits, and parade permits are some of the few listed here.

• Tonight we have nothing on the agenda

Item 5.0 is the Finance section, we pay bills, and evaluate the treasurer report and the transfers of cash in our various accounts. Even though $1.3 million in bills seems like a lot its a pretty typical amount.

• We are approving $1.3 million dollars worth of bills ranging from the village payroll to prisoner meals!
  

Item 6.0 is the Police report, this can range from reports on enforcement activities to the purchase of new equipment and all point in between.

• Tonight item 6.1 is a request to purchase six handguns so we can standardize the weapons we use on the force. All officers hired after January 2000 carry the same weapon, this purchase is to make sure that all the more senior officers carry the same weapon. The rationale is to make ammo purchases and weapon familiarity for the department more effective.

Item 7.0 is Public Works where all things "public work's" are enacted. Sometimes decisions like buying a one ton versus a five ton truck can make a big impact on things like how fast we can salt roads, so these decisions need consideration.

• Our Director of Public Works was at a training session last week so nothing is on the agenda this week.

Item 8.0 is called Community Development which is really the engineering portion of the meeting with approval of engineering bills, creation of stop signs, and passage of ordinances relating to engineering issues.

• This agenda has six items, not more then likely terribly controversial, although I am curious to hear the 2005 Water Master Report in item 8.6.

Item 9.0 is entitled Mayors comments which actually includes Trustees comments as well.

• Some of the highlights are my appointment of Michael Blum to fill the vacancy on the planning commission, my appointment of Trustee Jerry Shaw to JAWA's board with me as the alternate.

Item 10.0 is the committee of the Whole meeting where we have the six committees report to the rest of the board on their recommendations. We also discuss items informally so we can all get feedback.

• The discussion on the use of the old police department building is one of the items here that should be interesting. Trustee Bob Del Prato has some excellent thoughts on making use of the building.

Item 11.0 is the Executive Session where we can only discuss, employment, compensation of one or more classes of employees, potential litigation or the sale or purchase of property, and the approval, but not release of, the minutes of Executive Sessions.

• There is a specific way we do this, all people in the room identify themselves because the session is recorded, and we can only discuss the things listed above and nothing more. We have gone months without having an executive session and then sometimes we do one every meeting, it just depends.

Item 12.0 is Adjournment, we have done a few meetings that end after 3 hours, the longest I have ever done was 3 hours and 45 minutes the shortest was 21 minutes!

A few notes, I always read the motion out loud for the trustee's and the audience, in case they did not pick up an agenda when they walked into the board room. I also sometimes allow the public to comment on an agenda item while we are discussing it although that depends on the mood and how controversial it is, by and large public comment is when I accept public comment, and the agenda is time for the trustees to make there comment and discuss the issues.

Rumbling Around

I am speaking at two coffees today. Mostly about the 120 bypass, but I usually take questions and will cover the wide range of topics affecting Round Lake. Traffic always seems to come up however! I wonder why?

I have been up early today and driving around looking for garbage and other stuff. I found some but not much to be candid. I also identified a few street lights that were out as well. If you have any street lights that need work email our Director of Public Works Davis Clark and let him know where they are.

I did notice a lot of garbage on the north side of 120, that high wind we got last Sunday night did those of us who put our garbage cans out over night no favors. 70mph wind gusts take over full garbage cans in a heart beat! So maybe on windy nights we should leave garbage inside until the morning. At least the new recycling garbage cans have lids, for those of you who recall the old bins, you can just imagine how much trash would be in our yards!

Some Round Lake Dates to Write Down

Even though I froze walking down to the curb to get the papers this morning, I have some warmer (hopefully) dates for you to write down.

Arbor Day-- April 29th-- will be celebrated at 11am at the village hall where we will have some free trees (very small ones however). Trustee Sherry Perkowitz has been planning this for us!

Dedication of the Police and Public Works Facility-- June 24th at the Police and Public Works facility!

Streets of Summer-- July 28-30 (Friday-Sunday) is being expanded to 2.5 days, and will have quite a few enhancement's. The rumor that the Rolling Stones will be playing is false! Sean Gillette does a nice job along with his committee of planning the festival, and I am sure this year will be the best ever.

Death and Taxes

I stumbled across this marvelous graphic chart of where our federal tax dollars go on the blog site called Boing Boing with a link to the artist named Mibi who does things like these graphic representations of our federal budget. (Large readable version 1.8MB is here.) The size of this file filled up my screen and then some but by scrolling around you could see the detail involved. The size of the circles is the proportion of the budget that each agency takes. Kind of startling! Some of the funding had me asking questions almost immediately.

Mr. Mibi (?) says "A visual look at where your tax dollars go. Most people are unaware of how much of their taxes fund our military, and those aware are often misinformed. Well here it is. Laid out, easy to read and compare. With data straight from the White House."

120 CPC Logo Debuts!

The new logo has been designed for the 120 Corridor Planning Council. I got a first look at it today and I like it.
In addition quite a bit of information on the CPC is available on the Lake County Partners website. All the minutes and agendas along with some background information are available.
Soon the website for the 120 CPC bypass will be up and running. As soon as I know its up and running you will know!

Round Lakes Acting Mayor

Last night we had the Downtown Development Board meeting which was attended by exactly two members of the public. Michael Blum the President of Madrona's HOA and his daughter The Honorable Madison Blum who has appeared in my blog before when I attended a Halloween gathering at Madrona's park last October (in costume). She sat there very patiently for 2 hours before she decided that enough was enough and she moved up and took the meeting over! Banging the gavel with some serious authority at the end of the meeting so she could go home! It took her 5 minutes!
So she has set some serious records by presiding last night, the first women Mayor of Round Lake, the youngest (I used to be, darn it all) and the 14th Mayor in 98 years! Quite wisely she kept quiet as well! I think she may be known as the "Quiet Mayor" when the history of Round Lake is written!

Early Voting Closes tomorrow

I went over last week and tried out the early voting and was impressed, by its ease and convenience, this is quite the idea an idea whose time has come I would say. It does certainly make election day longer however.

Early voting will be offered to any eligible voter, without reason (i.e. not required to be absent, physically disabled, etc.) beginning 22 days prior to Election Day through the Thursday before Election Day. Voters are required to present a valid Illinois driver'’s license, an Illinois identification card issued by the Secretary of State, or any other government-issued identification document containing their photograph, name and address.

Early voting was offered February 27 - March 16 for the upcoming General Primary on March 21, 2006. Early Voting will be available at most townships and a few municipal offices. Please be sure you are registered to vote. Check your voter registration status. Click on the link below to:

• Find your Early Voting location(s) where you may vote
• View a complete list of all Voting Locations/Hours for Early Voting & Absentee

If you have any questions, please call the Elections Department at 847-377-2406.

Waking Up is Hard To Do!

When you have a teenage daughter sometimes waking up in the morning is hard to do. Since she is getting her drivers license and her birthday is fast approaching I was looking for a gag gift. Oh and look what I found on a blog called the Uber Review. I love them all but number 6 (on the right) and 2 were my favorites! The picture (on the left) is of number 2 (which I may buy just to try it) called the Sonic Alarm which will wake anything up. Simply pull the pin, yell an emphatic “fire in the hole” and lob the grenade into the sleeper’s room. After ten seconds a very annoying and piercingly loud noise (there are three volume settings) will blast out from the alarm. That’s not all however, what makes this especially great is that to stop the alarm the sleeper has to find you so you can put the pin back in. Price:$16. Reaction: Priceless

Bike Trails---An Update

Loyal reader Brad Ogilvie asked me a question a few weeks ago about bike trails. I wrote some of this way back in October but I think some of it bears repeating. The Lake County Forest Preserves have a project called the Millennium Trail which is a trail network connecting an area from the Indiana border to Milwaukee.

Here in Round Lake the trail is coming sooner rather then later, when it does come it will go up through the south side of Valley Lakes, across the back of the new Ryland Development and then it will go up the Com Ed right away into Round Lake Beach. One of the alternatives that I am pushing is a connection throughout the Synnesvedt property to the new Nippersink Forrest Preserve off of 120. If that's the way it goes then we want to explore a way to get some connector trails across 120 and into Madrona and the down all the way to Lakewood homes. We are not sure how right now, but I am going to figure out something. In addition I want it to connect to the future downtown development district.

What Do Those Alert Sirens Mean?

Right after I was elected back in 2001 there was a tornado alert with the sirens going off. The next day a neighbor kid asked me what the sirens noises meant! I did not know sad to say! So I found out. I also told the kid as well.

Long time reader Kurt Rodwald tipped me off to the idea about this post and told me that this week is the start of National Severe Weather Awareness Week sponsored by the National Weather Service. Follow that link for some great tips and safety ideas, I must say I learned quite a bit just now when I was on the web page.

So here are the sounds you will hear and what they mean.

Tornado Alert:
Long, steady tone that warns of weather conditions that are favorable for severe weather or a tornado.
Take Cover Alert:
Oscillating tone that warns of a tornado sighting. Residents should take immediate shelter.

Wake Yesterday and Funeral Today For Mayor Ila Bauer

Yesterday afternoon I went to the wake for Mayor Ila Bauer who passed away suddenly last Sunday night. This morning I will be attending the funeral service for her. Its stunning to think that she won't be attending any of the meetings where I grew to value her wisdom and common sense. The Village of Round Lake Park board of trustees elected Trustee Jean McCue to serve as acting Mayor until a special election can be held in April 2007. We wish her all the best during these challenging times.

Last Night I Attended a Team Lake County-- Economic Development Summit

Last night I went with Dale Multerer, Trustee Sherry Perkowitz, and Trustee Jerry Shaw to the one of the excellent programs that Lake County Partners puts on for economic development. We heard from Dr. John Lewis a Associate Vice President with Northern Illinois universities Regional Development Institute on the results of the second annual "Cost of Doing Business in Illinois"” survey, which revealed good news for Illinois in terms of productivity and cost attractiveness and uncovered some challenges in the manufacturing arena, as well.

We then also heard from Kristi Lafleur the Chief of Staff for the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity on what Illinois is doing to retain and attract business to the state. Plus she talked about some of the issues that Dr. Lewis brought up and how the state is moving to meet them.

So what does this mean to Round Lake? Well I was struck by how some of the issues that confront us out here in our southwest quadrant are symptomatic across the state as well, transportation, land use and infrastructure. You only have to pick up the paper and see that Abbott has bought over 500 acres in Kenosha county Wisconsin to see that these issues of transportation and the lack of, the difficultly in reaching infrastructure can be damaging to the state county and regions economy. Because I can guarantee you that Abbott did not buy that property to build a summer cottage.

Be the Solution to Stormwater Pollution! Round Lake Public Works Style!

Davis Clark our Director of Public Works suggested I blog about how homeowners can avoid stormwater pollution and sent me the following information.
As stormwater flows over driveways, lawns, and sidewalks, it picks up debris, chemicals, dirt, and other pollutants. Stormwater can flow into a storm sewer system or directly to a lake, stream, river or wetland. Anything that enters a storm sewer system is discharged untreated into the waterbodies we use for swimming, fishing, and drinking water. Polluted runoff is the nation’s greatest threat to clean water.
By practicing healthy household habits, homeowners can keep common pollutants like pesticides, pet waste, grass clippings, and automotive fluids off the ground and out of stormwater. Adopt these healthy household habits and help protect lakes, streams, rivers, wetlands, and coastal waters. Remember to share the habits with your neighbors!
Healthy Household Habits for Clean Water
Vehicle and Garage

• Use a commercial car wash or wash your car on a lawn or other unpaved surface to minimize the amount of dirty, soapy water flowing into the storm drain and eventually into your local waterbody.
• Check your car, boat, motorcycle, and other machinery and equipment for leaks and spills. Make repairs as soon as possible. Clean up spilled fluids with an absorbent material like kitty litter or sand, and don’t rinse the spills into a nearby storm drain. Remember to properly dispose of the absorbent material.
• Recycle used oil and other automotive fluids at participating service stations. Don’t dump these chemicals down the storm drain or dispose of them in your trash.

Lawn and Garden

• Use pesticides and fertilizers sparingly. When use is necessary, use these chemicals in the recommended amounts. Avoid application if the forecast calls for rain; otherwise, chemicals will be washed into your local stream.
• Select native plants and grasses that are drought- and pest-resistant. Native plants require less water, fertilizer, and pesticides.
• Sweep up yard debris, rather than hosing areas down. Compost or recycle yard waste when possible.
• Don’t overwater your lawn. Water during the cool times of the day, and don’t let water run off into the storm drain.
• Cover piles of dirt and mulch being used in landscaping projects to prevent these pollutants from blowing or washing off your yard and into local waterbodies. Vegetate bare spots in your yard to prevent soil erosion.

Home Repair and Improvement

• Before beginning an outdoor project, locate the nearest storm drains and protect them from debris and other materials.
• Sweep up and properly dispose of construction debris such as concrete and mortar.
• Use hazardous substances like paints, solvents, and cleaners in the smallest amounts possible, and follow the directions on the label. Clean up spills immediately, and dispose of the waste safely. Store substances properly to avoid leaks and spills.
• Purchase and use nontoxic, biodegradable, recycled, and recyclable products whenever possible.
• Clean paint brushes in a sink, not outdoors. Filter and reuse paint thinner when using oil-based paints. Properly dispose of excess paints through a household hazardous waste collection program, or donate unused paint to local organizations.
• Reduce the amount of paved area and increase the amount of vegetated area in your yard. Use native plants in your landscaping to reduce the need for watering during dry periods. Consider directing downspouts away from paved surfaces onto lawns and other measures to increase infiltration and reduce polluted runoff.

Pet Care

• When walking your pet, remember to pick up the waste and dispose of it properly. Flushing pet waste is the best disposal method. Leaving pet waste on the ground increases public health risks by allowing harmful bacteria and nutrients to wash into the storm drain and eventually into local waterbodies.

Swimming Pool and Spa

• Drain your swimming pool only when a test kit does not detect chlorine levels.
• Whenever possible, drain your pool or spa into the sanitary sewer system.
• Properly store pool and spa chemicals to prevent leaks and spills, preferably in a covered area to avoid exposure to stormwater.

Septic System Use and Maintenance

• Have your septic system inspected by a professional at least every 3 years, and have the septic tank pumped as necessary (usually every 3 to 5 years).
• Care for the septic system drainfield by not driving or parking vehicles on it. Plant only grass over and near the drainfield to avoid damage from roots.
• Flush responsibly. Flushing household chemicals like paint, pesticides, oil, and antifreeze can destroy the biological treatment taking place in the system. Other items, such as diapers, paper towels, and cat litter, can clog the septic system and potentially damage components. Storm drains connect to water bodies! Remember: Only rain down the drain!

For more information, visit www.epa.gov/npdes/stormwater or www.epa.gov/nps
To report possible illegal discharges to the storm drain system, call the Village of Round Lake Public Works Department at (847) 546-0962. Davis R. Clark, Director of Public Works (Source: USEPA)

Laughing Babies

One of my favorite blog sites I go to is Google Video of the Day. NOTE: some of the stuff could be offensive, but about every other video is funny.
This one I have watched at least five times. I dare you not to watch and laugh out-loud. The parents better be laughing with these 4 little bundles of joy! Click on the photo for the link.
If you have problems with the link try this link!

Funeral Services for Mayor Ila Bauer

A two night (Thu & Fri) wake will be held at Justen Funeral Home in Round Lake from 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Church services will be held on Saturday at Calvary Presbyterian Church in Round Lake beginning at 11:00 am. Mayor Bauer will be laid to rest at Avon Cemetery.
Extra seating will be setup in the church hall for an expected overflow crowd with a video/audio feed to a large screen for mourners. Partial road closures (Cedar Lake) are expected Saturday in the immediate area near the church. WRLR will broadcast the church services live, with a rebroadcast on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Village Code is Now Online

For the last few months the village code has been online and available to key word search and of course read in its entirety. If you want to take a look at it, go here. Thanks to the Village Clerk Jeanne Kristan for getting this valuable service online.

The Round Lake Area has Lost a Mayor and a Wonderful Person.

Last night we heard the sad news that Round Lake Park Mayor Ila Bauer lost a battle with cancer and passed away. She was a women of more talents then can meet the eye, I valued her for her advice, her humor and her unflinching devotion to making Round Lake Park a better place to live for her residents.

Having stood by her as a Mayor for nearly 5 years I could see the love and commitment for her job that she had! The Round Lake Area has truly lost a wonderful leader and a friend.

On behalf of the Village of Round Lake I would like to extend our deepest sympathies and condolences to her husband Don, her son Stan, her extended family, and the residents of Round Lake Park.

Food for Thought-- Some of my Favorite Quotes!

"Typos are very important to all written forms. It gives the reader something to look for so they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing."-- Randy K. Milholland

"The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax." -- Albert Einstein

"All politics are local" -- Tip O'Neill

"No good deed goes unpunished." -- Clare Booth Luce

Reading Across America

Last Thursday I spent 2 hours reading to sixth graders at Beach Elementary for the National Education Association's Reading Across America program. I read in 3 classes and had a great time. I answered questions about what Mayors do, I also spoke to each class in Spanish which they got a kick out of. I also told the kids how much I read, and they were either A) skeptical or B) shocked. Round Lake Resident and Beach Elementary teacher Carole Shook invited me. I saw a few community leaders like Round Lake Village Clerk Jeanne Kristan and District 116 Chief Financial Officer Wally Korpan reading as well.
Read Across America was originally created as a one-day event to celebrate the joy of reading on March 2, Dr. Seuss's birthday. Today, in 2006, the program has grown into a nationwide initiative that promotes reading every day of the year. I was proud to participate with millions across the United States.

Gang and Graffiti Update

NOTE: A few days ago I wrote about the sudden upswing in graffiti in the Round Lake Area, I wrote a very vague post deliberately since the area Mayors were very proactive in getting there police departments to aggressively take action. What I am writing below reflects what happened in a very sophisticated multi-jurisdictional effort to combat this problem.

Police Chief Cliff Metaxa is preparing a presentation for the next village board meeting concerning recent gang activity and subsequent enforcement efforts. However, I want you to know this information sooner than next Monday night.
In summary, we have experienced an increase in gang activity in the community and also in the high school. We have taken several proactive steps in addressing the problems including the activities outlined in a previous e-mail (K-9 search of the Round Lake High School, Having at least two gang officers at the High School dismissals, Surveillance of the graffiti sites, More officers in and around the High School, etc.).
The most prominent enforcement activity was a multi-jurisdictional enforcement operation which targeted gang members suspected of committing an array of crimes in the Round Lake Area. This operation occurred Saturday night, February 25, 2006. The operation involved 27 officers from the following agencies: The Lake County Gang Crimes Task Force, The Lake County Metropolitan Enforcement Group, Round Lake Police Department, Round Lake Park/Hainesville Police Department, Round Lake Beach Police Department, Round Lake Heights Police Department, Waukegan Police Department, Vernon Hills Police Department, Park City Police Department, Mundelein Police Department, Grayslake Police Department, Deerfield Police Department and the Lindenhurst Police Department.
This operation was very successful on a number of levels:

• 8 Non-traffic arrests.
• 2 Warrant arrests.
• 3 Traffic arrests.
• Removal of drugs, drug paraphernalia and a stun gun from the streets of Round Lake. Numerous gang contacts.
• Development of intelligence that brought charges and closure to seven of the thirteen cases of criminal defacement.
• Business checks and liquor compliance checks of all of the bars in Round Lake and Round Lake Park.

The most important part of all of these activities is that the Round Lake Area police departments are working closer than ever to keep the community safe. This is something that we are extremely proud of and will continue to foster. We plan to host more multi-jurisdictional enforcement operations in the future. We still have some gang activity and some open cases of criminal defacement, but we are confident that we will bring closure to those cases soon.

Cub Scouts Rule the Village Hall

These 8 young men, ruled the village for 45 minutes on Tuesday night! They came in and took the village board room over and I walked them through how a village board meeting was run.
They made motions, heard public comment, discussed if they should ban the sale of soda throughout the village, (it failed 5-1) and if we should allow a cub scout fundraiser that had Village Resident and troop leader Paul Hollingsworth bungie jumping from the flagpole for $100. At first they thought it was a great idea, until I told them about some of the questions it would raise. (That motion needed the Mayor to break the tie 4-3 to allow the fundraiser). They banged on the gavel and one lucky young man got the key to the village!.

Warming your Car up in the Garage? Don't do it in the Garage!

One of the blog's loyal readers and Round Lake Resident Kurt Rodewald who is an area firefighter/paramedic wanted me to remind everyone about the dangers of running your car in the garage in the morning. You open your garage and start your car while its still in the garage. This practice is extremely dangerous. The exhaust containing CO as well as other harmful contaminants can build up in the garage and seep into the house and build up to dangerous levels inside the house. If one does not have a CO detector, this colorless, odorless, tasteless gas can reach deadly levels undetected. I do not want to see this happen to anyone. This would have been a tragic and completely preventable accident. If someone feels the need to warm up the car in the morning, the safe way would be to pull it OUT of the garage and CLOSE the garage door to prevent the exhaust from re-entering the garage.