5K Race Help

A few months ago I posted about a 5K race that was going to take place on Sunday morning of the Summer Fest. The date is Sunday June 3 and it will be in the morning. Details to come!

My computer had to be repaired and I lost quite a few of the emails of people who volunteered to help me, could you please email me again?

I am going to solicit some sponsors this week, and hopefully we can make sure we have a wonderful race!

Good Walk this Morning

Today's walk left from the Police Station, and quickly bogged down at the corner of Townline and the new Cedar Lake, where this sight awaited the five of us. So we turned around and walked back to the PD and then drove down to Lakewood and walked around the neighborhoods there instead.

Lifeline Screening at the Village Hall July

In keeping with this years theme of wellness, we are hosting a Lifeline Screening. This screening will be held on July 11th at the Village Hall.

Here is a little something about what Life Line Screening is.

Since 1993, Life Line Screening has screened over 4 million people nationwide, and has helped save over 100,000 lives. We were mentioned in two articles in The Wall Street Journal (September 24, 2004), quantifying our tests accuracy and afford ability.
Our screening tests are performed by experienced professional sonographers using sophisticated Doppler ultrasound technology. A board certified physician reviews all results before they are sent to individual screening participants in about 21 business days.

Our mission is to make people aware of potentially serious conditions that are difficult to detect in routine check-ups. By offering these programs to your community, you can create awareness and aid in the identification of undiagnosed vascular disease. This is an important effort to educate your community about preventive screenings and the impact of a proactive approach to personal wellness.

The Blog Turns Two Today!

Well today is the blog's second birthday! Some birthday factoids for the adoring masses.

• 3,950 comments have been made since I started using Haloscan so maybe there are 300 that were made prior to this for a total of 4,200 or so.
• 146,811 unique users have stopped by, or 201 a day every day since the blog started.
• The average unique users per day (90 day rolling average) that read this blog each day is 483 and climbing .
• The average person stays for 1 minute and 29 seconds.
• There have been 750 posts as of today! I did some multiple posts on the streets of summer a year ago or so, so there are more posts then days.
• I have posted on 721 out of 730 days.
• I think the record for comments on a single post was 225 total, but I can't recall which post.

My favorite five posts are these, I got great satisfaction out of them, for different reasons.

1. National Strategic Butter Reserve
   
2. Hospital Coming to Round Lake
3. Commentary on Liquor Licences
4. Getting on top of things!
5. Dealing with residents, the edgy way!
   

Note: As a follow-up to the butter reserve post, they are are down to a critically low 3 lbs in the Chicago cold storage facility (a 24 year old refrigerator).

Fairfield and Gilmer Road Intersection to Close this Summer

This is a painful post to write since I commute this way to my day job! Here is a great link to the project web page at Lake County Department of Transportation

Lake County travelers who use Fairfield and Gilmer roads near the Village of Wauconda are likely familiar with the traffic jams at this intersection. The Lake County Division of Transportation (DOT) is embarking on an intersection reconstruction project that will ease congestion in this area long-term. However, Lake County asks for residents’ patience during the short-term.

DOT will close the intersection of Fairfield and Gilmer Roads, near the Village of Wauconda, from May 15 through September 15. In an effort to limit the impact on motorists, Lake County is doing this project during the summer months, when school is out of session, and requiring the contractor to work an accelerated and strict schedule. DOT will place supplemental signage near the intersection to raise awareness in advance of the commencement of the project. DOT staff will also hand-deliver informational flyers to motorists in the days leading up to the closure. “Extraordinary measures have been taken on this project to limit the impact on motorists that use this intersection,” Marty Buehler, Lake County Director of Transportation/County Engineer said. “Every effort is being made to complete this construction as quickly as possible so that users can enjoy the benefits of the completed improvement.”

When the project is complete, this intersection will be an overpass allowing Gilmer Road to pass over Fairfield Road. Traffic passing through the intersection will flow freely without having to slow or stop at the intersection as would be necessary with a conventional traffic signal. A connecting road will be constructed between the north leg of Fairfield Road and the west leg of Gilmer Road to allow traffic to travel between Gilmer Road and Fairfield Road.

The intersection will be closed until August 15. Beginning on August 15, Fairfield Road, the west leg of Gilmer Road and the connecting road will be open to traffic. The east leg of Gilmer Road will open to traffic on September 15. Motorists can visit www.lakegov.info/roadwork to learn more about this project, view maps, updates, and detour information.

There will be two detour routes for this project; the Fairfield Road detour will be Illinois Route 60, to Illinois Route 120, Belvidere Road, to U.S. Route 12, Rand Road, to Bonner Road (see map above). The Gilmer Road detour will be Illinois Route 120, Belvidere Road, to Illinois Route 60, to Illinois Route 176.

Talking to Cub Scouts

Last night I spoke to 9 cub scouts from a local troop at the village hall. We held a mock meeting last night where the young men voted down the building of a play ground at the corner of 134 and Cedar Lake Road by a vote of 5-1. It was contentious debate as they evaluated the pros and cons of the issue.

Plus they rejected the potential locating of the Pokeman Hall of Fame here in Round Lake by a vote of 6-0. I had a great time, I presented the young man who had the best question with the ceremonial key to city.

We also had public comment where 2 residents asked the board questions, one of them was a 15 year resident of Round Lake no less!

G23 Project Moves Forward

The final permits and details have all been hammered into shape in the last few weeks at the G23 Commercial project on Route 60 and Arden. You will probably notice that earth is being moved and things will be happening shortly there.

The picture at left is an artists rendering of what the Northwest corner will look like. Watch this space for details on who might be moving into the project. Right now a major drug store, video and coffee action are potentials that are closer then you might think!

Arbor Day Celebration

We celebrated Arbor Day yesterday by giving away 100 trees to the first 100 families you showed up at the Village Hall at 11pm, there was a very nice crowd and quite a lot of energy.

The most energetic person in the crowd was the Trustee Sherry Perkowitz, who was the driving force behind the the village getting the Tree City designation and the organizer of the event. I took a picture of her holding the plaque we received and standing next to the sign you will start seeing around town designating us as a Tree City!

Arbor Day is Today

Today is the second annual Arbor Day Event. The expanded celebration will be held at the village hall at 442 North Cedar Lake Road on Saturday, April 21st, at 11:00am. Come join myself and the trustees as we read the Village’s Arbor Day Proclamation.

There will be activities for the kids, refreshments and a free tree to the first 100 Round Lake families donated by our event sponsor’s: Home Depot, Highland Green Nursery and Lurvey’s Garden Center in Des Plaines, IL.

Village School Auction Tonight-- Cool Auction Items

Today there is the annual "Auction for Art" at Village School tonight from 6:30 to 8:30. Last year I auctioned off a day with the Mayor, but it kind of morphed into "Drive the Mayors Golf Cart in Parades Day's" instead.

My usual driver "the first daughter" decided to retire for a variety of reasons last year, the most pressing one was her inability to awake before noon on parade days, plus her actual drivers license meaning cars are cooler then golf carts. Since I get out of the cart and walk most of the route I need a driver. So since I was unable to hook up with the auction winner from last year to spend the day with him. I asked him if he would drive my golf cart for me instead, which proved to be a much better idea from his standpoint!

This time I am doing it differently, you get to drive the golf cart in all parades, and get a class visit from me. There are some age considerations here however, which are explained in the fine print.

Last years winner has vowed that his parents will pay any price to secure his parade driving status again! Sounds like the "Auction for Art" will be the winner here! Just so you know the golf cart we use has does not look like the Hummer golf cart at the left!

Townline Closures

Townline Road between Bacon Road and the future Cedar Lake Road is scheduled for construction in late summer of 2007. Currently, Townline Road is a two-lane rural roadway with gravel shoulders and no median.

After construction, Townline Road will be a two-lane urban roadway with curb and gutter and a painted median. A left-turn lane from westbound Townline Road to southbound Bacon Road will be added as well as turn lanes at the intersection of Townline Road and Cedar Lake Road once the Cedar Lake Road project has been completed.

A bike path will be built on the south side of Townline Road to extend the current bike path west and all private driveways and parkways will be restored to their preconstruction state. The estimated cost of construction for this project is $765,000.

Election Results

Yesterday was election day, and we had two major issues in the area that were decided. The first the trustee elections, and the second for 30% of the community, the Big Hollow School Referendum.

The Big Hollow School Election was a quite emphatic second time no to the district on increasing the rate. There were active supporters on both sides of this equation with the vote shaking out as follows.

		Percent	Votes
YES		32.63%	572
NO		67.37%	1,181
			1,753

The other issue was the the three trustee spots up for election in the village, between Trustee Sherry Perkowitz, Trustee Michael Blum, former Trustee Dale Multerer, and Rose White.

		Percent	Votes
Michael R. Blum (UN)		25.14%	580
Dale D. Multerer (UN)		25.18%	581
Sherry B. Perkowitz (UN)		26.31%	607
Rose White (IND)		23.36%	539
			2,307

Congratulations to the three winners (bold above) the interesting number here is 2307, if you divide that by 3 you can tell that around 700-800 people voted. There are 6,400 registered voters in Round Lake so thats around 12% voter turnout, which is a shame. Four years ago in a the off year election we had a turnout of 11% so I guess that is better sort of.

Fiscal Year 2007-2008 Budget Presentation

Here is a copy of the budget slide show that the Finance Committee chaired by Trustee Sherry Perkowitz and Vice Chair Trustee Brian Brubaker along with Finance Director Steve Shields presented to the village board at a special meeting on the 9th of April. The highlights are in the slide show (just click your mouse on it). The Finance committee and Steve did an unreal job of producing a detailed and comprehensive budget. The village has taken huge steps forward in the budgeting process.



We walked through the various funds that the village has and discussed the major decision points we would have to make going forward. The budget passed last night at the board meeting.

Arbor Day Festivites this Saturday

The Village of Round is proud to announce that it has been awarded the coveted Tree City USA designation, and in celebration, will be hosting its second annual Arbor Day Event. The expanded celebration will be held at the village hall at 442 North Cedar Lake Road on Saturday, April 21st, at 11:00am. Come join myself and the trustees as we read the Village’s Arbor Day Proclamation.

There will be activities for the kids, refreshments and a free tree to the first 100 Round Lake families donated by our event sponsor’s: Home Depot, Highland Green Nursery and Lurvey’s Garden Center in Des Plaines, IL. There will also be licensed arborists on-hand with information and tree planting advice. For additional information you can contact Trustee Sherry Perkowitz who has done a great job coordinating the whole process.

If you want to know what happened last year go here! Just the pictures alone are reason enough to attend this year! Because if you see those trees in this picture, thats what was given away until we ran out, so its first come first serve to the first 100 families!

Free Stuff---Grant High School Value Card

I have four Grant High School give away cards that have a cash value of $20 apiece that are good at various places in the area like Tom's Cafe in Johnsburg, Domino's Pizza in Fox Lake, Austins in Libertyville, Billy's in Spring Grove, Pizza Hut in Fox Lake, Potestas and Buffalo Wild Wings in Round Lake Beach.

I will conduct my typical random drawing for these giveaways on Sunday night. To enter email me here and I will get the discount card to you as soon as I can. Please make sure you would actually use the card before entering however!

Relay for Life

Erin Powers the daughter of one of our local County Board Reps Bob Powers was talking to me about this wonderful program the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life to be held in Grayslake this summer and she challenged me to get a team together. I would like to put a Round Lake team together. The date of the event is July 28th at 6pm to July 29th 6am basically overnight! Its a Saturday night so you have time to recover for work on Monday!

I lost my mother to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cancer a little more then 15 years ago and have always been supportive of cancer related activities.

Please email me if you are interested in participating and are willing to walk as well!

Relay For Life® is a fun-filled overnight event designed to bring together those who have been touched by cancer in our community. At the event, we celebrate survivorship and raise money to help the American Cancer Society in its mission to save lives, help those who have been touched by cancer, and empower individuals to fight back. During the event, teams of people gather at schools, fairgrounds, or parks and take turns walking or running laps. Each team tries to keep at least one team member on the track at all times.

Police Officer of the Year Named

Last week the village board got a visit from the Officer Adam Arnold the Round Lake Police Department Employee of the Year for 2006. He left with an award and another bonus, a promotion he was next up on the Sergeants list for promotion to one of our vacancies!

What follows is Police Chief Cliff Metaxa's presentation of the award and Officer Arnold to the village board. (The picture from left to right is Chief Metaxa, Sergeant Arnold and Deputy Chief Francis Foy.)

Upon unanimous selection by the supervisors of the Round Lake Police Department, it gives me great pleasure to recognize Officer Adam Arnold as the Police Department’s Employee of the Year for the year of 2006.

Officer Arnold has distinguished himself with his performance on patrol where he made double the number of arrests than the second highest officer and with the DARE program where he has made such a positive impact on the community.

I am very proud to recognize you as the Round Lake Police Department’s Employee of the Year. We are here this evening, in part, to recognize the efforts of Officer Adam Arnold and by that recognition, promote him to a higher level of responsibility and authority. Part of this responsibility includes the ability to listen carefully, plan, delegate work assignments, correct mistakes, solve problems, make sound management decisions, coach, counsel and administer discipline.

Being a modern police manager in today’s environment is far from a simple task. Today’s law enforcement managers are constantly challenged to understand and effectively deal with many complex factors and trends.

Officer Arnold began his career with the Round Lake Police Department in April of 2004 as a police officer. Adam has a Bachelors Degree from the University of Illinois and served four years in the United States Marine Corp. Adam became a state certified police officer in June of 2004. He is also a state certified Advanced Evidence Technician, a Narcotics Investigator, and completed NIPAS’ Critical Incident Response course.

Most people in the community know Adam as our DARE officer. Adam has done a fantastic job with the DARE program and has affected the lives of hundreds of children in our community. Adam lives in Lake Villa, Illinois with his wife Angie and their newborn twins Ryan and Emily.

Adam, in your newly appointed position, you will be challenged to:

• Make things happen.
• Set high standards for yourself and your subordinates.
• Protect and promote the mission of the police department.
• Set an example of quality leadership.

Accomplishing these goals should prove to be meaningful and rewarding, both personally and professionally. Adam, you have my full support and confidence.

Election Day is Coming Soon

I have been invited by the local radio station WRLR 98.3 to be part of there election coverage for the 3rd year. So on election night (the 17th) I will be there, with commentary on Lake county races. Tune in and listen to my pearls of wisdom!

They have a great lineup of other people who are very knowledgeable about county politics as well. Which should make for a great evening! In the studio to provide insight and analysis on various local Lake County races will be former cable television host/reporter Sharyn Elman, longtime political observer Phil Howe and former Gurnee Mayor Dick Welton, amongst others.

Beginning after the polls close at 7 PM and up to 12 midnight, the election team will thoroughly monitor and report vote totals from races and referendums, as they become available from the Lake County clerk's office. Live telephone interviews with candidates will take place throughout the 5 and half hour broadcast.

WRLR specializes in spotlighting local races and issues like no other radio station can. It is a non-profit, community radio station operated completely by volunteers. It fulfills it mission statement to educate, inform and entertain through its 24-7, wide ranging locally focused program schedule. The station has been instrumental in giving Lake County's communities the opportunity to be heard on politics and issues at the small town level.

WRLR reaches a potential listening audience of more than 200,000 people throughout Lake County, western Mchenry county, and southern portions of Wisconsin. In addition, the station has listeners throughout the world who get WRLR's programming stream over the Internet at www.wrlr.fm .

Village Road Improvements

It's budget time again in the village, and as part of my preparation I was struck by our road improvement programs over the last few years. As I looked at what we are budgeting for this year. I took a look back at what we have done in the last 6 years we have spent over $5.1 million dollars on road improvements from CDBG funds, MFT funds (special census helps here) and a couple of grants to improve our most needy streets.

At the beginning of my time in office 6 years ago I sat down with the village engineers and directed them to do a comprehensive look at all our street issues and evaluate our streets from worse to best We then planned out a program to focus our money on them in that order. I am proud to say that the trustees and I have stuck to this program through thick and thin.

Most of these roads and streets are in the older sections of town so I was able to get a hold of a map that shows where the road improvements have been done. The center of the map is roughly the train station. I have the map available as a PDF if you want to look at it in a little more detail.

Lakewood SSA Bonds Refinanced

A few weeks ago we passed a refinancing of the Lakewood Grove Special Service Area (SSA) bonds that I wrote about here back in November. The actual numbers shook out as follows:

• We were able to reduce the total debt from by $4.3 million dollars,
• The interest rate dropped from 6.75% to 4.85%.
• The total savings to a homeowner is $380 per year
• If you own a town home or duplex its $254.

While its not the reduction I am sure the homeowners would want, its a step in the right direction. Just a reminder that this SSA went to schools and road infrastructure improvements.

I spoke at a Lakewood Homes HOA awhile ago and I told them that in retrospect I would never do a SSA similar to what we did here if I knew todays outcomes back then. Of course its easy to have 20/20 hindsight. At the time when I inherited the concept from then Mayor Jim Lumber, the concept was reasonable because it addressed schools and transportation.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Run and Walk Tommorrow in Valley Lakes South!

As a reminder the Mayoral Run/Walk will be April 7th, a Saturday, at 7am with the run starting then and the walk starting at 7:30. The route is here.

More then likely I will be either not running the whole 2 miles or the infamous walk/run/walk/stagger for my portion. My fitness level right now is a disaster and I am not sure I can even run a mile let alone two miles, but I am going to try!

Congresswomen Melissa Bean Intergovernmental Forum

Yesterday after work I attended the 8th Congressional Districts Intergovernmental Forum in Schuamburg, where numerous Mayors and elected officials from the 8th district talked about our friendly federal government! The major topics that we talked about were 53, health care, transportation and some small business initiatives. The congresswomen serves on the committee on Financial Services and the Committee on Small Business in the house so she had some excellent insight into issues affecting businesses that were intriguing!

She made one interesting point that was kind on amazing to me, by per capita income, her district is the wealthiest in the United States that is held by a Democrat in this congress. Which if you think about it, is quite the statement on many levels, especially if you study the map!

Excellent Facts on Water

Many thanks to village resident Kelly Rodkey for forwarding this information to me on water. I read it and vowed to drink more water today!

1. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. (Likely applies to half the world population.)
2. In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is mistaken for hunger.
3. Even MILD dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as much as 3%.
4. One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a University of Washington study.
5. Lack of water, the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.
6. Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.
7. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, rouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.
8. Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%., and one is 50% ess likely to develop bladder cancer. Are you drinking the amount of water you should drink every day?

Computer Issues

Over the weekend I got this on my laptop! No matter which step I took, safe mode, last known good configuration etc I could not get past this screen. You could read on the screen where the issue was, it was in the Win32 folder. Not to worry, I carefully back up everything once a week. Well guess what the back-up worked fine for the system stuff except the data file was corrupt, so my last week or so of emails is missing all my favorites and most of my documents. Which is annoying beyond belief but I can deal with it. The one thing I can not deal with is email, so if you sent me an email in the last two weeks that I have not answered please resend it to me!

April Fools Joke Was Played Yesterday

Okay for the 5 people who called me about it and the few who commented on it, this was a prank. I have a history of this. Last years post was here and the disclaimer is here. My apologies to the people who felt the need to post and spoil the joke I deleted your posts. I will have them up today if they still exist!

Like I could get an ordinance like that passed! Actually I did like the salary one. Nothing like an incentive contract to get some dense development going up! I think the Mayors salary should be balanced between respectability and miserliness. You don't want to pay so much that the mayor wants to keep the job forever, but you don't want to pay so little that the aggravation has zero reward. For those of you who don't I make $10,000 a year which equates to about $1.67 an hour it seems.

By the way elections cost the village nothing since they are administered by the county clerk's office as well. If I forgot to clarify anything else in the post, its a prank as well!

COMMENTARY-- New Ordinances Being Enacted

The village board has been working quite diligently to create a more modern ordinance structure, that allows the village to run more efficiently. We have passed a variety of beatification ordinances that have been quite successful, removing signage and making the downtown cleaner and more attractive is one example. Over time the board has slowly realized that to streamline and make the village run more efficiently that there needs to be a more centralized control over village operations.

To this end tomorrow at our regular board meeting we will be discussing the following ordinance-- Item 8.3 that will grant the Mayor the ability to appoint his successor. This is quite revolutionary only 6 communities have done this before in the state of Illinois, the community you know the best is Rosemont.

In addition as the current trustees leave office the Mayor will be granted the privilege of appointing trustees as opposed to having them elected. This will save the village approximately $107,000 every two years, which is how much the trustee and mayoral elections cost the taxpayers.

There is also a salary adjustment for the Mayor to a more manageable and fair wage which will change as our population changes, the formula is $10 per resident for the annual wage of the Mayor. I plan on donating some of this to charity by the way.

While I realize that these ordinances radically change the way this village does business I think they will allow us to move in a more progressive and aggressive direction. While I think this ordinance will pass I would like to promise the residents that as long as I remain Mayor I will use these powers granted to me wisely and keep moving this village forward. Please come to tomorrows village board meeting to express your support of these progressive and modern ordinances.

Tomorrow I am going to write a post about how I will create a variety of task forces that will improve the process of running village government. I hope that getting citizen involvement in these vital committees will allow me to move this village into the 21st century.