One of the things that SMC oversees are projects that can effect the watershed in a particular municipalities or county area. This oversight has quite a bit of major impact to the speed projects get done (speed is relative in the government world by the by).The Lake County Watershed Development Ordinance or WDO is a major portion of the SMC mission, and over time a program where communities that follow steps and procedures can be certified to administer internal projects rather then having SMC have to come out and administer, which leads to slower projects and a greater manpower burdens on some of the other projects SMC administers.
Round Lake is one of the 42 communities that are certified to manage the WDO, there are 11 communities that do not have certification for one reason or another.
Certified Communities are those communities who have been delegated the authority to administer, all or portions of, the WDO within their own jurisdictions. Lake County communities have one of the following WDO designations:
- Both Standard and Isolated Wetland Certification
- Only Standard Certification
- Non-Certified
Communities are rated and ranked using criteria over a period of time and periodically they come up for recertification. Generally this is not controversial nor is it a topic of concern for anyone within or without SMC.The last three years however have had one community have serious issues both with the public and with SMC's certification process.
Being certified can be beneficial to a municipality because projects can move faster since SMC does not have to be involved in every step, which is why for example Round Lake is a certified community and has been for decades.
Some communities do not take the certification process as seriously or pay attention to what's going on internally with the attention we do as you will find out in the thrilling conclusion to this series!
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