Valley Lakes wins an Award

I am very pleased to announce that the Valley Lakes HOA has received a very prestigious county wide award from the Stormwater Management Commission as Development of the Year! For those of us who live in we know the hard work the boards put in to making this development one of the best in Lake County! I have included the before and after shots of some of the areas that were addressed above.

An awards dinner will be held on December 6th with the regular SMC meeting to follow at the Byron Colby Barn, Prairie Crossing Subdivision in Grayslake. The dinner will start at 6pm and the meeting at 7pm.

• Community of the Year: Village of Vernon Hills for various projects this year including the Seavey Ditch restoration and Lake Harvey restoration.
• Development of the Year: Valley Lakes Community Association, Round Lake, for restoring six natural wetlands and 21 ponds under their jurisdiction, and they will be doing more restoration of the 273 acres of wetlands the VLCA manages.
• BMP Project of the Year: Mundelein Park District's Aquatic Center Bio-swales.
• Stormwater Manager of the Year: Lydia Scott, for her work on several projects including the Des Plaines River restoration projects and the Florsheim Nature Preserve restoration. She also is very active in both planning committee and leadership roles in Upper Des Plaines River Ecosystem Partnership , Chicago Wilderness and North Branch Chicago River watershed plan process.
• Stewardship of the Year: Bill Grinnell, Fremont Township Highway Department, for his dedicated leadership on within Fremont Township on many drainage and stormwater related projects .
• Media Award: Pioneer Press' July '07 "Power of Water" series of articles on wetland restoration, rain gardens , a former SMC employee working in Bolivia on water projects, and the health benefits of drinking water. Reporters: Stephanie Fosnight and Dan Pearson.

Specific credit needs to go to the Valley Lakes Board John F. Flader, President, John R. Gutknecht, Secretary and Tami Bradford, Treasurer. Tallgrass Restoration and Mark Micek (project manager) and Linda Yunker (grant co-ordinator) Tallgrass does all the work and manages the project.

Also mention that Valley Lakes Community Association is a member of the Chicago Wilderness and is dedicated to pursuing "Best Management Practices" (BMP's) when managing the landscaped and non-landscaped areas owned by the Community Association.