2007-- A Year in Review

Well it's the end of 2007 and as this seems to be turning into a media outlet for Round Lake, a year end recap seems in order.

January--The big news this month was the commitment of Advocate to build a 142 bed level 2 trauma center hospital in Round Lake at the corner of 120 and Wilson. The other big story was of course the illegal gambling den we uncovered at the 4 Coynes in downtown Round Lake. Best part of this post was the comments!

Feburary-- This was a good month for me as I received a Forefronts award from the Lakeland Journal. The village was awarded a Tree City Designation as well!

March-- Had our first guest blogger with John Gutknecht talking about wetlands and how the Valley Lakes HOA was managing them. The 4 Coynes thing went on and on!

April-- The blog hit its second birthday in full stride! Plus I announced a complete overhaul of village government, which oddly enough I have no been able to enact!

May-- Roads and festivals dominated the month. With some trustees being sworn in, some new, some old and some recycled.

June-- Advocate's public hearing was held before the state board and we packed the room and wore out the rival hospital chains with our endless testimony about why we should have a hospital in the area.

July-- I announced that I was running for the Illinois State Senate in 2008 (you can read about all that here). I did my annual mayoral inspection of the top of the water towers, this time climbing the west tower. I was joined by Trustee Michael Blum as well! The picture in todays post is from the top of the tower as a matter of fact.

August-- I actually vacationed away from the blog along with doing tons of public events with the highlight being the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life.

September-- The blog hits 200,000 unique users, and daily readership breaks an average of 1,000 a day climbing steadily it seems weekly. I also reprinted one of the more informative and popular posts I write on taxes here.

October-- Our cops went swimming in a retention pond saving a life! I wrote a three part story on Stormwater Management that was quite well read, much to my surprise.

November-- Seemed to be all about updates-- to the 120 bypass, more awards for our HOA's, reminders to watch out for deer as well as hitting 250,000 users!

December-- Slow month for the blog, but I was able to write about Mortgage assistance and update you on the seemingly never ending hunt for a hospital!

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays, this blog, and this Mayor are taking time off until after Christmas. So Happy Holidays

Annual Christmas Raffle starts now!

Every year the village sponsors various events and the like in the village, one of the traditional sponsorships is the fireworks at the Round Lake Area Park District.

Every year the village gets freebies from the park district in appreciation of our sponsorship. In addition I win things all the time at the various local golf outings like the Chamber of Commerce etc.

The prizes are as follows:

• Family Pool Pass for the Round Lake Park District (you better have kids) valued at $135 dollars.
  
• One Year Membership to the Round Lake Park District Fitness Center (Value $235)
• $50 in Rec Bucks, good for any Park District program.
  

Here are the rules.

1. You must use it, I will find out!
2. You must be a resident of the Village of Round Lake.
3. I will take any email to bgentes@eroundlake.com within 72 hours of the blogs post time on the web site and then I will do a random drawing.
4. Please reference the contest in the subject of the email. (That means midnight on December 24th)
5. You may not be an elected official of the village.
6. All my decisions are final. As they should be!
   
7. You can't win any of the other two prizes.
8. You can not have been a winner of last years contest.
   

New Temporary Residents Moving In

The Waller family sent me this picture of some new residents (on the left) that are here for the season! A warm Round Lake welcome to them!

Fantasy Football Playoff Results-- The Road to Mayor Bowl!

Well the Mayor Bowl II Fantasy League Playoff's have started with the six teams lined up to go head to head over the next three weeks.

Jason King finished the season with the best record at 13-1 and has a bye
Tim Orris (Mayor Bowl I Champion) had the second best record at 12-2 and has the other bye.

The two playoff games were between:

Bill Gentes (8-6) and Steve Serres (8-6) the winner plays Jason King in the Semifinals.

Sean Gilette (9-5) and Rik Flor (8-6) with the winner playing Tim Orris in the other Semifinal.

Three Round Lake residents against two Grayslaker's and a Hainesvillian!

Rik Flor and Bill Gentes won there playoff games yesterday by the way!

Remodeling Project Takes Shape in the Downtown

The last few months have seen a nice remodeling project taking place in our downtown as you can see by the before and after pictures there is a big improvement! Also contractors will be starting on the new facade for the Millennium sometime in January.

They have 3 units available. 1,600 sf, 2,600 sf. and a 3,800 sf. unit, they can subdivide the 3,800 sf. unit as well if needed. They have some really nice features in the units including fully insulated walls & ceiling for energy efficiency, professionally painted dry-wall, and cherry wood stained trim. Each unit also has all new plumbing, and HVAC.

They have a contractor on site for anyone who needs to do a build-out and does not have a contractor. This could save them time looking for a contractor and possibly save them money on their build-out. Want some information on the project contact Lori Cole.

How much money was in the bottle?

Well the change bottle went into the bank and got counted by the change counter and the number was $339.99 in change up about $60 from 2 years ago. While the change was being dumped into the reinforced bags we needed to carry it to the bank, and single penny jumped out and made a run for it! I tossed that penny back in the new empty jar, I should have kept it to make the total $340 even.

I had 10 people send me guesses, the winner was Tom Yingling with a guess of $319, the guesses ranged from a low of $208!

Valley Lakes Awards

Last week at the Stormwater Management Meeting we recognized the Valley Lakes HOA. Here are the comments that our Executive Director made while recognizing the HOA.

The Association’s work to restore and manage 273 acres of wetlands, naturalizing and buffering stormwater detention ponds, stewardship and educating the residents of your community stands out as a model for other subdivisions and neighborhoods to follow. Thank you for being a leader in the restoration and enhancement of the green infrastructure servicing your community for the betterment of your residents and all residents in the Fox River watershed.

Fantasy Footbal Fiasco---- NOT

After starting the season 0-5 I closed hard to 8-6....and made it into the playoffs of the the Mayors Fantasy Championship. The likelihood of me making the Mayor Bowl like I did last year are much slimmer since my team only works when Drew Brees is playing!

The big question is can the Round Lake Contingent stop the out of towners Two Grayslake residents are the one and two seeds! I appear to be the 4 seed...Sean Gillete is the 3 seed.

During my 7-1 run I beat the top 2 seeds like a drum, so I am hopeful!

A Fellow Blogger on School's and Taxation

One of my acquaintances for the last few years is a gentlemen named Lennie Jarrett who is an activist crusading against taxes specifically against schools and the Grayslake ones in particular. He has a blog (EducationMatters) that is quite well thought out and executed. I usually go read his blog once a week or so to see whats going on in his world and I came across this video which is part of this post.

Comcast Newsmakers

Last week I appeared on Comcast Newsmakers which airs twice an hour at 24 and 54 past the hour on CNN Headline News. They say the camera adds 10 lbs! I wonder how many cameras were actually on me!

I am working on having the digital copy of it here so you can play it and enjoy my pearls of wisdom!

From Todays Daily Herald

This was in today's Daily Herald, another delay, how enjoyable! The picture is of the hearing a few months ago where 100's and 100's of people came to demand health care in western Lake County and Eastern McHenry County.

Lake County residents will likely have to wait four months to learn the fate of hospitals proposals in Lindenhurst and Round Lake.

The Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board, which determines the need for and oversees construction of new hospitals and expansion projects, Tuesday deferred any decision until its January meeting. The board will likely defer both plans again at each monthly meeting until April, officials said.

New rules governing the way the need for patient beds is calculated will be published Dec. 14. Those rules must then go through a state approval process before becoming law.

"We are anticipating that these rules will be in effect sometime in March," said Jeffrey Mark, executive secretary of the facilities planning board.

It is unclear how those rules will affect either project.

Vista Health wants to build a 140-bed, $100 million hospital in Lindenhurst. Advocate Health Care's plan calls for a 144-bed, $251 million hospital in Round Lake.

There's likely room for only one to move forward. If either is approved, it would mean the first new hospital in Lake County in 30 years.

The planning board wanted to give both hospital groups time to digest the new rules and adjust projects accordingly.

Representatives of Vista and rival Advocate were pleased with the deferrals, as neither was ready for a decision Tuesday on their competing proposals.

"The new rules will only help the merit of our project," Vista CEO Barbara Martin said. "We're still in the game and we intend to have a successful project in the end."

Martin said the previous rules were more than 10 years old and not in step with today's standards.

In the previous legislative session, the facilities planning board was asked to revise how it calculates the need for services. It was asked to use 10-year population estimates and consider patient migration -- people receiving services at health-care facilities in a planning area other than where they live.

While the future of the hospital proposals hinges on the board's decision, none of the players would speculate how things will shake out.

Advocate spokeswoman Kelly Jo Golson said the new rules will provide a more accurate count of bed need.

"We are committed to the needs of the community, whatever form that takes," she said.

A 45-day public comment period and a public hearing will follow the Dec. 14 publication of the new rules in the Illinois Registry.

If the facilities planning board chooses, it can then make changes to the proposed rules, which still must be approved by the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, Mark said.

Count the Pennies Contest

About 5 years ago I was at benefit for the Community Youth Network and I was the winning bidder on an assortment of excellent wine, the centerpiece of the purchase was a 3 liter bottle of King Estate Pinot Gris from an excellent winery in Oregon.


Needless to say there was no way I was going to open that and be able to do it justice. So we waited until our New Years eve party to open it and then it vanished in a hurry.

The bottle was so nice looking we did not want to throw it away so we have been using it ever since as a coin collector. It took us two years to fill it up the first time and yielded $276 in change! Now almost two years later its full (as you can see in the picture).

So here is the contest email (bgentes@eroundlake.com) me what you think is the total cash value of the wine bottle's coins and if you are the closest to the correct number I will get you some prize for the guess!

No you can not have a cut of the actual loot in the bottle, thats going to our New Years party!

Foreclosure Assistance

A few weeks ago there was a front page article in the Daily Herald about foreclosures. Since that time I have been contacted by two mortgage institutions about letting residents know about FHA loans which were quite common before the sub prime rush of mortgages in the last few years.

With the near collapse of the sub-prime market, these two gentlemen believe that stable, fixed rate, government backed FHA loans might be a solution to consider for refinancing.

I have met with both gentlemen and they make persuasive cases about the process, some of the main points are listed below:

• Credit scores are not considered
• Expanded ratios available
• Reserves not required
• High loan to value (LTV's) allowed (97%)
• Gift funds allowed towards the 3% required equity and funds to close
• Can be combined with other non-profit down payment assistance programs.
• Collection accounts OK
• Borrower must have had made timely mortgage payments for the last 12 months or the last six if within 1 month of rate adjustment on an ARM.
• Fixed rate and adjustable rate options available.
• Favorable rates and MI factors
  

Of course the loan has to have at least one strong leg that the underwriter can lean on. Current loan limits are $275K, but there is legislation passing in front of congress that would raise the loan limits to over $400K.

I am writing both our United States Senators and our Congresswomen to support the legislation that would raise the loan limits to over $400K.

The two companies are as follows.
Enterprise Mortgage-- Steve Lessman
Perfect Mortgage-- Al Villasenor

Please contact them directly using the links I provided. I would remind everyone that what I am doing is offering you a venue to find a potential solution to a problem.