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!