Jesse White Tumblers

Last weekend the Jesse White Tumblers performed at the Park District. Jesse invited me out to be in the conga line that people were jumping over. Carole Shook took some video of the moment and emailed it to me, and since Blogger now integrates video I thought I would try it out!

Great Eats

There are two restaurants that have opened recently in Round Lake. Plus there is one that has a change of ownership as well. I would give a review of them but they are all good so whats the point, go try them yourselves!

The first is Foldovers (847) 740-5200 on Fairfield & 134 (728 N Fairfield) at the CVS shopping area. They do a somewhat unique pizza which is folded over on top of itself. Its quite delicious and the portions are HUGE! A small feeds two Public Works employees I have been told! You can order to go, or sit down and enjoy right there!

The second place is Mike's Grill and Catering (847) 740-2399 at 399 North Wilson which has takeout but also sit-down, Mike's has an extensive menu of all sorts of goodies ranging from steaks, to fish, to burgers and points in between! I would recommend you try it out this weekend!

The last place is under new ownership and is called Leo's Chicago Style Grill (847) 740-6591 at 437 Wilson which has the standard fare that any Illinoisan has grown up on! Beef's Gyro's, Pizza etc. Mostly take-out here but you can sit an eat if you want!

Hamburger Helper

The Round Lake Area Park District is trying to raise money for a renovation of the Hart's Wood Playground, we have an opportunity to apply for a grant from Hamburger Helper for $15,000 and they asked me to post the instructions for adding your support to the project and help raise the money for the renovation.

1. Log on to www.myhometownhelper.com.
2. Click on find a project.
3. Find by state (Illinois) click search.
4. Select Harts Woods Playground Equipment.
5. Read about the project.
6. Add a comment to show your support.
7. By the way here is a direct link to the project.
   

Just so you know this is an easy post because I have always loved Hamburger Helper, its up in the top 10 foods with macaroni and cheese, toasted cheese sandwiches, and tomato soup!

Round Lake Park-- Oktober Fest is Coming Soon

Round Lake Park Trustee Ken Schnur (at right) asked me to let you know about this, so here is what they are doing in Ken's words (i.e. he will be the one in lederhosen and riding motorcycles.)

Round Lake Park's second annual Oktober Fest is on Saturday, September 15, 2007 from 1:00p.m. til 10:00 p.m. We have craft booth's available for $15.00 and a donation of equal value for our raffle or $30.00 for just the booth space. We are also having a parade to kick off the event. For a $20.00 donation any motor cycle or classic car can join in with Iron Justice Motor Cycle Club of Lake County and myself (I will be in lederhosen) for a ride throughout the Round Lake area and Hainesville to Round Lake Park Village Hall for a motor cycle and classic car show. We might also have some antique tractors on display and a water cannon vehicle as well.

The event is chock full of area entertainment, games, raffles, 50/50, food, Beer, pop, water, silent auction, craft booths, even a genuine oompah band performing from 7:00p.m. til 10:00p.m.

For the children we have a jumping area, climbing area, hoops and a slide as well as a pumpkin coloring contest. Each child will receive a free pumpkin to color and enter in the contest. We will also have a K-9 demonstration and a Tai Kwon Do demonstration. If you need an application for a booth or the parade, call me and I will get one to you. Please pass this along to all your family and friends.

I'm in need of volunteers for set up and throughout the day as well as the evening. If you have any time that you would like to volunteer, please let me know. I hope to see you all there.

Thanks in advance,
Ken Schnur

Helping the Gulf Coast out from my Day Job

As many of you were shocked to find out, when I had the audacity to take a vacation recently, I have a real job! Two of my employees volunteered to go to Mobile and the Gulf Coast to work with the Illinois Association of Realtors and Habitat for Humanity rebuilding homes.

In addtion we purchased a enourmous ammount of school supplies for a school in Mendenhall Missisippi which they were to deliver. Anyway the two ladies accompanied by one husband as well, are blogging about there experiences at this blog Mending Mobile! Go check it out its quite clever and informative.

Mosquito Alert

Over the last 25 days the Chicago land area has experienced the 7th wettest period in 136 years. Some areas have gotten over 13 inches of rain.

This creates an environmental situation where we are going to get an unprecedented number of floodwater mosquitoes emerging over the next few weeks. Since soils are saturated and the water does not recede as quickly the areas that have either been treated and the new "over flow" areas can't keep up with the normal protection that Clarke Mosquito offers the village.

The village sprayed late last week and will continually monitor the situation and do what it takes to stay ahead of the curve!

Corn and Brat Day for the Round Lake Spartans

Yesterday was the all day Spartan-palooza corn and brat fest. I was there for about two hours and saw tons of people and generally had a good time spending my money on Spartan goodies and benefits.

The picture is from the press box and is of the lightweight game. Good view from up there!

Advocate Update

Hey recall yesterday's post about the bus and the hearing? Well since the Illinois Health facilities board has only 4 members with 1 vacancy, on the 5 person board, and were unable to muster a quorum of 3 on Tuesday so they canceled the hearing!

Which is fine and dandy because there is clearly no need for health care up here in Western Lake County and Eastern McHenry County. Amazing, thats all I will say!

So if you recall yesterday's post do your best to forget about it!

Advocate Hearing is Tuesday! Free Bus to the Hearing!

The folks at Advocate asked me to pass along this information to you.

Thank you for your continued support of Advocate Health Care’s proposal to construct a full service hospital for the people of northwest Lake County. At the public hearing held in June, you gave us a clear indication that the community understands the need for increased access to care in a region with diverse health care needs and rapid population growth.

On August 28, the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board (IHFPB) will evaluate our full proposal for the first time, as well as a State Agency Report, which is a report from the Board’s staff evaluating our application. When they review our application, they will also read your comments in transcripts from the public hearing and hundreds of letters of support

At the August IHFPB meeting, we will either receive a decision on the application or be asked to submit further information to address any of the Planning Board Members’ questions or concerns. We will be prepared to respond to the Board Members’ requests, and we want to assure you that we are still confident that we are the best organization to respond to the health care needs of Lake County residents.

Advocate will soon receive our State Agency Report from the IHFPB. This report is produced to inform both the IHFPB and Advocate where there may be issues with our proposed project. Because the IHFPB has not yet revised the rules that determine “need” in planning regions, we may receive some negative comments that are simply reflective of the unrevised and out-of-date rules. Though there will be no opportunity for public comment during the IHFPB meeting on August 28, we still encourage community members to attend to support Advocate’s proposal while also learning more about how the planning board process works. Community support will continue to be crucial as we move forward in this process.

The meeting will be held at Harold Washington College in Chicago at 9 a.m. on August 28. We estimate that Advocate will be on the agenda late in the morning. Please check the Round Lake Chamber web site at http://www.rlchamber.org for detailed information closer to the date.

Advocate will provide free charter bus transportation from the Village of Round Lake Civic & Cultural Center in Round Lake Beach to Harold Washington College for those who would like to attend the hearing. The bus will depart from Round Lake Beach promptly at 8 a.m. on Tuesday morning and return between 5 and 6 p.m. that evening. Space is limited so please contact April Green at 630-990-5124 or april.green@advocatehealth.com to reserve your seat.

Again, thank you for your continued support. We sincerely hope that our proposal will be approved, and in part because of the unwavering commitment we have received from community members like you.

Great Sticker for Round Lake

I got a nice letter with a gift from Scott Truss who lives in Silver Leaf Glen. Its one of those stickers that I first saw when I was on vacation on the East Coast. We stayed on North Carolina's outer banks and there were tons of OBX stickers on cars which is the abbreviation of Outer Banks!

So Scott found a place to make up sticker that say RL, plus he sent it to me! He also said he made up some for his neighbors and they were quite popular.

Note: Scott I don't have your email, so if you read this can you send me an email at bgentes@eroundlake.com, thanks!

Storm Photography over Valley Lakes

This picture was sent to me by Bob Fesus a long-time Round Lake Resident, who lives in Valley Lakes. He has captured a few shots like this before almost a year ago as a matter of fact.

Pretty wild! I am not sure how he gets the exact instant lightening comes down but however he does it, its great!

Bob has some interesting hobbies in addition to this kind of photography he is an avid scuba diver. Hopefully not practicing the two hobbies of lightening photography and scuba together however!

Picnic for Village Employees

On Saturday we had a picnic at the Police and Public Works complex for village employees and there families. We had a very nice turnout! There were quite a few games for kids and adults, with yours truly and my daughter winning the water balloon toss! However there was a steady mist or drizzle throughout so the actual highlight of the day's events was musical chairs, there were two divisions, Child and adult, the adult version should have been called musical sumo.

Trustee Dale Multerer (he is a wee bit accident prone) went flying appearing to strike his head on a chair! After a further few rounds of roughhousing , there were the final two competitors Police Chief Cliff Metaxa, and Trustee Michael Blum who ended up circling the chair, then Trustee Blum attempted to pile drive the Chief in some form of WWE move, there was a general melee, then both ended up on the ground about 6 feet away from the chair, when the music stopped, Cliff making it to the chair first from the ground. See pictures above.

Many thanks to all who made this wonderful afternoon possible!

Last Monday was District 46's ribbon cutting and open house for Park School. There was a wonderful crowd on hand with lots of kids and parents to see what the school was like.

I am excited to see this finally get open and moving forward. Its seems like only yesterday that I was doing this on the site!

I saw lots of people I knew which as an elected official is always nice!

Truck Weight Enforcement

Last week the Police Department did one of there regular truck weight enforcement programs. We purchased some scales a few years ago and with the proper training of the officers we have written quite a few tickets on overweights.

The numbers are startling:
72 tickets
$25,002 in fines levied.

The most recent enforcement project on August 2nd netted 4 tickets and a potential of $3,370 in fines. We have a couple of officers who are trained in truck overweights who have done an excellent job with this program in the last year or so. In the picture you can see the truck parked on the scales if you look closely.

Its Time for Some Football

Last year we had the first annual Mayoral Fantasy Football Challenge...and I am pleased to announce the second annual one is fast approaching! Last year we had 10 people step up and challenge me....I beat all the Round Lakers...only losing in the Super Bowl to a Grayslaker (I stiffed him on the trophy however so we can all breathe easier that the wholly imaginary trophy is not in Grayslake.)

If you want to compete let me know via email and put Fantasy Football in the subject so I can sort it easily! I would love to have more people involved this year.

We are going to use Fox Fantasy Football again and an automated draft, so there is no need to get crazy (aka Sean Gillette) in fact Michael Blum who had never heard of fantasy football before last season did quite well finishing 3rd or 4th I forget which, although higher then Sean where ever he finished.

The draft will take place on September 1st and you need to sign up before August 29th. Here is the leagues homepage!

Big News! Fairfield is Opening Tommorrow!

The Fairfield and Gilmer road project is nearly finished! Tomorrow the 15th the road will open completely for Fairfield and parts of Gilmer road as well, however some work will continue until the middle of September. Excellent news, and if you want to see a picture of my most recent post on the subject go here!

The Star Line

The Metra STAR (Suburban Transit Access Route) Line will provide a new dynamic of mobility for residents, workers and visitors in our region. Introduced by Metra in January 2003, the STAR Line will become the first commuter rail line in northeastern Illinois designed specifically to address suburb-to-suburb commutes. Instead of serving as a route to downtown Chicago like other traditional commuter services, the STAR Line utilizes the EJ&E railroad corridor to provide north-south service to a direct connection to the northwest suburbs and other existing Metra commuter lines.

From a Lake County perspective there is a proposed leg that moves through Long Grove and over in a general curve towards Waukegan. I was unable to find a map of the Lake County section but was able to find this map.

The proposal for the South portion of the Star line is much further along, however to bring the planning process along there needs to be a coalition of Lake County Communities to jump start the thought process. I know Mayor Maria Rodriquez of Long Grove has been interested in involving herself in moving this forward, and I would whole heartedly support this process as a vital component in improving the regions transportation options.

The STAR Line connects the Northwest Corridor, an existing residential and employment center, with the rapidly growing corridor along western Cook, DuPage, and northwest Will counties. Running along the Northwest Tollway from O’Hare Airport west to the Prairie Stone development in Hoffman Estates, the STAR Line will provide a direct connection between Arlington Heights, Chicago, Des Plaines, Elk Grove Village, Hoffman Estates, Mount Prospect, Rolling Meadows, Rosemont and Schaumburg. From Hoffman Estates, the STAR Line will follow the EJ&E south to directly connect Aurora, Bartlett, Elgin, Joliet, Naperville, Plainfield, and West Chicago with the Northwest Corridor. The STAR Line also provides the opportunity for future expansions along the EJ&E into the growing south suburbs in Cook and Will counties and the north suburbs in Lake County, thus making it the first truly regional transit system for the suburbs.

Boston Harbor

Some of you may not know that my degree is in History with a specialization in Naval History! So every time I am in Boston I go see the USS Constitution and the USS Cassin Young a WWII era destroyer. As always I had a good time...I had my eight year old niece with me so we dispensed with my slow tour, but it was still nice to see...oddly enough in my maybe 8 trips to the Constitution this is the first time it was pointing out...they rotate it every so often to ease the wear on it. The Cassin Young is very interesting because they give you much more freedom to roam around.

On another topic, the yuppie neighbors, told me there SSID password so I am surfing and posting via thier wireless. I did have to acknowledge that SMU is a fine institution of learning publicly to gain the coveted password.

Luddite!

My sister (Boston) has no internet, no a/c, no cable TV and no diet coke...blogging from phone! Send help!

Monsoon Season in Round Lake

Here are some of the cool stuff you get in your email boxes in the middle of the night...I got updates throughout the night on this stuff as did our Public Works department who were called out at 1am yesterday (nice job guys!). I am also including a few pictures of some of the worst places for the flooding.

From: Glenn XXXXXXX Acting Flood Operations Manager
August 7, 2007 - 9:00 A.M.

SMC has moved the flood alert level to "Orange" , which means:"Flooding Extremely Likely or Moderate Flooding Occurring" -

The OM sets the Threat Alert Level to orange when the NWS issues a Flood Warning for locations within Lake County and moderate flooding forecast, or when the OM receives reports of flooding. The OM may also set the level to orange when moderate flooding is known to occur that was not predicted by the NWS.

A Flash Flood Warning for Lake County was issued early this morning by the National Weather Service. There have been reports this morning of road closures due to high standing water at Routes 41 & 176 and Route 41 & Deerpath Road. In Grayslake, the Police Department reported extensive street flooding with a foot of standing water in some locations. Unofficial rainfall totals from SMC rain gauges over the last 24 hours include several locations that received 3 or more inches: Lake Forest-3.3", Gages Lake - 3.1" and Round Lake Park - 3.0."


The NWS is forecasting some additional rainfall for our area today (90% chance), but significant rainfall is not anticipated. SMC will continue to monitor reports of local flooding in Lake County.

At 7:30 AM this morning, the Des Plaines River at Russell Road and Gurnee was at 3.78' and 5.42' above datum, respectively - the flood stage at both locations is 7.0'. SMC will continue to monitor the river levels.

Our Road closing at 5:30am yesterday were as follows:
Sunset (by GM Sign)
Sycamore@Midland
Linden@Midland
Sycamore@Linden
Midland@Sycamore,
Midland@Linden,
Sycamore@Linden,
Dorothy@S. Bernice

Speed Trailer Installed on My Street

I was outside early last week, mowing the lawn watching the kids play in the street, when one particular neighbor kid was roaring around on his bike outside the cul-de-sac.

Which is all fine and dandy except he is maybe 5 and 27lbs and on training wheels, (his parents also appear to pay zero attention to the play habits of this child, although I may be a wee bit over protective, since I would still have my 17 year old daughter in a car seat if I could).

Needless to say cars also roar down the street, to my un-expert eye well over 25 mph, so I thought to myself...hey I am the Mayor, I have some pull....let me call the PD up and have that trailer moved to my street on its next movement (its outside about 320 days a year in random locations) So needless to say a few days later it appeared.

It was here for about two days (the picture is of my neighbor Rudy, who wanted to measure his fastball against it, which I discouraged). Anyway the data is in....and 354 cars passed by, and not one went over 25mph! The average speed was 13.5mph!


I was amazed! Not a single one! Shocking....I wonder what we should do next? Hummmm maybe that can be a second part of this post for a later date!

The trailer has been moved to the Bright Meadows development I think for its next stop!

Relay for Life Cancer Walk of Grayslake/Round Lake Area

Note: This post is written by Jennifer Blum, the wife of Trustee Michael Blum, who stepped up and captained our team when someone was not able to be as responsive! She did a great job! The team raised well over a $1,000, and I know they have great plans for next year! I have also included a before and after picture of the team!

I didn’t hesitate in registering for the Relay for Life Cancer Walk. My grandmother passed away from Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, not to mention how many others I know who have suffered from cancer so it was an easy decision.

Our team consisted of myself, my husband Mike, Bill Gentes, Sherry Perkowitz and her sister Debbie Jones, Dale and Cathy Multer and their three children Brianne, Eric and Christine. We had a team banner with a flag from our Village Hall, purple ribbons to wear, our official T Shirts and all necessary provisions.

The weather was perfect and during set up you noticed teams who’ve been involved year after year, fundraising activities and special areas dedicated to survivors, volunteers, caregivers, and families of those with cancer. We had an 8 person tent, the “Non Alternative Tent” and a 2 person tent the “Alternative Lifestyle Tent.” Amazingly we were located right behind an “Invisibility Tent” whose team changed into their Relay T Shirts thinking they were invisible. To quote our Mayor, “I wish they were at least 21 years old, not 80”

The opening ceremony started with Survivors, Caregivers, Committeemen, family members of those with Cancer and Volunteers. Listening to these stories and seeing their courage just proved how precious life really is.

The walk started with the survivors, caregivers and then each team collectively.

For the rest of the walk, each team must always have at least one person walking at all times, which is not too hard, however the idea of crawling into my bed at around 3 in the morning sure sounded good.. Each lap had a different theme, something such as a Toga Lap, a Patriotic Lap, an 80’s Lap, a Crazy Hat Lap and others. Our own Dale and Cathy wore a tuxedo and her original wedding veil for the Wedding Lap, and of course I had my ever comfortable PJ pants and T Shirt for the Pajama Lap along with my toga, my chicken hat and my Def Leppard T Shirt.

There were so many activities for kids to take part in that it felt more like an overnight birthday party. A bouncy house, a blow up arena where they can bop each other with blow up sticks, face painting, games, plenty of treats to eat and of course, the Park District Pool which was open from 8:15-9:45 for the occasion.

We all took our turns walking, eating, talking, watching Hip Hop Dance classes, Hypnotists, and of course Aerobic Instructors throughout the night on stage. There was also pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs and other goodies provided, however we chose to purchase 50 tacos from Taco Bell along with all the other food our team had. Our Mayor was actually heckled while at Taco Bell by a young teen that shook his hand and stated “I’ll never wash my hand again.” 15 minutes of fame, even if it is in the Taco Bell.

At 10:00 the Luminaria Ceremony started. Luminaria is purchased to honor survivors or those who have passed away and are lit after a beautiful speech and bagpipe rendition of Amazing Grace. They were then used along with the traditional HOPE sign to light the way for the honor lap leading into a slide show of survivors and those that have passed.

The rest of the evening was filled with music, hope, happiness and an overall feeling of celebration. It was filled with children falling to sleep and dew covering everything you touched. I thought about taking a nap, but for whatever reason, my mind just wouldn’t let me, even though I wasn’t walking the entire time, I still felt like I had to be awake and alert.

As the sun started coming up around 5:00 Sunday morning, we all started to gather our things, wake those that couldn’t hold out and look around at just how many stuck it out for the evening with admiration for the event and those involved in set up. I of course signed our team up again for next year’s since we now know what we can expect and what things we could do to make our team even that much stronger ongoing. The night was definitely something to remember and I hope that someday these gatherings won’t be necessary as cancer will be a non issue. But, until that time, all we can do is think positive and work together on a cure.

Long Lasting!

I am shocked that I lasted 8 days away from the Blog! Hopefully the rest-stop will energize me for better blogginess! My vacation was dull, just the way I wanted it, other then going to work twice for issues...ahhh the joys of being a boss! Other then that, horse racing and politics ruled the day!

I see from the comments that some of you are unaware of the fact that being Mayor is a part-time job! Well it is! I get paid a smoking $10,000 a year for the 20-30 hours a week that I put in on average serving the village.

By the way this was my view from my back porch, I had a few things moved around to improve the view!