Round Lake to Pilot a Solution for Streets and Snow!

The Village has been selected by the US Department of Transportation to act as a pilot program for a new "warm" road technology that will install wire threads that will heat our streets and keep them clear during snow falls and freezing rains. The system will prevent snow from sticking on the street and will eliminate the need for salting and plowing.

The process has been tried with excellent success in Norway (Trondheim), where over a short 4 month spring and summer they installed 63 miles of superconductor wire in streets. 4 strands of this wire need to be laid on a street with a separation of about 24-30 inches. The wire is inserted in a narrow 1 and1/4 inch sawcut trench that will be cut in the street and then sealed with asphalt. The wires keep the street at a constant 53 degrees throughout the winter, or during any snow event.

Funding for this $17 million dollar project is from the Feds and only requires a 20% local match ($3.4 million) from the village. The potential saving are huge! We spend quite a bit on salt and plowing manpower and none of this will be needed anymore.

The downside of course is this summer and fall we will be cutting grooves in all village streets and of course installing the wires will be messy and take time. In addtion the village's electrical bill will go up. We are going to explore building a wind farm behind the Police and Public Works facility to generate the needed electricity as well.

From the Mayors Email Basket-- Salt (Part Two)

Here is the second part of yesterday's Snow and Salt extravaganza. I am also going to answer a few other questions as well.

Why is there no salt on the road?
This year has been an exceptional snowy winter, about 8 weeks ago many municipalities who buy salt through the state of Illinois salt program reached 130% of the contracted amount they were allowed. We were all forced to scramble and buy salt from other sources. For one snowfall we had to only salt intersections and major thoroughfares.

This was a direct cause of this winter being very snowy. According to the National Weather Service the average snowfall in Chicagoland is 38" a year. This year we are well over 60" (depending on how much fell yesterday). The public works department was able to get salt from out of state for a price of $168 and $200 per ton as opposed to $41 a ton from the state of Illinois. We used 845 lbs of the Illinois contract. Thats 130% of our contracted amount!

Whats the fastest email you received about snow after the snow fell?
I got an email this year 2 hours after snow hit the ground, thats a record by many many hours.

The most ironic email?
Actually this is a tie, two people sent me emails from the same street late last year, one complaining about the plowing, the other complimenting our public works about the same snowfall.

From the Mayors Email Basket--Snow Plowing Part One

I would like to make some observations on snow plowing. Most of the following questions have been addressed to me over the last few years and over this winter as well, if you had a question that I fail to address email me it.

Where do my tax dollars go if not to plow snow from the front of my house instantly?
Well your tax dollars do go to public works, but to snow plow your street instantly we would need more staff and more equipment, so when your elected officials set up a budget they try to balance the fact that spending $85,000 to $95,000 on a new truck just to have it sit around all spring summer and fall would be a poor use of your tax money. Sometimes residents have to be patient.

Why are cul-de-sacs left to the very end?
When I was elected we had no snow plan, or training for drivers, when we st down and evaluated how we wanted to plow our streets it became apparent the way we could get to all through streets first, was to avoid cul-de-sacs and get them last, the old way was one where we did them as we came to them which caused the whole process to be 30% slower. There was also an education process on how to do cul-de-sacs, which we have lots of!

Your plow blocked my driveway in after I shoveled/snowblew/ignored my driveway!
Sadly thats the way it is, if its any consolidation it annoys me as well.

Why is my street the last to be plowed?
Because you annoy me! Ha ha actually all the emails I get generally accuse the village of doing that exact thing. I did a detailed geo-plotting of the locations we plow last (according to the emails I get) and discovered we plow every area of the village last!

You must have gotten 100's more complaints about snow removal this year, because this year is the worst ever!
I save all complaint emails and looked at them, and oddly enough I have less this year then last year. I am not sure what that means, but don't start sending me more just to make up numbers.

My street never gets plowed?
Well you may live in a development that has private streets, some town home developments have this right now, so that might be it.

I bet your street gets plowed first!
Actually it doesn't, my neighbors complain to me about that fact all the time, why do they want to live near the mayor if they can't get some better treatment!

Christmas Tree Disposal

Christmas trees will be picked up every Monday in January by Waste Management. Waste Management will utilize a separate truck and will pick up the trees at a separate time other than the usual garbage pick-up. Please cut the trees in 4' sections and place on the ground near where the garbage container is usually placed.

Going Going Gone!

Tearing down the old Public Works and police storage facility near the village hall, which completes the three buildings along Cedar Lake from the village hall to the train station.

We wanted to have a clear view of the boxcars parked at the station from the village hall!

It amazing how fast they can take down a building!

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

Village wins Bronze Medal Award from Clean Air Counts!

The Village received a bronze award from the Clean Air Counts program for a number of our initiatives for our clean air programs. The lady who runs the program Eye Pytel came up and gave us a plaque at the village board meeting last Monday.

Municipalities, government agencies, and authorities – including school board, park districts, and others – can play a major role in improving the region’s air quality. Government bodies can exercise a tremendous market influence, not only through legislation, but by choices they make as employers, purchasers, service providers, and property owners.

In addition to joining as a Clean Air Counts Adopter and implementing emission reduction strategies, all governing bodies can become a Clean Air Community. Becoming a Clean Air Community is an excellent way for local governments to demonstrate their commitment to clean air.

We are very proud of what we have done, which includes, diesel retrofits, solid waste programs, and electronic waste programs.

Belated May Mosquito Report

One of the fun things we get as Mayor and Trustee are reports on Mosquitoes! Here is the most recent one I have from May! Its actually interesting, but then again I like reading stuff like this!

SURVEILLANCE & WEATHER

The rainfall total for the month of May to date (0.72in.) is about an inch and a half a below the average for May to date (2.28in.) Across most of the northern part of the state, precipitation averages have been average since January. However, due to the recent lack of rainfall, we are likely to experience drought conditions. Increased temperatures with little rainfall create ideal conditions for Culex mosquitoes which are potential carriers of West Nile Virus.

2007 West Nile Cases

County	American Crow	Blue Jay	Other Birds	Mosquito	Horse	Human
DuPage	0	0	0	3	0	0
Tazwell	0	0	0	1	0	0
TOTAL	0	0	0	4	0	0

Last updated May 23, 2007

Brood Prediction
The floodwater mosquito, Aedes vexans, is the key nuisance species in the Chicago land area. Distinct hatches of floodwater mosquito populations, or broods, are triggered by significant rainfall events. The Clarke Brood Prediction Model calculates peak annoyance periods based on rainfall and temperature data collected from weather stations in your area.

Weather Station	Rain Date	Rain Amount	Brood Prediction
North Lake	Currently there are no predictions.

OPERATIONS SUMMARY

Upcoming June Operations:

1 Complete Inspection

1 Targeted Inspection

RECOMMENDATIONS
The CDC currently shows a risk category 1. Conduct entomological survey (inspections) and surveillance to monitor larval and adult mosquito density; Maintain vector and virus surveillance; Expand community outreach and public education programs focused on risk potential and personal protection emphasizing residential source reduction.

Operation and Surveillance Reports

Attached is a report outlining services performed year-to-date. These services could include the following:

• N. J. Light Trap Seasonal Service: Seasonal Light Trap Service for adult mosquito population monitoring.
• Complete Site Larval Inspection Service: Inspection service of all potential mosquito larvae development sites.
• Targeted Site Larval Inspection: Inspection of all targeted larval development sites.
• Culex Site Inspection Service: Inspection of Culex mosquito larval development sites for the prevention of West Nile Virus and other mosquito-borne diseases.
• Larval Site Service Call: Special inspection of standing water for mosquito breeding per hot line request.
• Backpack Larviciding: Backpack larviciding for biological control of mosquito larvae sites.
• Hand Larviciding: Hand equipment larviciding for biological control of mosquito larvae.
• Backyard Catch Basin Trmt: Backyard catch basin treatment for larval control.
• Catch Basin Appl: Treatment of street catch basins for seasonal control of mosquito larvae development.
• Backyard Catch Basin Touch-Up: Treatment of a backyard catch basin per the request of the community's resident.
• Helicopter Larviciding: Helicopter larvicide application for biological control of mosquitoes.
• Truck ULV: ULV application for adult mosquito control larvae.
• Truck ULV Service Call: ULV “touch-up” application for control of mosquito annoyance per citizen hotline request.
  

Mount Everest it was'nt...but still up there!

The annual trip to the top of Round Lake was yesterday. If many of you recall I summited the East water tower last year. Last year I had our Director of Public Works Davis Clark along this year I was joined by Trustee Michael Blum who was seriously willing! He was even game enough to allow me to take the picture at the right of him with a giant growth on his head!

I am not fond of heights, but last year I was so tired by the time I got to the top, I had no room to be uncomfortable! This year was no difference, my arms were so tight when I got down, they barely fit in my shirt sleeves!

Anyway we made our way to the top, where Davis casually revealed that he had already climbed the tower with the Village Engineer Erika Frable earlier in the day, which is why there was cold water at the top for us!

The view was spectacular, not as clear as last year, but great. I took some good shots which I have below in high resolution of Silver Leaf Glen and parts of Wooster Lake as well. If you click on it it should blow up to full size!



I also have one of Valley Lakes as well, same format. The sun was at an awkward angle to get shots eastwards, but these are not to bad.



Finally the two climbers at the top. Proving that fat guys can climb! Many thanks to Davis for being so helpful!

GIS Update

Last week at the village board meeting we got a presentation by the GIS team on our GIS implementation project which has been taking place for the last half year or so.

A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a system for capturing, storing, analyzing and managing data and associated attributes which are spatially referenced to the earth. In the strictest sense, it is a computer system capable of integrating, storing, editing, analyzing, sharing, and displaying geographically-referenced information. In a more generic sense, GIS is a tool that allows users to create interactive queries (user created searches), analyze the spatial information, edit data, maps, and present the results of all these operations.

Some of the highlights were when I asked how many street lights we had, how many miles of road we had (1,079 and 411,840 feet --over 78 miles-- worth of road). Since this was a live demo, they were able to answer the questions instantly!

The pictures show the streetlights and how they are connected and to where, with both satellite photography and with a plat map as well.

The Grate Mystery is Solved!

The "grate" mystery is solved, it was determined to be a field tile or drainage pipe from the 1950's. It is quite a bit deeper then we thought, so after evaluating our options it was decided to leave it be.

However I was unwilling to leave it in the state that it was in here. So the public works department came up with a grate that was attached to the top that allows it to function and be safe as well! It is quite strong as you can see, since it is being load tested to 180 lbs by Public Works employee Mark Kilarski in this picture.

Kind of an interesting type of problem to work on, I enjoy these type of things since you can really make a difference on something seemingly minor yet potentially dangerous!

Storm Damage Today

We had a microburst blow through Round Lake early this morning, and we were the center of the Chicagoland Media attention for awhile, great guest appearance by Davis Clark our Director of Public Works!

Great job by all the village staff today! Here are some pictures of the damage for you.

CSI Round Lake-- Public Works

I have not written here about my battles with Neumann Homes that I have had as a homeowner and as Mayor. So when this issue came up, and it involved something that appeared to have NOT been completed by Neumann Homes I was not surprised and believed it completely. So here are the basics:
Last year some residents of Prairie Walk, complained to me about some construction debris or some type of structure left behind in a retention pond. This retention pond had been wet for well over 60 years so what Neumann did is formalize it as Prairie Walk's detention area. Since it was late in the season we were unable to safely determine what it was, but made a committed effort this spring to get it out of the detention pond first by figuring out what it was.

It was my feeling that we would confiscate some of the money Neumann left behind as a bond on landscaping to pay for the removal of whatever it was. You can see one of our crack nautical public works staff on top of the structure in the above picture.

Once they got on the structure they started to pump it out, after 45 minutes, the water had not gone down at all! Measuring it however showed that it was approximately 5 feet around and at least 13 feet deep, they were unable to determine how much deeper then 13 feet it went however.

So the verdict is it's an elaborate field tile left over from the original owners of the Potter farm in the 1950's.

Needless to say we are probably not going to be removing it, however we are going to remove the wooden planking on it and either welding or bolting a grate over the top of it for safety reasons. There is some more research to go into this but it looks we have solved the mystery, and amazingly enough Neumann Homes is not to blame!

Good Story about the Public Works Department

Davis Clark the Director of our Public Works Department sent me this email a few weeks ago and I decided to run with it. I have changed the locations and the descriptions of the event so as to not embarrass anyone. Also the picture is not of the incident.

"Just a quick note about an accident that took place this morning. Someone noticed a streetlight had been hit on Main Street this morning and informed Public Works. I sent a couple guys out there to assess the damage and remove the broken pole. Apparently the driver hit two street signs and the street light and fled the scene leaving parts of his car scattered around.

The two public works employees Greg Poulsen and Ross Hosking decided to drive the area to see if there was a damaged vehicle nearby. Less than a block away was a vehicle with a flat tire and front end damage parked in a driveway. The Police Department were notified and the person admitted that they were at fault. That little extra effort by those two employees just saved the Village’s Insurance Co. almost $4,000.00. I thought you might like to know that."

Nice job!

Ever Wonder Whats Happens When Your Water Pipes Burst?

Last Saturday during my walk, in Lakewood, we saw that the street was soaked with water. Considering how many jackets, hats and gloves I had on, seeing running water made no sense. So I looked around and saw this scene. Item 1, broken and frozen pipe location, Item 2 the height of the stream of water that had been shooting into the air, Item 3 is the landing zone of the water. The water had saturated under the snow, and was flowing out into the street creating a giant pool that was slowly draining and freezing.

The house is not lived in so I called our Public Works Director and about 10 minutes later we had someone shutting off the water. Not exactly CSI Round Lake, but a satisfying problem to solve.

New Trucks for Public Works

The Public Works department took delivery of some new trucks recently. The new 5 ton will allow us lots of flexibility with big time snow plowing and salting abilities. The smaller truck is a welcome addition to the fleet as well.

Round Lake Police and Public Works Facility to Win National Award?

That's a good question! Sente Rubel Bosman and Lee, the architect of the Police and Public Works facility has entered the building in the American Public Works Association annual contest for best designed building.

The building of course combines the Police department, the community rooms, and the Public Works department. It's an excellent use of resources and the building is designed for expansion and growth so in my humble opinion its a winner!

Entry is here as a 2MB PDF AwardSubmissionPDF.pdf

SWALCO Dates for 2007

Here are the lists of dates the Round Lake Public Works department will be holding the Household Electronics collections for 2007. (The second Tuesday of every other month). The times will be from 8am to 5pm.

January 9th
March 13th
May 8th
July 10th
September 11th
November 13th

Further information may be found at www.swalco.org

Fishtank Nears Completion

The fish tank is nearing its finishing touches so I have prepared a sequence of photos of the site growing from the ground. Here is the first post. I have enjoyed posting these pictures over the last few months as the tank grows out of the ground. The last few remaining details need to be finished before it comes online, the main one is the placement of the giant picture of me on the side of the tank.

Gilmer and Fairfield Construction Update

Significant, long-awaited road improvement underway Work begins on Fairfield and Gilmer Road interchange improvement in southwest Lake County.

The four-way stop sign at the intersection of Fairfield Road and Gilmer Road in the Wauconda area has been the scene of long traffic back-ups during the morning and evening rush hours, and significant residential and commercial development occurring in Wauconda, Volo and McHenry County will only add to the current congestion problem.

Improvements to the intersection that will bring some relief are set to begin with the award of a $9.2 million construction contract to Berger Excavating Contractors, Inc. of Wauconda, according to the Lake County Division of Transportation.

Upon completion in late 2007, the improvement will carry traffic on Gilmer Road on an overpass crossing Fairfield Road. Traffic passing through the intersection on either Gilmer or Fairfield Road will flow freely without having to slow or stop as would be necessary with a conventional traffic signal.

"This is an innovative approach that will help motorists that are currently contending with a great deal of congestion at that location," said Diana O'Kelly, Chair of the Lake County Board Public Works and Transportation Committee. "We are very anxious to complete this improvement and make it available to our residents."

Utility relocation work has been underway for the past several months with road construction starting this fall. Temporary widening of Fairfield Road is necessary to construct a retaining wall this fall and winter on the east-side of the road.

Major traffic impacts due to a three month closure of the intersection will occur beginning in May 2007. The road closure is necessary to allow for excavation work and the construction of a bridge overpass on Gilmer Road.

Lake County structured the construction contract so that the intersection closure would occur over the summer months when school is out of session. The contractor will be required to work an accelerated schedule, including night and weekend work, and will assume the risk of weather-related impacts. Significant financial charges will be assessed daily against the contractor if the road is not opened on schedule.

"We have taken extraordinary measures on this project to ensure that we can limit the impact on motorists," said Marty Buehler, County Director of Transportation/County Engineer. "A project of this size will be a challenge for the commuters in the southwest part of Lake County during rush hour and we are doing what we can to get the project completed quickly".