This was the scene in my living room a few minutes after midnight today. I got the expanded Neumann home as you can all see.
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.
Happy Holidays, this blog, and this Mayor are taking time off until after Christmas. So Happy Holidays
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.
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!
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.
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. 
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.
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.
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!
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!
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.
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.
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.