Community Cleanup in the Avilon/Capri Area

The Round Lake Police Department organized a community cleanup in the Avilon/Capri area on Saturday, May 26, 2007. Members of the police department, owners of the apartments, tenants of the apartments and local home owners all participated in the cleanup. There were around one hundred people who pitched in to help. The goal of the cleanup was to improve the quality of life in the area. Now that the area has been cleaned up, the tenants understand the expectations and have committed to keeping the area clean. This was a great community policing event and I want to specifically recognize the hard work of CSO Juan Curiel and Detective Ted Hendricks for their hard work in organizing the cleanup.

Plan your weekend here! Streets of Summer is on top of us!

The Complete Guide to the Streets of Summer

The date for this year’s event is June 1,2,3 2007

Round Lake Streets of Summer 2007 Schedule

Each year, this event gets bigger and bigger with more being added on. The entertainment starts on Friday night with ARRA head-lining the main stage playing all your favorite rock hits.

On Saturday night, Round Lake welcomes the original recording artist, Ides of March. All original members are back, after 40 years of being together including Jim Peterik of Survivor

The main stage entertainment is now extended to Sunday evening with the Kimi Hayes band. The artist wraps up the fest with a mix of original rock, blues and country which spans over four full length CD’s. The Kimi Hayes Band is best known for upbeat pop flavored girl tunes.

In addition to the entertainment on Sunday evening, the Mayor is hosting a run/ walk race through the Village. Following the race, the Round Lake Area Spartans are sponsoring a pancake breakfast. Be sure to stick around on Sunday for the family events including a pet parade along children’s favorite rock band, ScribbleMonster! They will have you singing, “I Love Chocolate Milk” by the end of their performance.

As always, a full carnival operated by Windy City Amusement including games and fun food.

The Streets of Summer will be held behind Magee School at the intersection of Cedar Lake Road and Hart Road. The main parking will be held at the Metra parking lot. We will be posting more information on parking as well as times for all events including a car show, Mayor's Race and pet parade so please check back often. The entrance to the Streets of Summer is free. The event is being sponsored by the Village of Round Lake and local area businesses.

Streets of Summer Line Up

Friday 6/1	6:00 pm	House of Normandy
	7:00	Inspector Owl
	8:00	Sky Box
	9:30	ARRA
Friday 6/1	2:00 pm	Bar Stool Soldiers
	4:00	Belly Dancers
	5:00	Denny Diamond & The Family Jewels
	7:00	Johnny Russler & The Beach Bum Band
	9:30	Ides Of March
Sunday 6/3	12:30 pm	Scribble Monster (family friendly kids band)
	1:30	Police K9 Demo
	2:30	TBA
	3:30	DJ Galaxy Dancers
	5:00	Michael Charles
	6:30	Kimi Hayes Band

Fest Hours

Friday: 5 pm - 11 pm
Saturday: 11 am - 11 pm
Sunday: 8 am - 8 pm

Carnival Hours

Friday: 5 pm - 11 pm
Saturday: 1 pm - 11 pm
Sunday: 1 pm - 8 pm

Family Entertainment (non-main stage)

Sat	9:00	Car Show Registration
	11:00	Round Lake Fire House
	3:00	Car Show Trophies (main stage)
Sun	8:00	RL Spartans Pancake Breakfast (till noon)
	9:00	Beat The Mayor Run/Walk
	10:00	Vaccination and Microchip Clinic (till noon) Save-A-Pet Adoption Center (till 2:00PM)
	11:00	Round Lake Fire House
	NOON	Pet Parade

If you are interested in volunteering for the 2007 Streets of Summer, please send an e-mail to rlfest@eroundlake.com.

Race Registration Form is Here Now!

I have created the race/walk flyer for everyone to sign up for the race/walk. There are two distinct parts the race, and the walk. Both get a T-shirt and the opportunity to beat me like a drum.

You can register online until
Friday at midnight.

To register at the race or beforehand here is a PDF of the registration form

I must confess I have been horrible in my fitness program and will more then likely walk the route, although I may jog very slowly for awhile.

Here is the race route, we will more then likely start behind the village hall (park in the train lot) then run downhill the whole way! There are two trains we have to be aware of a 8:56 and a 9:56 so the race starts after the the 8:56 pulls out of the station, and hopefully all of us will be done by 9:56, at least the runners will be.

The Complete Guide to the Streets of Summer

The date for this year’s event is June 1,2,3 2007

Round Lake Streets of Summer 2007 Schedule

Each year, this event gets bigger and bigger with more being added on. The entertainment starts on Friday night with ARRA head-lining the main stage playing all your favorite rock hits.

On Saturday night, Round Lake welcomes the original recording artist, Ides of March. All original members are back, after 40 years of being together including Jim Peterik of Survivor

The main stage entertainment is now extended to Sunday evening with the Kimi Hayes band. The artist wraps up the fest with a mix of original rock, blues and country which spans over four full length CD’s. The Kimi Hayes Band is best known for upbeat pop flavored girl tunes.

In addition to the entertainment on Sunday evening, the Mayor is hosting a run/ walk race through the Village. Following the race, the Round Lake Area Spartans are sponsoring a pancake breakfast. Be sure to stick around on Sunday for the family events including a pet parade along children’s favorite rock band, ScribbleMonster! They will have you singing, “I Love Chocolate Milk” by the end of their performance.

As always, a full carnival operated by Windy City Amusement including games and fun food.

The Streets of Summer will be held behind Magee School at the intersection of Cedar Lake Road and Hart Road. The main parking will be held at the Metra parking lot. We will be posting more information on parking as well as times for all events including a car show, Mayor's Race and pet parade so please check back often. The entrance to the Streets of Summer is free. The event is being sponsored by the Village of Round Lake and local area businesses.

Streets of Summer Line Up

Friday 6/1	6:00 pm	House of Normandy
	7:00	Inspector Owl
	8:00	Sky Box
	9:30	ARRA
Friday 6/1	2:00 pm	Bar Stool Soldiers
	4:00	Belly Dancers
	5:00	Denny Diamond & The Family Jewels
	7:00	Johnny Russler & The Beach Bum Band
	9:30	Ides Of March
Sunday 6/3	12:30 pm	Scribble Monster (family friendly kids band)
	1:30	Police K9 Demo
	2:30	TBA
	3:30	DJ Galaxy Dancers
	5:00	Michael Charles
	6:30	Kimi Hayes Band

Fest Hours

Friday: 5 pm - 11 pm
Saturday: 11 am - 11 pm
Sunday: 8 am - 8 pm

Carnival Hours

Friday: 5 pm - 11 pm
Saturday: 1 pm - 11 pm
Sunday: 1 pm - 8 pm

Family Entertainment (non-main stage)

Sat	9:00	Car Show Registration
	11:00	Round Lake Fire House
	3:00	Car Show Trophies (main stage)
Sun	8:00	RL Spartans Pancake Breakfast (till noon)
	9:00	Beat The Mayor Run/Walk
	10:00	Vaccination and Microchip Clinic (till noon) Save-A-Pet Adoption Center (till 2:00PM)
	11:00	Round Lake Fire House
	NOON	Pet Parade

If you are interested in volunteering for the 2007 Streets of Summer, please send an e-mail to rlfest@eroundlake.com.

Leadership Day

Last week Trustee Sherry Perkowitz organized for the Round Lake Area Leadership day, which we have done for the last couple of years and our staff took 12 kids from the 116 middle school and showed them what goes on in a village. The highlights seemed to be Deputy Chief Francis Foy, showing a video of his greatest traffic stops, and Public Works Director Davis Clark opening a fire hydrant to flush it and sending water 100 feet into the air. Also participating were Village Administrator Marc Huber, Finance Director Steve Shields, Police Chief Cliff Metaxa, and Village Engineer Erika Frable. The kids seemed to have a great time by the time I joined them for pizza, so a special thanks to Sherry for setting it up, and for our staff for giving up time for the kids.

Race Registration Heats Up!

Registration is open for the first Annual Beat the Mayor 5K Run or Walk on Sunday June 3rd at 9:00 am. The race will be starting near the village hall, more then likely behind the village hall. You can Park in the Metra Lot adjacent to the Village Hall.

I have signed up with Active.com to take race registrations as they make it very easy...so if you are running signup below on the link.

If you want to register please click this link and register the cost is $22.50 per person, this includes a race day T-Shirt.

I have no idea how many people will show up and participate but I am hoping it will be quite a few! There will be trophies to the first 3 finishers in both the Men's and Women's categories.

Here is the tentative course map courtesy of my friends of at mapmyrun.com.

The Round Lake Spartan Football team will be conducting a Pancake Breakfast starting at 8:30 am and continuing until after the race is complete. So bring the whole family.

The Extended Cedar Lake Road Takes Shape

The extension of Cedar Lake road northwards from where it splits into Bacon is moving along quite swiftly. This picture is at Meadow Lane looking north.

During the construction the process of improving Townline Road will also take place as well. After this process takes place, there will be a "pause" and the extension will then take its next move all the way up to 120, completing the project with signals at Cedar Lake Road and 120, and signals at Cedar Lake and Townline.

Thanks to Lakewood Homes building the first stretch of Cedar Lake Road from 60 and most importantly the improvement of the intersection there, we will have this project completed 4-5 year ahead of when it fell on the Lake County master plan. While it takes a long time anyway this way, the original plan had it being completed in 2012-13 in one fell swoop. I am quite proud of the village's ability to move this project forward quicker then it was supposed to be done.

BREAKING NEWS-- Voting for a Hospital--- Lets all get involved!

I was reading the papers online this morning and I saw this online poll from our friends at the Lakeland Journal.

An online poll asking opinions between Vista and Advocate!

Imagine my suprise! I voted instantly! I think we all should express our opinions, after all this is America!

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!

Summer Fest Schedule

Click here for the link via PDF

Send a Kid to Camp Golf Outing Yesterday

The lower right corner of this closest to the pin marker on the 8th hole was the highlight of the golfing portion of the day. Brian Brubaker pounded his tee shot to this exact spot on a low line, and its smacked it so hard that it dented the corner. The ball then rebounded 40 feet off the green. Best shot of the day!

The goodie bag was sensational as it always is, golf balls, tees, bubble bath, aloe hand wipes, shampoo, aloe spray for suntan relief, candy, more wipes and some more suntan relief products. I have taken a picture (above) of some of the stuff that was in the bag, some already resides in my golf bag.

Lastly the raffle prize portion was not up to my usual standards, one year I won 25 prizes out of the 45 they raffled (this is in a room of 100 golfers all owning tickets). This year I was about 5 for 45 winning a $20 gift certificate at Potestas, a giant smoker grill coveted by Brian, a giant autographed picture of Bernard Berrian jumping into the stands, 2 Cubs tickets with a Cubs hat Cubs shirt and an autographed picture of Kerry Wood, and a box of golf balls!

All for a good cause! Thanks to Al Villasenor, Brian Brubaker and Michael Blum for playing in the foursome and putting up with my poor golfing

Round Lake-- Illinois Police Accreditation Coalition (I-PAC).

Wednesday our Police Department hosted the regular monthly meeting of the Illinois Police Accreditation Coalition (I-PAC). The mission of I-PAC is to promote professionalism among Police Departments in Illinois, and surrounding Midwestern states. I-PAC's primary function is to conduct mock on-sites (inspections) for agencies, provide training, and assist in the revision of the CALEA® standards manual. I-PAC is currently one of the largest CALEA® PAC's.

Following the meeting, there was a brief demonstration by the Illinois-Wisconsin Search & Rescue Dogs (ILL-WIS), which will included an information presentation and a canine demonstration.

The following departments attended the meeting representing : Arlington Heights PD, Barrington-Inverness PD, Champaign PD, DuPage Forest Preserve PD, Evanston PD, Grayslake PD, Hanover Park PD, Joliet PD, Lake Zurich PD, Lemont PD, McHenry PD, Naperville PD, Northfield PD, Oak Brook PD, Palatine PD, Park Ridge PD, Rolling Meadows PD, Round Lake PD, Round Lake Beach, PD Schaumburg PD, St. Charles PD, Westmont PD, Wheeling PD, Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office, Winnetka PD, and last but not least the Zion PD

Building Safety Week

Last week we had proclaimed Building Safety Week in Round Lake. There was a picture on the International Code Council website.

The International Code Council Foundation sponsors Building Safety Week. For more information about Building Safety Week, to download free home safety brochures or to learn about the International Code Council Foundation, click here.

Dale Engebretson our Building Commissioner has been doing a very good job instilling professionalism into the department.

Breaking News-- My Commute was Normal!

Can you believe it? I still can't! I left at my normal time and drove down Fish Lake Road until Gilmer then drove along Gilmer until Callahan, and then on to Old Gilmer, right on to Gossell to Fairfield, where traffic was backed up from 176 to Bonner, which is sort of longer then usual, but not noticably longer. I arrived at my office in Arlington Heights at my normal time plus 4 minutes!

I am sure many of you may have differnt versions of your commute, feel free to share them in the comments! Be interesting reading to be sure!

NOTE: The comment is correct Allanson was wrong it was Callahan!

Fest Volunteers Needed

The Fest is looking for volunteers to pitch in an help selling tickets and the like at the Streets of Summer Fest. If you are interested please contact Trustee Sherry Perkowitz to sign up!

Beat the Mayor 5K Run and or Walk

Registration is open for the first Annual Beat the Mayor 5K Run or Walk on Sunday June 3rd at 9:00 am. The race will be starting near the village hall, more then likely behind the village hall. You can Park in the Metra Lot adjacent to the Village Hall.

I have signed up with Active.com to take race registrations as they make it very easy...so if you are running signup below on th link.

If you want to register please click this link and register the cost is $22.50 per person, this includes a race day T-Shirt.

I have no idea how many people will show up and participate but I am hoping it will be quite a few! There will be trophies to the first 3 finishers in both the Men's and Women's categories.

Here is the tentative course map courtesy of my friends of at mapmyrun.com.

The Round Lake Spartan Football team will be conducting a Pancake Breakfast starting at 8:30 am and continuing until after the race is complete. So bring the whole family.

Send a Kid to Camp Golf Outing

A Brief History of Round Lake

NOTE: I had way to much going on today, so I am publishing a great post from the past, October 2005 in fact!

One of my regular readers Brian Schwartz sent me the following today with no commentary but its an excellent seque into a topic that we need to start preparing for, mainly our 100th Anniversary celebrations. Over the next few months we are going to kickoff a planning committee to lead the planning charge. We have lots to do and I already am hearing from residents asking me what we are going to do?

By the way the symbol is the Japanese Kanji Character for the year 2008. It was the best I could do for something that had a 2008 in it and was marginally clever.

Lake County, 40 miles NW of the Loop. While the retreating Wisconsin glacier left an attractive environment for farmers who entered western Lake County after the Black Hawk War of 1832, the numerous lakes and wet prairies there prevented easy movement to agricultural markets. Farmers traded at stage coach trail communities such as Hainesville, often exchanging dairy products and eggs for what they could not craft on the farm.

In the 1890s, when officials of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad extended a branch line from their Milwaukee-Chicago main line at Junction (later Roundout) to Janesville, Wisconsin, western Lake County farmers gained easy access to Chicago.
Landowners near Hainesville such as Amarias M. White knew that a railroad station would increase property values. In a classic ploy, White offered the railroad free land in exchange for a station. He also drew up a town plat to show railroad officials that profitable traffic would come through his station site. White succeeded, and Round Lake, named after the nearby lake, not Hainesville, whose inhabitants failed to offer the railroad anything, became the area station on the "Milwaukee Road."
White's promise came true in 1901 when the Armour Company decided to harvest ice from Round Lake for their refrigerator car operations. They erected a massive ice storage building holding over 100,000 tons for shipment in spring and summer months.
In 1908 White and his partners acted to incorporate the station area. The proposed village population was too small to meet incorporation requirements, so area farmers were included in the village with the understanding that, once incorporation was successful, their farms would be disconnected. On January 7, 1909, Round Lake incorporated with White as village president. Soon after, those farmers who wished to disconnect were allowed to do so —an act which prevented present-day residents of the village from having any public access to their namesake lake.
A fire in 1917 destroyed the Armour operation in the village, although a dormitory housing winter ice cutters survived. Noticing vacation resorts which had sprung up around the lake, the Armour Company remodeled its dormitory into a rural summer retreat for company employees. The praise showered on the Round Lake environment by them helped bring a slow trickle of nonagricultural residential growth to the village.
With post World War II expansion into the suburbs, Round Lake's Armour-era reputation as a rural refuge acted as a magnet for development. People began moving into the unincorporated area around the lake and demanding municipal services. The village of Round Lake failed to make those annexations. As a result new communities, using the words "Round Lake" in their corporate titles, arose. This resulted in a duplication of political hierarchies and village services which still exists.
Since the 1970s, Round Lake has embarked on an expansive annexation program. With ongoing development of those areas, Round Lake is expected to continue to grow.

Traffic Woes

Two days ago as I was merging into one lane from the three lanes that Route 53 becomes at Lake Cook. A semi got stuck in the east bound off ramp and tried to get into my lane with zero success until he reached me near the end of his possible merge.

I saw him trying to get into line further back, he also was using his signal, and knowing how hard it is to back track along Lake Cook, he qualified for my "niceness to other drivers" program. So I let him in!

Imagine my surprise when the lady in the passenger seat in the car behind me, a well dressed older women with her husband (I would guess, although hopefully not for his sake), started honking at me and gesturing at me with disgust. So I waved my hand at her, to acknowledge her anger, while letting the semi in. She just went nuts! It was so worth letting the semi in just to see her reaction! So good things do happen in traffic! She also pushed her husband aside to honk at me repeatedly for almost 60 seconds all the while spewing bile at me, which I was able to deduce from my skills as a lip reader were relating to my parentage!

I could see the husband looking at my license plate which is a Mayoral one and mentioning it to his wife, she by this time was screaming invective at me. Being a peaceful person, I immediately made a show of writing down the license plate and then acting like I was using my cell phone to vector in police officers to piss her off further. This also caused a different reaction, since they dove down the shoulder, and off the east bound ramp, across some grass I would add!

I am laughing as I write this! I wish they had stuck around so I could watch them and perhaps we could drive alongside each other on Lake Cook and exchange pleasantries!

For another residents traffic perspective on merging, this blog is a fine one written by John Gutknecht who is on the Villages Planning Commission and the Valley Lakes HOA.

He has a merging story of a different sort, I was unable to capture a picture of my incident since my cell phone was in use for fake phone calls, but John dialed up the level quite a bit higher then me! Check it out here!

New Trustee Sworn in, Old Trustee Sworn in and Appointed Trustee Sworn in!

Last night former Trustee Dale Multerer (left), became a Trustee again after a 2 year vacation, Trustee Sherry Perkowitz (center) was sworn in for her second term, and Trustee Michael Blum (right) who I appointed to a vacancy late last year took office in his own right! All three are welcome additions to the village board.

Advocate Hospital Hearing is June 5

I got this from the folks at Advocate who wanted me to help them get the word out for them.

Advocate Health Care requests the presence of citizens of Lake County at a Public Hearing to be held on Tuesday, June 5, 2007 at 10:00 a.m. at the Village of Round Lake Beach Cultural and Civic Center, 2007 Civic Center Way, Round Lake Beach, Illinois.

The Public Hearing will allow citizens to learn more about and provide feedback on the proposed Advocate – Lake County Hospital and the economic development it will bring to the community.

If approved by the Illnios Health Facilities Planning Board, the 144 bed acute care hospital will be located southwest corner of Illinois Route 120 and Wilson Road in unincorporated Lake County, Illinois.

“As a health care system with some of the best clinical outcomes and service in Illinois, we are confident we know how to deliver outstanding care,' said Jim Skogsbergh, president and CEO of Advocate. 'The people of Lake County, however, know what their community needs. We need their input to do this right.' "Please, let us know your feedback and attend the hearing to learn more about Advocate - Lake County Hospital."

The top of Illinois! At least it seemed that way!

This Weekend

I am attending the wedding of a good friend in Starved Rock State Park. Staying at the lodge which appears to be quite remote and rustic.

It was dark as drove up an actual hill, in Illinois no less! I sighted a variety of fearless road kill type animals, possums, beavers, skunks and others I did not recognize. All of them were camped out on the road and seemed put out that I needed to get by them. The lodge website seems to promise scenes like the one at the right, so tomorrow I will see what I can see.

I also passed the Utica village hall, and will stop by tomorrow to introduce myself. When I traveled more often (my first term) I would always drop into village halls and sometimes end up spending an hour or so with the Mayor. Ask me about the Mayor of Bend Oregon, sometime, when no kids are about, he owned a bar is all I will say oh and the Mayor of Detroit Michigan thats ones G rated.

Save the Date---- Streets of Summer Festival

The date for this year’s event is June 1,2,3 2007. Each year, this event gets bigger and bigger with more being added on. The entertainment starts on Friday night with ARRA head-lining the main stage playing all your favorite rock hits.

On Saturday night, Round Lake welcomes the original recording artist, Ides of March. All original members are back, after 40 years of being together including Jim Peterik of Survivor

The main stage entertainment is now extended to Sunday evening with the Kimi Hayes band. The artist wraps up the fest with a mix of original rock, blues and country which spans over four full length CD’s. The Kimi Hayes Band is best known for upbeat pop flavored girl tunes.

In addition to the entertainment on Sunday evening, the Mayor is hosting a run/ walk race through the Village on Sunday morning. Following the race, the Round Lake Area Spartans are sponsoring a pancake breakfast. Be sure to stick around on Sunday for the family events including a pet parade along children’s favorite rock band, ScribbleMonster! They will have you singing, “I Love Chocolate Milk” by the end of their performance.

As always, a full carnival operated by Windy City Amusement including games and fun food.

The Streets of Summer will be held behind Magee School at the intersection of Cedar Lake Road and Hart Road. The main parking will be held at the Metra parking lot. We will be posting more information on parking as well as times for all events including a car show, Mayor's Race and pet parade so please check back often. The entrance to the Streets of Summer is free. The event is being sponsored by the Village of Round Lake and local area businesses.

If you are interested in volunteering for the 2007 Streets of Summer, please send an e-mail to rlfest@eroundlake.com.

If you are a vendor or entertainer and you would like to participate in the 2007 Streets of Summer Festival, please forward your proposal to:

Village of Round Lake
Streets of Summer Committee
442 N Cedar Lake Rd
Round Lake, IL 60073

OR

Email to rlfest@eroundlake.com

The festival committee is a sub-committee that meets under the Village's Special Events committee. Members of the Streets of Summer Festival Committee are volunteers and currently meet every Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. at the Village Hall. All are welcome to attend as we encourage new committee members.

More on Gilmer and Fairfield Road Closure Information

The Lake County Department of Transportation has a nice flyer that shows the project and has some more details about the project here. The highlights from the flyer are below

When the project is completed, Gilmer Road will pass over Fairfield Road, allowing free flowing traffic movement at all times. A connector road between the north leg of Fairfield and the west leg of Gilmer will accommodate turning vehicles.

The intersection closure is necessary in order to complete the majority of the construction work in one season. Lake County has scheduled this closure during the summer months, when school is out of session, and is requiring the contractor to work an accelerated and strict schedule in an effort to limit the impact to motorists.

In addition I took the artist's rendering from the flyer and its above showing what's going on when its finished.

Why you should wear your seatbelt!

On the Making Light blog, novelist Jim Macdonald -- who is also a paramedic -- lays out the stark, grisly case for wearing your seatbelt. New Jersey's Governor Jon S Corzine was recently badly injured in a car collision. He wasn't wearing his seatbelt. The two other passengers in the vehicle were wearing their seat belts -- they sustained bumps and bruises. Macdonald's description of what he sees when responding to "unrestrained passenger" accidents aren't for the faint of heart.

In a collision, you have three or four sub-collisions all taking place in sequence. First, the vehicle hits some object. The vehicle abruptly slows, but unrestrained objects inside it continue at the same speed, in the same direction. Then the unrestrained body hits the interior of the vehicle, and starts to slow. That’s the second collision. That body’s internal organs are still moving at speed until they hit the inside of the chest (or get cheese-sliced by their supporting ligaments—and that’s where you get things like bisected livers or aortas). The fourth collision is when the bowling ball you left on the rear deck hits you in the back of the head, because that continued at the same speed in the same direction. Newtonian physics: Learn it, live it, love it.

Just so you know at some point during the spring and summer we will be doing spot enforcement checks of seat belts along with seat belt awareness campaigns.

Advocate Hospital Hearing is June 5

There will a public hearing on the potential Advocate Hospital in Round Lake at the Round Lake Beach Civic Center on June 5th. I will have more details as they become available. A variety of people will be able to testify about the need for a hospital in Western Lake County, I certainly will be doing so.