Temporary Relocation

As you have all probably guessed I am quite busy. I am also keeping a campaign blog as well, so as I have been getting busier I have been neglecting this blog and the campaign blog as well. So I decided for the next 50 days I will only be writing on the campaign blog. After the election I will be figuring out how to make a senatorial blog so I will be blogging on in some format one way or the other!

I also moderate comments on the blog, since its a political site and you know people can get heated over politics. Not like over here on this blog. So see you all over there.

Nippersink Forest Preserve!

NOTE: Here is an old post about the Nippersink Forest Preserve. The breaking news is its open and looks great! Go check it out. This is the original post from two years ago, so you can have some of the back story

A couple of years ago I got frustrated with a series of developers who kept insisting that they need to build homes on Nippersink Road across from Village School. In a partnership with County Board Member Larry Leafblad we were able to chase off Neumann Homes and secure the 219 acre marsh to be added to the Lake County Forest Preserve. Now granted I did not do much other then frown and express dismay with the project and the Forest Preserve did the buying of the land.

I do have issues with the Forest Preserve buying land and then not letting any one use the land that they buy, if you doubt me drive around and see all the land in the Forest Preserve, but this purchase made long term sense for the village and the area. Then about 2 years ago Toll Brothers wanted to bring 300 senior oriented houses to the Country Lakes Resort on 120 across from Bacon Road. I had some conversations with the owners and the desire of the family who owned the resort to sell the property.

I then thought about it and referred to our comprehensive plan which led me to invite Bonnie Thompson Carter who is the President of the Lake County Forest Preserve and one of Round Lake's county board members. I drove her around the property which she knew well since her family owned portions of it way back when! I told her that I could prevent the development from happening if the Forest Preserve put up their money and bought the land for active recreation purposes. Kudos to her and the rest of the Forrest Preserve for carrying through.

Last week I attended the sneak preview of whats coming and the graphic above is a representation of what is coming. The result of all of this is the Nippersink Forrest Preserve area in Round Lake. The Millennium Trail will also be coming through the area as well which is a wonderful addition to the area.

Understanding Your Property Assessment

The Chief County Assessment Office of Lake County will hold two public information meetings and 14 tax assessment help meetings this fall to help residents understand their property assessment.

Public Information Meetings:
The Chief County Assessment Officer will explain assessment procedures, provides the recommended steps to review a tax assessment, outline the assessment appeal process, and answer questions from residential property owners.

• Saturday, October 25 at 9:00 a.m. – College of Lake County, Grayslake Campus, Building C – Auditorium
• Saturday, November 8 at 9:00 a.m. – College of Lake County, Grayslake Campus, Building C – Auditorium

Tax Assessment Help Centers:
Residents will work one on one with a member of the Chief County Assessment Office staff for personal assistance with evaluating their property tax assessment. The county provides valuable web applications to the public, which will be utilized during these sessions, at three convenient locations.

• Tuesday, September 9, from 5 – 8 p.m., at the University Center of Lake County, Grayslake
• Tuesday, September 16, from 5 – 8 p.m., at the University Center of Lake County, Grayslake, and at the College of Lake County Southlake Educational Center, Vernon Hills

Dates, times and locations for additional help centers can be found in the attached flyer.

What was that in the sky?

Over the weekend Clarke Mosquito was doing some vital mosquito abatement work over the village and alert blog reader and shutterbug Kevin Garrett snapped this picture of it.

In addition there was a two flight of F-16's that overflew Round Lake on Saturday on there way somewhere. Where and why I have no idea, but still not the usual thing to see over our skies!

Metra Parking Update

Metra is starting to improve the parking lot on the NE corner of the train lots which will add quite a few parking spaces later this year. Unfortunately this is a Metra project on Metra land so we are at the mercy of the schedules and contractors chosen by Metra. We also will be losing parking spaces during the duration of the project so bear with us.

Here is a rough schedule we have been provided with:

September 10: Start date: Install tree protection, erosion barrier, and begin tree/brush removal
September 12: Begin site demolition to include asbestos, underground storage tank, buildings, fence, sidewalk and curbs
September 25: Begin storm sewer layout and installation
October 6 – November 7: Site grading and construction of curbs, walks, landscaping wall, etc. November 12: Begin paving operations
November 21-25: Install fencing
November 26: Painting
March 2: Landscaping

Fantasy Football Kickoff Tonight

This is it! Mayor Bowl III is starting tonight with the start of the NFL season. This season 18 teams entered for the road to the MB3, up from 12 last year and 10 the year before. We have a good selection of elected officials playing so public ridicule is upcoming on the blog and is virtually a guarantee (assuming my team does not stink)!

Good luck to everyone and next year if we have more teams we will explore a more energetic league (of course it will be called Senator Bowl then!) and the bragging rights will be greater!

My first game is against Team Multerer, who appear to be masterminded by a teenager so I am wary!

Understanding Your Property Assessment

Since we have all been getting our blue cards recently with our new assessed valuation of our homes on it in the last few days I think its appropriate to run this post from information I received from the Lake County Assessor's office.

The Chief County Assessment Office of Lake County will hold two public information meetings and have fifteen fifteen tax assessment centers this fall to help residents understand their property assessment.

Public Information Meetings: The Chief County Assessment Officer will explain assessment procedures, provides the recommended steps to review a tax assessment, outline the assessment appeal process, and answer questions from residential property owners.

• Saturday, October 25 at 9:00 a.m. – College of Lake County
• Saturday, November 8 at 9:00 a.m. – College of Lake County (Grayslake Campus, Building C – Auditorium)

Tax Assessment Help Centers: Residents will work one on one with a member of the Chief County Assessment Office staff for personal assistance with evaluating their property tax assessment.

The county provides valuable web applications to the public, which will be utilized during these sessions, at three convenient locations. Dates, times and locations for the help centers can be found in the attached flyer.

Centennial Booklet on Your Doorstep!

Late last week you should have received on your doorstep the 100th anniversary booklet we put out in conjunction with the Pioneer Press. Its got some interesting pictures and articles on some things I did not know about and learned some new details about the village I love!

We were able to get the pictures of all the past mayors of Round Lake in on one of the pages as well. As you all know I love history and I take my stewardship of the mayoral chair quite seriously, and I value the service of the 12 mayors who came before me quite a bit.