High Quality Leadership!

One of the challenges of public service is balancing what you want for your small area, your block or your neighborhood versus the needs of the greater community. It is sometimes very hard to understand the needs of someone who lives miles away from you and exists in a different part of the community then you are involved in. We have about 20 homes that actually either touches the actual Round Lake and or the Channel that leads to it., Round Lake Beach has 100'’s and Round Lake Park has at least as many homes.

So a few years the mayors of the three Round Lakes that touch the lake and founded the Round Lake Management Commission I struggled to find people to serve as our representatives on the board. Each community has 3 seats on the 9 person board I initially wanted to appoint people who lived on the lake and was able to attract a dedicated committed resident Doug Vehlow. But I struggled to pull interested people from that small subset of 20 homes over the years.

So I thought outside the box and started to identify people who demonstrated to me that they were willing to get involved in things outside their neighborhoods and I started to approach them. A couple I approached was not able to get involved based on work commitments, or child care responsibilities and for that I am actually grateful they were candid and honest about it with me. I approached a gentleman who was active in his Home Owners Association and active in local politics last year to serve on the RL management committee named John Gutknecht who lives in Valley Lakes, and he has been exceptional.

My plea a month ago or so brought me Niel Flam also of Valley Lakes who has already impressed me with his enthusiasm. So coupled with Doug Vehlow we finally have an excellent trio of representatives on this board. They/we are working towards restocking the lake this fall, doing the annual clean-up next spring, plus hopefully we will also patrol the lake for safety checks as well.

The moral of this story is "“its good to think outside the box sometimes"” also I am glad I was able to identify people who were willing to get involved in something that did not affect there small area of interest.

Special Census Starting

This week we are starting a special census run by the United States Bureau of the Census. It is the second census we have done in my 5 years as Mayor. Let me talk about the last one since we don't know the results of this one, however this one will be almost identical to the last one although the numbers will have changed. First some facts about the special census and some information on the process.

• The reason so many municipalities do a special census is because MFT (Motor Fuel Tax) funds from the state of Illinois are based on population and the most recent census numbers are used.
• On the average we get between $100 and $120 per person per year from the state in MFT funds. Our numbers are based on the most recent census figures (2003 special census) of 10,100.
• The 2003 special census took us from 5,400 to 10,100, so the next fiscal year we got an additional $120 x 4,700 people or an additional $564,000 to the village starting in fiscal year 2004.
• The best part about this is we receive $564,000 more every single fiscal year until the 2010 census, which is an additional $3.38 million.
• Some of the facts we learned from this census is that the typical single family home in Round Lake has 3.24 people in it, and attached homes have 2.73 people in them, which is quite close to the 2000 census numbers as well.
• The village pays for the entire process, in 2003 it cost us $120,000 to hire, train and actually do the count which was administered by a nice lady from the census. So the board had to weigh the potential for making sure that a special census made financial sense.
• In the 2003 case we knew that we would have to have an additional 1,000 people in the village from the 2000 census figures to cost justifies the up front costs.
• The village has about 1,300 to 1,500 more housing units occupied since the 2003 special census. If you use the people per home numbers above, you can get a rough approximation of a current population of Round Lake of around 15,000. The second way of estimating is how many water bills we mail out.
  
• The difficulty with these estimating techniques is the census in 2003 took about a month and a half and we have no real easy way of determining which homes were built and occupied before and after that time period.

My best guess is that we will be at about 15,000 people, which if correct will bring us, an additional $575,000 per year. This means that the village’s use of the special census has taken our MFT revenue from $650,000 to $1,800,000 in 6 years. By the way the picture is a 1930 census taker meeting a familly of 5 who appear to live in a trailer.

The View from on High of the Spartan Brat Fest

Davis Clark our Public Works Director took these this Saturday. The first is the view up to the tower and the second is the view down from the tower. Spartan Football had a big day with Brian Brubaker Spartan President telling me that they made almost $30,000.

Our State Capitol

I am down in Spingfield today for a series of meetings which I am looking forward to. It's also an excellent opportunity to meet and greet people.

Springfield is an interesting place the streets roll up at 8:00 pm! That's for sure since I tried to grab a bite to eat last night around that time. I was tempted by the new Lincoln Library but I think I need more time for that.

Hopefully I will get what I need to accomplish done and then can get home before traffic builds near Chicago. Hummm maybe I should bring that subject up down here!

Fill the Boot--- Thanks to the Round Lake Firefighters

The Round Lake Area Union firefighters was collecting donations for the Muscular Dystrophy Association at the intersection of Cedar Lake rd. and Route 134. This is thier 3rd year collecting and over the last 2 they have collected over $14,000.00 for this charity. The Organization they belong to is the I.A.F.F. International Association of Fire Fighters and has been collecting for MDA for over 50 years and this is the biggest charity that they collect for besides making donations to the area burn camp. Just some history for you when you see signs that say Fill the Boot for MDA they collect donations in firefighters boots just like they did when they started collecting 50 years ago.

The union and its members have given back to the community in many ways also besides the MDA collection. They have made monetary donations to the cancer charities for one of the fire district employee'’s in her memory and the same for a dear friend that was a Grayslake firefighter who also passed from this terrible illness.

Last year they adopted a local family whose daughter has some major medical problems and her parents weren'’t working for this we collected several hundred dollars from thier own members and used the money to buy Christmas gifts for the parents and their children. They have participated in Habitat for Humanities for the last 3 years.

Riding with the Police

I rode around with Chief Metaxa last night and we had a more eventful night then the last time I went out with him last spring. The highlights (or lowlights) were:

• A rollover accident on Route 120, (see picture in the center you can see the roof of the rolled over car).
• Amorous couple caught flagrante delicto in a parking lot.
• High speed trip from Lakewood to near the High School with lights and sirens on. Every 8 year olds dream!
• Got to see the new squad cars electronic equipment in action, video camera, radar detector, and lightbar array.

Overall it was quite interesting and educational, its excellent to see the tools we are now giving our officers being used effectively and efficiently.

Light up my Life!

I found this yesterday on the WGN site taken by a Round Lake resident Bob Fesus who used to live over by me in Treehouse. There are some unreal pictures he captured during yesterday mornings storms! Unreal! This is in Valley Lakes! If you go to the WGN site there are more pictures like this from Bob.

Round Lake 5K Coming Soon

Just a friendly reminder that the Round Lake Area Park District has its 6th annual 5k Run/Walk coming up on September 10th at 8am. It's tons of fun and I will be back to defend my 45-50 age group third place medal (see picture). By the way that's former Trustee Dale Multerer Current Police Commission President and Round Lake Park District Foundation Board Member in the background. Hopefully I can better the time of 30:47 that I had last year! Proceeds from the race benefit Special Olympics for the Round Lake Area as well. So it's for a good cause as well!

The Frosty 5K on the same course earlier this year was not very good for me, as I was soundly whipped by the entire distaff line (all 3 of them) of Trustee Bob Del Prato's family.

If you are interested in registering for the Run/Walk here is the link to a PDF of the entry form. A few hours later there is a doggie walk as well! I will write more on that later.

Corn and Brat Day is Almost Upon Us!

Saturday August 26th is the Round Lake Spartans annual Corn & Brat Day! It starts at 8am and goes until about 5pm. A full day of football and cheerleading. Everyone is invited. It is at Hart Hill football field across from the main park district blg on Hart Rd. The Actual address is 761 Hart Rd.

They could use volunteers for just about everything. Grilling working the chain gang, raffles, someone to run the brand new scoreboard, someone to do announcing and play by play on the brand new sound system, dunk tank operator, concessions, set up, clean up. The list goes on and on.

Or just come out and sit on the hill and watch these boys and girls show you what they have learned in a few short weeks! You can also watch for Round Lake Trustee Brian Brubaker who is very active in the organization and currently serves as President.

Kick off starts at 8am and games run about every 1.5 hours until 5pm Hope to see you out there. If anyone is interested in volunteering email them at info@rlspartans.org.

Honoring a Round Lake Legend this Saturday!

Brian Brubaker current President of the Spartan Football organization sent me this about the dedication of Dedication of Hart's Hill Football Field in honor of Ron Schmidt.

Ron Schmidt, son of Marion and William Schmidt, was born in Chicago on November 20, 1942. Looking for opportunity the Schmidt family moved to Round Lake Park in 1945. Ron attended Murphy school and Round Lake High School graduating in 1960. Ron was active in the community and played sports throughout high school. Ron worked at Fiat Allis in Lake County which was a manufacturing machine shop. Ron never married nor had children. Probably because he was too busy mentoring and coaching all the kids in the Round Lake area. In early 1963 Ron took his own money, bought some football equipment and found an open field in the area to start a football program. People often ask how the Spartans name came to be. As the team was forming Ron would visit the local schools to recruit kids to play. When asked what the name of the team was he turned it back to the kids and asked what they were studying. It just so happened that the kids were studying about Spartan warriors in class that week, the Round Lake Spartans were born.
In the beginning, practices and games were held at St. Joseph Church and at the Round Lake High School. Today the Spartans play games at Hart Hill and practice at Indian Hill School under lights provided by the Round Lake Area Park District. In addition to being the founder of our organization Ron was involved at St. Joseph School and the ATYB. Ron was an accomplished referee for baseball, football and basketball for area youth programs. On August 30, 1996 Ron suffered a heart attack at a high school football game in Libertyville. To the very end of his life Ron was doing what he loved to do. Ron ran the Spartans from 1963 to 1993.

Dedication of Hart's Hill Football Field in honor of Ron Schmidt.
Event: Annual Corn and Brat Day
When: August 26, 2006 at 12:15 PM
Where: Hart Hill Football Field (across the street from the RLAPD)
814 Hart Road, Round Lake

Regional Housing Assessment

NOTE: This was a post from last October which while I was rereading the blog (shamelessly for ideas on what to write this morning) I thought that this illustrates some of the issues facing the county with transportation.

A few weeks ago I attended the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus. There were numerous presentations that gave some big picture looks at the six county Chicagoland Area. One of the talks was on a Regional Housing Needs Assessment for the region. I got the presenter to send me the slide show, so I could present it to the Village Board because I thought it was important for them to have this overview in the back of their minds. I gave the presentation a few meetings ago to them and the public as well.

However there were some very telling slides that explain exactly what we are facing in the terms of "where we live" and "where we work" and to me this illustrates the need for transportation improvements which in turn will/should lure employers closer which will then reduce congestion even more.

The first slide below shows the housing increase from 1990-2000 taken from Census records. Round Lake is not as colorful since a vast majority of our growth has taken place since the 2000 census. However the Round Lake Area did grow thanks to Round Lake Beach. You can clearly see the area on the graph below.

The next image (below) is where the jobs are in 2000. You can see that they are either along the 294, Lake Cook corridors or downtown. As an observation the Baxter facility on Wilson and 120 does not even register and they have 2,300 plus jobs there.

If you then take the two pictures and graph them over each other, you get a look at the Housing vs. Jobs mismatch for the decade of the 90's

What does this mean to us? It's something that any resident intuitively understands while commuting or trying to drive anywhere during rush hours. However I think it illustrates the need for the 120 bypass and traffic improvements in the area. The construction of the 120 bypass will attract more business/jobs to the area which will reduce our commutes and ease congestion. However large employers are not coming to our area if they don't have road improvements, so its a catch 22 type of situation. Which is why the next 2-3 years are so important as we try to get the Route 120 bypass off the drawing board and on to the ground.

Mayoral Smackdown Challenge-- Are You Ready For Some Football!

What has 12 teams and 11 openings? Why the First Annual Round Lake Mayors Invitational Fantasy Football Smackdown does! I joined a fantasy football league last year for the first time in many years and I loved it, I had two teams and lost in the semis with one and won with the other one. This year I have decide to invite 11 elite members of my blogging audience to come try to best the ego maniac who writse this blog.

I set up a league on Fox Sports Fantasy where I am the Mayor, errrr Commisioner, with 12 teams, an autopick draft, and 11 vacant spots for owners. Here are the rules for those who choose to fight it out for second place.

• You must live in Round Lake.
• You have to be able to talk smack and take public abuse for getting beat by the Mayor.
• The first 11 people to email me get into the league.
• Be able to attend the season ending party where I will personally award myself the trophy, since I am going to be unstoppable.
• I will get a suitable trophy, that I will award to myself each year. If someone else actually got lucky and won it they would be able to keep it for a year.
  

The Cedar Lake Road Extension

This is an old article from last year, but since I attended a meeting of the Lakewood Orchard HOA last night where the Cedar Lake Road extension was a topic of discussion I thought I would reprint it.

I was asked an excellent question by a Prairewalk Resident named Doug Pentek that I decided to respond to here since I am sure many people have the same questions.

The answer requires a full discussion of the Cedar Lake Road Extension and the plans Round Lake has made for the extension and the plans Lake County are making for it. So thanks to John Gutknecht for the updated map!

First however an overview.

When I took office 4 years ago one of the primary commute methods to Route 60 from Round Lake was 120 to Bacon to 60. Anyone who has lived here longer then 3 years recalls that actually the South end of Bacon was actually more dangerous then the North end. When Lakewood homes was in a first draft stage of the their development we were able to insist that Lakewood homes build the extension of Cedar Lake Road to its present point (#3 of the photo above) from Route 60.

Lake County has on its books the extension of Cedar Lake Road north from 60 all the way to 120. (that's the heavy black line on the map) However money is tight, the project is expensive and referendums for more transportation funds keep failing. So the project is going to be done in stages.

Stage 1 which is the 60 to Bacon Road portion right now is done, only some connection work to the Stage 2 and the cul de sac of Bacon (#5 on the photo)

Stage 2 I am pleased to say will extend north to Townline Road (#2 on the photo) and bids will be going out in October of this year, construction will start in the spring of 2007 and finish in the Fall of 2007. The village is going to improve its portion of Townline Road to Bacon to handle the traffic flow westwards from the T intersection and in front of our new Police and Public Works Facility (#6 on the photo). In attain the village required Neumann Homes and Concord Homes to provide funding to improve and enhance Townline Road East of the intersection all the way to Curran.

Stage 3 is scheduled to be bid out in 2008 and finished in 2009. This is clearly a shame but is a direct consequence of the two failed traffic referendums in the county in the last two years. However when it gets done a traffic light will be built at Townline and Cedar Lake (#2 on the photo), and at 120 and Cedar Lake (#1 on the photo).

So once this all get accomplished Bacon Road will be a cul-de sac on the South End about where it merges with Cedar Lake now (#5 on the photo). There has also been some discussion on making it a dead end on the North End as well.

However to finally get to Mr Pentek's question the state has looked at putting a light at Bacon and 120 and is currently doing a tentative survey of it, but my guess is since within 5 years the need for it will have vanished I am thinking it will not get done. My only advice is don't drive that way, I avoid those intersections if I can.

Is Illinois the Gerrymander State?

One of the most fascinating things about the state of Illinois is the sheer volume of taxing bodies there are. This village has an unreal amount of taxing bodies that fall inside our boundaries. I am going to list them, and I am sure I will miss some, in fact I can guarantee I will. The picture is appropriate sometimes when you deal with the number of taxing bodies in the area.

School Districts (8)

• Round Lake District 116
• Grayslake High School 127
• Community School District 46
• Fremont School District
• Mundelien High School District
• Grant High School
• Big Hollow School District
• Gavin School District

Park Districts (1)

• Round Lake Area Park District

Library Districts (2)

• Round Lake Area Library District
• Grayslake Library District

Fire Departments (3)

• Round Lake Fire Protection District
• Grayslake Fire Protection District
• Fox Lake Fire Protection District

Townships (3)

• Avon
• Grant
• Fremont

Sanitary Sewer (2)

• Lakes Region Sanitary Sewer
• Round Lake Sanitary Sewer

Countywide organizations (4)

• College of Lake County
• Lake County
• Stormwater Management
• JAWA-- Joint Area Water Agency

We are also served by 1 Congressman, 1 State Senator, 1 State Representative, 4 County Board Representatives.

$2 Million for the 120 Bypass

We got some good news yesterday from our Congresswomen Melissa Bean on the 120 bypass. She was able to get the 120 CPC $2 million for the Phase 1 study in the form of a fiscal year 2007 Federal earmark. The picture is from the press conference where Congresswomen Bean announced the earmark. In the picture I am talking a little about what the congresswomen has done for transportation in the 8th district. She has delivered $30 million for her district which encompasses parts of 4 counties, but $16 million of it has been here in Lake County! There was a nice crowd of Mayors, County Board Members, media and the general public! The Daily Herald had an article about it here, and the News Sun covered it here.