Here's to a Wonderful 2006 and an Even Better 2007!

This is the last post of the year, I hope everyone has a very safe and happy New Years! Enjoy the fireworks in 2007, because there will be some!

2006 A Blogging Year in Review

Here is a look back at some popular posts from the last year.

January-- Where does your Tax Money go?
February-- My hospital task force takes shape!
March-- We lost a dear friend in Round Lake Park Mayor Ila Bauer.
April-- Played an excellent April Fools joke on my readers!
May-- I wrote a post about the history of Round Lake.
June-- My climb up the water tower on Hart Rd got lots of attention.
July-- Streets of Summer or Better known as Seanstock took place.
August-- Train Station Improvements!
September-- My wallet story was quite the hit!
October-- My first guest blogger wrote about HOA's and was quite the hit!
November--I announced my Wellness campaign!
December-- My waist made the front page of the Daily Herald.

However the single most lively post had to be this one.
The one that got my mother in law ticked off was this one.
The most commented post was this one with 211.

Save the Date-- the First Mayor's Run/Walk-- January 6th in Madrona

A friendly year end reminder for the first Mayor's Run/Walk on January the 6th. I have mapped the route out for those of us with the inclination to know what's going on beforehand. It will be in Madrona starting at the park. So here's the schedule of events:

• We start at 7:00am with a jog/run of 1.83 miles at about 11 minute mile pace. The intention is to take it easy so we all can keep up (mainly me, given my lack of exercise over the holidays).


• We return to the starting point where those who want to walk will be waiting, and those who want to walk and cool down after running can stroll with us.


• Roughly 7:30am we walk the same route which should get us done by 8:00am.


• At 8:05 am drag Mayor back to his car and attempt to revive him.

Couple of guidelines, if its raining or snowing, we are going to take a rain check, there is no need to be out in bad weather, and its also not safe either. The other thing since not everyone is as energetic as us, and may be still asleep at 7am on a Saturday morning, we should keep the noise down. We are not inviting any bulls, but lets hope the guy in the picture had some good foot speed.

Snow on Sidewalks!

I have gotten a ton of emails and comments on neighbors not cleaning the sidewalks off after a snow storm. So I decided to go to the village code and find exactly what it says. However the Valley Lake HOA already had an excellent flier and I asked John Gutknecht to send it to me.

Frequently Asked Questions and Reminders

Question: Who’s supposed to clear the sidewalks?
Answer: It is the responsibility of each property owner to remove the snow from ALL PUBLIC SIDEWALKS adjacent to their property.

Question: But can’t I be held liable if someone falls on a sidewalk that I cleared?
Answer: Individuals who shovel snow or ice from sidewalks are NOT liable for personal injuries allegedly caused by the snowy or icy condition of the sidewalk resulting from their shoveling unless their conduct is willful or wanton. (Willful or wanton conduct means with an actual intent to cause an injury or with a conscious disregard for the safety of others. Illinois Compiled Statutes, Chapter 745, Section 75/2.

The Village Code even weighs in on the subject as well.

12.04.070 Snow on Sidewalks.
The person occupying the ground floor of any building, the user of any lot without a structure thereon, and the owner of any vacant building or other premises shall remove the snow and ice accumulating on the abutting sidewalks within twenty-four (24) hours after any snowfall has ceased. If snow or ice cannot be removed the surface shall be sanded or otherwise treated to lessen the hazard for pedestrians until the climate permits removal.

If you see an address in which the owner is not removing the snow, please contact the Round Lake Police Dept. at 847-546-8112 and file a complaint. Our first priority however will always be the roads during a snow event.

Train Whistles

For some time I have been getting emails from some people who live at the SW corner of 134 and Fairfield about train whistles. I usually explain the history of train whistles in the RL area and what the board did about 5 years ago. So I will explain the story here.

There has been train tracks through Round Lake since the Round Lake was founded, in fact that's why we were founded in 1908 to be a train station. When I took office the ordinances that existed were that NO train whistles were to blow except in emergencies. The village board voted in 1994 to stop blowing the whistles.

In the time frame between 1998 and 2002 there were probably 3-4 fatalities (I think one was a suicide) at the 4 crossings in Round Lake. Then Trustee Danette Kohlmeyer advocated the revision of the ordinance, and when the ordinance came up for discussion it was an extraordinarily heated discussion. In fact if I had to rank it in terms of people "mad as hell" it would be in the top 3! There were people advocating both sides of the issue as well, which is always enjoyable! Safety and noise were the major talking points if I recall.

So when the board finally voted it passed narrowly (3-2) to blow whistles for safety. Since that time the whistles have blown. In addition there have been no fatalities that I know of or accidents that I recall. I have been aware for the last few years of a study done by Mundelien on directional crossing signals that direct the signal, I finally got a hold of the report and the study which I have created as a PDF here (report and evaluation). Having read the report and evaluation.

At the December 18th board meeting I brought the issue up again for the board to consider if we should direct our management team to look into what steps we need to take, if we want to pursue directional signals. The board agreed to research the process. So watch this space for more details!

Best Comment Overheard at the OTB

The six gentlemen sitting at the table next to us at the OTB, (the youngest was approximately 70 years old). One says completely out of the blue in the middle of a discussion about the merits of the upcoming race....

I need to change morticians!

Think about that for awhile. We laughed for about an hour about that one, amazing, what was the reason I wanted to ask. But didn't.

Fantasy Football Championship Decided the Result was not a Suprise!!

Congratulations to Tim Orris who swept almost everyone he played with the best regular season record of 10-2 (Bob Stone and Davis Clark were the only ones who beat him all year) and then last night he finished me off 123-86 in the championship game, it was never in doubt. We had 10 people playing all season and even the guys who finished out of the playoffs told me that they enjoyed it and will be back next year for season 2! I am going to buy a trophy that will allow the winner to have his name on it and keep it for year until relinquishing it next year or retaining it if they win again . Tim and I are going to the OTB today as well, so I am buying him lunch in my losing side bet on the game.

Some of the season highlights of the season were:

• Al Villasenor beating Paul Holingsworth 166-60 for the most points scored and biggest margin of victory.
• Michael Blum got the fewest points when I drubbed him 77-12
• Michael Blum beat Sean Gillette 115-111 giving Sean the dubious distinction of scoring the most points in a losing cause.
• Closest game of the year was a 70-70 tie between Brian Brubaker and Bob Stone.
• I am awarding myself the lucky award winning 3 games by 2 points or less including my playoff win over Michael Blum.
• The only person not mentioned before now was Terry Vandenboom, who played but did very little in the way of anything memorable. I am assuming my next trip for a haircut will now cost me!
  

Have a Sweet Christmas from the Mayor!

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays to everyone! Santa came early in my house and brought me a head cold! I guess I have been naughty.

Round Lake vs Grayslake

Well as I predicted I would take out the eight Round Lake residents confident enough to take me on with my brilliant football mind in tmy fantasy football league, however I also allowed a good friend of mine who happens to live in Grayslake to participate as well. Not only did he win the league with the best record, relegating me to second, he is now the only person between me and glory. In other words its me against Tim Orris this weekend for all the fantasy football glory available. We have discussed some personal stakes, loser buying lunch and having to be the others chauffeur to the OTB on our horse racing foray's. He has LaDalian Tomlinson or someone like that on his team so its going to be an up-hill battle. I am still confident!

School District 116 Lauded for its Turn Around!

Dennis Stonewall the CEO of District 116, sent me this article from "Managing School Business" about the Districts turn around. When I took office the district (about 25% of Round Lake is in District 116) was bankrupt, staff morale was at all time low, and all anyone wanted to do was blame someone else.

When the state stepped in and imposed the over site committee I went along with the process more from a feeling of, it can't get worse then it already is then from one of optimism! The real reason I was supportive was the availability of special interest rates and funding options from the state that I felt could start the recovery. I was unsure of the level of commitment and or leadership we would get to manage the turn around. That over site committee eventually hired Wally Korpan as Chief Financial Officer and Dennis as Chief Executive Officer.

In a pleasant surprise we got leadership willing to make tough choices, and hiring and retaining quality leadership at the education level. Anyone who has seen Dr. Jeff Brierton Principal at the High School can attest to the fact that his brand of leadership and educational motivation work and in spades! The district has turned around completely and while this article does not talk about it, scores are up dramatically, which in the education world is the bottom line!

NOTE: I am unable to upload the PDF of the newsletter if you want a copy...so emails to me here!

GUEST COMMENTARY-- Trustee Thoughts on Dawn Marie

NOTE: In my magnaimous nature, and of course becuase he asked, Trustee Michael Blum is being allowed to adress the blogging public on his concerns and issues with Dawn Marie. He is also not my first guest blogger either! John Gutknecht was the first.

I would like to take a minute to address my recent vote on the Dawn Marie Sewer Reimbursement program. At the December 4th board meeting I voted "No" as I did not believe paying for the sewer hook-up was in the best interest of the village. I felt that the village should not be in the business of paying inconvenience fees to residents caused by village expansion. I said in the 12/4 meeting and reiterated in the 12/18 board meeting that Dawn Marie is a village street and the village has every right to run sewer down it. That does not entitle the home owners to free hook-up.

In the time between the 12/4 and the 12/18 meetings, I became aware of a letter sent out to the home owners on Dawn Marie by the prior Village Administrator (Bam Peterson) letting them know they would be connected to the sewer at no-cost and felt that this was a promise made to those homeowners. It may not have been approved by the board or been an appropriate letter to send, but it was a promise. At the time the letter was sent and the deal was made I was not a trustee. If I were, I would not have voted in favor of paying the difference in the connection cost nor would I have agreed with paying to extend the sewer in the loop. At the 12/18 meeting, I subsequently reversed my vote because of the "promise" that was made to the homeowners. It is unfair to penalize them for the the actions of our prior administrator. Again, I would like to reiterate that the village should not be paying for inconveniences and that the village needs to learn from this. I truly believe that with the new additions to the village staff (all village department heads have been changed in the last year and half) we will be more on the ball when it come to issues such as these.

COMMENTARY-- Dawn Marie Sewer and Water

Over the last few years its been a strategic goal of the village to get sewer and water down to our SW quadrant, to do many things, mainly to push economic development in the area. We are just now starting to see results. I think its crucial to the future of the village that we dictate what happens on the vacant land there rather then Volo. If we allow Volo to move in that area, we will have homes everywhere. I prefer a different scenario.

However one of the things that we had to do is actually run the sewer and the water to the area. To get to that area we had to disrupt the street of Dawn Marie. Its home to 19 residents, 15 of them directly affected by the construction. We forced Ryland homes to pony up $100,000 to a fund allowing the 15 residents to connect to our sewer and water at no charge. In fact this was my idea and I repeatedly insisted on it. We also as a village board reiterated it to them many times in public.

At one point in the discussion the 4 residents on the loop (not directly affected by the construction) challenged the board to bring sewer and water to them under the same program as well, even though they were not directly affected, the board agreed, the cost of that was approximately $100,000 to do the loop, money was to come from our sewer and water fund.
As we have worked through the process of hooking residents up we were repeatedly challenged and questioned as to our competence by two residents who live on the street. They were the only two residents against the proposal the village developed to connect the residents. We try to do the right thing so we paused and evaluated their concerns, ultimately deciding to move ahead with our proposed program. In the interim these two residents decided to be critical of our Public Works director, our Village Administrator and our Village Engineer, along with the village board.

If we had voted the issue four months ago (in my opinion), the program would have passed more then likely 4-2. However when I moved it for a vote on December 4th the motion failed with 5 No's (Newby, Shaw, Del Prato, Blum, Brubaker) 1 Yes (Perkowitz). I was extremely disappointed in the board's action. My opinion was that the two residents got the trustees irritated with them hence the vote.

By refusing the program we are making each resident on Dawn Marie pay a couple of thousand dollars because we could not agree on the program. The original estimates were low and and I would guess that this issue would cost the village or the residents if we don't reconsider about $42,000.

My immediate intention was to veto it, however I am unable to veto inaction, (I can only veto action). I decided to have the issue on the agenda at the next board meeting, and ask the board to reconsider the action.

ACT Two
On Monday night the village board was confronted by an angry group of Dawn Marie residents who were holding letters we sent them describing the program. Some even quoted my blog post of a few years ago to me. After public comment was over, we worked through the agenda until we reached the Dawn Marie reconsideration. Since the prior motion had been defeated it had to be motioned and seconded by two of the majority (i.e the No votes at the last meeting Newby, Shaw, Del Prato, Blum, or Brubaker). I asked the trustees to reconsider the motion based on three major issues.

1. It was and is the right thing to do, we told them we would do and we need to do it.


2. I asked them to set aside the feeling they had for the two gentlemen who while well-intentioned, had caused the program to bog down until it reached the negative vote at the last board meeting


3. Any funds dispersed by the village would eventually be returned to the village in the form of recapture from the users downstream of Dawn Marie in the SW Quadrant.

There was a lively discussion after that, with Trustee Brubaker advocating getting Ryland to pony up more money based on his reading of the annexation agreement, while I thought that was an excellent idea, I still felt that we should take care of the residents now, and go after Ryland ourselves afterwards. His contention was that by not passing the connection program, we give up some leverage on Ryland. He may be right.

After quite a bit of discussion the roll was called and all 5 trustees present (Newby, Shaw, Blum, Brubaker and Perkowitz) voted yes!

Comments on the Future of the Blog

There have been times over the last two years that I have wanted to comment on what's going on in the village, but since I am the Mayor, and political reality being what it is in Round Lake, I have been reluctant to comment on some of the major issues in the village. I have deliberately left my opinions of Village Board actions out of this blog. However as the blog changes I am not sure I should continue that policy.

I strongly believe that discussions should take place in public on our village's future direction, however its extraordinarily frustrating that the only time we have general public at our meetings is when its a NIMBY (not in my back yard) issue. Even then we have only a few people at that. So my feeling is that since you won't come to us, we need to come to you, hence a more opinionated blog, on the more crucial issues facing the village.

Obviously I am not going to comment on issues that we deal with in executive session (legal, personnel and land acquisition) but I am going to talk more directly to specific issues. A few issues that I am going to address in future posts are train horns, policing, SSA's, Dawn Marie issues, school funding, school district issues, downtown development and of course economic development. In many cases if we have voted on these issues I am going to link to the minutes so you can see where your elected officials stand on these issues. Hopefully this will give the average Round Lake resident a better understanding of what's going on the first and third Monday's of each month at 7:00pm in the village Hall.

My rule of thumb is and will be if I am willing to say it at a village board meeting I could write it here! This will, I know, make some people angry, uncomfortable, and it will embarrass some people, but it will help you become better informed, and ultimately transparent government is good for all of us.

Contest Winners

The winners of the Annual Mayoral Giveaway program from the the free stuff that I get for sponsoring stuff from the Round Lake Area Park District are as follows:

• Family Pool Pass (31 entries) was won by the Bukowski family! Oddly enough they were the last entry submitted yesterday no less.
• One Year Fitness Membership Pass (25 entries) was won by Kurt Rodwald, who should have also won for best email response to me entering the contest. I will not repeat what he said to protect the innocent.

I used my exclusive patented double blind system of selection, first I sorted emails by time stamp, then I went to a site that generates random numbers between 1 and 25 or 1 and 31, the site told me the number 7 and 31 in this case and I merely counted down!