Round Lake District 116

With April 1st fast approaching, it doesn’t look as though Mayor Soto’s wish to have a decision on Hainesville’s police protection by the end of March will happen. Instead, the policing bodies offering to patrol and protect the citizens of the Village were invited to put on their dog and pony show in front of the village board and residents in attendance.

So far, two potential suitors put their proposals on display along with Hainesville Police Chief Wallace Frasier at Tuesday’s board meeting. It doesn’t appear that much has changed when it comes to dollar figures with the two outside sources staying pretty close to their previous proposals and the Chief’s proposal still exceeding a million dollars, which included moving the 2-year old department to a larger rental building. The Lake Count Sheriff’s Department offered up a full time deputy on duty just for the village while Grayslake Police Department stated that they would add another patrol that would incorporate Hainesville’s coverage. Both proposals fell in the $700,000 range. That just leaves Round Lake Park, who quoted in the $500,000 range, to make a presentation although it wasn’t clear why they were not at Tuesday’s meeting. Strained relationships with Round Lake Park may end up costing the village taxpayers several thousand dollars in savings. Supposedly, a decision will finally be made on April 13th.

On March 15th we wrote about a couple of Roundabouts coming to our area (not specifically in our District, though) as part of this summer’s road improvements. Round Lake Beach is no laggard when it comes to innovation and already has their very own, brand new, ‘mini’ Roundabout at West End and Wildwood Drive.  If you have taken a drive to see the addition to the Round Lake Beach lakefront, that has been under construction for the last couple of years, you would have ‘experienced’ driving through a ’roundabout’.

I doubt that the Illinois Rules of the Road include any roundabout signs so we included one here. As you can see, there is no direct left turn when entering the intersection. As the sign indicates, you MUST travel in a ’roundabout’ counter-clockwise (opposite the way your clock rotates) fashion through the intersection until you reach the street that you want to exit onto. Anyone driving South on West End and wanting to turn left onto Wildwood Drive would actually turn slightly right to enter the roundabout and then continue around the circle until they are heading East on Wildwood Drive. This is a miniature roundabout since the larger ones have dual and sometimes triple lanes. Roundabouts are generally installed to speed up traffic flow at busy intersections so it’s not clear why the Beach elected to install one at this 3-way side street intersection, but never the less, give it a try and see what you think! Will they need to install ‘no left turn cameras’ to ticket those who don’t get it right (or was that left)?

The landscaping will be added once the weather permits and the planting season starts. One thing that I noticed as I drove down to the new lakefront parking area was that there are BLACK gates to close the park after hours. With a sharp curve in the road, a driver’s headlights will be shining out across the channel and there is NO sign warning you that the gates are there. I’m sure the gates will be replaced before this oversight is corrected, and certainly not the fault of the driver who may have even ended up in the channel to avoid hitting the gates!

I came aross the following example of a roundabout on the Wkipedia site which describes roundabouts as follows:
“A roundabout is a type of circular intersection in which traffic must travel in one direction around a central island. Traffic entering the circle must slow down and give the right-of-way to drivers already in the circle”

We are getting quite a number of visitors searching for the Round Lake Area Easter Egg Hunt date (held this past Saturday) which indicates many of you missed out on all the fun. Not to worry, though! RE/MAX Center always puts on a huge Easter Egg Hunt with over 7500 eggs including 300 prize eggs. Over the past few years it outgrew the Grayslake park area and was moved to the Lake County Fairgrounds on Washington Street where they even blew up the hot air balloon if it wasn’t too windy.

This year it is being held at the Warren Township Center located at Washington & Almond in Gurnee on Saturday, April 3rd starting at 11:30 SHARP. The event is for children between 1-8, split into appropriate groups.  It can’t be stressed enough to be on time, allowing for parking and getting to the starting line, since the eggs get grabbed up very quickly. This year participants are being asked to bring non-perishable food donations for the Warren Township Food Pantry.  Although they say this is for Warren Township residents, RE/MAX Center lists and sells houses throughout the area so I am surprised they even added this to their press release.  If you have any questions feel free to call their office 847-223-7878

Be sure to bring along your camera since, in the past, they have always had an abundance of Disney characters in costume, besides the Easter Bunny, to take photos of with your kids.

Years ago when I was a district manager for Jiffy Lube International, our stores all excepted used oil from residents of the neighborhoods. At that time we received two cents per gallon for our used oil when it was picked up so it made sense to accept it. Over the years I have saved my old used oil in plastic milk jugs and waited for Swalco’s drop off dates to get rid of it.

I was looking over Round Lake Beach’s website to see their latest newsletter and was disappointed to find that they haven’t been very diligent in posting the latest ones on their site. While there, I did find out that  used motor oil, oil filters and antifreeze can all be dropped off at the Valvoline Instant Oil Change located at 207 W. Rollins Road at no charge! Their hours are Mon-Fri 8:00am-8:00pm, Sat. 8:00 am – 6:00 pm and Sun. 9:00 am- 4:00 pm. If you have questions you can call the store at 847-740-1026.  Better yet, just get your oil changed there and you won’t have to mess around finding a place to get rid of it. 

The other quick lubes along Rollins Road may also accept these used waste items but don’t just assume it and leave containers during closed hours. It’s important that they KNOW what it is you are dropping off so it can be disposed of properly.

With temperatures reaching 70* this coming week many of us will be doing some ‘house-cleaning’ to get rid of ’stuff’ we no longer need and to make room for new ’stuff’. If you have some items of value then mark your calendar for Round Lake Area Park District’s Indoor Garage Sale being held at the Sports Center on April 18th from 10:00 to 4:00.  The Sports Center is located at  2004 Municipal Way in Round Lake Beach (behind the post office).

For additional information contact Rachel Bauer at (847) 740-1111

With only about 170,000 of the 1.1 million eligible homeowners who began the process of restructuring their loans over a year ago succeeding, the Obama administration announced plans to back up new loans to the tune of $14 billion. Loans involving over 100 lenders would be backed by the Federal Housing Administration. If the lender agrees to rewrite a new loan at better terms the government would then bear the risk as well as offer incentives to the lenders to simply reduce existing mortgage balances.

There are many details to the new program which homeowners need to qualify under such as not being late on any payments, being underwater on their loan (balance of loan is more than homes current value),the  ability to still pay a smaller mortgage amount, not be an investor owned property, not be a vacation home,  etc.

With the housing industry still trying to gain some footing, this latest plan is part of the original goal to help three to four million struggling homeowners stay in their homes. In the recent past, lenders have not been too receptive to working with homeowners on restructuring loans that they felt would eventually fall into default. Now, with the Government stepping in and backing up these new loans, hopefully we will begin to see some stabilization in the housing economy and prices start returning to normal in our area. Contact your neighborhood lenders for the latest details and to see if you qualify for a reduced mortgage.

Tonight the Round Lake Area District 116 School Board selected Dr. Constance Collins as the new Superintendent of Schools. She was one of three finalists being considered for the position. Ben Martindale, whose term as CEO expires in June said that Collins would take over July 1st.

This leaves Oak Park School District 97 looking for a new top administrator with very little time for the selection process since her upcoming departure was one year short of her three contract. At least the District was aware of her applying for the District 116 job so they did have some early notice. District 97 anticipates using a professional search company like District 116 did since they have their hands full dealing with a possible tax hike referendum next April.

Welcome to Round Lake, Dr. Collins. We wish you nothing but the best.