Round Lake District 116

After months of deliberation on whether or not to retain their current Hainesville Police Department or utilize another provider the Hainesville Village Board voted 5-1 Tuesday evening in favor of hiring the Grayslake Police Department.

Even though Hainesville’s home-grown local police department was only two years old, it had made great strides in hiring a professional team of officers to protect and serve the residents. With growing pains and the need for a larger facility, Mayor Linda Soto began to question the decision made by her predecessor on forming the villages own department. This lead to a Board approval that allowed her to seek and negotiate bids from other providers which eventually led to Tuesday’s decision to hire Grayslake’s Police Department.

According to the Mayor, Grayslake will add another patrol beat as well as add additional decals or lettering on their squads indicating Hainesville as well as Grayslake. The expected savings to Grayslake will be approximately $300,000 the first year with that figure taking into consideration the need to either build or lease a larger facility if they had kept their current force.

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While looking for all the “shoddy properties” in Hainesville yesterday with no success I traveled past the Round Lake Roller Rink on Hainesville Road. To my surprise it is up for sale and appears to be closed as well. I’m sure that there are many unhappy kids who enjoyed going there and having birthday parties. etc. at the roller rink. The staff had posted a ‘good-bye’ on their website stating they were closing back in January. With the adjoining land that may be available (where the large wooden playground equipment used to be) why not open an indoor and outdoor paintball range since that seems to be gaining in popularity across the area.

I graduated from Lane Tech in Chicago and was on their roller skating team and we were allowed to use Riverview Roller Rink for practices. There was no organ playing but we could go as fast as we wanted to and there were no guards telling us to slow it down. Friday’s and Saturday’s were always spent at the rink. When I got married I lived not far from the rink and remember seeing a big black cloud of smoke in the sky when it burned down due to all the wood and layers of varnish on the floors. Many memories remain from the good times I had at the Riverview Roller Rink just like many will remember the ones they enjoyed at the Round Lake Roller Rink. Let’s all hope that it gets purchased and re-opened soon.

(Yes, I still have my Lane Tech sweater)

I never got into the crowd that went to The Hub out on Mannheim Road but it was too far to travel anyway. For those of you who remember Maxwell Street in Chicago, I bought several pairs of Chicago Roller Derby skates there and still have the last pair I purchased.

While we may have lost one business in District 116 (hopefully only temporarily), it appears as though there is FINALLY going to be a tenant at the beautiful new strip mall at Hainesville Road and Shorewood. The developer of this classy looking mall seems to have been caught up in the down turned real estate market, yet has maintained the property and kept it looking 1st class. I am really surprised that a pizza place, dry cleaners, hair salon, dog grooming, coffee & donut shop, veterinarian, dentist, or someone hasn’t leased one or several units. The traffic on Hainesville is certainly sufficient to support a business there. The new tenant appears to be Jewel Story and based on the sketches in the window it appears to be a jewelry designer & fashion store. Let’s hope that it is just the beginning of a successful growth for this beautiful 8-unit shopping strip.

Someone wrote the following about the Jewel Story in Mundelein
“The very best in designer knockoff jewelry and handbags”

Today’s Daily Herald ran a three column article about a former Hainesville village trustee who voiced her opinion at Tuesday’s village board meeting about “a growing number of shoddy properties” that weren’t helping local property values, especially if they were for sale.  Having sold several homes in the former trustee’s subdivision during an extensive career in real estate, I took my camera with me on a trip through Hainesville expecting to record the horrific changes that must have happened within the village since my last residential visit. My first stop was at the former trustee’s intersection and because she had mentioned at the meeting that she was trying to sell her home, I was looking for a For Sale sign. Not seeing one, I started my search for an abandoned hot tub eyesore instead. Apparently it was hidden by an auto since I didn’t spot it until a third trip through the neighborhood.

With camera in hand, turned on, and ready to start shooting, I scoured the streets looking for something, anything, to take a photo of. Not having any success I came to the conclusion that this 3-column story reported by Bob Susnjara was really a big ‘non-story’ that hurt property values in the area more by publishing it than a couple items left in street view ever could have.

On the way out of the subdivision I did spot the small snow blower that was also brought up at the meeting but I normally would have missed noticing it since it was so insignificant. It seems like this non-story could have been handled by a couple of knocks on the neighbor’s doors (what politicians do), asking them to please remove the offending items. If that failed how about a simple call to building and zoning rather than bringing it up at a town meeting.  What was the REAL motive?

…the rain came!

We had planned on showing you all the participants in Round Lake Area’s Memorial Day Parade and got ourselves a perfect location at a bend in the road that allowed a clean shot down Main Street in Round Lake. As we visited with other families who started to gather we couldn’t help but notice the changing skies and dark clouds moving in from the West. Hope went up as they appeared to be breaking up and moving North but as you can see from the photos in the slide show below, it didn’t last long.

As the old fire truck went by you will see some sprinkles on the windshield. When the R.L. Area Rescue Squad vehicles went by, you will notice that their wiper blades are still not on but the firetruck behind them appears to have turned theirs on.

Then we ducked further under the big tree that we were under to get out of the downpour and snapped a couple more photos of the poor participants getting totally SOAKED from the sudden rain storm. Look at those poor little tike’s being pushed by their Mom’s in their strollers wondering WHY ME!. Once the biker brigade went by we decided to save our new camera from damage, tucked it into a plastic bag that a guy gave me, and headed for the car about a block away. At least I had the ability to get out of the downpour but I sure felt sorry for those who were in the parade with no place to go. I circled around to get home which is close to the final destination of the parade at Round Lake Beach’s Memorial Park but since they no longer blast the sirens, I had no idea whether or not they completed the balance of the parade or quit part way. Like many others, I was soaked through to my underwear and everything went right into the dryer!

We hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day as we take a moment to acknowledge the sacrifice of the countless Americans who died while protecting the freedoms all Americans now enjoy.

Just what you weren’t hoping for! Another bill in your mailbox! But we aren’t talking about a little utility bill, we’re talking about a bill that makes no sense based on current property values. Most of you will agree that nobody would pay you the amount that the Avon Assessor’s office says your home is valued at. Even though they continue to say that the ‘value’ is based on a three-year range, there is no way they can warrant such valuations. The biggest problem is that in order to win a tax appeal is that you must find at least three comparable properties that they are taxing for less. It doesn’t matter what those properties sold for, it’s what the assessor has them valued at.

So, let’s say that your assessed value is $240,000 and not one single real estate agent will take the listing priced above $199,900 because they have NO COMPARABLES to show an appraiser who will also be coming in low. It does you no good, though, when it comes to protesting your tax bill. If the assessor can continue to inflate your properties value along with the comparables you chose for your defense, you will lose your tax protest. The game that is played is that you MUST find properties of equal size and amenities that are taxed LESS than your property. Understand that YOU must show that YOU are being unfairly taxed compared to your neighbor with an identical property. It’s most often an impossible task since the bulk are ALL over-assessed in value.

We were expecting to see some relief now that year 2006 fell out of the formula but that was just wishful thinking.

With the Hainesville Trustee’s vote split three to three on a motion to allow the Mayor to negotiate with the Lake County Sheriff’s Department and the Grayslake Police Department for policing duties, Mayor Linda Soto voted ‘aye’ thus sending a final blow to the Hainesville Police Department’s 2-year old endeavor. Just as they were beginning to walk and talk, the thirteen uniformed officers who make up the start-up police command in Hainesville will have to take their ‘letter of appreciation’ elsewhere. Money talks, as they say, and that seemed to be the major issue facing the village when it came to budgeting for police protection. Utilizing the services of Grayslake or Lake County will save the village almost $400,000 or less once negotiations are ironed out. That is set to begin in earnest with a decision in the next two to three months.

With Hainesville’s Mayor Linda Soto wanting to come to a conclusion on the fate of the 2-year old Hainesville Police Department, will a decision finally be made at tonight’s village board meeting? Will the Hainesville taxpayers continue with their very own force at a higher annual cost or will the policing duties be farmed out to either the Lake County Sheriff’s Department or a local neighboring department? You may or may not hear the final decision at tonight’s meeting which starts at 7:00 at the Village Hall located at 100 N. Hainesville Road.