Valley Lakes wins an Award

I am very pleased to announce that the Valley Lakes HOA has received a very prestigious county wide award from the Stormwater Management Commission as Development of the Year! For those of us who live in we know the hard work the boards put in to making this development one of the best in Lake County! I have included the before and after shots of some of the areas that were addressed above.

An awards dinner will be held on December 6th with the regular SMC meeting to follow at the Byron Colby Barn, Prairie Crossing Subdivision in Grayslake. The dinner will start at 6pm and the meeting at 7pm.

• Community of the Year: Village of Vernon Hills for various projects this year including the Seavey Ditch restoration and Lake Harvey restoration.
• Development of the Year: Valley Lakes Community Association, Round Lake, for restoring six natural wetlands and 21 ponds under their jurisdiction, and they will be doing more restoration of the 273 acres of wetlands the VLCA manages.
• BMP Project of the Year: Mundelein Park District's Aquatic Center Bio-swales.
• Stormwater Manager of the Year: Lydia Scott, for her work on several projects including the Des Plaines River restoration projects and the Florsheim Nature Preserve restoration. She also is very active in both planning committee and leadership roles in Upper Des Plaines River Ecosystem Partnership , Chicago Wilderness and North Branch Chicago River watershed plan process.
• Stewardship of the Year: Bill Grinnell, Fremont Township Highway Department, for his dedicated leadership on within Fremont Township on many drainage and stormwater related projects .
• Media Award: Pioneer Press' July '07 "Power of Water" series of articles on wetland restoration, rain gardens , a former SMC employee working in Bolivia on water projects, and the health benefits of drinking water. Reporters: Stephanie Fosnight and Dan Pearson.

Specific credit needs to go to the Valley Lakes Board John F. Flader, President, John R. Gutknecht, Secretary and Tami Bradford, Treasurer. Tallgrass Restoration and Mark Micek (project manager) and Linda Yunker (grant co-ordinator) Tallgrass does all the work and manages the project.

Also mention that Valley Lakes Community Association is a member of the Chicago Wilderness and is dedicated to pursuing "Best Management Practices" (BMP's) when managing the landscaped and non-landscaped areas owned by the Community Association.

Stormwater Management Commission (Part Three)

NOTE: This is the last part of the three articles I have written on SMC, I am amazed at how many people have either emailed me and or called me asking for the "rest of the story" (apologies to Paul Harvey). By the way this is the sequence of events that I can recall bright and early in the morning, so I may actually have some of the facts and timings slightly off, but the gist is basically correct.

About 3 years ago numerous communities started to undergo the re certification process required under the Wetland Development Ordinance (WDO). One of these was Antioch. A vocal group of residents from Antioch township came every month, and in public comment publicly proclaimed how the village were acting poorly, not at all, and should not be re certified.

They brought many special effects, memorably a big mason jar filled with the white mud/slurry that ran into one lake, the gentlemen making that presentation actually was waving that above my head during public comment (tight meeting space). Needless to say their concerns were addressed and slowly put to rest to the comfort level of the board of commissioners of SMC, although eventually leaving Antioch the only community with a "contentious" renewal. The other communities being re certified with no controversy.

Back in April the whole matter was finally put on the agenda for a vote and after an impassioned argument between village officials and residents and then a lively discussion between the commissioners with two options on the table certifying or placing Antioch on probation.

Ultimately the certification process was approved by one vote, my vote was for certification by the way, because that was staff's recommendation.

Some decisions have a way of going away for long periods of time and then returning and biting your posterior, others don't get so far away. This one barely left the room!

A project in Antioch called the Tim Osmond Sports Park was given a grading permit by the Village of Antioch to grade the entire site, without sequencing. If the project had of been sequenced the retention pond would have been graded first, and then the rest of the site would have then been graded. During the discussion in April we received a letter indicating Antioch would be addressing a variety of matters including this project (with sequencing) and gave specific steps they were taking to make sure nothing untoward happened.

Retention areas are at low areas and are designed to accumulate run-off, so having the retention area done first would have protected the entire site during the second part of the sequencing from a major rain event. Water would run into and be held by the detention area at the sports park, protecting the surrounding areas.

So guess what happened, no sequencing, and mass grading of the site, with no retention pond built first. Now think back to early August! What happened? Why the monsoon-like rains that hit the county! The result on this site was the graded area ran down towards the low area that should have contained the newly graded retention pond but did not. So it continued on into a nearby wetland and lake.

To Antioch's credit they took immediate action, and stopped the run off and addressed the issues they needed to, however after the fact not before the fact.

At the September SMC Board meeting (which I did not attend, but my alternate did and other members of the board passed this along to me) the irate residents were back with an "I told you so" and amazingly the Village of Antioch's administrator cockily told the board they handled the incident perfectly! Needless to say the board split 4-4 on de-certifying Antioch, or putting them on probation. The consensus was however to have a public hearing at the next board meeting in October and of course that brings us to last Thursday.

Where after many hours of testimony and debate we voted 9-3 to put Antioch on probation. (the 3 votes were to decertify). Ultimately the 9 decided that if we decertifyed Antioch, SMC would have to drop many valuable projects on our work plan for the rest of the county, to allocate manpower to Antioch's project (even though Antioch would be paying for it). The probation has a huge oversight component and is going to be effective at bringing Antioch back into the fold.

Hopefully this solves the problem, and Antioch has received the message.

Stormwater Management Commission (Part Two)

One of the things that SMC oversees are projects that can effect the watershed in a particular municipalities or county area. This oversight has quite a bit of major impact to the speed projects get done (speed is relative in the government world by the by).

The Lake County Watershed Development Ordinance or WDO is a major portion of the SMC mission, and over time a program where communities that follow steps and procedures can be certified to administer internal projects rather then having SMC have to come out and administer, which leads to slower projects and a greater manpower burdens on some of the other projects SMC administers.

Round Lake is one of the 42 communities that are certified to manage the WDO, there are 11 communities that do not have certification for one reason or another.
Certified Communities are those communities who have been delegated the authority to administer, all or portions of, the WDO within their own jurisdictions. Lake County communities have one of the following WDO designations:

• Both Standard and Isolated Wetland Certification
• Only Standard Certification
• Non-Certified

SMC administers the WDO and issues permits for the developments within the Non-Certified Communities. In addition, SMC administers the Isolated Wetlands program and issues associated approvals within communities with only Standard Certification.

Communities are rated and ranked using criteria over a period of time and periodically they come up for recertification. Generally this is not controversial nor is it a topic of concern for anyone within or without SMC.The last three years however have had one community have serious issues both with the public and with SMC's certification process.

Being certified can be beneficial to a municipality because projects can move faster since SMC does not have to be involved in every step, which is why for example Round Lake is a certified community and has been for decades.

Some communities do not take the certification process as seriously or pay attention to what's going on internally with the attention we do as you will find out in the thrilling conclusion to this series!

Stormwater Management Commission (Part One)

NOTE: I got quite a few emails and questions about Friday's post on the late night SMC meeting so I decided to write about SMC, and then after laying the groundwork I would talk about the Antioch issue and how it relates throughout the county. This is probably going to be a three part series!

I wrote last week about the Lake County Stormwater Management Commission (SMC) board that I serve on. SMC is a county agency that has 6 county board members and 6 municipal members who serve as its board of directors. I serve as the municipal official paired with County Board member Bonnie Thompson Carter for the 4th district which represents 11 communities.

The commission is run by Mike Warner who has been with us as the number 2 man for many years and last year he emerged as the new Director and has done quite well and instilled an enormous sense of mission in the organization. I wrote about his eventual hiring in a post here which is an interesting piece in its self after re-reading it just now.

Almost immediately a much clearer and consise way of problem solving emereged giving me a much more solid feel for the performance of SMC, and I trusted and valued staff input again. Which was a huge step forward.

Stormwater Management Meeting goes well into the night

A picture from inside the ultra exclusive 12 person board of the Stormwater Management Commission (SMC) at about 10 last night. We were listening to the pro and cons about removing the certification from that community in response to a major violation.

Antioch has been an issue in front of this board for nearly 4 years and last night it came to one of its many low points. We voted to place the community on probation by a 9-3 vote, which we have done before but not without this much rancor! The 3 votes were for complete removal of certification by the way. I voted for probation! I may write more on this in the future, since its an interesting topic, but I overslept this morning and can't write the essay this deserves!

Monsoon Season in Round Lake

Here are some of the cool stuff you get in your email boxes in the middle of the night...I got updates throughout the night on this stuff as did our Public Works department who were called out at 1am yesterday (nice job guys!). I am also including a few pictures of some of the worst places for the flooding.

From: Glenn XXXXXXX Acting Flood Operations Manager
August 7, 2007 - 9:00 A.M.

SMC has moved the flood alert level to "Orange" , which means:"Flooding Extremely Likely or Moderate Flooding Occurring" -

The OM sets the Threat Alert Level to orange when the NWS issues a Flood Warning for locations within Lake County and moderate flooding forecast, or when the OM receives reports of flooding. The OM may also set the level to orange when moderate flooding is known to occur that was not predicted by the NWS.

A Flash Flood Warning for Lake County was issued early this morning by the National Weather Service. There have been reports this morning of road closures due to high standing water at Routes 41 & 176 and Route 41 & Deerpath Road. In Grayslake, the Police Department reported extensive street flooding with a foot of standing water in some locations. Unofficial rainfall totals from SMC rain gauges over the last 24 hours include several locations that received 3 or more inches: Lake Forest-3.3", Gages Lake - 3.1" and Round Lake Park - 3.0."


The NWS is forecasting some additional rainfall for our area today (90% chance), but significant rainfall is not anticipated. SMC will continue to monitor reports of local flooding in Lake County.

At 7:30 AM this morning, the Des Plaines River at Russell Road and Gurnee was at 3.78' and 5.42' above datum, respectively - the flood stage at both locations is 7.0'. SMC will continue to monitor the river levels.

Our Road closing at 5:30am yesterday were as follows:
Sunset (by GM Sign)
Sycamore@Midland
Linden@Midland
Sycamore@Linden
Midland@Sycamore,
Midland@Linden,
Sycamore@Linden,
Dorothy@S. Bernice

Soap Opera at Stormwater Management

I serve as one of the 6 mayors and along with 6 Lake County board members we act as the board of directors for the Lake County Storm Water Management Commission (SMC). This commission's mission is to coordinate the stormwater activities of over 90 jurisdictions throughout the county.

Over the 15 year history of the organization it has had a history of overstepping boundaries, and for the last decade most municipalities had been very unhappy with the performance and bureaucratic inefficiencies of the permit process. This coupled with the interjecting of the Director, Ward Miller, into local issues which were not SMC related led to a acrimonious relationship to say the least. A variety of Mayors told me this when I agreed to serve as the board member for the 12 municipalities I represent. I did however go in with an open mind.

As it turns out I did not get much of a chance to evaluate the organization as it was, because after about 3 months the Chair, Stevenson Mountsenior (County Board Member District 17) fired Ward Miller with zero discussion and or feedback to the board.

At the next board meeting he appointed a search committee chaired by him and 2 mayors and 2 county board members. This board used the Lake County HR department to screen and whittle down applicants. This committee then presented two candidates, one external the other internal, to the full board. Sadly that night only 9 members of the board attended the interviews. One candidate interviewed poorly and the other did quite well.

After a lengthy discussion on the candidates one was chosen over the other, which to me was suprising since the one that the interviewed poorly (my opinion) was the one selected. We decided to vote unanimously to recommend the external candidate that was selected by the majority for the job. The goal here was to show solidarity for the new director.

That fragile 9-0 vote barely lasted to the parking lot. One of the minority mayors immediately started to regret the vote, and to be candid so did I, however not as vocally. The next day one of the members of the County Board decided to breach the confidentiality of the executive session and tell other board members who voted for whom. To say the least I was somewhat surprised to hear the accuracy of the supposedly confidential voting in executive session related to me by someone at the county who was NOT in the board room.

Apparently at the county board meeting the next day quite a few people were quite upset with the board for not hiring the internal candidate and some county board members on the SMC felt the urge to discuss the vote as a way of defending their actions.

A movement then appeared to not approve the selected candidates contract. By the way I was against that particularly nasty piece of business, my feelings were and are, we voted, we lost, move on and make the best of it.

So yesterday guess what? The gentlemen we hired told us he was not going to be taking the position, for unspecified reasons. So we are either back to square one or we hire the internal candidate.

While this may seem kind of bland here on the blog, there are a variety of subterfuges, back stabbing and intrigue that I can't relate because of the nature of executive sessions in the State of Illinois

Had an Active Mayoral Day on Thursday

I had a variety of missions yesterday, I had a meeting with the Hospital Task force which is progressing quite well currently. More to come would be the operative phrase here. Ask me about it if you see me.

The second meeting was a committee meeting of all the 120 Corridor Planning Council at the College of Lake Counties University Center. Well attended (see picture) all the committees reported with maps and details on the progress to date. What we need now is the funding from the Illinois tomorrow grant which Senator Link and Representative Osmond have procured for us. Arrival date is next month or so. Then we can hire a consulting firm to do the actual pre phase one feasibility study.

The next thing I did was attend the monthly meeting of the Storm Water Management Commission where I am a board member representing 12 communities including Round Lake on the SMC issues. All I can say is I heard the word's "nutrient farming" and nutrient management bank" and was still quite interested in the presentation.

In addition the board was presented with a mason jar full of sludge that apparently either A. Satan B. Antioch C. SMC or D. Corporate Evildoers were spreading out on this gentleman's property either intentionally or intentionally. At one point the sludge was being waved around directly over my head, which made me yearn for the comfort of the village halls dais and not the cramped board room at SMC.

Stormwater Management Commission

I recently was elected to the Stormwater Management Commission as the District 4 board member. SMC's job is to coordinate over 90 jurisdictions throughout the county and how they manage stormwater.
In Lake County, the combination of growth and topography (nearly 20% of the surface area is composed of streams, lakes, wetlands and floodplains) has long underscored the need for careful stormwater management. As far back as 1982, then known as the Lake County Department of Planning, Zoning and Environmental Quality, the county was conducting surveys to assess the degree of municipal, township and special district involvement in county flood, drainage and stormwater control. In 1987, following two presidential declared disasters in the county, state legislation enabled Lake County to create the Stormwater Management Commission (SMC) based on a municipal and county partnership. The SMC Board of Commissioners is made up of six municipal representatives and six county board members. SMC operations are headed up by a staff of 18.