Four Round Lake communities seeking ways to share services
Sharing services is becoming a more common money-saving practice among tax-supported agencies, but four Round Lake communities are taking it up a notch.
Round Lake, Round Lake Beach, Round Lake Park and Round Lake Heights have launched an initiative to identify and maximize ways to deliver services while preserving the individual identities of each town.
The effort is being guided by the Northern Illinois University Center for Governmental Studies, which gathers and uses research to help find solutions to regional issues.
The first step is a random sample survey expected to be sent next week to about 1,000 households in the communities, which have a combined population of about 56,377, according to the Lake County planning, building and development department.
"We want to hear from the residents first to see what services they like now (and) what they would like to see improved," said Round Lake Beach Mayor Rich Hill. "... It will give us an indication of how the taxing bodies can work together."
With a population of 27,776, Round Lake Beach is the largest of the four towns, followed by Round Lake (18,375), Round Lake Park (7,519) and Round Lake Heights (2,707).
Besides input on general services and level of satisfaction with specific ones, like police and fire, the survey will ask residents about infrastructure conditions, economic development and other areas involving municipal services.
Village leaders are expected to meet at the end of August to discuss the findings, Hill said. The villages also will work with the Round Lake Area Chamber of Commerce to host area-wide network meetings to promote similar cooperation with other taxing districts such as schools.
Survey data will be used to direct collective efforts in areas most important to residents, according to the plan.
Towns already are able to save money through cooperative agreements and share fire and police dispatching, for example, but this is expected to be a deeper dive into what's possible.
Consolidating the communities, raised as a potential ballot item in 2016 by a grass-roots group of residents in the four towns called One Round Lake, is not the end game for this initiative.
Former Round Lake Mayor Bill Gentes, the spokesman for One Round Lake, likes the idea.
"I am impressed. It's an idea that's a long time coming," he said. "While I think consolidation is the best possible solution, this is a big first step toward better serving the taxpayer, which was the ultimate goal of consolidation."