Lake County mayors list 2015 accomplishments
Whether it's in business or personal life, the end of the year is always a good time to look back and assess what happened in the previous 12 months; what was good, what was not so good about the year that was.
It's no different in government, so we contacted mayors in Lake County and posed this question: "What accomplishments or change are you most proud of for your suburb in 2015?
Here's what they had to say.
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Larry Hanson, Antioch
In 2015, the village of Antioch saw private sector investment of over $20 million. The village's work to promote and market Antioch has paid off with the first two tenants in our IDI Industrial Park as well as reinvestment in our downtown by many businesses, including Dairy Queen and Poulson's Foods. On the residential side, our efforts to position the bankrupt Neumann subdivisions has paid off as well with the restructuring of the SSA debt to attract a new developer with a good plan to complete those neighborhoods.
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Martin J. McLaughlin, Barrington Hills
I am proud that were able to lower the tax levy for the taxpayers of Barrington Hills for the second year in a row while increasing services. We were able to accomplish this by successfully operating our local government like a business. In 2015, we reduced spending by implementing spending reforms and initiating employee contributions for health care coverage, we increased safety by decreasing response times thanks to the consolidation of our 911 center, we improved our roads by increasing the amount of road repairs, and we normalized labor relations by agreeing to a new 3-year contract with our police union.
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Beverly Sussman, Buffalo Grove
Buffalo Grove is a great place to live, work and raise a family. The Buffalo Grove Village Board is dedicated to providing services for our residents. We continue to invest in our major infrastructure with several new street, water and sewer projects completed in 2015. We made significant progress in preparing our first economic development strategic plan with a cross section of members from the community on the steering committee. In 2015, we were very fortunate to welcome several new businesses into our community, including: Flex, Countyline Tavern, PDI Medical and Maple Cafe, to name a few.
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Donny Schmit, Fox Lake
While Fox Lake had several challenges this year, we also had many achievements and accomplishments. Our police department is working toward accreditation. From our 911 center, telecommunicator Kalee Bowman has received the Illinois 2015 Telecommunicator of the Year Award. Among the many sewer and water projects completed this year, we corrected a deficiency in our water system by constructing a water tower, which received an APWA project of the year award, and not only remedied a water hammer problem, but also provided increased fire protection and resulted in an upgrade in our insurance rating. Another project increased fire protection capacity for our schools. The Regional Treatment Facility continues to serve several communities without problem. Our street department repaired more streets, sidewalks, and drainage problems throughout the village this year than has been completed in many years. Our parks and recreation department continues to provide our residents with yearlong events, with a staff of one full-time and one part-time employee. However, the accomplishment I am most proud of is changing the culture in our community development department. When you walk into our building department, you are now greeted with a smile and asked how may we help you. We have become business, resident and development friendly.
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Bernard Wysocki, Green Oaks
During 2015, the village of Green Oaks board was able to create and fund a TIF District for the Rondout area of the village. The TIF district will improve decaying infrastructure and rehabilitate blighted areas in that part of town. In turn, the area will pay for the projects without costing our homeowners for the cost of the work.
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Rhett Taylor, Grayslake
In 2015, Grayslake had several major accomplishments. First, Grayslake continued to have a balanced budget and remain debt free. We are one of the only communities in Illinois that can make this claim. Second, on Aug. 2, our town was hit by what appeared to be the first tornado to ever touch down in Grayslake. The tornado touched down in Grayslake before the National Weather Service identified it. Within a short amount of time, the village was able to get the streets cleared of debris and provide assistance in removing fallen trees to numerous residents. We received help from all levels of government and many neighboring towns. What is most significant is how the town came together and neighbor helped neighbor. I had the opportunity to speak with many residents and listen to the stories of how they were helped by their friends and neighbors. It is a real honor to serve a town where people willingly help each other and rally after a storm.
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Kristina Kovarik, Gurnee
Capital Infrastructure Plan implemented and first year completed - $10.1 million on roads, water and sewer systems and we will continue to invest a similar amount of money annually in our infrastructure through revenue generated by sales tax receipts; Portillo's - we continue to grow and enhance the Grand Avenue shopping and entertainment district by adding new/unique retail and dining amenities (with more to come in 2016); Akhan ribbon-cutting/opening - an important milestone to meet a constant goal of Gurnee remaining the Community of Opportunity. We will continue to recruit innovative and complementary firms to grow our high-tech highly skilled manufacturing base.
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Linda Soto, Hainesville
Looking back on 2015, the event that stands far out in the forefront is the evening of Aug. 2. That night, the village was hit by an EF-1 Tornado. It traveled west to east cutting a corridor of significant damage and destruction. Amazingly no injuries were reported. Many homes sustained some type of damage, several severe, and two uninhabitable. Most significant was the loss of many trees throughout the village. In the Cranberry Lake Conservancy, numerous oak trees over 100 years old were lost, others severely damaged; some of these falling into single-family home properties that back up to the Conservancy. We are truly grateful and proud of our staff, the Grayslake-Hainesville Police Department, the Greater Round Lake Fire Department, Lake County Building Department, Avon Highway Department, and our local contractors who responded expediently, compassionately and efficiently. This was a test that no one wants to take but it was reassuring that emergency plans, equipment, local agencies, and other assistance came together quickly and recovery was seamless. It was a lesson that provided insight to potential needs of a more severe catastrophe that we hope to never experience.
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Joe Mancino, Hawthorn Woods
The realization of our economic development recovery agenda. Over the last few years, we worked to build a foundation of financial recovery to support municipal operations and growth. In 2015, Hawthorn Woods is one of the busiest municipalities in Lake County with several new home development starts including ICON, Pulte, Taylor Morrison and several other custom homebuilders with 78 new home starts. In 2015, the village also proactively designed and completed a villagewide stormwater flooding identification map. It will be integrated with the Lake County Storm Water Comprehensive Plan Update.
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Charles Amrich, Island Lake
2015 was a good year for the village of Island Lake. We were able to resurface 1.6 miles of our village streets and will continue to resurface other streets in 2016 as many are in need of resurfacing and it has been many years since any major road work has been done.
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Nandia Black, Kildeer
In 2015, the village of Kildeer transferred its entire sewer system to Lake County enabling both the county and the village to benefit from a larger system and increased economies of scale.
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Kevin Richardson, Lake Barrington
Lake Barrington passed a zero increase tax levy for the coming year, reflecting our success in both promoting our businesses and our prudent stewardship of taxpayers' dollars. We also completed several key road and drainage projects of importance to our residents and we dedicated a right of way to Citizens for Conservation for wildlife habitat and open space preservation. The former Lake Barrington Field House was bought by Canlan Ice Sports, a publicly traded company that operates 17 sports and ice hockey facilities across North America. The new owners are actively integrating the new Canlan Sportsplex Lake Barrington into our community. The highly successful launch of Pepper Park Coffee was enhanced by the equally successful opening of the new "Pepper Park After Dark" Wine Bar. This paralleled the 8,000-square-foot expansion of the Pepper Park Business Center which includes RSVP Rental Services as well as Wild Asparagus Catering. In addition, the Horseshoe Grill was reopened and Battle House Laser Tag found a new home in our Pepper Road Business Park.
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Ryan "Todd" Weihofen, Lakemoor
I am most proud of our village implementing and approving our first TIF district at the four corners of 12 and 120. This will provide us with the necessary tools to help bring much needed development to our region.
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Tom Poynton, Lake Zurich
Overall we have had a pretty successful year. There are two highlights in particular. The first one was that of over 7,000 taxing bodies statewide the Illinois Policy Institute awarded the village of Lake Zurich its coveted Sunshine Award for Lake Zurich's extremely high level of transparency. We addressed the issue of getting more and better information to residents and making even more information readily accessible in a more timely manner. We are one of about 70 taxing bodies to earn the Sunshine Award. Additionally, and in spite of the state budget impasse and several unexpected hits to our finances, particularly the $1.2 million expense that occurred as a result of a significant break and subsequent quick repair of our sanitary sewer line, we have been able to maintain our AAA bond rating and still provide the services that residents and businesses expect. We are not perfect but we are continuing in our remake of how we provide local government to our stakeholders, the taxpayers, both residents and businesses of Lake Zurich.
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Frank Loffredo, Lake Villa
The ability of public works, police and administrative staff, as well as all employees, for giving our residents a sense of pride in their community. And by keeping Lake Villa moving forward during very difficult times created downstate.
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Terry Wepler, Libertyville
The village of Libertyville saw a number of accomplishments this year and it's hard to pick out just one. We completed our second joint program with the Libertyville Mile of Cars dealers in promoting auto sales in the village which provided gift certificates to people who purchased vehicles at the dealers during the program. The gift certificates could only be used at Libertyville businesses, which put the money back into the community and the car dealers donated to local charities further helping the community. Our economic development efforts resulted in only one vacancy on Milwaukee Avenue in downtown Libertyville and a very vibrant downtown. We have completed design work and are going out to bid on a new parking garage to serve all of the downtown businesses to be completed in 2016.
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Elizabeth Brandt, Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire focused on economic development and attracting new businesses. We were pleased to welcome CDW corporate headquarters, NOAH'S Event Venue, Half Day Brewing Co., Emporium Bar & Arcade, Starfish Sushi, and Menchie's Frozen Yogurt. I am also proud of Lincolnshire's strong fiscal condition, which includes a balanced budget, more than a year's worth of operating expenses in the bank and our police pension funded at almost 90 percent. This is a significant accomplishment in light of our state's dismal financial situation and an example I wish Springfield would follow.
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Dominic Marturano, Lindenhurst
We made significant progress in both planning activities and construction activities toward acquiring Lake Michigan water. Although construction on internal upgrades to our water system started later than planned (due to delays with state agencies), the mild fall weather enabled our contractors to get caught up. We made significant strides in economic development - we were able to annex in several properties to support the Ziegler Auto Group, which will open a car dealership in 2017. We also made significant progress in removing village trees infected by the emerald ash borer - over 400 trees removed. We also continued to be fiscally prudent - we were able to move more than $400,000 from planned operating expenses to our community capital fund for funding community improvements.
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Angie Underwood, Long Grove
The change that I am most happy to see in 2015 relates to improvements in the festivals in Long Grove. A new special events company was engaged by the downtown, which brought in new vendors, better quality food options from local restaurants and additional children's activities. The village board allowed the music stages to go a bit later into the evening, extending the festival hours, and attracting a whole new generation to our downtown with popular bands. We saw a welcome spike in attendance and revenues this year.
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Casey Urlacher, Mettawa
Maintaining the village property tax rate at the same level for 17 consecutive years, producing another balanced budget and completion of our village-owned open lands study.
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Steve Lentz, Mundelein
Economic development is a huge priority for Mundelein. The village board approved a $100,000 Business Incentive Grant (BIG) program to give businesses the opportunity to partner with the village for matching funds to enhance the appearance of their business. We launched the BIG program because we know that an investment in the businesses that call Mundelein "home" is an investment in the economic growth, prosperity, and overall quality-of-life of the entire community. We also rewrote the village's sign code - this will help to update signage throughout the village - another commitment to our brand promise to be known as a "vibrant and welcoming community." Mundelein's newest housing development, "Orchard Meadows," is under construction ultimately resulting in 77 single-family residential development. We're also proud that the largest law firm in Lake County, Kovitz Shifrinn Nesbit (KSN) chose Mundelein as their new home. With over 80 employees, their presence in our new Plaza area kicks-off momentum in making Mundelein Lake County's premier destination to both live and work. More development is on the way, but their choice to move to Mundelein sets the pace.
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Dan MacGillis, Round Lake
My number-one goal when pursuing this office was the promise to build a team of professionals that would have a positive impact on the village of Round Lake. That goal was met by the hiring of our new public works director, Adam Wedoff. The team is in place and Round Lake is in good hands. Because of this team, new technologies that make us more efficient and offer conveniences to our residents are in place. Dec. 13 was the launch of our new webpage. It is modern, accessible and interactive. We are very proud of it. Please visit at www.eroundlake.com and enjoy.
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Richard Hill, Round Lake Beach
Working with Lake County to get an underpass at Rollins and Route 83 will ease traffic congestion and improve the business environment, attracting more businesses. Meijer is already building a 200,000-square-foot store that will open later next year and we are getting more inquiries from other retailers. Thank you Lake County Board for your commitment to Round Lake Beach.
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Terrance Lumpkins, Round Lake Heights
2015 was another year where we are still maintaining very low debt in our community. We have also established two additional parks, one is a sitting park located at the corner of Mohawk Drive and Lotus Drive, the other park is located on Cedarwood Circle. Between the village and Round Lake Park District this totals seven parks in our community. We are now working on the Veterans Memorial Park, which is expected to be completed in 2016.
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Steve Henley, Volo
Lake Michigan Water Project. Following our admission to the Central Lake County Joint Action Water Agency (CLCJAWA) in December 2014, we completed a route study and began preliminary design on the transmission main that will deliver Lake Michigan water to Volo. The project is being undertaken in partnership with the village of Wauconda and will ensure a long-term, high-quality source of drinking water for both communities.
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Frank Bart, Wauconda
This administration is managing our neighbors' money effectively and efficiently than ever before. We have improved services and significantly cut costs. The culmination of our work is reflected in a budget surplus of approximately $600,000 in the general fund. This is the second biggest surplus ever for Wauconda. The highest recorded surplus was last year with over $750,000 in surplus. After two years of intensive debate, the board voted to pursue consolidated dispatch with an outside provider that will result in improving emergency dispatch operations while saving the village in excess of $430,000 annually. We are saving taxpayers $30,000 annually because we refinanced the 2008 road bonds that were authorized by referendum. By refinancing the SSA bonds in 2015, homeowners in the Liberty Lakes subdivision will save between $182 and $253 annually through 2032. This significant financial overhaul has taken a lot of effort, but it has changed Wauconda for the better. We have now put Wauconda on a financially sustainable path.