Ethel Untermyer had Wisdom and Courage

Growing up in the sixties I was exposed to some mind bending events and people. Our struggle to be closer to and respect our natural environment is something we now term as "Going Green". Ethel Untermyer was one of those mind bending folks that served us a strong dose of reality that focused us on the importance of natural open space in our lives and how we could promote preservation.

In 1958, Ethel Untermyer led the movement to start our Lake County Forest Preserve District which has now gathered 27,000 acres of land for preservation and enjoyment of our citizens. She was a true compassionate warrior that had endurance to create change in our world.

Ethel recently passed away at home in the Riverwoods but will always be with us in spirit, providing us an example that we can make good things happen too if we are willing to provide the commitment, strength, and endurance.

Promoting More Development by City

I was surprised to recently hear several Councilman speaking of changing our land use ordinances to promote more development. In the past, I had thought these promotions of more development were generated largely by our City Manager but it seems he does have Council votes to at least discuss these ideas.

Many months ago I had talked about how the downtown re-visioning was initiated by staff wanting to see changes in our land use ordinances that would promote more development. Well during our discussions of revenue shortfalls the "D" word came forward several times to help save us from having to cut back on our costs of government.

Hey, but what about more traffic, congestion, and the quality of life for our residents? For those of you that are not familiar with our land use ordinances, there is still quite a bit of development that can take place without us changing the laws. Highland Park is not fully built out under current land use laws. Many properties within our borders are only one or two story structures. The current law in our downtown allows 3 or 4 story structures and 40ft of height. There are also many sites for redevelopment on Highway 41 and other pockets within our city.

Before we give away the store on zoning to promote more development in a panic, let's focus on redevelopment and filling the empty buildings that have sprouted throughout town. Again, lets also reduce the size of government so we do not need to support a government that is crying out for more money from our citizens and property owners.

Where does freedom and the right of free speech serve us best?

One thing that is so wonderful about our democracy and country is our ability to speak to all issues and not be put in jail, fined, or harassed by government. Freedoms and the right of free speech is not something that should ever be taken for granted.

We must realize that the power of free speech does not come without risk and costs. There are plenty of arguments made and blogs written that turn my stomach and provide a great deal of angst to a majority of citizens. While I am sure the writers and professors of these (Steve don't like) announcements believe they are true and just.

Now, when the Iranian government shuts down protests and the Chinese limit access and prevent demonstrations, many folks including myself object to these intolerance's and inability to speak, gather,or even write publications. We pretty much all agree that these governments should let them speak and express their opinions as we can do here in our great country.

What happens in our Country, State, or even within our local community when we disagree with the government. Are we imprisoned, shackled, burnt at the stake? No, we have a right to protest, go to meetings and express our opinions. I find it very fortunate that all members of the City Council are good listeners and care deeply about the expressions of our citizens.

During the last election we reached out to 100's and 1000's of folks and invited comments and discussions and talked about the budget, seniors, streets, schools, the lakefront, businesses, and open government. Many good interactions took place and suggestions were made for the betterment of our community.

These interactions should not stop immediately after elections are over. We should use our right of free speech openly and often to express our thoughts, gather information on others thoughts, and cultivate a constant and open dialog that is forever evolving. We should not be afraid of the evolution of dialog. The right of free speech is not only required in communist and fascist regimes, it should also be actively exercised in our home town debates and dialog every day of the week.

Council members don't appreciate our newsletters

Nancy Rotering and I took a pretty large amount of abuse tonight at the pre-session Council meeting when the discussion of commission and council ethics turned into a roast of the newsletter publishers!

While I have seen some wild times around the big table, this was a whopper of an awakening for Councilman Rotering....I'M Sure! I have seen books thrown, people shoved, and several screaming episodes over my 17 years of service, BUT the verbal onslaught by three of five Council members remaining was the worse I have ever seen in a continuous premeditated assault against Nancy and I.

I know that issues that I bring out concerning the budget, seniors, open government, and several others irritate the Mayor and Council to no end. I do not send this information out to hurt or irritate my colleagues. I believe I am informing our citizens, giving my perspective, and asking for feedback.

Civil order must be maintained at these meetings no matter how each individual feels about the direction of the city and their advocacy's. This group seems to really not like any diversity within its ranks. Left, Right Left, Right Left Right.

Come on Council folks, can't we just all get along.

Sewer Program Update

We will be hearing from staff on the sewer program updates and how they wish proceed. This program involves citizens that have sewer connections that have leaks in thier pipes that come from their home to our street mains. The program requires these homeowners to partner with the city and spend 5k and up for sewer lining.

Having heard from the residents during the last election and seen costs to residents skyrocket over the past several years, asking citizens to come up with 5000.00 plus dollars each should not continue.

We had asked staff to answer the questions the residents brought before us at large public meetings that took place earlier this year. They had asked us to look at new methodologies of dealing with sewer surcharges, compare our program of private funding to other communities, and finding ways to provide direct remedies for the small amount of homeowners that have the sewage back up.

Remedies could include overhead sewers, disconnections to city systems in basements, etc. This is not my field of expertise, but if we could spend the same money as the city is spending with our cost share on private laterals to remediate individual problems we might be able to be more effective.

That being said, the biggest bang for our buck is our continued committment to our public infrastructure programs that will solve most of the issues. I do think however we should not put any more economic burden on individual private homeowners. We should only use public funds for solving the sewage problems unless we do find illegal connections.

Protocols, Rules, and MORE PROCESS

I was listening to the Bears game last night and hearing about the new line coach talking about what it takes be a great line man. One must keep the eye on the ball and get it done..... don't get side tracked. The reason they are playing for the team is that the coaches believe that they are good line man, can accomplish the team goals, and have great instincts to achieve success.

How I relate this to being a Councilman is that the citizens have elected me to be one of those to help direct policy for the City of Highland Park because they think I am good at what I do. As Councilman, we need direct contact with the issue at hand and be able to motivate, be creative, give suggestions, and in general be involved with the process of government to get complex issues moved forward. A maze of staff rules and protocols that restricts our public servants can cause disengagement and failure on promoting positive outcomes. All of our best minds and strongest spirits within community government can achieve cutting edge results for our community. As long as we all operate together and promote outcomes that are in compliance to the City Councils consensus, all is good.

Since 2004 our City Manager has been laying down many processes, protocols, rules, controls on the Council and Commissions, and a tight bandwidth of staff to get the results that he approves. This micro management has limited the effectiveness of the Mayor and City Council, our Commissions, and the over all creativity of the staff.

The opinion of staff in our Council Managerial government is that once the Council develops policy and give direction, get out of the process until staff is ready to ask us for our judgement on the final result. If we are lucky we might get an status update. Now to be fair, I know that Councilwoman Olian and myself have pushed ourselves into several situations where we have been allowed to be operatives on a Council policy and I am eternally grateful to our City Manager. But this should not be the exception to how things work at city hall.

I believe the City Manager has done an excellent job on segregating the "Policy Team of Council and Commissions" and the "Action Team of the staff". All I am saying is this needs to stop and be reversed! We must all be in the same locker room, same team, and get the job done together.

Laurel Ave Senior Center Discussed

At our budget meetings the City Manager asked and received a City Council majority to spend $30,000 on yet another study connected to clearing some legal hurdles in a possible sale of our Senior Center building at the end of Laurel on the lake.

I strongly support not selling this public access point and gem that overlooks our magnificent Lake Michigan lakefront. We also have public ownership of 100's of feet of beachfront that is open and accessible to the public along this public parcel.

There are only three properties to the north that separate this property from the Central Avenue Beach. I would furthermore like to see a long range plan that those private beaches be acquired or controlled to connect the public laurel ave property so that a contiguous public beach can be created. This would provide the much needed space for a great swimming, sailing, and recreational harbor area for our citizens.

I think staff and some Council people look at this property as easy and quick money to cover the overspending of our government. Currently this property provides a great place for our seniors to meet and participate together in events. I also think that as we look into the future of how we fine tune our senior program, we look at the long game of how we could improve our community by providing better access for the general public to the lakefront. Current deficits can be remedied by just reducing spending instead of coming up with the quick cash.

Public hearing on Plastic Bags and Styrofoam

The Environmental Commission and the BEDC held a joint public hearing at City Hall to take testimony on how and if we should regulate plastic shopping bags and Styrofoam.

We had a great turnout at the public hearing and heard from many local merchants, several people from the plastics industry, and fellow citizens.

The Environmental Commission is on a fact finding mission that will help them come up with findings to use for a recommendation to the City Council. The Environmental Commission will be taking testimony until August 31st. Written testimony can be sent to chersch@cityhpil.com. or delivered to 1707 St. Johns at City Hall. More information can be found at the city website at http://www.cityhpil.com/pdf/EC%20Recommendation%207-28-09.pdf .

Plastic Bag Recycling Program Announced

A new plastic bag and film (wraps, etc.) recycling program is being launched. For more information, visit the SWALCO site at http://www.lakecountyil.gov/swalco/PlasticBagRecycling.htm.

Plastic Bag and Film Recycling GuidelinesResidents are encouraged to recycle both plastic bags and film. The bag-in-bag system, where plastic bags and film are collected in a larger plastic bag before bringing to a local retailer is recommended. Click here for the Plastic Bag Recycling Flyer with pictures and descriptions of items that should be recycled.

Items that can be recycled should be empty, clean and dry. They include:
Grocery Bags
Newspaper Bags
Bread Bags
Produce Bags
Plastic Retail Bags (hard plastic and string handles removed)
Zip-Lock Bags (remove hard components)
Other Storage Bags
Cereal Box Liners
Toilet Paper, Napkin and Paper Towel Wraps
Tyvek (no glue, labels or other material)
Diaper Wrap (packaging)
Plastic Shipping Envelopes (no labels)
Case Wrap (e.g. snacks, water bottles)
Furniture Wrap
Electronic Wrap
All empty, clean and dry bags labeled #2 or #4

Retailers and stores in Lake County participating in the plastic bag recycling program include:
Butera Market
CVS/pharmacy
JC Penney
Jewel-Osco
Lowe’s
PetSmart
Piggly Wiggly
Sunset Foods
Walgreens

Participate in Environmental Public Hearing Aug 5th at City Hall at 7 PM

Please come and participate in a discussion on a proposal to ban the use of disposable Styrofoam food ware for prepared or packaged food and also restrictions on the use of single-use plastic shopping bags. The public hearing will be held on August 5th, at 7 p.m., at CityHall, 1707 St. John’s Avenue.

Regulation of Styrofoam is important for our environment, and has been proven to work in other cities. Styrofoam, a petroleum product, is designed for a useful life of minutes, but continues to exist in our environment for hundreds or thousands of years. In addition, there reportedly are potential health impacts from Styrofoam. Recyclable and biodegradable food service ware is an affordable, safe, and ecologically sound alternative to Styrofoam and other non-recyclable single-use food ware.

Single-use plastic shopping bags are made from natural gas or petroleum and do not biodegrade. According to the Worldwatch Institute, less than 1% of the 100 billion free single-use plastic bags thrown away in the United States each year are recycled. Learn about ways to minimize the use of plastic bags and how to promote an environmental approach.

Please come to the public hearing to express your views on whether Highland Park should adopt these environmental proposals.

Time to dissolve the Finance Committee and bring back to Entire Council

The time has come to dissolve the finance committee and bring the discussion back to the Whole Council. Before 2003 when Mike Belsky became mayor and created this Committee and Chairmanship for his up and coming political star Councilman Kirsch, the entire City Council had discussed finances at our Committee of the Whole meetings.

While I am not on the committee, I probably have one of the best attendance records. I have always felt we need to be present to hear staff's presentation and weigh in on the decisions. Current Finance Committee Council members are Jim Kirsch, Mike Belsky, and Larry Silberman. I am usually joined by non-finance committee member Councilwoman Olian that also feels a strong need to be present. Now with Councilman Rotering elected and committed as well to attend the meetings, six will regularly be attending the current finance committee meeting.

What really troubled me a few weeks ago was when Mike Belsky asked Councilwoman Olian and myself not to speak at the meetings since we were not on the committee. The Mayor was totally out of line on this one and I DO OBJECT.

Now is the time to add cast members to this Belsky/Kirsch production and bring the finance discussion back to the Committee of the Whole where the entire City Council has a voice in the discussion of the issues. The City Council needs to be more directly engaged on this important issue.

When is the City going to CUT spending

Over 18 months ago I asked the City Manager to come up with a balanced budget to show the City Council. I still have not seen anything that comes within 1.5 million of bridging the gap of the shortfall of revenues to expenditures.

While things with our economy are still going down, we have not met the challenge of cutting government down to meet our revenue streams. While we are lucky to have great reserves to cover the shortfalls over the past several years, we need to address this matter soon.

Councilman Kirsch who heads the Finance Committee has done nothing to ask staff for a balanced budget or even close to one. While Councilman Kirsch seems pleased with his role as chair of this committee, I don't call a budget being balanced by taking the saved money out of the bank to fill the gap.

We need to act now and get a budget that bridges the gap between revenues and expenditures with real cuts in government.

Some folks on the Council and Staff need to realize that our community is not required to meet the needs of government but rather government must live within the means of the community.
Currently that is not the case.

Old Briar and Valley Residents Held UP!!!

Last night by a 4-3 vote the city council passed a resolution supporting a recapture agreement that will transfer the cost from Newly built Mega Mansions to the adjoining neighbors on the street for the storm water sewer construction. While both New Constructed properties built from lot line to lot line at costs of millions, now the neighborhood must foot the bill for public improvements associated with this new construction.

Councilman Levenfeld, Kirsch, Silberman, and Councilwoman Olian (whom supported the recapture) all said it was fair to share the cost of the public improvement with all the residents. I say HOGWASH! Stop putting these economic burdens on the citizens of which many are struggling with this economy to stay in their homes. Let Development Pay its Own Way!!

The cost of the encumberment on each one of these unsuspecting citizens range from $7,000.00 to $22,000.00 each. Can you imagine? Maybe that is small change to Councilman Kirsch but I find it appalling that our City Council would be so bold and harsh on our residents.

Time for thinking about running for 2011 Election

In 2011 there will be at least one seat open on the City Council and probably the Mayors seat as well. Anyone interested in this public service should drop me a line to talk about my experiences with participating in 9 elections. I look forward to helping candidates step up to seats available in 2011.

We need to move forward on cutting edge environmental initiatives and promote better limits to mega mansions. While the Mayor speaks well on these issues, very little substances is generated by our government to promote a better policy. MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE ! ! !

Email me or call me at home at 847-831-0373 or on my cell at 847-456-6933 with your thoughts.

What do you think about government cutting services

One of the discussions we have on the City Council is keeping a high level of services. This however runs opposite to the idea of a balanced budget where we have to cut millions of dollars of expenses.

I am of the belief that under these times we need to have drastic cuts in the budget and therefore services. We might not be able to do as much for Seniors and Youth as we have done in the past. We might need to cut our Community Development and Building staff to levels that match the amount of revenues that support those departments. While police, fire, and public works are the backbone of our mission, we will also have to cut personnel in these areas too to be able to live within our means. Managers might have to be reduced as well. I would rather see more boots on the ground than more managers in the office. We need to cut both!

Please email me at stevemandel@comcast.net to share your thoughts on this question. When you cut the costs of government they will not be able to do as much... What do you think?

Hope Everybody had a great 4th of July

While my wife convinced me to go up to the cottage in Wisconsin and miss the HP parade, I still reflected on how I could be a better citizen and public official. I have never really enjoyed being the object of attention at these big public events. I would much rather be out there with you in the crowd cheering and enjoying the sights and sounds.

What always amazes me is the willingness of citizens to give of themselves to our country in the armed services, helping the less fortunate, and just helping others in general through many worthwhile charities and not for profits. Appreciation for those folks that constantly give should always be promoted and recognized.

This is the best county in the world and all of us can take an important role in working to make it better. That spirit of Independence and the sacrifice of our founders should never be taken for granted and always calls on us to push our generation to take another step forward to promote the welfare of our nation.

Summer in the City of Highland Park

Please check out all the wonderful things we have going on in our City.
Enjoy Highland Park..... Check out all the things to do page here

What can we Recycle?

Staff at SWALCO (solid watse agency of lake county) has put together a guide to show what you can put into your recycle bin in Highland Park. Remember, recycling pick up is free once a week for all residential and free for commercial (including multifamily units) for up to 2-96gal pickups/week.

Recycling keeps these items out of the landfill and allows industry to reuse these products. While Highland Park is a Lake County leader in recycling there is still room for improvement.

Check out this link for our recycling guide to help you know what you can recycle.

Some have asked me why we don't recycle plastics #6 when other communities say that they do? Well, at this time there is no market for #6 and those communities that accept it just throw it into the landfill. We are always looking for new markets for recyclables and whenever they emerge we will increase our collectibles accordingly.

Remember to be sustainable we must first use less, then reuse when we can. Buy products that can be recycled or are easily compostible so we can regenerate waste into soil. By being responsible in this way we can be more harmonious with nature.

Do Residents want more development Downtown?

I was surprised to see the latest addition of the Highlander and our website with the launching of a public process on the new master planning effort for our downtown Central Business District. When I called staff to find out where this initiative came from I was told it was a line item in the budget. Honestly, I don't remember ever talking about this in any depth at a Council meeting.

My concern here is that we still have not completed the implementation of the 2001 Master Plan work that called out for retention of open space and more citizen input for any public use of government lands including school property. This initiative will divert staff resources needed to finish implementation of our 2001 master plan. Master Planning rewrites usually occurs about ever 15 or 20 years. What is the rush here and the motivation? Big development proposal?

My belief is that our staff wants to see more development in our downtown and believes that the recent changes we made to lower height and density to keep the character of our community was wrong. I totally disagree with staff on this one! Furthermore, I thought it was the City Council that created policy direction, not staff! I am hoping the City Council reaffirms our vision of the CBD as the 2001 master plan articulates. Not a new vision that would be a more urbanized plan that might be more reflective of Waukegan or Evanston. Here is were the rubber meets the road on political promises made on controlled development and community character protection. Keep your ears open!

What we have in our Central Business District works well for everybody. How will more development affect traffic, existing business, and property owners? How will it affect our residents quality of life in Highland Park? From studies in 2001 and before, we know we are transportationally challenged and will not handle more development well. As we look at all the empty spaces and unsold residential units around our downtown why would we consider more?

While the economy is causing us all concerns on the revenue growth front there is no reason to panic. We just need to cut costs of government instead of trying to expand revenue to meet the obligations government has set for itself. What I was elected to represent was not the need of government but the needs and visions of our citizens.

I believe with this latest launching of this new downtown visioning process we might put ourselves in jeopardy if you do not come out and express your opinion on retaining the character of our community. Don't allow the voices of a few to overwhelm the process. Residents need to get involved and voice their concern of over development in Highland Park.

Check the Central Business District Re-visioning Website at http://www.hpdowntownplan.org/ .

More than 100 people have submitted their email addresses so they can continue to get information about the planning process. Email the Department of Community Development at contact@hpdowntownplan.org and ask to be put on the contact list.

Encourage your friends and neighbors to get involved and be part of this process so your voice can be heard.

Neighborhood Schools for All

During our last election, I had the pleasure of attending about 20 coffees in the various neighborhoods in Highland Park. Myself and other candidates were approached by several citizens from the Red Oak School area about how their school was treated very differently than other elementary schools in our community.

Unlike all other schools, Red Oak Elementary is 50% neighborhood kids and 50% bused in kids from other parts of the city. What the residents of this area are asking for is to have true neighborhood schools like the rest of Highland Park and I agree.

I believe we should offer neighborhood schools to all the neighborhoods in the city as a first priority. Why this situation exists is the fact that we are living with out-dated boundaries that were created during the 1993 consolidation process. There are not enough kids living in the Red Oak boundaries to fill this school. That has prompted the dual language programs and Fort Sheridan children to be bused to Red Oak.

I am urging the new superintendent and school board for District 112 to look into ways of bringing Red Oak back to the status of a neighborhood elementary school as others are within our community. We need to set a schedule of redrawing new school boundaries every so many years to keep neighborhood schools a reality in the future. I also believe the Fort Sheridan kids deserve a neighborhood school and should not be dispersed throughout our community.

As just another citizen and tax payer, I would suggest the new board and superintendent look at this matter over the summer and create a plan to discuss with our community for a 2010-2011 school year implementation. I think the sooner we start discussing this as a community, the sooner we can come together and provide the same educational community experience to all.

Dogs Can Bite!

Recently, a Pit Bull bit a teenage girl pretty severely from what seemed to be an innocent encounter with a friend of hers that recently got this new 9 month old dog. From this incident and past experiences several folks called out to ban the breed of Pit Bulls from Highland Park. First upon hearing this dialog and violence that occurred I struggled with immediate ways we could protect our citizens from this kind of violence and fear.

Banning any specific breed is NOT THE ANSWER. We need to hold the owners responsible as well as educate citizens how to approach strange dogs. Pit Bulls are not wild animals and I have witnessed many of these dogs to be kind and great family pets. I have also witnessed dogs of this breed and dozens of others to be very aggressive and not approachable by humans and/or other animals. I have been bit on more than one occasion and in all instances I could have avoided that confrontation if I had been smarter. Most all dogs I have ever witnessed want to please humans and provide unconditional love to their owners and friends. Also, most dogs, like humans don't like to be touched by strangers until they have a chance to evaluate the individual and be sure they are friend and not foe. I have two Portie's, love my dogs, and fully understand why they call these critters mans best friend.

People should not buy animals to use as weapons against others. If they are bent in that way, they better be sure that they don't cause injury or fear to others in our community. We should deal with this matter of intimidation and violence in any form in a proactive manner. We need to take a strong stance to prevent any offensive behavior in our community.

We are looking at our dangerous animal ordinance and seeing ways we can prevent owners from exposing our citizens to intimidation and violence by using their pets as symbols or soldiers of violence. We need to be sure that consequences of this neglect and misuse of animals is severe and direct. Educating our citizens on how not to approach a strange animal is also important to keep our children and ourselves safe when dealing with pets....

While this discussion is not on our current meeting agenda, staff has been instructed to look for best practices on this matter for presentation to the City Council........Stay Tuned!

Leadership meeting brings together elected officials

Mayor Mike Belsky called a leadership meeting that brought together many newly elected officials along with incumbents and several administrators of our local governments. We talked about the need to work together as a community and region to get the best results for our citizens in Highland Park.

While we have collaborated on many fronts in the past, we need to reduce and combine in an aggressive fashion to meet this new economic challenge that currently faces us.

The group was committed to working together and to reach out to the community to listen to concerns and suggestions of the citizens. It has been several years since the we have had a town hall meeting and we will be looking to formulate this reach-out plan to our individual neighborhoods and community at large.

It has been too long since we have held neighborhood meetings. During the past election and the many coffees that I had attended, it was obvious that citizens had many issues to talk about and were reaching out to their elected officials to be heard.

Moraine Neighborhood requests ACTION!

Moraine North Neighbors are asking for city action on infrastructure improvements. This discussion erupted when a public hearing took place several weeks ago about a housing project on Bloom and Waukegan that provides attainable rental units to residents.

Infrastructure requests from the neighbors include paving a commercially used alley, curbs and storm water street improvements, and snow plowing community street sidewalk routes that lead to the high school and downtown. Other issues brought up were changes in traffic patterns from increased development at Fort Sheridan and congestion on Green Bay Road that could require other regulatory measures.

The staff held a meeting that lasted for 2 1/2 hours Tuesday night and received the requests and concerns from the neighbors. Within 60 days city staff will gather information and present possible solutions.

Stay Tuned!!!

Recycling or Composting

In hearing what is going on in our school lunch rooms and talking about how the kids are served lunches, it seems like a tall mountain to climb to get any real movement on recycling in this setting. Understanding the tons of non-recyclable packaging that goes into the lunch programs that makes its way to the landfill is depressing. Even if we can get recyclable packaging that is recyclable, who is going to clean it?

I think there are two obvious answers here. One is going back to cafeteria style that reuses the plates, cups, and utensils like we did when I was in grammar school or going to compostible packaging along with a legal methodology of dealing with the compost.

If you go to Canada, you see three bins, not two (Garbage, recycle, and compost). When it comes to carry out foods we need to switch gears to composting and leave the recycling to paper, bottles, and plastics that are used in other consumptions.

In conversations with our Environmental Commission members they were asking why are there not more recycling containers in our downtown area? Well, lets examine what is thrown out at Port Clinton for example. If it is mostly food or food contaminated plastics and paper. What would go into a recycling bin ? The bought water bottles that we are asking folks not to buy? What we really need is to get our merchants to use compostible products and get compost bins to toss this stuff in... Right?

We are making headway in increased ways for businesses and multifamily units to recycle. We still use tons of paper, plastic bottles, and cartons that we need to recycle, but when it comes to food waste, composting seems to be the answer.

Tell me your thoughts!

Four More Years.....

I want to thank all my supporters and citizens of Highland Park that believed in me and my ability to represent this community as a Councilman. While we will miss my friend Councilman Michael Brenner and his availability and representation of the common citizen, we gain a strong environmental advocate and friend of mine, Councilman-Elect Nancy Rotering.

This election was a close race where the incumbents were only separated by about 100 votes out of totals of approximately 3100 votes. While everybody talks about who came in first, second, third, and fourth, the bottom line is this community had great support for all of the four candidates. No one was blown out here and no mandates by anyone candidate were received, especially if you analyze the votes closely city wide.

Now that the election is over, we need to all come together and work to support each others potential on representation of our citizens. With the very bright and accomplished Council folks that surround me, I am sure we will be able to make the best decisions possible for our community.

The new Council is seated on May 11, 2009 and no matter who you supported for Council, we need to again unify for the common good of Highland Park.

Environmental Commission Proposes New Green Initiatives

Our Environmental Commission has some new ideas for our community to continue down the green trail. This grEen Commission is proposing to reduce the proliferation of single-use plastic shopping bags, reducing the use of lawn fertilizers containing inorganic phosphorus by prohibiting the use of inorganic phosphorus fertilizers, promoting the City’s drinking water as a replacement for purchasing bottled water, and regulating polystyrene foam disposable food service waste by requiring all food vendors and City facilities to provide compostable or recyclable disposable food service ware (take-out clam shell containers, cups, forks, etc.).

The next step in this process is to bring in all the stake holders like landscapers, restaurant owners, and other merchants to discuss the impacts of these proposals. We want to work with business to promote Highland Parks "Green" character and increase business to our community. As we worked with the Chamber of Commerce and property owners on the new commercial waste hauler contract that brought us free recycling and lower prices, I am hopeful another partnership with our business owners will again produce more green results.

When I hear of meeting dates I will update the blog....... Stay Tuned!!

Focus on the Arts at HPHS

In 1964, Highland Park High School developed the concept of a unique arts outreach program that would expose students and the community to the world of visual and performing arts. The mission of FOCUS has always been to increase appreciation and understanding of the arts and of the professionals engaged in them. Highland Park is a community rich in tradition, ethnic diversity and heritage.

We are recognizing the festival at City Council and asking the community to attend this great event. Information on Focus on the Arts can be found at the website.

The Mayor will proclaim April 27th - April 30th Focus on the Arts week. Remember that not only do arts and entertainment enrich our souls, it also is an effective draw to our community for our businesses and overall prosperity.

Getting Money to resurface Sheridan Road

Sen. Susan Garrett has reported that they passed a mini stimulus bill, allocating funds to cover local resurfacing road projects. I am happy to let you know what Highland Park will be receiving: 1. Lake Cook Rd/Sheridan Rd (Greenbay to Sheridan) .78 miles ($325,000). 2. Sheridan Rd./Walker Avenue to Lake Cook Road, 4.61 miles ($1,800.000) Thank You Senator Garrett!!!

Elm Place School's "Project Citizen" Rocks!

Spent a day at Elm Place School with the 7th grade class talking about the Greening of Elm Place School. Big suggestions from these students on a no idling policy for cars and especially the buses during drop off and pick up of students.

Other suggestions included more electronic formats instead of using paper for assignments and education in general. They would also like to plant a green roof to cool the building and opening up the school to more natural sunlight. Students also promoted turning off lights, computers, and any electric device that is not in use.

Over all, these young citizens were very impressive and had much more to say than I capsulized in this memo... We will be seeing them at City Council in a few weeks and you can watch them yourself at our city website at http://www.cityhpil.com/ or on cable channel 10 when they make their presentations.

Vote Today at NS Health Center (behind Sunset Foods)

Today, Monday March 16th will be the first day you can vote in the City Elections!!!!!!

Please Vote Early and ask others to do the same since it is convenient and allows us the greatest chances to get out more than the 20% of voters that usually vote in this election. More Highland Park Citizens should have a say in who represents them at City Hall, the schools, and Township government.

Early Voting Location and Hours: From March 16 to April 2.
Early voting is available to all eligible, registered voters who need not give a reason to vote prior to Election Day. A valid government-issued ID containing the voter’s photograph, name, and address is required.

WHERE: North Shore Health Center, 1840 Green Bay Road

WHEN: Monday - Friday, 9:00-4:30, Saturday, 9:00-2:00 through April 2.

Election Day at your neighborhood polling place April 7th. For more information Call the Lake County Clerk at 847-377-2410