The Lake County Board will vote on the FY2018 budget in November. Lake County is committed to investing in people and our communities — that is at the foundation of our strategic plan and carries through to our budget. It’s a balanced budget that spends $437 million to fund core services, including transportation and infrastructure, health services, and public safety. For more than 20 years, Lake County has maintained a AAA bond rating from both major credit agencies – the highest rating possible. This budget continues to deliver efficient, cost-effective and accountable programs and services, by leveraging shared services and consolidation, like in the area of regional 911, utilizing technology, and streamlining operations.

Watch this video with the Chair of the Finance and Administrative Services Committee. Check out our reader-friendly budget summary, and read the entire budget. 

Making sure that Lake County roads, bridges and bike paths are safe for the traveling public is the top priority of the Lake County Division of Transportation (LCDOT), local government agencies and police departments. Together, we have formed a multi-jurisdictional Safety Task Force to look for opportunities to enhance safety for Lake County residents. 

We can study the crash data and look for engineering improvements or enforcement strategies to make roads safer, but we need your help. As a road user, there are decisions you make and actions you take that have an impact on the safety of everyone around you. Many serious injury or fatal crashes are the result of driver behavior and can be prevented. Watch this video to learn ways you can help make our roads safer.

The Lake County Division of Transportation wants your input too! Take this survey to share your concerns about road safety. 

To better address veteran homelessness and veterans in need and in crisis, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office has partnered with the Veterans Assistance Commission and other county resources to ensure nobody is left behind.   

To address the challenge and ensure crisis services are available after hours, select Sheriff’s Office employees received training on issues of veteran homelessness and veterans “in crisis” as well as transport, shelter, and referral options for immediate assistance. Watch this video to learn more about the Veteran Ambassador Program.

In Lake County, we appreciate the dedication and commitment of the men and women who have served in the United States Military. To honor their service, we offer resources to help veterans and their families. To learn more, visit the Veterans Assistance Commission website, and sign up for their monthly newsletter.

Recorder of Deeds Office Offers Information to Our Veterans
The Lake County Recorder of Deeds Office offers various services to our veterans and their families. This includes being the official keeper of veteran’s military records, or DD214. The Recorder’s Office is happy to provide veterans a free copy of this form upon the completion of a request for discharge record.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service will be sending out new Medicare cards to individuals with Medicare benefits beginning in April 2018 without Social Security numbers, all to prevent identity theft, fight fraud and keep taxpayer dollars safe. But scammers are taking advantage of this change, especially at the start of Medicare open enrollment.

In some calls, the caller requests to verify your personal information in order to receive a new card, and others claim you need to pay for your new card and threaten benefits. Medicare will never email or call asking for your personal information, and the new cards will be free. Visit the Federal Trade Commission's website to learn more.

Property owners residing in unincorporated Lake County may be eligible to save an average of $271 a year on their flood insurance policies. Through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Community Rating System program, residents who meet certain requirements are eligible for up to 20 percent savings on flood insurance premiums. Property owners should contact their flood insurance agent to obtain individual savings information. Visit the FEMA Flood Smart website as well as the county’s flood information website to find more resources.

To increase efficiency and make the Lake County Circuit Clerk’s Office more accessible to the public, the office will now accept payments online for certain criminal and traffic cases. Individuals who owe outstanding fines and court costs may pay online by visiting the Circuit Clerk’s website. The website offers instructions in over 50 languages, and the service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In addition to online payments, the Circuit Clerk also has established a call center that can help individuals who may not have access to a computer or may require additional assistance in making their payments over the phone. Learn more

Forest Preserves News

Engaging Volunteers for Nature
Walking through Greenbelt Forest Preserve in North Chicago this fall, you can’t miss the changes. Where there was once a dense wall of buckthorn, you can now look out across a rare combination of prairie, interspersed with native shrubs and small trees. This unique scrubland habitat draws migrating birds such as eastern kingbird, northern flicker, and brown thrasher.

People are flocking to enjoy Greenbelt and to help with restoration efforts. In 2016, a $100,000 grant from the Illinois Coastal Management Program supported this restoration work and funded project partner, Audubon Great Lakes, to engage the community. From April 2016 to April 2017, nearly 400 volunteers logged more than 1,000 hours cutting and burning brush, weeding, shrub and seed planting, and seed collecting. On one workday, 30 students from Abbott Middle School donned work gloves loppers, and saws to cut buckthorn. Become a volunteer

Annual Fund Spotlight
Engaging Volunteers at Greenbelt is exactly the kind of project the Preservation Foundation Annual Fund was created to support. With limited staff, the District cannot reach into every Lake County community to engage volunteers we need to help care for our preserves. With a grant in 2016, Audubon Great Lakes got off to a great start in North Chicago. To build on that success, the Foundation Board awarded a $20,000 grant so the District can continue working with Audubon Great Lakes. The goal is to build a self-sustaining volunteer corps to support our ongoing work at Greenbelt.

Lake County businesses, schools, churches, non-for-profits and units of government are invited to bring broken and unwanted electronics to be recycled at a special collection event from 8 a.m. to noon Thursday, Nov. 9 at the Ela Township Center, 1155 Route 22, Lake Zurich. 

The Solid Waste Agency of Lake County provides free opportunities for residents to recycle electronics through a network of drop off locations. However, State law limits these locations to accept only residential electronics. Learn more about this collection, including what items will be accepted.

When it comes to safe drinking water, public bodies are required to test for lead and copper. Our water systems are typically tested for lead and copper every three years. Lake County Public Works has no lead water lines, and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) even reduced our lead monitoring requirements as a result of no sampling violations. However, systems that change water sources, such as switching from wells to Lake Michigan water, are tested more frequently after the cross over. This year eight systems were tested and found to be within standards. 

• Systems tested in 2017: Vernon Hills, Wildwood, Brooks Farm, Pekara, Hawthorn Woods, Arden Shores, Grandwood Park, Forest Lake 
• Systems to be tested in 2018: Countryside Lake, Fox Lake Hills, Highland Lake, Knollwood, Arden Shores, Grandwood Park, Forest Lake

Watch this video to learn how Lake County Public Works is working to keep the county’s drinking water safe. 

As always, I welcome your feedback. If this newsletter was forwarded to you, please sign up to continue to receive news about Lake County and District 20.

Thank you,
Sidney Mathias 

Mr. Mathias, County Board member and Forest Preserve Commissioner, serves on:

Lake County Board, 20th District:
Ad Hoc Legislative Committee, Co-Chair
Ethics and Oversight Committee, Vice Chair
Planning, Building and Zoning Committee
Public Works and Transportation Committee  

Lake County Forest Preserves, 20th District:
Diversity and Cultural Awareness Committee, Chair
Planning Committee,  Vice Chair
Rules Committee