Information regarding Illinois winter weather and storm preparedness is available in this guidebook.

From the Office of Governor Pat Quinn:          
                     
Governor Quinn Highlights Second Round of Illinois’ ENERGY STAR® Appliance Rebate Program
 
Additional $3 Million Available on Sept. 24 to Save Consumers Money on Energy Efficient Replacement Appliances CHICAGO – September 19, 2010. Governor Pat Quinn today encouraged residents across Illinois to save money and go green by taking advantage of $3 million in rebates available on Sept. 24 for the ENERGY STAR Replacement Appliance Rebate Program. The program builds on last spring’s popular appliance rebate sale and is designed to help Illinoisans reduce their energy consumption while boosting the state’s economy.“This is another great chance to take advantage of a program that boosts business throughout Illinois and helps our environment by reducing energy consumption,” said Governor Quinn. “Now is the time to go out and replace your aging and inefficient appliances such as refrigerators, freezers, clothes washers and dishwashers.”
 
At 8 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 24, consumers upgrading to more energy-efficient appliances will be able to take advantage of a 15 percent point-of-sale rebate (up to $250 per appliance) at participating retail stores for as long as funds are available. The rebate may be used on ENERGY STAR qualified refrigerators, freezers, clothes washers and dishwashers purchased at participating retail stores. The rebates are intended for consumers replacing an old unit; customers must certify that they are purchasing a replacement appliance at the time of purchase.
 
There are approximately $3 million in appliance rebate funds available for the final round of the program. Based on the success of the first appliance rebate offer, organizers expect funds to run out the same day (Sept. 24). While most rebates will be given out at the counter, retailers are also making them available by phone to people with disabilities.
 
 “The first round of the ENERGY STAR rebate program helped people save money on nearly 47,000 energy-efficient water heaters, HVAC systems and appliances,” said Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) Director Warren Ribley. “Our goal is to encourage more people to get rid of old, inefficient appliances and replace them with more efficient models that will lower energy bills and reduce the state’s environmental footprint.”
 
Illinois has received a total of $12.4 million through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for the ENERGY STAR rebate program. The first round of the program distributed $9.4 million in rebates, which generated more than $75 million in sales and 1.3 trillion BTUs in lifetime energy savings – the equivalent of taking 1,712 passenger vehicles off the road for one year.
 
The Illinois ENERGY STAR Appliance Rebate Program is being managed by the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance on behalf of DCEO. The state also partnered with the Illinois Retail Merchants Association to enroll and coordinate the retailers in the program. More than 420 retailers are participating in the program. For more information, including a list of participating retailers, visit www.IllinoisEnergy.org/appliances.
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You are invited to join other residents to our first Mettawa resident picnic will be held on September 11, 2010 from 11:30am-3:30pm on Tim Towne’s property off Old School between Bradley and St. Marys. This picnic is being held to celebrate our Village’s 50^th anniversary.

Upon your confirmation we will send you tickets to the event.

Mettawa’s 50 year Anniversary Picnic.

• Mayor’s welcome
• A moment of silence for 9/11 and donation of an American Flag for the Village
• Horse exhibits and demonstrations
• Remote control boat races
• Live Music
• Past Mayor’s address
• Oldest resident comments
• Mettawa’s history
• Cowboy Magician
• Food
• Meet your neighbors

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=375136

Dear Mayor:

Time and available funds are running out for ComEd’s Helping Hand program, a month-long effort that will pay half the balances for customers facing a recent or pending service suspension due to a recent financial hardship. To date, more than 2,000 customers have applied for bill assistance totaling nearly $700,000 in potential bill credits.

Launched March 1, the Helping Hand program will provide up to $1 million from ComEd’s customer assistance funds for eligible customers who apply by March 31 and while funds last. Eligible residential customers who pay 50 percent of their outstanding balance can receive a credit from ComEd for the remaining 50 percent. The program is open to ComEd customers who have experienced a recent financial hardship (such as a job loss or major medical event) and have received a recent disconnection notice. Funds are limited and restrictions apply.

Customers can sign up for ComEd Helping Hand by calling 888-806-CARE (2273). They will need to give a ComEd account number, identify their hardship and provide a method of payment (check, credit card or debit card).

Once Helping Hand’s $1 million in funds are exhausted, customers also can inquire into other assistance programs such as Residential Special Hardship Program and C.H.A.M.P. (ComEd Helps Activated Military Personnel). This year, ComEd will distribute more than $10 million in new assistance funds. For information on other assistance programs, visit www.ComEd.com. Last year, ComEd distributed approximately $15.5 million in assistance through its CARE programs to more than 75,000 customers.

Please share this information with your constituents and post on your website or closed circuit TV’s.

Voting By Mail

Exercising your right to vote could not be easier. Gone is the old requirement of needing a reason to vote by mail since Illinois now has “no excuse” voting by mail for everyone. For your convenience, the Lake County Clerk’s office offers a Permanent Voting by Mail program.  Enrollment is easy, environmental (no extra driving), and there’s peace of mind with new ballot tracking online offered by County Clerk Willard Helander.

Enrollment forms are available online at www.VotingByMail.info with forms for typing in your information and then print, sign and mail to Lake County Clerk, 18 N. County Street, Rm. 101, Waukegan, IL 60085 or calling (847)377-2406 to request a form. You may select all elections for voting by mail, or just those when there is a high probability for snow and inclement weather.

As always, the Temporarily Absent Student program is recommended for students away at school. Voters who travel seasonally can enroll in the Snowbird program and specify the elections and alternate address to which a ballot should be mailed. Those enrolled in any programs to vote by mail will automatically receive their ballot by mail for the elections specified on the enrollment form. Voters can cancel program enrollment at any time. As required by state law, voting by mail requests cannot be processed until 40 days prior to Election Day or later, subject to final certification of candidates by the State Board of Elections.

Permanent Voting by Mail, Temporarily Absent Student and Snowbird program enrollment is convenient, but also helps the County Clerk gauge the number of voters making a “reservation” to vote by mail. With three voting options (by mail, in-person early voting and Election Day) available to all voters, staffing and printing costs have increased to meet the mandates. Knowing a voter’s preference for voting by mail will permit reduced printing for the other two options.

A new ballot tracking feature @ www.LakeCountyClerk.info under the Voter Power tab provides security and peace of mind that your ballot was received. Voter log on to Voter Power under ballot tracker to see when the ballot was mailed and the voted ballot was received by return mail.

Saving money and helping voters – what a great combination!

Submitted by the Lake County Clerk’s office

On Saturday, January 23, thirty-eight residents gathered at the Hilton Hotel for the first-ever Village “Committee of the Whole” meeting. The purpose of the meeting was to begin a resident input process to develop a three-year strategic plan for Mettawa. The Board believes that this plan will help establish a baseline from which decisions and investments over the next three years can be balanced.

Resident Don Joseph graciously volunteered his time to facilitate the three-hour meeting and did an outstanding job of keeping people involved and interested in the process. Those who participated said they really enjoyed the exercises that provided an opportunity to discuss with neighbors “goal” ideas. The Village Board will further evaluate and prioritize these ideas as part of the strategic plan they hope to complete by the end of April, 2010. There were many positive comments from residents to hold this kind of meeting again as they enjoyed the opportunity to meet their neighbors and discuss important issues about our Village. The Board and I really appreciated the participation and enthusiasm shown by all attendees in helping us take the first steps in preparing this important Village document.

The goals COW 1-23-10 __Strategic Planning Goals-FINAL are those that were identified in the meeting and copied from resident input sheets. First, ideas were generated at random by category; then Don used a process to rank the goals for each category so that priorities could be identified. Finally, the last exercise was to identify some “actions” ideas for each category’s top1-2 goal ideas. Some of these goal ideas are repetitious or very close in content, but they represent each resident’s input.

The Board will now evaluate and prioritize these goal ideas as they develop the overall detail of the Strategic Plan.

In the meantime, you are welcome to send me your thoughts about the Village residents’ goal ideas.

Press Release

Village of Mettawa, IL announces conclusion of law-suits surrounding proposed Costco on Riverwoods Road.

Mettawa, Feb 11, 2010:   Village of Mettawa Mayor Jess Ray announced today that two lawsuits which delayed development of a proposed Costco store on Village-owned property at the southwest corner of   I-94 and Route 60 have been resolved.  One lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice by Judge Mitchell Hoffman and was not appealed; the other was settled today by all parties, including the Village.  The resolution of these lawsuits concludes a nearly two year, emotionally charged debate in the Village regarding use of Village lands for a Costco store.

Upon taking office in May 2009, the newly elected Mayor, Jess Ray, and the Board inherited this land management issue. Their goal was to resolve this issue in a manner that would be beneficial for the Village residents, while recognizing that there was already a signed legal contract with Costco, negotiated by the previous Mayor and Board.

Additional legal counsel was hired to review the law suits and previously signed contract with Costco. It was determined following this review that portions of the existing Costco contract should be re-negotiated to give the Village a more positive outcome if the close was to happen. The Board began working with Costco to amend the sales agreement, resulting in improved contract terms for the Village and its residents.

Both Costco and the Village invested many months in legal proceedings and negotiations to bring the two resident lawsuits to conclusion. The Village prevailed on one lawsuit; several concessions were made on the other lawsuit which will better protect Village residents while still clearing the way for the Village-Costco sales contract to proceed. Costco anticipates that they will open their store in November of 2010.  The Costco store is expected to generate over a million dollars annually in sales tax revenue to the Village.

According to Mayor Jess Ray, “While nearly half of our residents were opposed to additional commercial development in Mettawa and strongly disagreed with the way the 22-acre land parcel had been previously managed, the Village had to deal with the duality of a previously signed sales contract with Costco while achieving the best possible outcome for Village residents. Under the circumstances, I believe we have reached a balanced conclusion.  We look forward to Costco’s presence in the Village as a good corporate citizen and partner in preserving the great character and attributes of our Village.”

ComEd Take the Pledge Giveaway

Take the ENERGY STAR^® Change the World Pledge to become more energy efficient and you’ll be entered into the ComEd Take the Pledge Giveaway!  You could win $2,000 towards the purchase of an ENERGY STAR qualified appliance or electronic device, to be selected with the help of the ComEd Energy Doctor. More than 2.3 million Americans have taken the Pledge and saved more than $477 million in energy costs. For ideas and information on energy efficiency incentives, visit www.ComEd.com/SmartIdeas or call 888-806-2273.

$2 discounts on Holiday lights at ComEd’s online store

Make your holidays even brighter this year with beautiful, energy-efficient and long-lasting LED (light emitting diode) holiday lights.  Now through December 31st, shop at ComEd’s Online Store and receive a $2 discount on each LED holiday light set you purchase (while supplies last; discount applied to a maximum of 12 sets per customer).  Made to be durable, LEDs are impact-resistant, weather-resistant and ready for outdoor use. Hurry, quantities are limited!  Visit www.ComEd.com and click on the Online Store link at the lower right-hand portion of the page.

At Last night’s Village Board meeting your board approved the letting of a road repair contract for our Village roads. This work will take some time to complete due to weather and you may find some road lanes temporally limited as the work progresses.

You have probably seen the white markings on our roads. These are notations for the crew on where the repairs are to take place. It is important we make most of these repairs prior to winter and the annual spring freeze-thaw phenomenon that occurs which plays havoc with our roads.

Please drive carefully while these repairs take place and allow some extra time on your drive to/from your homes.

Our roads will be in much better condition after these repairs take place and you will have safer roads on which to drive.

Snow Removal

The Village is accepting proposals until October 14, 2009, for seasonal snow removal.  Click here to download the specifications. Also, download Exhibit A (the Village Street Map). Be sure no notify the Village Engineer at 847-295-3322 if you intend to submit a proposal so you can be notified of any addenda or clarification that may published.