The Mayor’s Update Newsletter

Q3 (Nov-Jan), 2009/10

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

Take heart, we have just recently passed the astrological midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.  And we are just now two months away from closing the first year of this new Board.  So let’s take a look at what happened in the Village over the past ninety cold and snowy days.

H1N1 Resident Support

Thanks to Jan Pink’s Safety and Security Committee’s research, we were able to send you updates and specific information about the Swine Flu. Information about precautions and availability to shots allowed our residents to be better informed with information directly from the County and CDC than what was available through other public media. If you did not receive these alerts, it is because we do not have your email address in our records. To add your name for these and other Village alerts, please send an email to me at: jray@mettawa.com . You can also make this request at www.mettawa.org. Remember, to save money we only send alerts via email.

Disaster Preparedness

Recently, I joined Chairman Pink for a free half-day disaster preparedness simulation hosted by a Lake-Cook County incident association that Mettawa recently joined. This event made it quite evident that often the most effective response to natural disasters, like an earthquake or the effects of nearby earthquakes, is a well-thought-out local response. We became aware of the recently renewed interest in the New Madrid Fault (NMF) due to the recent earthquake in Illinois about 40 miles from here. Why the New Madrid fault? Well between 1811 and 1812, four catastrophic earthquakes on the NMF seismic zone including parts of Illinois, with magnitude estimates greater than 7.0, occurred during a three-month period. If a reoccurrence of this activity happens, there is little evidence that it would immediately impact us like Haiti. However, there is concern for us because of the gas, communications and electrical facilities located in the critical earthquake area that would be greatly impacted. This is not meant to frighten you but to let you know your Board and Safety and Security committee will do research that can inform and prepare you for such an event or other disaster scenarios..

Following this event, we added a new tab on the Village web-site: “Emergency Contacts” that will be refined over the next few months with additional information. Additionally, the S&S Committee will produce a document for each resident of critical information for residents to know as our part of “preparedness” for a disaster we hope we never see.

Snow Plowing RFP/Salt Purchase

This year we put the Village Snow plowing out for Bid. This action was managed by Trustee Armstrong’s Roads and Trails Committee supported by Trustee Maier’s Finance Committee. This action and the ultimate vendor selection are expected to generate a savings to the Village for this service. Separately, the Village purchased salt and has worked with the Vendor for inventory of our salt at a Lake Bluff municipal facility. This salt inventory is controlled by a “chit” sign-out sheet so we can carefully manage our inventory.

Cutting of dead trees

You may see a crew working throughout the Village taking down dead trees that are either on Village easement property or that run the risk of falling on Village roads. Most of these trees are concentrated on Little St. Marys Rd.

Trails

Lastly this committee is in the early stages of extending two existing trails in the Village. We expect this year the trail on Old School Road will likely be extended all the way to St. Marys allowing Westside residents to more easily access the Forest Preserve trails. The second trail extension is likely to extend the trail on Bradley south. More details on these later.

RFP for Legal Counsel

Trustee Maier’s Finance Committee initiated a bid process at my request for our Village Counsel position. This is being done to find a better contract structure for better controlling our legal fees. We hope to have a two-part contract: 1) fixed price for general Village business and 2) a fixed hourly fee schedule for other variable work. The process has yielded responses from some new firms which will be interviewed soon by the Board.

New Deputy Treasurer

It was my pleasure to recently appoint resident Rita Tavakoli as our new Deputy Treasurer reporting to Tom Lys, Village treasurer and the Finance committee. Rita has had many years of experience in large company corporate finance management in several countries. While she is learning the ropes on municipal finance, we altered our contract with the previous Deputy Treasurer to a per-hour consulting role as backup to Rita and the Village. We expect to see some new developments in the reporting and trending of the Village financials so that we keep our overhead low with an increase in resident services.

Costco

You have either received an email from me or read in the papers that we resolved the two law suits surrounding the land sale of property for Costco. Shortly after we resolved these law suits, we closed and completed the sale of the 17 acres near the corner of Rt. 60 and Riverwoods. As part of the settlement and contract amendments to come out of these negotiations, the Board was able to work out terms to improve the berm height and landscaping on the Riverwoods Road Costco site. Improvement to traffic movement was also negotiated as was landscaping screening for three residents who front Riverwoods Rd. We also insisted that the Costco facility be at least Silver-level LEED certified. Among other conditions the Village received a refund on our legal fees for this suit. While the residents who contributed to the suit will receive a return of their contributions to the lawsuit, no one on the board will be allowed to take any refund. Costco is hoping to have their store open in November of this year. See PR release at: http://mettawa.org/category/news/

I would like to hear from you on your desire to attend a town hall meeting on this topic. We don’t want to spend the Village money for the meeting if attendance would be low. If however, you would want to see the details of this situation aired in a town hall meeting, please send me an email or letter of your interest.

JAWA annexation for water to Mettawa

There was a recent opportunity for me to formally request of the Central Lake County Joint Action Water Agency (JAWA) to annex the Village of Mettawa into their water district. If approved by the County, your Board will have the ability, if approved for budget, to extend Lake Michigan water service to all Village residents. Some 30-40% of residents are already receiving this water. While this non-obligation request is the right thing for your Board to pursue, it is an involved decision process: the cost to run water lines throughout the balance of the Village and to determine the value of this service to residents who have already spent thousands to install a deep-well for their properties. We anticipate a decision on our annexation request from the County within the next ninety days following a capacity study they are conducting.

Strategic Planning

Thirty-eight residents recently met with the Board at the Hilton Hotel to take the first step in developing a Strategic Plan for the Village. While the Village Board has ultimate responsibility for developing and approving a Strategic plan for the Village, we wanted residents to participate in the process early-on to provide their input.  You can see the results of this effort under “News” on the Village web-site. We wish to thank resident Don Joseph for facilitating this well-received meeting.

90-day Reviews with Board and Staff

A new process of sitting with each Board, committee chair and staff to review communications and working style each ninety-days was installed by me to help us work better as a team as we serve you, the residents.

HSBC Detention Pond Retrofit

Working closely with both HSBC and the Lake County Stormwater Management team, we were able to agree on a retrofit design for the detention pond at the NE corner of Bradley and Riverwoods Blvd. The retrofit, which is partially completed, is being redone to improve both the storm water infiltration function as well as the natural beauty of the pond. This project should be completed in early spring with final contouring and plantings. This retrofit is being funded primarily by HSBC to help improve the beauty and water management of your Village.

HSBC and Grainger Open Houses

Many residents were able to join in the two special opportunities to join in tours and presentations of how these two company facilities were awarded GOLD-level LEED certification for “green-building” sustainability.  These two events were eye-opening to know the cost and effort these two Companies expended to ensure the Village’s natural environment was preserved and sustained. We were surprised to learn that HSBC even offers a full-service branch bank with an ATM at their facility on Riverwoods Blvd. These two events were scheduled and managed by resident Holly Hirsch, who is a member of the US Green Building Council. For more information on HSBC branch bank on Riverwoods go to: http://www.us.hsbc.com/1/2/!ut/p/c1/04_SB8K8xLLM9MSSzPy8xBz9CP0os3gDd-NQv1BDg2AXA3cP_2AX9xAnAwgAykeC5MOC_LycPfxcDRwNg80tTI0NYPL4dft55Oem6hfkRpQDAPQM78A!/dl2/d1/L0lDU0lKSWdrbUNTUS9JUFJBQUlpQ2dBek15cXpHWUEhIS9ZQkpKMU5BMU5JNTAtNUY4OXchIS83XzBHM1VOVTEwU0QwR0hPU0RITDYxMDAwMDAwL0tfX19fMi9zYS5jbWRfZGV0YWlscw!!/?PC_7_0G3UNU10SD0GHOSDHL61000000_srno=1

Joint Traffic Study with Lake Forest and Green Oaks

The Board has approved participation in a joint traffic study as a first step in exploring the possibilities of joining the east-side Oasis access road to Field Drive in Lake Forest. There is a belief that this linkage access would limit some transient traffic on Bradley Rd. This could allow for trucks and car traffic to turn east on the Oasis access road north of the Bradley Bridge, and access Field Drive and ultimately south to Rt. 60.

Clear Communications

We have been working for several months to allow installation of wireless antenna on the top of the CDW building. These small-profile antennas, when installed, will be shielded from view with a low “stealth” façade above the current roof. You may have seen “Clear” advertisements on TV of late. They are the service provider who will operate these antennas. When the work is completed (<90 days) this wireless service will finally offer a high-speed wireless communication service to residents in the Village who do not have, can’t get or don’t want cable or other slower-speed communication service.

Census

With the U.S. Census process beginning, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) advises people to be cooperative, but cautious, so as not to become a victim of fraud or identity theft. See more on this topic under “News” on the Village web-site.

FYI……

• Roundabout to be constructed at Everett and Riverwoods Rd.

We have been told that Lake County will begin the construction of a new roundabout this spring/summer with an expected completion of November, 2010.

• Soil and Water Conservation District of Lake County

Save water and your water bill with a “Rain Barrel” which are for sale…visit www.lakeSWCD.org of call 847-223-1056

• Native Plant Sale

Choose from more than 60 varieties of flowers and grasses that thrive in local garden conditions and provide native wildlife habitat. Proceeds benefit Lake County Forest Preserves “EnviroPatrol” program.

May 8^th….9am-3pm; May 9^th….10am-3pm at Independence Grove Libertyville. www.independencegrove.org

• LC Forest Preserves buy Mettawa parcel on Everett Rd.

A 5-acre purchase was approved in January which will offer a continuation of high-quality woodlands and expands LCFP’s opportunity to extend a trail along Everett Rd. This was the Kindy property. Mr. Kindy was one of the village founding Trustees. His Widow was previously the owner of the property.

• The Grainger Foundation awards $500,000 for restoration.

Only weeks after Grainger Woods was honored with one of Illinois’ most coveted environmental distinctions, officials with the Preservation Foundation of the Lake County Forest Preserves announced that they will add new luster to the site, thanks to a $500,000 donation from The Grainger Foundation.

The donation will in part fund a comprehensive ecological restoration of the 308-acre Grainger Woods Conservation Preserve. Late last month, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) designated a 169-acre portion of the site as an Illinois Nature Preserve, a status conferred only on the state’s most ecologically sensitive public lands.

Grainger Woods was formed from 257 acres of land donated to the Lake County Forest Preserves by W.W. Grainger, Inc., in 1996. For more information: http://www.lcfpd.org/preserves/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.view&object_id=188&type=P

New Residents

We wish to welcome three new residents to Mettawa and hope they enjoy their new homes.

• Carey and Sangston Woodruff moved to a home on Westwoods
• Mr. and Mrs. James Howatt moved to a new home on Meadowoods
• Moon and Eunju Do moved to their new home on Trail Drive

Village Board – next quarter

Your Board is already busy with those activities that need management during the last quarter of the Village fiscal year which ends at the end of April. We will be taking some action on the following list, to name a few:

• New fiscal year budget and two-year proforma
• RFP for Roadway edge cutting – - twice this year.
• Plans to celebrate Mettawa’s 50-year anniversary
• Completion of the Village Strategic Plan
• Two new trail extensions

We invite you to attend our Village Board meetings to see what this Board is doing for you, the resident, and our Village.  We meet every third Tuesday of the month at the Hilton Hotel at 7:30pm.

The Mayor’s Update Newsletter Q2 (Aug-Oct), 2009

Mettawa Friends and Neighbors,

Thank you for your positive feedback to our first quarterly Village newsletter sent in July.

We also thank those of you who took the time to complete and return the enclosed survey sent with the first mailing. Nearly 10% of homeowners responded. Your comments and input will help shape our Board actions. See those results at the end of the letter.

Village objectives for the past ninety days were:

1. CONTROL EXPENSES AND IMPROVE THE FINANCIAL SYSTEMS OF THE VILLAGE

2. IMPROVE AND MAINTAIN THE VILLAGE’S INFRASTRUCTURE

3. REVIEW AND IMPLEMENT ORDINANCES AND COMMISSIONS TO BRING VALUE TO VILLAGE RESIDENTS

Cost containment as a Board priority should come as no surprise to residents. Articles appear in newspapers almost daily of the financial struggles nearby municipalities are experiencing due to lower tax revenues. (We have watched as some of these municipalities are forced to raise taxes. Mettawa was fortunately able to approve the issuance of a TAX REBATE for the fifth consecutive year.)

We, too, have recently experienced a significant reduction in tax revenues. Our approach, lead by the Finance Committee and Treasurer, was to look for ways to control our costs and reduce where we can, so that your Village budget and financial health would be maintained at a high standard. Through various management interventions, the Village is only 2.3% over budget through the first six months of our fiscal year. We came very close to budget despite a 35% decline in revenues, high legal fees from three legal cases, plus incurring non-budgeted costs to maintain our Village’s infrastructure.

The Village, as you know, uses Volunteers to manage many projects and issues. Since we don’t have a full-time administrator as most municipalities do, I have instituted Committees and Commissions made up of resident Volunteers to research and recommend actions for the Board to approve. I want to use this quarterly report to highlight three of these groups and the work they have completed in support of the residents and Village. These volunteers are to be congratulated for their efforts on your behalf.

1. Finance Committee

2. Roads and Trails Committee

3. Safety and Security Commission

Finance Committee

This Board committee, chaired by Trustee John Maier, along with Trustee Nicholson and Treasurer Tom Lys as members, worked hard on their many projects. Residents should feel secure knowing this committee has oversight on all the Village financial affairs, subject to Board approval. They have instituted new procedures for bidding out major expenses for the Village to ensure we are getting fair value for our expenditures. The new bidding process was used for contracts procured in the Roads and Trails Committee; and now, the finance committee is active in gaining bids for Village Counsel and Village Engineering services to ensure our costs and fees are competitive. Here are some of the actions this committee has taken:

· Managed the completion of three years of delinquent audits. Annual audits are required by law to ensure monies are accounted for properly. We were three years in arrears when we started this fiscal year -’08/’09 audits to be done next which will bring us current with audits.

· Developed a new bidding process for various Village contracted services. This is to ensure that we are getting the best service at the most economical price. This previously was not a standard Board practice – used now by all committees for major expenditures.

· Recommended a way to continue the Resident Tax Rebate program and managed the process of application and disbursement of rebates. We wanted to continue this program in the face of significant revenue declines and found a conservative way to continue this program.

· Managed the process of moving the Village from cash-based accounting methods to an accrual accounting system in order to comply with prevalent accounting principles…this will ensure we don’t under-budget for the many projects the Village manages annually.

· Established new banking policies to allow for more flexibility without sacrifice of control.

· Generated a full fiscal year forecast for the Mayor and Board. This allows us to determine what we can and cannot afford, like tax rebates and road repairs.

· Investigated confusion about Oasis tax payment splits with Lake Forest – this investigation uncovered money due the Village of approximately $40,000.

· Trustee Nicholson and I negotiated several amendments to the Costco sales agreement that better protect the Village’s interest if this sale contract closes.

· Investigated and proposed to the board the request for real-estate tax exemption. This was to ensure that we could avoid any taxes on Village-owned property. The Village has paid these taxes for many years. We want to recover this money for our Treasury.

Roads and Trails Committee

This committee is chaired by Trustee Bill Armstrong and aided by Trustees Tindall and Brennan. This committee was expanded to include village trails, which surpass the number of roads in the Village. Trustee Armstrong also established an ad hoc group of interested residents who have offered their time and thoughts to this committee. Various residents who have an interest in roads or trail have attended these committee meetings. There were a number of items facing this committee throughout the summer while getting the Village ready to deal with winter. Here are a number of issues and projects this committee has worked hard to accomplish.

· Dealing with fallen trees from storms often blocking Village Roads.

· Manage a procurement process for three culvert replacements on Little Saint Marys and Bradley roads – work now completed.

· Working with the Sheriff’s unit, managed radar patrol of Village roads – traffic monitoring for saftey.

· Working with Lake County to cut back landscaping growth on St. Marys to reduce a “blind-spot” for people turning from westbound Old School – work now completed.

· Managed the changing of Village speed limits from 30 to 25mph – work now completed.

· Assisted in developing new ordinance and new signs preventing right turns out of the HSBC and CDW commercial complexes. This is to help reduce commuter traffic on our roads – installed soon.

· Managed a procurement process for repairs to Village roads- completed next week (weather permitting).

· Managed a procurement process for salt purchase and snow-plowing services for the winter season – contracts let…now ready for snow and ice.

Safety and Security Commission

This newly established commission is chaired by Jan Pink and supported by Dr. Rick Kennison, Vice-Chair, Diane Roth, Roberta Bohm, Alan Shidler, along with representatives from two fire protection agencies and the County Sheriff’s unit. I established this commission so that our residents would have plans developed for unforeseen disasters or events. This commission will be giving the Board guidance and recommendations on many items that concern the safety and security of Village residents. These are their first deliverables:

· Established contact with all security-relevant agencies to monitor policies that need to be established or updated for the safety and security of the Village.

· Enrolled the Village in a Lake County safety organization where we will gain disaster planning, training and ideas for response.

· Researched and published recommendations to residents on the H1N1 swine flu.

Many of you have been attending our Monthly Board meetings and are familiar with the actions of the Board. Many have received multiple emails on various topics of relevance and interest to Village residents. If you are not getting these emails, please send me a request to be added to these email alerts to jray@mettawa.org . You can also make this request through our web-site www.mettawa.org .

Village Clerk

Many residents interface often with the Village Clerk. Based on decisions made earlier this year, Cathy Nelson, our Village Clerk, is busy helping with resident inquiries, tax and land stamp issues, filings at the County and taking minutes of Board meetings. This is a big job, now that we have made her more accessible and available to residents. Thanks to Cathy for her strong organization skills.

Here are some other projects in which we have focused our time over the past ninety days:

· Activated the following new board; nominated people to fill the Chairperson position as well as adding members to the committees.

BUILDING CODE BOARD OF APPEAL, Tim Towne, (tjttdg@aol.com ) is Chairperson; Rich Vaneslow, and Tim Clark are members. This Board was activated by me to give residents an appeal process on building permits or code issues.

· The Board voted in a new 10:30pm ending time restriction for Board meetings.

· Worked with ComEd and MOLA to repair the turf areas at both sides of Riverwoods Blvd at Route 60 This work is now completed…thank you to all MOLA volunteers.

· Worked with ComEd to set up a temporary power transformer for a power grid failure to one group of homes in the Village.

· Reviewed feasibility and granted the Lake County SWAT unit to do a training exercise on the Melody Lake Property.

· Agreed with a local farmer to cut and store hay on the Melody Lake Property.

· Paid our share of a new sewer line that will be installed parallel to the Grainger sewer line along route 60, underneath the Des Plaines River and on to the Vernon Hills sewer line – this work is the result of a Court Order and is being installed by the County. It is scheduled to be completed by April, 2010.

· Arranged resident visits to HSBC and Grainger…this is to allow us to better know them

· Passed an ordinance to ban Video Gambling in the Village.

· Working with the Tollway authority, managed the installation of light shields, landscaping and new sight-walls around the Oasis – Shields installed, landscaping installation begun, walls in process.

· Developed a new design and content for the Village web-site – more resident useful information.

· Passed a new Ordinance eliminating the need to post meeting schedules on telephone poles in the Village. The Village web-site and Hotel will post meeting schedules.

· Continued to use the DAILY HERALD newspaper as our means of communicating legal Village notices. The paper now offers delivery to our entire Village (previously 60045 zip code residents could not get paper delivered.) You can call the newspaper directly to subscribe. Their number is: (847) 427-4333.

· We are fortunate to have great and helpful residents. A resident recently purchased a five acre parcel from St. Basil Church resulting in a mutually positive outcome for the resident, Church and Village.

As always, we want to hear from you. You can email me at jray@mettawa.org or you can contact any of the trustees (first name initial, last name @mettawa.org); initiallastname@mettawa.org.

We will be holding a Village Town-hall meeting within the next 60 days for an update on Costco and other Village matters so watch for the notice of this special meeting and please attend. I also invite you again to attend our Village Board meetings to see what this Board is doing for you, the resident and our Village. We meet every third Tuesday of the month at the Hilton Hotel at 7:30pm.

Kind regards,

Jess D. Ray

Mayor

Village of Mettawa

847-482-1630

Mettawa Friends and Neighbors,                                                               Q1 ( April-June) 2009

Although it has been a while since you have received a formal Village communication, you can be certain that your Village Board has been working hard on shaping things in the Village that ultimately will help you and Mettawa. We are committed to make Mettawa an even better place in which to live.
Today, we want to brief you on some changes we have made in the structure and administration of the Village, plus two other important items that I need to discuss with you. Here is what is included in this mailing:

1. The Mayor’s letter with updates on Board level administrative changes
2. A flyer on a new speed limit that will be initiated soon, with information about taxes
3. A questionnaire for you to give your feedback to the Board on your experiences and expectations.

The Mayor’s Update
It has been a busy 45 days since I was elected to be your Mayor and to lead the Village Board. On May 19th the Village was officially turned over to me and the new Board. So that we could give good guidance and make appropriate decisions going forward, the newly elected Board members had to quickly become experts on the following items we inherited:

• A budget deficit of nearly $800,000 for fiscal year ending April 30, 2009
• Two law suits against the Village
• An outstanding legal order to pay $1,060,000 to the County for sewer service for the Millineum development off Bradley Rd.
• A sales contract with Costco awaiting closing
• Several property and building permit issues
• Unfinished issues with sound walls
• Village roads needing repair
• 3-Failed road culverts
• Village files in four different locations with only one under fire protection
• No village office equipment or supplies
• A Clerk who was part-time Village clerk and secretary to ex-Mayor
• Meeting announcements in a Waukegan paper not delivered in the Village
• Many resident calls for various reasons
• Several infrastructure improvements/changes to be managed
• Cutting weeds along our roadways

On Tuesday, June 16, Mettawa’s new Village Board held its first full meeting chaired by me as your new Mayor. Your Board has been working hard since before the “swear-in” to manage a number of organizational, structural, and procedural issues. By making some adjustments, we are positioning ourselves to operate in a strategic and well-organized manner as we serve you, the residents of the Village. There are many more actions we must take; but we are feeling encouraged about the early improvements we are making to your government..

Here are some of the areas in which we have focused our time:

• Established the following commissions and committees; then I nominated people to fill the Chairperson position as well as adding members to the committees.
• Parks and Recreation Committee, Larry Falbe, Chairperson; Bill Armstrong, and Jack Tindall, members: Have suspended the activities of the Oasis Park committee work. This committee is not currently active on any park development, but rather the committee and our legal counsel have given us advice on how best to protect the Village by having our own Parks & Rec. committee.
• Finance Committee (new name change), John Maier, Chairperson; Bill Nicholson and Tom Lys members (Dr. Lys is an ex-officio member to this committee). Dr. Lys was also nominated by me to be our new Village Treasurer. Tom is Professor and Chair of Accounting Department at Northwestern University. This committee, Chaired by Trustee Maier, will bring tighter and more streamlined controls/procedures over Village financial matters and expedite completion of the past-due audits. They were charged with managing the selection of our auditor after we bid out the work. They were asked by me to file for exemption for real estate tax payments the Village has been paying for the land the Village owns. They will ask for a refund for the last three years of taxes we have paid unnecessarily in the amount of $20,000-50,000+.
• Roads and Trails Committee (new name change), Bill Armstrong, Chairperson; Mary Brennan and Jack Tindall members will manage road/trail issues. Four separate culvert repair jobs were approved in our first board meeting to get these road issues finally fixed. Unauthorized sign removal was managed without incident. Trustee Armstrong has been interfacing with IDOT, DOT to better understand the impact these organization’s projects can have on the Village residents. So far this committee has been supervising these projects:
  • Getting agreement to repair and repave the Bradley Rd. Bridge
  • Interfacing with IDOT on Rt. 60 resurfacing
  • Letting a contract to fix three failed under-road culverts
  • Removing temporary signs not allowed
  • Surveying and marking Village roads for patching repair
  • Removing fallen trees from recent storms
  • Blacking out turn restriction at Old School and St. Marys due to Bradley Road Bridge construction
  • Weed cutting along the Village roadways
• A new Safety and Security Commission was approved by the board at our last meeting. There will be more on this commission later after I make nominations to fill the commission with volunteer residents. Let me know if you have interest. The work this commission will do and recommend to the board could well become our best defense against a number of potential emergency situations.
• The board recently took the action of reducing the speed limits of Old School and Bradley Roads from 30mph to 25mph in an effort to increase the safety of our streets and make these “cut-through” routes less desirable for transient drivers. Ordinarily, we would have elicited response from residents on this issue before taking action. However, the Board felt it imperative to act quickly on this change due to the upcoming construction project on Route 60. This construction will no doubt result in increased traffic flow on Mettawa roads as motorists seek ways to avoid Route 60 delays. By lowering the speed limit, we are hoping to discourage construction-avoidance traffic initially but longer-term discourage cut-through traffic in the Village. This change will take effect July 8th. Please help us maintain speeds in the Village. It is for the safety of us all.
• The Village does not have a Village Hall, as you know. So we have taken steps to make the Village more “real” through improving the Village web-site and using the Hilton Hotel as our pseudo-Village Hall, until such time as it is financially appropriate for us to have some sort of Village Hall. To that end we have taken these steps:
  • We negotiated a new location for Board and other Village meetings (Hilton Hotel in Mettawa on Riverwoods) which include the use of microphone equipment and video projectors so that Village residents will be better able to participate and follow along in Board meetings. We hope this move makes it easier for you to attend your Village Board meetings. Come along and participate…
  • Established a Mettawa mailing address for Village correspondence (Village of Mettawa, 26225 N. Riverwoods Blvd., Box M; Mettawa, IL 60045. (We have been using a non-Mettawa address for the past 14 years.)
  • Established the DAILY HERALD newspaper as our means of communicating Board meeting dates and other Village notices. At the same time, we negotiated with the newspaper Publisher to offer delivery to our entire Village (previously 60045 zip code residents could not get paper delivered.) You can call the newspaper directly to subscribe. Their number is: (847)427-4333.
• Cathy Nelson was approved by the Board to be our new Village Clerk. In this role she will handle day-to-day Village administration duties. Cathy has strong project management and administrative skills and has hit the ground running in transferring the Village office from Mundelein back to Mettawa where it belongs. Cathy has completed a long list of administrative actions already, including making arrangements for an answering system to be installed so residents can easily contact her for Village business. Please contact Cathy during normal weekly business hours from 9-5. Projects that Cathy has already supervised:
  • Established new telephone number and answering system installation
  • Purchase and set up a first ever Village computer to store electronic files for the Village
  • Updated Village Ordinances files and distributed to Board members
  • Filed numerous Village documents with various County offices
  • Established a new agenda creation and posting system for meetings
  • Negotiated a fire-protected storage space contract in order to consolidate all paper Village files from 1959 to present.(58 boxes so far) These files were being kept in four separate locations with only one protected by fire protection systems. This move is to protect our files and archives.
• As your new Mayor, I have been engaged in a number of areas:
  • Engaged an outside Lawyer to give the Board and me an independent opinion of the Millineum court order and the Costco land sale agreement to help us better understand our commitments.
  • The Millineum agreed sewer court order has resulted in the Village having to pay $1.06 million to the County as our share of this court order. If/when Costco closes on their land purchase they will refund this amount to the Village for use of the sewer.
  • Costco – getting familiar with the sales agreement which Costco negotiated with the previous board to determine our next action. After my election Costco petitioned the court to intervene on both legal cases against the Village.
  • Assigned each Village official to a specific section of Mettawa as their “District”. Each official is responsible for his/her District in terms of getting resident input on key issues and being vigilant about necessary road repairs, neighborhood clean-up, etc.
  • Attorney fees: Reduced the fees The Village charges residents and commercial developers; (was) $355/hr (now) $250/hr and from $355/hr to $350/hr respectively
    Instituted a Monthly Activity report for each Board member on their Village activities
  • Developing ways to showcase “METTAWA’S PRIDE”…, things residents do to help improve the appearance of our Village

As a Village resident, you can find the minutes of the Board meetings as well as general Village updates (more work to occur here) on our web-site (www.mettawa.org). We realize that some residents do not use websites, so we will continue to send quarterly status letters as well. One of our main priorities is to determine the best way to be transparent and communicate with residents, particularly on key Village issues.

As always, we want to hear from you. You can email me or contact any of the trustees (first name initiallastname@mettawa.org).

One more thing, I again invite you to request to be on my mailing list.

All you have to do is send me an email, tell me your family’s name and members, address and phone number and email address. So far a number of residents have decided to get Village information via email rather than a letter. This is great as it allows me to send around notices, quickly and inexpensively, without the cost of doing a letter mailing.

So far I have sent out several email construction notices, charity events scheduled to be held within the Village and severe weather notices. Please add your name to the list. You can always opt out and I never show the list of names to ensure your email doesn’t get broadcast around for others to use.

This is an easy way for you to help keep the Village’s operating costs down while getting useful information in a timely fashion.

As this is our first communication to you, your comments are welcome to this format and depth of information.

Kind regards,
Mayor Jess D. Ray
847-482-1630