Sunday, August 14, 2011

Q the Eye/08.14.11

Dear LakeCountyEye,

The Lake County Department of Transportation wants to reroute a highway through our Subdivision, as well as through our Elementary School and Forest Preserve. The road could've just as easily been routed to the east, through farmland. I'm seeing red and it's not just the traffic lights!

I Need a 45-tuple Bypass

Dear Crash & Millburn,

These are the facts as your LakeCountyEye understands them. The County is given a choice to reroute your highway through either:
  1. Nearby farmland, rendering the property much less valuable to residential developers.
  2. Your subdivision.
And you want to know why they chose (B).

Erm, is this a trick question?

Anyhow, the solution to your problem is easy. Convene a blue-ribbon community advisory group, and interview all the concerned parties, and assess the various environmental, economic and societal impacts, and codify your findings in a report, and present your report to the Lake County Division of Transportation, and expect the LCDOT to do the right thing.

Ha ha j/k. Only someone who just fell off the turnip boat would think that's the way business is conducted in Lake County. Just look at what happened to the tragically inept residents of one Lake County community near the soon-to-be-rerouted Route 45:
Lake County Department of Transportation staff and the engineering consultants appeared to be cavalier and dismissive about the concerns of residents who make up the advisory panel that has been reviewing bypass options for two years. While LCDOT and consultants emphasized traffic flow and preserving a deteriorating historic district, they did not even touch on the impact on residents, their quality of life and their property values.
Diana Kuyper: Red flags raised over bypass option
Instead of being rerouted east through the farmlands of Old Mill Creek, Route 45 is now scheduled to be rerouted to the west through the subdivisions of Lindenhurst. There is no secret howcome -- the answer is as easy as finding out who has been making the bribes donations to the election campaigns of which Springfield legislators.

In Illinois one pays to play. If you think you've backed the wrong horse, then follow the money. Just find out who has been ponying up the dough. 'Nuff said!

If you are an elected official, or a previously elected official, or just a private citizen under indictment, send your political questions to Q the Eye c/o ... LakeCountyEye@gMail.com

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Last summer Suzi Schmidt and Bonnie Thompson Carter actually showed up at Senator Bond's campaign headquarters to 'set the record straight' to Lindenhurst landowners who wanted to meet with the Senator to express their fears regarding the Route 45 bypass. They got the date of the meeting wrong, but they did reveal their concern that the recent land purchases, contractual protections afforded to both Temple Farms and Tim Smith might give the wrong impression. Unfortunately for the people of Lindenhurst and the families and students at Millburn West School, whose ball park will be about 30 feet from the new bypass, the money Tim Smith raised for Suzi carried a lot more wait than the needs of the community! Lake County government and Forest Preserve politics is a cesspool!

Anonymous said...

Oops! Read 'weight'. We'll have to wait for a Lake County government that gives more 'weight' to the landed gentry than the kids and the real taxpayers.