Steve Burgoon, TLIA President
In November we THANKED every committee and every person who has volunteered their per- sonal time to make Tower Lakes “a great place to raise a family.” This month it is my sincere pleasure to thank many others who have contribut- ed to the Village of Tower Lakes (VOTL) for receiv- ing the Barrington Area Council of Governments (BACOG) bi-annual Donald P. Klein Award for the collaborative “Rain Garden and Bioswales Project”.
While the Award was presented to VOTL this project would not have happened without the collaboration of the TLIA Lake Committee and TLIA Grounds Committee. Let me take you back a few years regarding the history and genesis of this project.
Back in 2010, then TLIA President, Susie Dehnert, asked a handful of interested members to join and expand the Lake Committee. Until that time and from all records that I can see, the committee had traditionally been led by one or two people who worked on algae and plant growth and an occasional incremental issue or two on shoreline erosion, fishery and dam inspection and maintenance. Certainly a challenging job for one person. This new 10-person committee spent a year of organization and research. The committee aligned across multiple roles. A critical member of that Committee was Tom Kubala who immediately jumped into the lead-ership role for” Intergovernmental Affairs”. Tom did a fantastic job getting us aligned with local, and state agencies that grew our educational com- ponent as well as the right people to help us be more efficient in our time and effectiveness in our projects. Rich Bahr helped on this initial group – both electronic and “Citizen Scientist” — to gather the needed fact-based approach. Nick Adams was our “certified consultant” bringing his engineering and project management skills to the table. Nick also lead, along with Rich, some of our projects including silt removal and the crea- tion of the boat launch at the reclaimed Lathan’s Landing site. Dave Mackey assisted by keeping his eye on the fish population and fish kills. Judd Lautenschlager was instrumental on many parts of the committee and assisted as the Lake Committee Chairman for a few years.
In 2014 the group helped VOTL President, Kathleen Leitner, in the development of the “Nine Lakes Watershed Plan” the necessary planning document needed to apply for the Illinois EPA 319 Grant that would fund our Rain Garden and Bioswales project. Luckily, after Andy Hay stepped down as TLIA President at the end of 2014, he opted to stay involved on the Lake Committee. Andy eagerly accepted the role of Project Manager of the collaborative project for the VOTL/TLIA Rain Gardens. This proven Best Management Practice for stormwater abatement, seen by many of the Lake Committee members, had been referenced multiple times in our many meetings with Lake County Stormwater Management, the Tower Lakes Drain Partnership and the VOTL Stormwater Consultant, Nancy Schumm.
Andy Hay then drove this project from mid-2014 until completion this past summer. Andy did a job that only a brilliant and committed engineer/ project manager could complete. He spent over 1500 hours over the last 5 years collaborating, developing, implementing and coordinating with every imaginable municipal and state agency to complete our two rain gardens on time and on budget. Andy successfully brought
$260,000 of federal funding to VOTL and TLIA while eliminating ANY budgeted funding from either, saving over $20,000 of village and HOA money. Thank you Andy for a fantastic job!! Ultimately this has been a 10-year labor of love with many people contributing. Thank you to everyone for their help on this and all other lake projects over the past 10 years. Now you know…” the rest of story.”
To read the entire press release from BACOG See you around the neighborhood