HIGHWOOD CITY COUNCIL’S 8.15.23 MEETING IN A NUTSHELL
Finance
The City Council voted to approve the payment of various bills totaling $241k.
Infrastructure
The City regularly completes preventative maintenance aimed at extending the life of its roadways. City staff identified Green Bay Rd. and Sheridan Rd. as priorities for preventative maintenance this year. The City Council voted to approve M&J Asphalt Paving Company to complete crack sealing on Green Bay Rd. and Sheridan Rd. at a cost of $41k.
Since 2016 the City has provided snow and ice removal services via contractor, Sciaretta Enterprises. The City's most recent 3-year contract with Sciaretta Enterprises expired this year. The City Council previously discussed two contract proposals for the upcoming winter season. The City Council voted to approve a new 3-year contract with Sciaretta Enterprises to provide snow and ice removal services at an annual cost $131k (potentially more if the season’s snowfall accumulation exceeds 42 inches); the contract is cancellable by the City with 30 days written notice. I voted against approving this contract. In the end, I simply concluded that the approved contract had more risk and less upside than the other considered contract proposal.
Parks & Public Spaces
The City’s curbside cafe ordinance allows permitted businesses to seasonally (May 1st to September 30th) operate outdoor seating areas in public parking spaces. Current permit holders are Beermiscuous, Clucker’s and Isaac & Moishe. The owner of Isaac & Moishe requested permission to maintain his curbside cafe year-round. The City Council directed to City staff to deny the request. A number of concerns were expressed related to operating curbside cafes during the winter (e.g., safety, reduction of public parking spaces, appearance etc.). The City Council also directed City staff to continue - at its discretion - to be flexible with permit holders regarding the seasonal operating period (i.e., allowing curbside cafes to become operational before May 1st and remain operational after September 30th).
Public Safety
The Lake County All Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan is a plan that addresses natural hazards that may impact Lake County (e.g., floods, severe storms, tornadoes). In order to be eligible for mitigation grant funds from the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA), municipalities are required to adopt a mitigation plan. The City Council voted to adopt the Lake County All Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan.
More than half of the City’s housing units are renter-occupied. Several landlords - including some living in and outside of the City - have expressed concern that they are not notified when police activity occurs at their rental properties. In the extreme, a rental property occupant could be arrested for, charged with and ultimately convicted of committing a violent crime at the rental property or elsewhere in the community, only to return to living at the rental property without the landlord ever becoming aware. Police incident reports are considered public records; however, these reports are typically only obtained via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Increasing landlord awareness of police activity involving their rental properties or occupants would likely result in a more accountable and safer community. I proposed developing and adopting a policy to proactively send landlords police incident reports involving their rental properties or occupants. This proactive process would treat the release of records in the exact same manner that it would if it were reactively processing FOIA requests (e.g., redactions compliant with relevant protections afforded by state and federal laws etc.). This proactive process would not be expected to be administratively burdensome for the Police Department. The City Council discussed the proposal and directed City staff to fine-tune the proposed policy and report back to the City Council at its next meeting.
Other
The City Council voted to approve meeting minutes from August 1, 2023.
A GoFundMe page fundraising to cover the funeral costs of the young Highwood resident murdered last week is here.
Celebrate Highwood's Garlic Fest event will be held on Wednesday, August 16th from 4:30pm to 9:30pm at Everts Park; information re this event as well as other Celebrate Highwood events can be found here.
Highwood Chamber of Commerce’s September Joint Networking event will be held on Friday, September 8th from 7:30am to 9:00am at the Deerfield, Bannockburn & Riverwoods Chamber of Commerce; information re this event as well as other Chamber of Commerce events can be found here.
Highwood Chamber of Commerce’s Design Week event will be held from Monday, September 18th to Saturday, September 23rd (times and locations are expected to be finalized soon); information re this event as well as other Chamber of Commerce events can be found here.
New restaurant Tapas Del Lago (329 Waukegan Ave.) will be opening on Tuesday, August 29th (operating hours = Tuesday-Thursday 5pm to 10pm, Friday-Saturday 5pm to 11pm and Sunday 5pm to 9pm (walk-ins only to start with reservations coming soon; menu here).
The Lake County Forest Preserves continues to work through the due diligence period to finalize its acquisition of the Openlands Lakeshore Preserve. The County expects to finalize the acquisition before long and is still targeting opening on (or near) Labor Day. Additional information can be found here.
Meeting Records