Kudos to Chrissy Custer, Rigoberto Coria, and Adam Milczarek for being the first three people to read the last edition of What's Happening!
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Refocusing this "What's Happening" Email |
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What's Happening is an internal monthly newsletter designed to help employees across all departments know what’s happening at the City of Lake Forest. Many of us work in different facilities, so the email is designed as bridge between buildings, departments, and colleagues. It’s also intended to cut down on inbox clutter, since ideally some one-off emails to the entire organization can be consolidated here.
What’s Happening covers project-based updates, upcoming events and deadlines, customer service-related topics, staffing/service issues, and more. Connect is Human Resources' internal newsletter that covers important info for employees, celebrations, wellness, open positions, etc. While there may be some overlap, we’re working to cut back on redundancy.
We've received feedback that this email is too long (you're right), so we removed images and tightened up the content.
If you have suggestions for ways to improve this email or content you'd like to see included, please let us know! |
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City Manager Conversations will be starting up again in the new year! Look for details in the coming weeks and submit questions in advance.
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Believe it or not, it's time to start thinking about the Spring Dialogue Newsletter (covers February through April 2023). The deadline to submit content for the Spring newsletter is Tuesday, January 3 and the newsletter arrives in mailboxes the first week in February.
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Saturday Market – Celebrate the Season! If you are out and about on Saturday, December 17, stop by the Saturday Market at the West Lake Forest train station between 10:30 am and 2:30 pm. This is the second year the City has held this holiday market on two Saturdays in December. Last Saturday, 25 vendors offering holiday decorations, fresh made waffles, handmade pottery, jewelry, Polish sausage, smoked fish, candles, clothing, and more created a festive atmosphere for the more than 450 shoppers (and eaters) who visited the Market. Several local not for profit groups joined the Market as well. Thank you to Building Maintenance and Community Development staff for making the Market a success! Please come by on Saturday!
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Central Business District. The Central Business District Working Group is still looking for input on the Central Business District. As City employees, many of you know the Central Business District well. If you have not done so already, please visit the project website LookingForwardLakeForest.org and add your comments. We are interested in where you see opportunities and challenges, and interested in your ideas on how best to preserve and enhance the City’s Central Business for many years to come.
- Happy Holidays to everyone from the Community Development staff!
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Submitted By: Assistant Finance Director, Diane Hall
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FY24 Budget Process. BS&A Budget entry training will be held this Thursday, December 15 at 9 am in the MS Training Room. If unable to attend, contact Diane Hall to setup additional training. Targets will be distributed on Friday, December 16.
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Accounts Payable. There will be no accounts payable check run the week of Monday, December 19. The due date for checks issued Friday, December 30 will be noon on Tuesday, December 27.
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Payroll. With the holidays, checks will be issued on Thursday, December 23. Timecards will need to be entered and approved by noon on Monday, December 19. If you will be off for the holidays, make sure to have timecards entered on Friday, December 16.
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Congratulations to FF/PM Mike Szymanek on successfully completing his probationary period and being sworn in Monday, November 21. Watch the video.
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Submitted By: Human Resources Generalist, Brina Diaz
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- Happy Holidays from the HR Department! As a reminder City offices will be closed for the holidays: Friday, December 23, Monday, December 26 and Monday, January 2. We hope everyone is able to enjoy the final days of 2022!
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Savannah Conference Room A/V. IT is in the process of piloting some new equipment for conference rooms throughout the City. The Savannah conference room at Municipal Services was chosen as our first location for these technology upgrades. We have installed a large mounted screen in the far corner of the room along with an integrated camera and speaker system. The system is "plug and play" via USB and HDMI cords (which are located at the center of the table). Once connected, your laptop will be replicated on the screen for presentations and to facilitate calls via Zoom/Teams. We’re hoping to have other conference rooms upgraded with similar technology in order to continue to promote a continued focus on technology based communication and video conferencing throughout the City!
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New Compute Rollout Update. The process of identifying equipment for our annual replacement has begun! In the next few weeks IT should have a finalized list of equipment we are looking to replace during the remainder of this fiscal year. This equipment usually consists of desktops, laptops, monitors, and printers. Once identified, we will be proceeding with our normal process of gathering the financial information for those purchases before presenting to City Council for approval. Stay tuned for more information!
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Deerpath Park Synthetic Turf Athletic Fields Project
Submitted By: Assistant to the Director of Public Works, Jim Lockefeer
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Project design work continues! The project team recently hit the 90% design milestone. The next exciting milestone will be hitting that 100% design level in the coming weeks. The project team continues to meet on a weekly basis to provide feedback the design consultant team.
- Once the design phase is complete, the City Council will consider funding project construction and discuss next steps.
CROYA
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CROYA is open over Winter Break for many fun activities! For programs, dates, and times, please go to CROYA.com or call (847) 810-3980.
Forestry
- Updating the tree inventory and doing stump removal.
Parks
- We are filling West Park Ice Pond, Beach Benches are being refinished, and the South Park clearing project.
Cemetery
- Finishing up placing winter grave decorations.
Recreation
- We are happy to report that our latest events including the expanded Annual Tree Lighting Holiday Celebration, the Stirling Hall Art Sale and Winter Dance Spectacular were well attended and got everyone in the holiday spirit.
- This week we have our new pop-up event Cocoa with the Claus’s (sold out), and our Santa Drive-Thru Visit which is approaching capacity at 250 cars.
- From our department to yours, we wish you the best this holiday season!
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Building Maintenance
Submitted By: Building Maintenance Supervisor, Erik Huston
- We are also making improvements to the benches in front of Everett School Recreation Department classrooms.
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Engineering
Submitted By: Superintendent of Engineering, Byron Kutz
- Work continues on ComEd’s Bridge on Deerpath that carries the Skokie Valley Bike Path. Learn more.
- Although the Skokie Valley Bike Path isn’t open, the McClory bike path is completely open now that the Illinois Pedestrian Bridge Replacement Project was completed in November. Watch the construction video.
- This last month has been productive for the East Skokie Drainage District’s river stabilization project with gabions continuing north with about half of the project remaining.
Fleet
Submitted By: Fleet Maintenance Supervisor, Ron Gramer
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Received approval of FY24 Capital Equipment purchases.
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Sanitation
- The Compost & Recycling Center is open for Winter Hours (Saturdays 8am – 3 pm) until March 15. It will be closed on Saturday, December 24 and open on Saturday, December 31 for New Year’s Eve.
Streets
- Continued snow program preparation in marking street and sidewalk plow routes. CDL driver training for new employees.
Water & Sewer
Submitted By: Water & Sewer Supervisor, Rich Volpe
- Verifying the last of the unknown storm sewer pipe sizes for GIS.
- Televising Ahwahnee Road and Lane sanitary sewers for upcoming storm sewer project.
Water Plant
- Extended coverage at the Highwood Water Plant means short staffed at the Lake Forest Water Plant.
- Prioritizing Preventative Maintenance strategies and projects with lower System Demands.
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- The last day to donate new, unwrapped toys and books to the Toys for Tots drive is Monday, December 19. Learn more.
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The City of Lake Forest, Illinois | Website
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