Kudos to Matt Brugioni, Adam Milczarek, and Brett Marquette for being the first three people to read the last edition of What's Happening!
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What's Happening with "What's Happening"? |
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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.
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 wrapped up last week! Thanks to everyone for taking the time to chat. If you want to submit questions or comments anonymously, you can do so at anytime via the online feedback form.
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The Spring Dialogue Newsletter will arrive in mailboxes in early February. Thank you for your submissions!
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Special Event Applications for Spring and Summer - Applications are coming in for special events later this year. If you are working with groups that are planning community events, please encourage them to get applications in sooner rather than later to secure preferred dates. The goal this year is to avoid last minute planning for events so that all involved and affected have plenty of notice to confirm availability of required resources.
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Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital - Work is ramping up on the hospital campus beginning with excavation for a new multi-level parking garage. The garage will be located along Westmoreland Road, south of the hospital, adjacent to the Central Energy Plant. In the next month or so, Westmoreland Road will be closed to traffic from Lake Forest Club north to the east/west road that is located just south of the hospital. The closure is expected to last nine to twelve months, the new garage is anticipated to open in March 2024. Construction of an addition to the hospital is expected to get underway this summer. Two new hospital pavilions will be located south of the pond, to the east of the existing hospital, just east of the emergency entrance. The target date for completion of the expanded hospital is March 2026. Upon completion of the hospital expansion, the emergency entrance will be relocated to the easternmost new pavilion and will have expanded capacity and improved access.
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Submitted By: Assistant Finance Director, Diane Hall
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Operating Budgets are underway. Department budget meetings begin this week. A big thank you to those submitting budgets.
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Sick buyout elections are due to Mark Krygeris by Friday, January 27.
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Recruitment of a new Accounts Payable Clerk continues, if you know someone who might want to join the City team!
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Rescue efforts by the Lake Forest Fire Department, Lake Forest Police Department, and Dispatch were honored at the City Council Meeting on Tuesday night. Over the last few months, Lake Forest first responders have completed three clinical cardiac saves when patients were in full cardiac arrest and considered deceased. Through the heroic efforts of the people involved, three different patients were able to regain a heart rate, were taken to Lake Forest Hospital for further care, and eventually were released to return home safely to their families. Thank you to our first responders!
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Submitted By: Human Resources Generalist, Brina Diaz
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Find the latest information from HR in the January Connect Newsletter. Connect is Human Resources' internal newsletter that covers important info for employees, celebrations, wellness, open positions, etc.
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Welcome Shane! We are happy to welcome Shane to our team to fill our IT Support Specialist role. As the IT Support Specialist, he will wear many hats for our team and serve many functions such as asset management, Helpdesk requests, and IT projects. Shane comes to us from an IT infrastructure management company in the private sector and is really looking forward to being a part of our team to provide new perspectives and new ideas. We will be working our way around to all the different City facilities over the next several weeks to introduce Shane, but if you see him around town be sure to say hey!
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Annual Security Training. It’s that time of the year again! Cyber Security Training is an important step in not only keeping the City safe, but also yourself safe when working on your computer. This is a required course for all City employees and should take approximately 15 minutes to complete. Watch the course, if you haven’t completed it already. Training must be completed by April 30, 2023.
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The return of IT WORK HACKS! Did you get massively annoyed by the toolbar shift in Outlook after the most recent update? I certainly did. You may have noticed that the bottom left toolbar in Outlook moved to a vertical orientation in the top left. If you find this shift to be really inconvenient, you can revert back to the old placement of this tool bar.
- Navigate to File → Options and click on ‘Advanced’.
- Within ‘Advanced’ there is a toggle for ‘Show Apps in Outlook’. UNCHECK this box and hit ‘OK’.
- Outlook will prompt you to close out of Outlook and reopen it for these changes to be reflected.
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Did you find this tip helpful?
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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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Last week, members of the project staff team gave a project update presentation to City Council. The presentation outlined a review of City Manager’s Advisory Group’s recommendations which included an updated conceptual vision plan and an in-depth look at evaluation of turf materials. View the slides from the Turf Fields City Council Presentation.
CROYA
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CROYA is hosting a SuperJam of live youth bands and individual performers on the Student Union stage on Saturday, January 28.
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The CROYA Bowl Fundraiser is on Saturday, February 11 from 3-5:30pm. There will be live music, food, fun games, raffles and auction items to support The CROYA Foundation.
Forestry
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Parkway Tree Pruning (In-House) is underway and tree removal is upcoming.
Parks
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West Park Ice Rink is closed, hoping for cold temps to freeze.
Cemetery
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Recreation
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After thoughtful deliberations about its future, the Wildlife Discovery Center is beginning to relocate animals in preparation for officially closing in March. Watch a special message from Rob and view the announcement/FAQs.
- Did you know... full-time city employees get a great discount at the Lake Forest Fitness Center! Monthly fees are $15 individual, $25 per couple, and $35 for a family membership
- On Friday, January 6, Recreation, CROYA, and Dickinson Hall met for a luncheon to kick off the New Year. One of our activities was for everyone to choose their “word of the year,” which was compiled into an inspirational word cloud graphic for all to see! What’s YOUR word for 2023?
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Building Maintenance
Submitted By: Building Maintenance Supervisor, Erik Huston
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Updating exterior lighting from timers to photocells.
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Repairs to plumbing and HVAC from the sub-zero temperatures over the holidays.
Engineering
Submitted By: Superintendent of Engineering, Byron Kutz
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Work continues on ComEd’s Bridge over Deerpath that carries the Skokie Valley Bike Path with work on the retaining walls along the roadway. The bridge deck beams have been erected but there is still some work remaining prior to the bike path re-opening in April.
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Work is suspended for the winter for East Skokie Drainage District's river stabilization project.
Fleet
Submitted By: Fleet Maintenance Supervisor, Ron Gramer
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Finishing the Fire Department Squad 212 refurbishment.
Sanitation
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Lithium Battery Collection Program has started at the Compost & Recycling Center, so now you can drop off cell phones and batteries for proper disposal.
Streets
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Electrical cabinet and lighting maintenance.
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City Street Name sign replacement program underway.
Water & Sewer
Submitted By: Water & Sewer Supervisor, Rich Volpe
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Overlay and upcoming City project inspections; condition of valve boxes, catch basins and manholes in scope of projects.
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Continuing with lead service verification.
Water Plant
- VFD project is about to get underway!
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Working on Lift Station projects while pumping is slower in the winter.
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LFPD welcomed our newest officers back from the Police Academy. Officer Chris Cordova (our former CSO) and Officer Madison Polster are on patrol with their Field Training Officers. Please say hello when you see them.
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Our No Shave November/Double-Down December campaign netted $3,200 for the 100 Club of Illinois. Each November, our department relaxes its policy to allow officers to grow a beard in exchange for a $100 dollar donation. Officers that “doubled-down” and donated an additional $100 were allowed to continue the grow throughout the end of December.
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The proceeds of our Breast Cancer Awareness patch sale exceeded $5,000 and we recently delivered the check for the proceeds to the doctors at the Posey Krehbiel Breast Cancer Center at NW Lake Forest Hospital. We truly appreciate the generosity of our community partners and residents.
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Finally, we collected hundreds of toys and books for Great Lakes IL Toys for Tots. Every year for more than 20 years, the Lake Forest Police Department opens our doors to be a collection point for this mission.
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The City of Lake Forest, Illinois | Website
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