McHenry County Blog

Erin Smith

This in a continuation of the the winter newsletter from Lakewood Village President Erin Smith.

Bicycle Path for Lakewood Road and Lake Avenue

Our residents have consistently identified the construction of bicycle paths along major arterial streets as a priority for our community.

This is a significant financial challenge, because the cost to retrofit an existing roadway with bicycle paths is much higher than to build them simultaneously.

Staff was successful in obtaining a nearly $425,000 grant to build the path along Huntley Road, and it has been very well received by residents.

Lakewood Road runs north-south through the village.

After having three grant requests for a Lakewood Road bicycle path rejected by several agencies, I am very pleased to report that staff has successfully secured a grant in an amount of approximately $1.4M that will pay for the repaving of Lakewood Road from Haligus Road to Ackman Road, along with the installation of bicycle paths (similar to those installed along Huntley Road) along the roadway.

Bike paths like this are on both sides of Huntley Road.  In the future, similar paths will be built on Lake Avenue from Huntley Road to the Crystal Lake-Lakewood Village limits, plus on both sides of Lakewood Road.

In addition, staff secured an additional grant in an amount of approximately $400,000 to pay for repaving of Lake Avenue from Huntley Road to our western boundary at Village Hall, along with the installation of bicycle paths.

This new path will connect to the recently completed Huntley Road bicycle path.

In total, staff obtained approximately in $1.8M in grant funds that will both repave existing roads and install bicycle paths along major arterial streets. Construction cannot begin until 2016, but the engineering work will be budgeted in the upcoming fiscal year. This is a significant achievement for a small community with an annual roadway budget of approximately $250,000.

More tomorrow.

Crystal Lake Jaycees post sign warning of Sunday morning race across from West Beach in Lakewood.

People who drive south of Crystal Lake will have traffic problems from 6:30-8:30 on Sunday morning.

People on foot will be using this route.

Traffic will probably be especially heavy near the Dole Mansion.

It’s the 3rd annual Run and Roll for the Dole.

Running and cycling.

The cycling route.

The race ends at Fall Fest with live music, seasonal beer and food and NFL game watching under heated tents.

Morning came and the snow was high.

Snow half covered the dormer windows.

And, there was a beeping noise in the Skinner household.

It was in the basement next to the furnace.

The carbon monoxide detector.

The furnace was off, but why?

Expert in all sorts of things mechanical Marty Walter of Walter Alarm suggested that the pipes to the outside might be covered with snow and he was right.

The 7th graders dug out the exhaust and intake pipes.

NICOR redirected my call to the Lakewood Fire Department and a fire truck appeared.

Wading down the driveway toward the fire truck on Lake Avenue in Lakewood.

I sent my son and a friend down the driveway to show the firemen which house had made the call.

The boys returned with two firemen.

The boys accomplished their mission.

The firemen made sure the pipes were clear of snow.

The sleepover guys had already shoveled out the pipes, but the fireman made sure.

We were just the second call of the day.

Standing at the intersction of Meridian Street and Lake Avenue looking east, the only vehicle was the fire truck and it was parked.

Although the roads were passable, there was no traffic.

Looking west from Meridian Street, Lake Avenue, usually having plenty of commuter traffic after 7 AM, was empty.

Near sunset on April 16, 2010, at the Lake Avenue stop sign overlooking Crystal Lake's Main Beach.

Driving home from Route 14 Friday night, the sunshine was so yellow as I drove along Lake Avenue to Crystal Lake’s Main Beach.

I snapped this picture while waiting for traffic to clear on the street that runs in front of the entrance to the Main Beach.

Last Thursday, on the way to the Grafton Township meeting in Huntley, this is what the sun looked like driving west on Lake Avenue in Lakewood.

Actually, it looked more like a yellow ball to my naked eyes.

But what you see above is what my camera caught.

It was lined up with the street.

Driving to the First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake’s Methodist Men’s breakfast, I saw a sight I have seen before.

Sunlight shining through the haze on Lake Avenue in Lakewood.

Maybe you would call it fog.

In any event, the interplay of the sunlight and shadow is quite striking.

The message today really requires Smell-a-Blog.

Since that has not yet been invented, these pictures of a dead skunk about ten feet from our mailbox on Lake Avenue in Lakewood, Illinois, will have to do.

Last night after nine we had the kitchen window open and in came this powerful odor of skunk.

One night a couple of weeks ago the same thing happened. We figured a skunk had sprayed while walking between our house and the one next to us. The same thing happened one night when we had the bedroom windows open.

What a stink!

We took immediate action each time, closing all the windows in the house.

It’s now afternoon and I just figured out that there was a skunk on the road near our mailbox. My son told me that his sleepover friend’s father has mentioned it to him.

I called the McHenry County Animal Control folks and was told that the County Highway Department picked up the dead ones. I asked if the Highway Department did that even on non-county roads and the woman thought it did.

It doesn’t.

So, I called the Village of Lakewood and the street guys apparently draw the short straw.

Funny that no one had reported it before.

This is one of the prettiest time a day at Lakewood’s Gate 5.

The cross street’s official name is Oxford Lane.

This is the northeast intersection of Lake Avenue and Oxford.

This time of year the spiraea is in full bloom.

It’s common name of this white flowing bush is bridal wreath.

The corner is beautiful when it snows, too.

Look here and you and you can see the comparison.

Across the street was where I caught the bus to Crystal Lake Community High School during my junior and senior years when my family lived at 800 Broadway.

I really miss the little pond that was across from the Main Beach. It has been filled in and now provides overflow parking for the Crystal Lake Park District. Back in 1958-60, it was a place for red winged blackbirds and goodness knows what other wildlife.

It’s that time of year when yellow enters our yard.

Daffodils, tulips, forsythia.

The ones you see are along Lake Avenue in Lakewood, Illinois.

Other ‘yellow” posts:

4-17-6

3-17-7

3-28-7

3-31-7

3-21-8

4-17-8

4-25-8

4-28-8

5-8-8

3-17-9

Click to enlarge photos.

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The yellow violet above was a volunteer in my back yard last year. This year I have seen two plants.

It’s that time of year when the sun reflects off the overhead electric wires down from our home on Lake Avenue in Lakewood.

We live right on the Algonquin-Grafton Township line. You can see those who surveyed the two townships didn’t get it exactly right, because the street isn’t straight.