The Lake Bluff Train Station is now a work of art. Two professional artists affiliated with Artists on the Bluff have completed wall-size murals. In the photo below, local fine artist Sandi Bacon puts the finishing touches on her work, which covers the north wall in the station's waiting room and focuses on the Village's shoreline. The Lake Bluff Garden Club and Lake Bluff Open Lands helped provide research on native plants, birds and animals, such as this red fox pictured at left. 

In the vestibule, artist Skip Weise painted a mural that commemorates
Lake Bluff's annual Fourth of July Parade. American Legion
510, the Vliet Museum and other volunteers provided research. Artists on the Bluff still needs financial backing for these murals; contact info@artistsonthebluff.org if you can help.

The group of local artists has some more news to share: It's displaying and selling artwork in the storefront on Center Avenue that once housed Helanders. Center Avenue Partners offered the spot while it's seeking a tenant.

Technically speaking, spring is nine days old. The Vernal Equinox took place on March 20, April begins on Wednesday, and teen-age girls have been wearing flip flops for weeks. So what's with the by-some-measures four inches of show that blanketed Lake Forest and Lake Bluff on Sunday morning? And the 32-degree temps? And the snow people in swimwear? "Since we aren't going away on spring break, we needed to use our bikinis somehow!" said Lauren Kuetemeyer, who sent this photo to GazeboNews after her daughter Julia built the snowfolk. Kathleen Reidy said her backyard looked like a winter wonderland in the morning, but the snow melted all afternoon and caused many heavily laden tree branches to snap.

Nine-year-old twins Grace and Max Lynch saved their family's barn and the baby sheep inside it on Saturday morning. The children were outdoors playing when they discovered smoke coming from the Libertyville barn. Finding fire within, they called their dad, Jeff (owner of Lynch Construction Corp.), who extinguished the fire with a hose while his wife, Joan, called 911 and the kids helped get the sheep to safety.  Please visit the Daily Herald for the full story.

An empty WWII military shell caused quite a commotion at a scrap yard on Rockland Road Friday morning after employees found a suspicious-looking item amidst the piles of metal garbage. Lake County Sheriff's deputies, a bomb squad and U.S. military personnel all came to inspect the two-and-a-half foot long shell, which they determined to be empty but with a live, detached fuse. Please visit ChicagoBreakingNews for the full story.

Lake Bluff businesses that serve alcohol passed a compliance check timed to the St. Patrick's Day holiday. Police agencies involved in the Underage Drinking Prevention Task Force scoped out bars, restaurants and stores in several Lake County suburbs to see if merchants and bartenders were checking and honoring IDs.  Using underage agents, police checked two establishments in Lake Bluff, 14 in Lake Villa, 9 in Deerfield and 23 in Round Lake Beach. They found no violations. It was another story in Lake Zurich, Highland Park, Grayslake and Mundelein, all of which had at least one violation each. Lake Forest Deputy Chief Glenn Burmeister said his department will do compliance testing in the near future.

Updated March 29, 2009: Not a fan of global warming theories? You might like reading "The Civil Heretic" in Sunday's New York Times Magazine.

"Turn off the lights!"

How many times have you said that? How many times has someone said it to you? Now is the time to dwell in harmonious darkness. The World Wildlife Fund is asking everyone in the world (who has electricity) to turn off their lights for one hour on Saturday, March 28, at 8:30 p.m. So what if you're in Mexico, Florida or skiing out West on spring break. Turn off the lights! WWF hopes to make a global statement of concern about climate change and demonstrate a commitment to finding solutions.

Visit earthhourus.org for more information.

Lake County is on its way to topping its state-wide record for early voting in the April consolidated election, with some 6,000 voters having cast their ballots so far. But while early voting is convenient, it doesn't drive people to the polls.

"We believe the number of early voters will double by Election Day," Lake County Clerk Willard Helander told GazeboNews. However, she cautioned that voter turnout still is expected to be tank-on-empty low. "It doesn't get more people out to vote, it just changes the time and place they choose to vote," she said.

Most people in Lake County take a pass on spring elections. In April 2007, for example, just 17% of registered voters cast a ballot, down from 27% in 2005. "This is unfortunate because the April election touches your life more than any other election," said Ms. Helander. "It includes candidates for school boards, park districts, libraries, village and city leaders and township officials–the people who determine local services and the costs of providing them."

Many positions in the City of Lake Forest and Village of Lake Bluff
are uncontested, which is one reason people give for not voting. But all of the local township elections are contested, some hotly.

(more…)

Neil Dahlmann was heading home to Lake Bluff late Tuesday afternoon when he saw a large cloud of black smoke and fire pouring out of a building in Highwood. According to the Highwood Fire Department, fire fighters were still on the scene at 7:45 p.m., three hours after Mr. Dahlmann shot this photo. There were no injuries in the blaze at 550 Greenbay Road, and the cause of the fire is under investigation.  

Photo courtesy of Neil Dahlmann of Lake Bluff.

Lake Forest-based Hospira on Tuesday announced it is laying off 10% of its global work force–or 1,400 people—in an attempt to reduce costs and improve growth. Most of the cuts will take place in the next 12 months. Company spokeswoman Lauren Rook said: "Hospira currently has 1,600 employees in Lake County, but the 10% number is referring to a workforce reduction across the board." Here are some links for further information:

• Hospira press release
• Hospira webcast of investor conference call
• Chicago Tribune article

Here's a good example of giving local: Lake Forest High School students recently raised $1,300 for the Posy Krehbiel Breast Care Center at Lake Forest Hospital.

Junior Class President Emma Faucher spearheaded the effort. "So many of my close friends have friends or family members who have been affected by breast cancer," she said in a press release. "The disease is too common, and we wanted to do our part to change that."

Lauren Ganshirt, Emma Faucher, LFH Nurse Navigator Jennifer Tepper and John Nedeau

(more…)