antiochdems.com

Last week started the petition phase of the election cycle. We are gathering petitions for precinct Committee People, the County Board Race, State Representative and Congress.

So far everything has gone very well. People are starting to get into the issues and talking about the upcoming election season. One thing that most everybody seems to want is change. Nobody is generally very happy with the way things are going nationally or locally, and are calling for a change in the way that things get done. In Lake County we have a lot of issues that need to be addressed. Roads being the first and most important issue.

If anyone wants to run for Precinct Committeeman, please contact us and we will set you up with a petition packet so that you can get on the ballot.

Also don’t forget to contact us if you need to get registered to vote. We can help. Free and open elections are one of our most fundamental rights in America and every citizen should be registered to vote and should exercise that right. Many people have died for the right that we take for granted today. The biggest enemy that we have is apathy. If you can’t take any responsibility for your own future then you have no right to complain when thing don’t go the way you were hoping. VOTE

Last night was the first regularly scheduled monthly meeting of the Antioch Township Dmeocrats. The meeting went very well and was very well attended, I would say that there was probably 15 people. The only complaint that I have is that it was quite warm in there last night, I wonder if they turned the air off. I called the Township office today and they said they had no complaints about how we left the room.

We talked about ciruclating petitions for candidates. Ray Suelzer, from Melissa Bean’s campaign shared some of her wishes with us and let us know basically what we needed to achieve in Antioch Township to help her circulate.

Nancy Shepardson also attended and covered some of the technical deatails of getting petitions signed and how to make sure that if they are challenged, that they won’t get thrown out. The most important issue is to be acurate and to make sure that the person signing the petition is a registered voter and lives at the address that they are registered at. Antioch issue that we covered was the fact that if a voter signs a petition for a candidate, then that voter cannot sign for a candidate fronm the other party. For example say a voter signs Melissa Bean’s petition, then they cannot sign a petition for David McSweeny, or both signatures will be thrown out.

One issue of importance that we covered was the fact that we want Committee People to get on the ballot this primary season and that we want to enocurage more people to become Committeemen. This is a grass roots organization and we must have people at the grass roots level to grow.

In a couple of weeks we are going to have plenty of work to do, with the start of the primary season.

Today was the Chain O Lakes State Park Duck Blind drawing. I was very supprised that the attendance was way down from previous years. This used to be quite an event, with a lot of people from Chicago and the closer in suburbs vying for duck blinds on Grass Lake and surrounding lakes in and around the Chain O Lakes State Park and in Redwing Slough that was purchased by the Illinois DNR several years ago.

Personally I have tried to draw from the Red Wing slough over the past several years because it is a premier duck hunting area, but I never drew a blind so this year I just threw my lot in with the Grass Lake Water Fowl group.

Building a duck blind is not an easy undertaking and I have never done it myself, but I firgured that if I drew a blind on Redwing that I would instantly become very popular with a lot of friends willing to help to get a chance to hunt Redwing.

Conservation organizations such as Ducks Unlimited have done a fine job of bringing the plight of waterfowl into the public spotlight and over the past many years have done a superb job of maintainiing the duck populations and even helping to increase them. When I was a kid growning up in Chicago the only birds that I ever thought existed were pidgeons and sparrow’s. Today you can see all kinds of birds that we never saw in the 50’s and 60’s, such as Swans and Crains and Egrets, along with Great Blue Herons. This just goes to show that we can reverse the destruction of our enviroment if we plan properly and work hard to understand what effect we can have on the enviroment.

This week the issue of the BP petroleum refinery in East Chicago, Indiana came to the surface when the Governor of Indiana approved the increased dumping of pollutants into Lake Michigan, such as ammonia and mercury. Considering that BP’s profit in the last quarter was in the 10’s of billions of dollars I believe that this is just another rip off by big oil blackmailing us by stating that if we want the price of gas to go down, we have to allow them to upgrade their refineries. The fact is that they can upgrade their refineries without having to dump more pollution into one of the greatest natural resources in the world right next door to us. This is just a n issue about money and nothing else and they don’t want to spend the money to build clean and green because it would cost a little more.

Now that Judy Martini has announced that she will not run for re-election to the County Board in district 1 Antioch, the flood gates have opened for Democratic candidates to run for this open seat.

As of right now Steve Skinner has announced that he will run for the seat and I (Peter V Grant) will be announcing this week that I will also run. It’s possible that more candidates could emerge. I know that Gene Kryczka was thinking about running but I am not sure if he has made a final decision.

So it looks like we will have a Democratic primary this election season. I don’t personally know Steve Skinner but have heard that he will be a viable candidate.

I am a 22 year resident of Antioch and have raised 5 kids in this community. I worked for Thelen Sand and Gravel for almost 13 years and have been in the trucking business for almost 40 years.

I have been a member of St Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church for the past several years and I am very happy there. I say that “I like to hang out with people that are nice to me” and that’s the way I am treated at St Ignatius, in fact that’s the way everyone is treated at St Ignatius, they are a wonderful family

In the 2006 primary, I was duly elected as a precinct committeeman in Antioch 2. In August of 2006 I was elected as the Township Chair of the Antioch Township Democrats.

I got to know State Senator Michael Bond around July of 2006 and became very impressed with him and decided to work for his campaign.

I am an avid duck hunter and have belonged to Ducks Unlimited for many years and strongly support hunters rights. I have two Gordon Setters and belong to the Lower Forty Hunt Club in Tichigan Wi. which is a pheasant club.

Don’t forget the Duck blind drawing at Oak Point next Saturday July 28th. I will be signing up with Grass Lake Water Fowl this year.

I am excited to run for this county board seat, because I believe that I can represent all of the residents of the 1st district fairly. I have had a good relationship with Judy Martini over the years. When ever I had a problem, I always knew that I could call on Judy and she would be there to help, and she was, even though she knew I was not a republican, Judy helped me out of a couple of jams. A few years ago I had a problem with the Lake County Building dept. The issue was a new law requiring consolidation of 50 foot lots in Felters Subdivision. I wanted to build a wrap around porch on my house, but they wouldn’t give me the building permit until I consolidated my three lots into one parcel, which I agreed to do, but the surveyers were not clear on just what the County wanted, therefore I was at a stalemate. I called judy as a last resort and she was able to resolve the issue in just one day for me. This is the kind of representation that I will provide to the residents of Antioch.

There are many issues that need to be addressed including roads, ground water issues, truck safety and others.

I belive that the issue of roads and traffic gridlock in Lake County is the number one issue that needs to be addressed. As a professional driver, I live with the nightmare of our roads every day, all day long and can’t understand why, when we live in one of the most affluent counties in the United States of America, we have such poor roads and very little prospect of things getting better any time soon.

I have a good relationship with State Senator Michael Bond, who by the way is now the vice chair of the state transportation committee, and I also have a good relationship with Congress Woman Melissa Bean. We can work together to get the road money that we need to repair and widen roads like Rt 173 Rt 83 and relieve some of the gridlock that is just going to get worse with all the developement coming to northern Lake County.

Over the past several years, too many people have been killed in truck auto collisions along the Rt 173 corridor, including most recently, on July 9th 20 year old Julieanne Kriens of Antioch. I have a 21 year old and a 28 year old daughter who live in this area and I will do what ever it takes to keep those kids safe. I don’t know what the investigation will reveal but could this driver have been following to close? How were the brakes on the truck, were they set up properly? Were the tires in good shape and was the suspension up to snuff. A proper truck inspection by the driver is supposed to be very thorough. What about the hours of service? Was the driver within the legal hours of service for truck drivers? I do know that truck safety is an important issue and federal and state truck safety laws need to be vigorously enforced, for the safety of our families.

I want to keep the issue of open space, including forest preserve land in the spot light. I am in the process of learning about building green and how we can help save our natural resources and help to improve the quality of the air that we breathe. Now is the time to start getting to work on these issues, we can’t afford to wait any longer. I advocate educating County employees about conservation and I believe that the county could take steps to help our enviroment and make conserving energy a top priority of the County government.

I love Antioch and I love the small town atmosphere, I love the people. I think that it is very important to maintain the vitality of Antioch’s downtown business district. Where can you go around here and see live theater like what is available at PM&L Theater? If you want to go to an art museum or a historical museum, why we have them right here in Antioch.

I hope that you will support me in this endeavor and I hope that you will let me know what issues are important to you, as resident of Lake County’s 1st District

I stole this off of daily Kos

House Passes College Cost Reduction Act
by mcjoan
Wed Jul 11, 2007 at 02:40:47 PM PDT

With a 273-149 vote, the House passed the College Cost Reduction Act of 2007 today.

The bill will provide the single largest increase in college aid since the GI bill in 1944. The legislation invests about $18 billion dollars over the next five years in reducing college costs, helping millions of students and families. It comes at no new cost to taxpayers, and is funded by cutting excess subsidies paid by the federal government to lenders in the student loan industry.

And the bill came with some welcome fireworks from Education and Labor Committee Chair George Miller in response to an all-too typical effort by Republicans to kill the bill with a motion to recommit at the end of the debate.

“You could have written a motion another way, you deliberately wrote it this way so you could kill this bill. What is it you don’t like about this bill? You don’t like the fact that while you were in power after years of flat lining the Pell Grant, we we’ve finally given them the biggest increase in decades for the poorest kids in this country. You don’t like that so you want to kill the bill. You don’t like the fact that were going to take 5 million middle class kids and extend to them a loan thats interest rate is cut in half? While their families are struggling to get them through college? They’re making sacrifices every year? You’re going to do this? You’re going to kill this bill? Are you proud? Are you proud of this amendment, that you are going to try to kill this bill? Say it louder.”

More Republican obstructionism thorugh procedural moves. While the Senate GOP succeeded in scuttling the Webb amendment today, the House GOP failed miserably with their game, to the benefit of American families.

For some fun, watch Miller:

Watch this You Tube Clip of Rep. George Miller

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfI6zbv4PFg

You will have to copy and paste it until I figure out how to post the actual You Tube

On Monday June 25th, State Senator Michael Bond held a great Town Hall meeting. Trustees Hanson,Crosby,Wolczyz and Cauflield attended that meeting. They are doing their job by letting the Senator know what we need in Antioch. In fairness to Trustee Pierce, he did stop by and apologize for a scheduling conflict that did not allow him to attend the meeting, but where was the Mayor? and Trustee McCarty. They passed up a great opportunity to to do the Villages bidding to Springfield.

The new Trustees were elected to change the way things are done in the Village and that’s just exactly what they are doing. Stop all the kicking and screaming like a bunch of spoiled children and let these people do the job that the citizens elected them to do.

Nobody likes change and there is a period of discontent that every one goes through when change occurs. The status quo cannot change without some sort of friction and we have seen some of that lately.

Personally I think that the new Trustee’s are doing a fine job since their election. It will take some time to smooth out the ruff edges , over time I believe that the Mayor and the board will come together and work in harmony to do what’s best for the Village as a whole.

I’m comfortable with the people that have been elected to lead our community forward and I think that Antioch has a bright future.

To the Editor:

There are better things to do on a beautiful spring day than write a “letter to the editor,” but I continue to be rankled by the articles popping up in numerous newspapers written by Salvatore Saccomanno, mayor of Wauconda, who is passionate about using Lakewood Forest Preserve for the $20 million Olympic equestrian complex.

The mayor and other supporters of the plan would have readers believe that only a handful of selfish adjacent homeowners are protesting. Not true! I live in Antioch, and like many district hikers, birders, bikers, environmental groups, and yes, even some equestrians, understand the meaning of Forest PRESERVE.

The mayor lauds the equestrian park as a venue for future concerts, special events, etc., while claiming little environmental impact. But, details about this complex remain murky. For instance, on the district map of the complex, there is no parking lot. Where are they going to put over a thousand cars for these major events?

The mayor cites “endless benefits” for the project, including a future program for the disadvantaged and handicapped youths to ride a “beautiful creature.” Indeed, this is a worthwhile project, but it could be placed in any forest preserve with equestrian paths and supported by the very politically influential equestrian organizations.

The mayor, in all his altruistic reasoning, has neglected to mention the obvious: how the program will benefit the Wauconda business community and increase tax monies.

The Lake Forest Preserves trustees deserve some criticism for rushing this project with little voter input. Are they “empire building”: Fort Sheridan golf course, on pristine shoreline, a $14 million public safety building, $21 million new headquarters, which Long Grove Republican trustee referred to as “corporate headquarters”? Lots of ribbon cutting ceremonies!

Had my say – I’m taking a long walk in the nearest forest preserve.

Billie Kocal

Antioch

Recently, there was a public hearing that addressed the proposed development of property west of Menard’s and Walmart. The shopping center would include a Target Store, Kohl’s, and a Lowe’s.

Personally, I like the idea of not having to go out of town to do my shopping, but I worry a little about the unforseen consequences of the development that is coming fast and furious to our community. How will this affect our property taxes?.
I always thought that development was suppose to make my real estate taxes go down, but that didn’t happen with the Walmart. Where is all that money going?