quote:

Originally posted by 4MP:
Strategic Plan and the question above aside, it is important to note that many voluneers wait years before they are called to interview for village commission openings. There does not seem to be a "black list," the process as it exists is just often a lengthy one.

Really???? I mean I have such an eye for details. You'd think my skills could be used somewhere besides here.

Lol..Right on, Fish.

1-6-4: PRESIDENT TO PRESIDE:

The president shall preside at all meetings of the board of trustees, but shall vote only in those cases provided by law. (Ord. 3829, 4-22-1991)

Was this one of those that required her to vote?

To All Glen Ellyn Residents & Retailers,

The Village Board has been meeting to review and select one company to create Glen Ellyn's Downtown Long-Term Strategic Plan. The final vote was last night.

After going once around the table and getting mixed results from the Trustees, President Hase tabled the discussion and requested that the Trustees email her their first and second choices. She will then determine who has the most votes and declare a winner at the next Village Board meeting, Monday evening</ SPAN> (12/17/07).

We strongly urge you to get involved NOW.

As Go Downtown!, it is our mission to partner with the Glen Ellyn Village, downtown businesses, and area residents to understand the wants and need of area shoppers which will support a vibrant and successful downtown district that is a destination for all residents and surrounding communities. Because of this mission, we need you to help us make POSITIVE change for Glen Ellyn, change that MOVES US FORWARD, not status quo. We need you to get involved so the RIGHT changes are made – changes we can all be happy about in Glen Ellyn!

We need to let the Village Trustees and President know that we are watching and listening during this process. The two firms that have the most votes are Houseal Lavign and Town Builder Studios. The Go Downtown! board enthusiastically endorses Houseal Lavign and has serious concerns about Town Builder Studios.

Here are our concerns:

The main concern is that Town Builder Studios put together a team that consists of the President of Town Builder Studios and 3 individuals from 3 different firms. These 4 individuals have not worked together as a team before. Two have worked together on a project, and another two have worked together on another project, but some have not worked with the others at all and not as a team.

The other major concern we have about Town Builder Studios is that they do not have the tools necessary to allow community involvement as Houseal Lavign does. Town Builder Studios will rely on key interviews with individuals and a few town hall meetings, where they would present a plan for feedback.

Houseal Lavign, on the other hand, has a dedicated server and website built for community involvement where residents would be invited to log on at any time to drag and drop icons and add comments with their concerns and comments about favorite places. Not only that, but Houseal Lavign has just come out with a new software for modeling and analysis that other firms are actually paying them to use for their own projects.

Finally, our last concern with Town Builder Studios is that in their presentation, they stated that they would focus less on basic goods and more on entertainment, restaurants and services. Ideally, they touted a service business that would convert movie reels into discs. They also suggested hosting a knitting party downtown, a dinner by design event as well as a few other event ideas. We are concerned by these comments as they do not address retail mix, property use nor building maintenance. In fact, the Town Builder Studio team stated that they would only focus on what they could control, such as parking and events.

How the voting ended last night:

The voting was as follows: Trustees Sara Lee, Tim Armstrong and Pete Ladesic all voted for Houseal Lavign. Trustees Peter Norton and Jim Comerford voted for Town Home Builders. Trustee Michelle Thorsell voted for Vanderwalle and stated her second vote would be for Houseal Lavign. If President Hase gets to vote, she has voiced she will vote for Town Home Builders.

PLEASE review the links and information below and then visit the following Village site to voice your opinion: www.glenellyn.org/econtact.htm. Please send it by end of day Friday so that it goes into the Trustees packets for Monday.

Voicing your opinion NOW is the most important action you can take to help determine the future of Glen Ellyn. Go Downtown's board members cannot stress enough that the company selected to develop the long-term strategic plan will recommend changes that will affect Glen Ellyn for many years. If you want to help steer the direction of Glen Ellyn's long-term future, it is IMPERITIVE you voice your opinion via comments to the village AND, if possible, attend the meeting on Monday evening (12/17/07) at 7:00pm to ensure the correct firm is selected and that any decision is done in the public eye.

Overview of final two firms:

1. Houseal Lavigne: www.hlplanning.com. John Houseal will be the project planner and Dan Gardner, a current GE resident and past Trustee, will be on the team. They will partner with McDonough Associates to ensure they have the best preservation team involved on the project. McDonugh was noted as the best at project funding and has considerable experience at historic preservation. Pros: incredible resident involvement options from community meetings to a website where residents can log in and drag/drop and make comments on what is important to them. Also have created a 3D modeling and analysis software that allows the Village to see visually how all the changes will look both to the commercial buildings as well as the surrounding residential ar ea. This firm has also won 3 out of 6 available awards in October 2007 from the Illinois Chapter of the American Planning Association. Pr ojects include Geneva, Kenilworth, Park Ridge, Winfield and more. They are enthusiastic, have tremendous experience and have identified project deliverables to keep the Village moving forward. They have worked on more than 30 regional clients in last 3 years.

2. Town Builder Studios: www.townbuilderstudios.com. Jim Louthen is President and will serve as project manager. He will work with 3 other individuals on this project, each from a different firm representing a different area of expertise. Aaron Gruen, from Gruen, Gruen and Associates for Marketing, Walker Parking, for Parking and Traffic, and Bauer Latoza, for Landscape Architect. While some of the above individuals have worked together before, all four have not worked on a project together and some have not worked with others at all. Their experience consists of Robbins Comprehensive Plan (Robbins has a population of 6,300 and has many floodplains), Riverson Mixed-Use Development in Farmington, New Mexico (framed by mesas and rivers an d is an Indian Nation), Fox River Woods (a new neighborhood being created over 400 acres), Berwyn Transit-Oriented Development Study (has not been completed yet), Whittier Creek Neighborhood in Wisconsin (another new 86 acres development) and Hidden Meadows Neighborhood in Park Forest (75 acres next to a Forest Preserve, also a new community of 72 acres of homes and 3 acres of commercial). They did say they had over 25 downtown plans and 250 projects completed, but it is not clear if that is all 4 companies combined or Jim's previous experience at his old company. The above examples are from their website. Aaron Gruen spoke at the presentation of focusing only on what they can control, which includes parking, food and entertainment. He stressed that what works is hosting events downtown such as a knitting party, dinner by designs, movies and jazz programs. He also stressed that service related businesses are a must. Another statement by him was "build it and they will come,” only works in movies. Community involvement would involve providing plans to the community for feedback and key interviews.

YOUR VOICE COUNTS IN THIS DECISION! Send your selection to the Village link: www.glenellyn.org/econtact.htm.
Again, if you have the time, PLEASE attend the meeting on Monday evening at 7:00pm. We need to show the Village that we have a voice in the company that is selected.

Regards,

Go Downtown! and Clamato!
Partners for a Better Glen Ellyn

E-mail sent. Took a few minutes. I encourage everyone to do the same.

Agreed. This is a big decision for the community, thanks Mr. Clamato for such an informative post on the subject!!

Nice work clam.....Email is sent....

Hey! Thanks!

But I think you all know that I simply copied and pasted an e-mail that was personally sent to me and shamelessly added my name to the bottom in order to make it look like I actually did some work. I even made it seem like Go Downtown!!!!!! and I partnered up for a better, brighter tomorrow. That trick works every time.

Either way...it needed to be read and Go Downtown!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! does a really, really good job of keeping citizens informed of the goings on in and around town. Kudos to them for taking the time to put this stuff out.

Mr.Clamato, Hah

CLAMATO, OUR NEXT VILLAGE PRESIDENT!

Join the campaign to get him to run!

quote:

Originally posted by Candidate:
Mr.Clamato, Hah

Hey! What little I've read of Floyd's posting career leads me to believe he is very intelligent.

quote:

Originally posted by scotty:
CLAMATO, OUR NEXT VILLAGE PRESIDENT!

Join the campaign to get him to run!

Ha! What a thankless job. I can only imagine that Vicky Hase ran headlong into the position thinking that she was going to make a difference. In a way...she has! I've said it before and I'll say it again. Volunteering for the sake of volunteering isn't good enough. If you feel the need to give back to the community, go spend a few hours a week at the food pantry. Let those with civic and business know-how make the important decisions for the village. This is an important position that shouldn't be learned on the job. There are plenty of viable candidates out there but it never seems any will step up. Those that should be running church bake sales should do just that. There is no shame in running bake sales. There is shame in being clueless and aloof.

That position is picked by one or two of GE's power brokers (politics as usual, you know) and I believe the person that is to be the next Village President has already been decided. That being said, there are a few of us that are trying to convince a certain gent to foolishly throw his hat in....wait....did I just say "foolishly"....wrong word. We want a man to run and are trying to convince him to do so. Would be extraordinarily good for the village. Besides, as Fish mentioned earlier, he and I have been blackballed when it comes to any village post due to our prurient interests regarding the goings on in our neighborhood.

I'd love to see someone run against the CBP candidates. Makes for an interesting election.

Fortunately PL felt differently!

What's up with TB's website? I have 20/20 and I can't read the font. These are the folks that may help plan/design our village? I CAN'T READ THEIR BLOODY WEBSITE. If they can't plan/market themselves, how can one expect them to do it for our lovely gem? Also, as much as I love Berwyn, taking part of their transit development study is nothing I'd be too proud of.

quote:

After going once around the table and getting mixed results from the Trustees, President Hase tabled the discussion and requested that the Trustees email her their first and second choices. She will then determine who has the most votes and declare a winner at the next Village Board meeting, Monday evening</ SPAN> (12/17/07).

So the once around the table wasn't the actual vote? I don't get this. Why was it tabled? Why does she need them to email her the choices after they went around the table, wasn't that the purpose of going around the table?

quote:

Originally posted by bitterboy:
So the once around the table wasn't the actual vote? I don't get this. Why was it tabled? Why does she need them to email her the choices after they went around the table, wasn't that the purpose of going around the table?

I'm OK with this approach. This is a big decision and they should try for a consensus. I think it's a good idea to spend a week trying to see if they can come around to strong support for one of the consultants.

Hi,

This was a hot topic yesterday among the preschool Mommy crowd. Apparently, the excitement over Town Builders proposed downtown knitting club is just not there. (gee, ya think?)

I am grateful to the folks from GoDowntown! as they have done a great job keeping us up to speed about what is happening. Have you seen Houseal Lavigne's
website? Nice.

If you have not sent an email to the village already, please do it today!

BTW - Candidate, please call me regarding an unrelated matter.

Paul, I can see your point if the trustees are required to email her a complete list of reasons describing why they made the choice they have including support and all. All GDT's letter stated was that the trustees have been asked to email Hase their first and second choice, that is it. If this is it, it seems kind of silly to me when they have already went around the table and voiced their opinions. Maybe I'm reading it too literally.

I forget. Town Builders...were they the ones with the animal crackers that no one thought did a good job?

Hi,

Clamato do you have any photos that need to be converted to DVD? If so, you'll love the plan proposed by Town Builders.

So they have dinosaur ideas. I guess that explains why two of the three voted for them.