Vaccine Update, April Town Hall Meeting, Voting Information and more
Dear Neighbors,
I hope this finds you, family and friends healthy. It heartens me to see kids out playing baseball, riding bikes and adults walking and running throughout my community. Robins, sandhill cranes and red-winged blackbirds are singing spring's many songs!
The best news I have for you today is that the county is going to receive about $135 million from the American Rescue Act, which was recently signed into law by President Biden. As legislative chair, I worked with our county team in lobbying for this aid, which will provide food/rental/utility and small business support as we try to help everyone who is hurting during the pandemic. I will have more details as they become available.
As we get deeper into spring, I wanted to salute our countless staff and volunteers working our many COVID vaccination sites, which are increasing by the week. As of this writing, more than 230,000 Lake County residents have been vaccinated, or roughly 12% of our population.
When I recently visited our county Fairgrounds site (pictured above), National Guard vaccinators joined our incredible team to give shots to about 1,500 people a day. While we are concentrating on those over 65, education and frontline workers, we will experience a brief lull soon as we await more vaccine supply. If you haven't signed up with our AllVax system, please do so. And also check with your local pharmacy, healthcare provider or VA hospital (if you're a veteran). A special emphasis on senior citizen vaccination will take place April 5-11.
Locally, I was honored to visit with the Grayslake Exchange Club, which has been virtually meeting during this pandemic. They have been doing so many great service events from their virtual pancake sales to the Craft Beer Festival, which they are hopefully re-launching this fall to raise money for college scholarships and child abuse prevention.
Speaking of hyper-local fermentation, I've received enthusiastic support for our beer garden project at Independence Grove opening around Memorial Day. We will be promoting area craft brewers while offsetting the lost revenue from the beach there. Read more below.
Meanwhile, at our Rollins Savanna Native Seed Nursery, we're shifting into higher gear as staff and volunteers start planting. We focus on hard-to-get grasses, sedges and forbs that we eventually transplant in our preserves. A grant from our Preservation Foundation will focus on a "Sought-After Sixty" group of plants we'd like to see more of in our preserves. Please consider donating to the Foundation, which strongly supports our preservation projects.
Our overall goal is to promote biodiversity in an area once dominated by oak savannas and wetlands. These ecosystems not only absorb and store tremendous amounts of carbon, they retain heat and water. We need more of them to battle climate change. Here's a neat video on what the Seed Nursery does.
If you need help with food, rental/housing or other social services, please call the United Way of Lake County 2-1-1 line. I'm also available to speak to your community group.
Be well, Be Safe!
John
