Minutes of the Barrington Hills Village Communications Committee Meeting March 17, 2008 Time: 5:30 P.M. Location: Training Room VILLAGE HALL 112 Algonquin Road Final 1. Call to Order Chairman Nikki Panos called the meeting to order when a quorum was reached on March 17, 2008 at 5:40 p.m. in the Barrington Hills Village Hall. 2. Roll Call of Members Present: Nikki Panos, Chairman Vicki Kelly Vice Chairman Barbara Kemp, Recording Secretary Pamela Cools, Member Maureen Prettyman, Member, arrived 5:41 Linda Fox, Member, arrived 5:45 Beth Mallen, Village Trustee, Sponsor Bob Kosin, Village Administrator, Sponsor Todd Borck, Sergeant for Police Force Absent: Laura Ekstrom, Member . 3. Reports from Village Mr. Robert Kosin CTY (reverse 911) Bob Kosin shared a copy of the CTY Summary for the March 14 notification called Burglaries-Info Only message. Total Contacts Selected: 2,348. Total Unique Deliveries: 2,426. “Unique Deliveries” were defined. Summary: 15.1% of deliveries (366) were unsuccessful due to bad phone numbers, busy, fax/modem, and the largest amount No Answer. Of the deliveries only 115 were sent to email addresses. When a resident loads their email, it is held private in the CTY system and the village cannot see it so it remains private. Bob asked that we remind residents via website and newsletter of the statistics and the fact that there is a need to review personal status and provide an update at least annually. The Village is encouraging the use of Email as a secondary communication since so many people are not home all the time and a call phone call that ends up in England or another country or state is not going to help much if there is important emergency at home. The system can be used to notify a secondary contact who is temporarily house-sitting. In general an average change rate for reach numbers and email service providers is at least 8% a year per realtors. Bottom line: 12.5% of the residents could not be reached at any number. To update the CTY, the .info site has an article posted with a link to the CTY access on the Barrington Hills Village Website. Residents update their information directly from the Village site. Because a resident receives some notifications does not mean they loaded their information. CTY came preloaded from files they initially had available for the Village. Utility records show there are 1800 contacts in the Village. Print Vendor The Village is subject to the Prevailing Wage Act when selecting printers. The village is also subject to an in depth audit for more than cash flow. Auditors look at the vendors and policies and determine if they have been implemented per Ordinances and Laws. This applies to the use of Dundee Press; they are the primary vendor for all of the Village’s Printing services and they meet the laws. It was suggested that Linda Fox set up a face to face meeting with Dundee Press for herself and Pam Cools to go over expectations for the Newsletter in terms of time lines processes. The last Newsletter was late due in part to postage delays after Neal Waltmire left the Village. There was a request by the Communications Committee Newsletter team to change the paper used for the publication and that may have contributed to the delays. Linda and Pam will report back to Nikki and Beth after their meeting. The next Newsletter deadline is April 16 for information receipt and May for publication. Village Stickers Remind residents Village Stickers are coming soon. Vacation Services Remind residents to obtain a Form from the Police Department, open 24 hours a day, and file it prior to vacation and/or lengthy time away from home so the Police Department can assign a Home Watch number and can locate a resident or their designate should anything appear out of the ordinary. This can help with Public Safety for people and animals. Trustee Beth Mallen Barns and Horses Barn sizing and operation remain open issues. The ZBA is meeting after the Comm. Comm. meeting to address an individual Resident’s violations. The Equestrian Committee defined the terms for the Equestrian and Barn related regulations. This will go to the Trustees March 24, to be reviewed and if appropriate sent to the Zoning Commission to assist them in administering zoning requests from applicants. There will be Open Public Meetings before any changes to regulations are recommended. Some of the current issues relate to manure disposal and the weight of the trucks on the fragile road systems, and general noise and traffic created by boarding. Beth noted that 15% of the residents are involved directly in Equestrian activities and for the most part they are doing their best to respect the rules and their neighbors in their home boarding endeavors. When new information is agreed upon the Communications Committee will provide updates via the .info Website and the Newsletter. Roads and Pot Holes The village is over budget due to Snow Plowing and Officer Overtime for assisting with emergencies caused by winter weather. Fritz Gohl is handling the road plans for 2008 which are being modified due to emergency Pot Hole Repairs. Notices of Pot Hole Repairs and Road improvements for 2008 will be broadcast via the .info site when they are known and published in the next Newsletter. Heritage Tree Violations The Village is already taking action to protect the Heritage Trees per the new Ordinance. Several builders have recently Clear Cut properties. It is important to be sure Residents and future Residents and Property owners are aware of the changes, and know that they to go to the Village Engineer to get approval before starting any work on their properties. Again, the website has the Ordinance links and references and the Newsletter will carry information regarding this Ordinance. Sgt. Todd Borck Sergeant Borck attended his first meeting. He addressed the Website and the information the Police Department wants to add to the current site and the new site in a timely manner. The Police Department will be included in Website Training and will post Police News. Sergeant Borck will provide the Village Police Logo to Barbara and Vicky for the new site. Vicki will be contacted when news needs to be posted on the existing site immediately; it can be added almost the same day. The Village Clerk has the reach information for all Committee members. There have been break-ins near Old Dundee Road. Persons of Interest were arrested in the Roundstone robberies which was a different type of robbery. Sgt. Borck encouraged use of the forms for the Police to do the vacation/away Home Watch. He will provide electronic access for the Website. There was a new Illinois Bicyclist Law passed for 2008. No specifics were made discussed, but a note to Residents was suggested. 4. Approve Minutes The Commission Members reviewed the minutes from the February 25, 2008 Meeting. Linda Fox motioned and Maureen Prettyman seconded. Motion passed to approve as amended. (6-0-1) 5. Old Business Newsletter – Linda Fox The Newsletter Deadline is April 16 with a plan for publication mid May 2008. Linda Fox and Pam Cools will meet with Dundee Press and document the process and time lines before the next publication as noted above. Technology Committee – Linda Fox There is no public agenda for the next meeting and nothing to report again this month. Nikki Panos shared the Technology memo Barbara Kemp sent to Kevin Colosia (as a citizen) regarding E911 services and the need to remind residents to test to be sure that their 911 service works as anticipated when residents change services providers, go to Comcast or another VoIP Provider for phones or network access, change Wireless Carriers and/ or change addresses or locations within the village. Not all Carriers provide 911access the same way and many provide specific warnings/exceptions related to 911 when changing to their service. Testing is still needed even if the telephone numbers remain the same. The residents need to be encouraged to dial 911 from each access device, making a test to ensure the number and address or long/lat are showing up with the call at the right location in the Village Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP.) Residents need to verify they are indeed routed to the Village PSAP no matter what access device they are calling from within the Village. In order to avoid overload at the PSAP, the Police non emergency number needs to be used (1) to agree upon the testing time, and (2) to agree upon parameters before beginning the 911 test calls. Website – Vicki Kelly and Barbara Kemp The Website contract was signed. Estimated completion date is May 15 assuming the Website team gets information ready for Tim Evans the Developer on schedule. A draft of several alternatives for style and color using the Village Photos was displayed at the meeting. Bob Kosin suggested we choose a native flower/plant since Long Grove uses daffodils to distinguish itself. He suggested the McHenry County Conservation Department’s Website. The team was enthusiastic about the look and feel of the site. Issues were raised about Color Contrast to be sure the site is easy to read. Sgt. Borck will provide a Police insignia appropriate for the Village. Vicki will get added pictures from Beth since some of the JPEG Photos they selected were on a damaged CD. Vicki and Barbara will meet soon and Vicki will give Tim feedback so the project stays on schedule. Vicki is continuing to update the current site and add relevant information. Barbara and Vicki are creating an Architecture mapping process to move data from the old site to the new site seamlessly. Tim Evans is providing a temporary site for us to use to make the transition go smoothly. Sgt. Borck needs to know when to start sending timely articles to Barbara and Vicki for the May launch. (Question shared with Tim Evans post meeting.) Welcome to the Village Communications –Maureen Prettyman No activity has taken place this past month... Living Green in Barrington Hills - Nikki Panos The Committee Members discussed using the Newsletter and Website to regularly share information on Living Green. It was agreed than the new Website will carry a weekly Living Green tip. All members are encouraged to send short topics and tips to be posted regularly by Barbara and Vicki starting in May. Such other business as may be properly presented for consideration of the Committee Nothing new was added. 6. Adjournment Nikki Panos entertained a motion for dismissal at 7:40 p.m. The next meeting is on Monday, April 21, 2008, at 5:30 p.m. Maureen Prettyman motioned and Vicki Kelly seconded. Motion Approved (6-0-1) Meeting Adjourned These Meeting Minutes were approved as amended April 21, 2008, Vote 6-0-1 (One person abstained who did not attend the meeting in March.)   1