Minutes of the Barrington Hills Village Communications Committee Meeting February 9, 2009 5:30 p.m. Training Room VILLAGE HALL 112 Algonquin Road Final 1. Call to Order Chairman Nikki Panos called the meeting to order on February 9, 2009 at 5:32 p.m. in the Barrington Hills Village Hall. Roll Call Present Nikki Panos, Chairperson Barbara Kemp, Vice Chair Pamela Cools, Recording Secretary (arrived 5:37p.m.) Linda Fox (departed at 7:03p.m.) Laura Ekstrom Beth Mallen, Trustee Robert Kosin, Village Administrator Sarah Kenney, Planning & Zoning Coordinator Lt. Joe Colditz, Police Department Rose Faber, Barrington Area Library Absent Maureen Prettyman 2. Reports from the Village Lt. Colditz * A new bicycle ordinance was passed at last month’s Village Board meeting. It goes into effect only after appropriate signage is created and posted. The ordinance allows single file riding only of bikes on Village roads. It does not apply on County or State roads. A press release will be sent to all area bike clubs, and to the media by Officer Sabas Parada. * A separate “Negligent Operation of a Bicycle” Ordinance was also passed. This applies to all roads, and addresses cyclists who are operating their vehicles in such a way as to potentially cause bodily or property damage, either to themselves, or others. * There was a organizational meeting held last week for the Neighborhood Block Captain program. * Lt. Colditz would also like to see a friendly reminder on the website in the Spring to caution against the use of non-motorized vehicles using the public way. Robert Kosin * Mr. Kosin distributed information regarding the McHenry County Green Guide, ComEd’s Outage Alert Program, and NOAA Weather Reporter Program. * The Technology Committee has provided a fact sheet on Femtocells – devices which may extend cellular telephone service within a home. However, these devices require electricity to operate, making them nonfunctional during power outages, and there are also problems with 911. Beth Mallen * Chair Nikki Panos asked for a clarification about recent concerns or complaints regarding usage of the www.vbhcomm.info website. Trustee Mallen explained that the .info site was created so that newcomers to our community could find out who and what we (Barrington Hills) are. In addition, .info was designed to provide community information, but not act as a political sounding board. The content must be factual, not based on opinion, and no commercial endorsements are allowed. The www.barringtonhills-il.gov website deals strictly with governmental issues – agendas, committee minutes and codes. The .info site is registered to BH, managed under a Trustee and subject to open meetings. * Mr. Kosin stated that there is actual more of a need for the broad range of information provided on .info than .gov. * He further stated that the Illinois Transparency in Government Commission has expressed the need for more documents to be accessible to the public -- .gov site cannot handle this new burden so .info needs to assists with this. * The committee also discussed the controversy on the content of the Village President’s latest article submission for the newsletter. The editors and committee chair felt that the article contained messages which were too much opinion, as well as politically based content. Nikki asked if the committee were overstepping its bounds in this regard. Trustee Mallen and Mr. Kosin agreed that the Communications Committee has every right to make editorial decisions, so long as an open process is followed. Sarah Kenney * Sarah shared information on the latest IYA 2009 monthly celestial events. * The Village is still looking for people to host events – need to incorporate an educational element to encourage first timers to the wonders of astronomy. * Earth Hour will be observed on Saturday March 28th from 8:30-9:30p.m., when everyone is encouraged to turn off their lights worldwide to raise awareness about energy efficiency. Rose Faber, Barrington Area Library * Ms. Faber gave a presentation about the Community Calendar feature on the www.barringtonarealibrary.org website, which aims to help coordinate planning of area events and to avoid conflicts. It is possible to sign up for e-mail reminders of these events as well. * The Library is also interested in documenting the history of the Barrington area – the goal is to preserve this information and make it accessible. * Barrington Area Library District covers 72 square miles and is the largest library district in the state. * The local history section of the library website includes digitized issues of the Barrington Courier Review, Cuba Township Collector’s records, and cemetery records, as well as historic village photos. The library is seeking more photographs and other historic documents. Ms. Faber asked the committee for further assistance with gathering historic data. * Mr. Kosin presented Ms. Faber and the BALibrary with a Village of Barrington Hills Plat Atlas Map, which superimposes current lot parcels on the 1940-1950 map of area farm land. 3. Approval of Minutes Approved January 12, 2009 minutes as submitted. Motion by Laura Ekstrom, and seconded by Barbara Kemp. Approved 4-0-0. 3. Newsletter * The current issue of the newsletter is being processed by Dundee Press and should be mailed by February 11th or 12th. 4. Website * Nikki asked the Committee to approve the addition of a new welcome tab in the left hand column of the vhbcomm.info home page for new resident information, at a cost of $200. Pamela Cools made the motion and Barbara Kemp seconded it. Motion carried 4-0-0. * The Committee discussed what sort of content should be included – topics included legal issues, such as burning and tree preservation, and conservation links. The goal is to assume a proactive approach to informing new property owners of the special qualities unique to Barrington Hills, and why we are not like other typical suburbs. The Committee agreed to Pam’s suggestion of “New to the Hills” as the name of the new resident tab and information packet. * In order to gather a consensus of the topics to be included in a new resident tab/information packet, each committee member is asked to send Laura Ekstrom 10-15 topic areas. Laura will then collate and categorize the favorite topics and present them at the next committee meeting. * The Committee discussed the possible expenditure of $750 to create new fall and winter themed headers for website pages. Although the seasonal headers would be a nice accent, Laura and Pamela did not fell that this was an appropriate expenditure, and perhaps that this money might be better spent in other areas. No motion was made, and the issue was tabled. * Nikki distributed copies of the Committee’s Mission Statement, created in August of 2005. A brief review indicated that we have been adhering to our mission statement, and accomplishing nearly every goal or effort proposed at that time. * The mission statement will be included on the vbhcomm.info website, as well as the general disclaimer that the Committee reserves the right to edit or reject any content submitted for inclusion on the website or in the newsletter. 6. Technology Committee * Linda Fox reported that the Committee met recently and discussed femtocell technology. At their next meeting on February 25th, they will hear a presentation about AT&T U-verse. * Other future Tech Committee topics may include geothermal or solar power information. 8. Adjournment Given there was no new business, Nikki Panos entertained a motion for dismissal at 8:10 p.m. The next meeting is on Monday, March 16, 2009. Motion to adjourn made by Pamela Cools and seconded by Barbara Kemp. Approved 4-0-0. Meeting Adjourned Respectfully submitted, Pamela A. Cools Recording Secretary 1