Public service's forgotten children...

OK, quick -- name your county board representative.

Better yet, name your County. Cook County residents in Buffalo Grove are blessed with Todd Stroger and his band of renowned.

The Lake County side of the village has the Lake County Board, neatly tucked away in downtown Waukegan.

Know your rep? The Lake County portion of the village is represented by David Stolman (at left). In a previous post I jabbed Stolman a bit in response to the pending construction on both Buffalo Grove Road and Arlington Heights Road. My suggestion was to blame the county and make Stolman earn his money.

He earns his money. He has to. I'm not sure if Stolman is dedicated or a glutton for punishment. Before he was a County Board member he was president of a synagogue. That's like going to the dentist and saying, "hey doc, skip the novacaine." No wonder he's an avid Mel Brooks fan -- he needs a sense of humor.

Keep in mind that in addition to their roles as County Board commissioners, the reps. are also the County Liquor Commission and the Lake County Forest preserve -- so they keep busy -- well hopefully they do.

Stolman and I exchanged emails about the road projects and the county funds many of the projects. BG Road is being widened and Arlington Heights Road has been beaten by an increase in traffic. Stolman cited other projects in the village that the County has funded -- the revamping of BG Road by Stevenson High School, Deerfield Parkway, and improvements at Pauline and Weiland. Stolman was also instrumental in getting a stoplight by Aptakisic Junior High School.

So he's proud of his accomplishments. But he's a bit (and this could be news) too shy at times. Stolman provides an email newsletter that does not just ballyhoo is accomplishments (like Mark Kirk), but provides a lot of information about happenings in the County. Email him at dstolman@co.lake.il.us if you want to sign up.

Random thoughts...

I noticed a sign about a blood drive and thought it was announcing a Village Board meeting -- it wasn't -- it's for real. There's a blood drive at the Alcott Center from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 5 as part of Buffalo Grove Days.

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The Fire Department is warning residents about a pending heat wave. Tips on dealing with the heat can be found at http://www.vbg.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=77. Yes, it's lengthy, but there's some good information there.

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And finally -- as a public service to area businesses -- some of you are abusing the laws of grammar, especially the poor apostrophe. For example, it's not a variety of Pasta's -- it's pastas. Make sure your signs are correct.

Otherwise the Stevenson school board will publicly ridicule you and try to run your business.