[0:00] Good evening and welcome to the Tuesday, September 8th, 2026 session. Lake Forest

[0:05] City Council, will the clerk please call the roll?

[0:08] » Certainly. Honorable Mayor Tack.

[0:10] » Here. >> Alderman Novotny is absent. Alderman

[0:13] Clowes. >> Here.

[0:14] » Alderman Powers. >> Here.

[0:15] » Alderman Prescott. >> Here.

[0:17] » Alderman Waldeck. >> Here.

[0:18] » Alderman Bassill. >> Here.

[0:19] » Alderman Walder. >> Here.

[0:21] » Alderman Culbertson. >> Present.

[0:23] » Mr. Mayor, you have a quorum. >> Excellent. Please rise and join me for

[0:26] the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance

[0:30] » to the flag >> of the United States of America

[0:33] » and to the republic for which it stands, >> one nation

[0:37] » under God, >> indivisible,

[0:39] » with liberty and justice for all.

[0:44] » Okay. All right, the first item on the agenda

[0:48] tonight is comments by mayor and um I'd like to discuss a situation that's

[0:56] come up regarding one of our police officers. Last week uh Lake Forest

[1:00] police officer Philip Sarnacki was involved in a tragic

[1:04] accident while visiting family in Nicaragua. He suffered a

[1:08] severe head injury and remains in a coma. Thanks to incredible generosity

[1:14] of the greater Lake Forest community, Officer Sarnacki's family was able to

[1:18] secure an air ambulance and bring him home.

[1:21] He's expected to arrive in Chicago this evening. Uh he will be transferred to

[1:26] Northwestern Memorial Hospital where he'll continue to receive specialized

[1:30] medical care. Uh we want the community to know

[1:34] that uh we share how deeply grateful uh Officer Sarnacki's family is for the

[1:40] tremendous outpouring of support from Lake Forest residents, businesses, and

[1:45] community organizations, and we will continue to keep Philip and his family

[1:49] in our thoughts and prayers.

[1:53] Um that's my only comment for for evening. Uh comments by city manager is

[1:57] next. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of the

[2:00] city council. Good evening. I have one item under my report and what has

[2:04] become, I think, a September tradition of inviting Lake Forest Open Lands

[2:09] Association under our community spotlight. It's been a very busy year

[2:13] for Open Lands and here to share some stories about what's been happening

[2:19] and what's coming in the future is president and CEO of Lake Forest Open

[2:22] Lands, Ryan London. Ryan, turn over to you.

[2:30] » Good evening, honorable mayor and the members of city council. On behalf of

[2:34] our board of governors, our talented staff and our dedicated volunteers, I am

[2:38] deeply grateful for the opportunity to provide our community

[2:42] with an update on Lake Forest Open Lands.

[2:44] For nearly 60 years, it's been our privilege to steward our community's

[2:49] ecologically healthy landscapes in perpetuity while providing accessible

[2:53] nature preserves for all, as well as inspire and engage our community to

[2:58] explore, understand, protect, and celebrate the natural world.

[3:04] Our summer camps were so popular last year that we expanded our offerings in

[3:08] age, so now we went to age 1 and 1/2 through 15 years old.

[3:13] For the sixth consecutive year, we collaborated with our indigenous

[3:17] partners, the Trickster Cultural Center, to offer the Native American experience,

[3:22] which is a summer camp offering storytelling, music, team sports,

[3:27] history, and art. These programs provide youth the opportunity to disconnect from

[3:32] technology and immerse themselves in the natural world. We also sent students on

[3:37] our annual trip to Yellowstone. That's that upper right picture.

[3:40] We did have our annual trip to Ontario for a week-long canoe trip

[3:46] canceled due to the wildfires up there. That top left picture are our summer

[3:51] interns. That's our 30th class of summer interns. Uh they spent their summer

[3:55] learning the land trust business, stewarding the preserves, monitoring

[3:59] rare species, and this year plenty of storm damage clean up in the preserves.

[4:04] Uh they spent their Fridays doing externships with partner organizations,

[4:08] and one of their favorite field trips with was a visit with the city of Lake

[4:12] Forest Forest Preserve Department. Since I was here last, we've also

[4:16] started three new programs to engage the youth of Lake County. Uh an Eco

[4:20] Ambassador program uh for students run by our coastal programs coordinator, um

[4:25] Hannah Granger, that's based up at Illinois Beach State Park, and there

[4:28] they are at the park. Uh we also started a Youth Environmental Leadership Council

[4:33] for students across Lake County, as well as our Susie Hoffman Award for

[4:37] Conservation, that is a high school scholarship program. We've awarded eight

[4:42] high school scholarships with Lake Forest High School, Woodlands Academy,

[4:47] uh Waukegan High School, as well as uh Cristo Rey St. Martin.

[4:52] For the adults, every Monday morning this month, we are hosting our guided

[4:57] bird hike. It's a different preserve each week.

[5:00] Um and then every Thursday in September is sunset yoga at our conservation

[5:04] campus at Melody Farm. Of course, all are welcome anytime to walk, play, or

[5:09] embrace a quiet moment in nature. Our preserves are open 365 days a year with

[5:15] over 20 miles of trails to enjoy. Our website is fully searchable with a

[5:20] sortable calendar that's easy to find on your phone. Uh this fall we have over 45

[5:25] different public programs uh for folks that they can sign up for. One of those

[5:29] that we feature is our conservation cocktails. So, each month we have a

[5:33] subject matter come and speak on Friday evenings at our conservation campus.

[5:37] This Friday, we're having Scott Jamison, uh vice president with Bartlett Tree, uh

[5:42] to talk about the 400 swamp white oaks planted at the September 11th Memorial

[5:48] as a symbol of hope and renewal.

[5:51] In October, we're going to be hosting Jim Louderman of the Field Museum where

[5:55] he'll cover his specialty, which is timely with the season, insects.

[6:01] As Jason mentioned, September in Lake Forest means our final goodbye to

[6:05] summer. Hopefully a goodbye to those flies that we've been seeing down at the

[6:09] lake and the start to fall as we host our

[6:12] annual fundraiser Bagpipes and Bonfire taking place on Sunday, September 27th,

[6:17] 4:00 to 7:00 at Middlefork Farm Nature Preserve. This year's event chairs are

[6:22] Amy Falls and her husband Hartley Rogers. This one-of-a-kind

[6:26] multi-generational family favorite invites our entire community to join us

[6:30] for live music, Highland athletes, Highland dancers, field games, and much

[6:34] more. Saturday the 24th is our annual fall

[6:39] tree sale and pre-sale for that starts on Friday, um

[6:45] Excuse me, I think I misspoke. Saturday the 24th, uh the pre-sale starts on

[6:49] Friday, September 18th and that is at our new headquarters, the Negus campus

[6:53] for Open Lands. I'll talk a little bit about that later.

[6:56] Um October also means the start of our weekly Eco Crew. So, that's Saturday

[7:01] mornings and then Wednesday mornings we have our Adventures in Restoration. Uh

[7:05] local residents can learn from our talented staff on

[7:09] all the trades of ecological restoration. Um

[7:13] as we look ahead to November, uh the start of our prescribed burn

[7:16] season. Our healthy local habitats are fire adapted, meaning that historically

[7:21] they've thrived on natural fires to help release the seeds from their hard seed

[7:25] covers and to open the understory of our woodlands for more sunlight. Uh we have

[7:29] a fully trained staff of professional crew conducting these burns throughout

[7:33] the preserves with burn safety as our top priority. If anybody is interested

[7:38] in volunteering and learning about this work, uh you can reach out.

[7:42] In July, we reopened our West Skokie Nature Preserve. It had been closed,

[7:47] excuse me, for about a year while we made the trails accessible,

[7:52] » [clears throat] >> replaced all of the boardwalks out

[7:53] there, and created a new bridge over the Middle Fork to connect a future trail.

[8:01] On October 1st, we are excited to participate in the launch of Threads of

[8:06] Time, which is a new book honoring the great Ellen Stirling, uh the Lake Forest

[8:11] Shop, and all the wo- women who have been woven into the legacy of that

[8:15] community treasure. Ellen was involved with so many different organizations

[8:19] that keep Lake Forest special, but Lake Forest Open Lands was near and dear to

[8:23] her heart. Uh her father, Volney Foster, was our founding chair

[8:30] back in 1967. So, I'm pleased to share that 2027 will

[8:34] be a year not just focused on this incredible milestone, but what's ahead

[8:38] for Lake Forest Open Lands. So, please save the date on our birthday, Friday,

[8:42] June 18th, which is also my birthday, um for a special community event to gather

[8:48] at our new headquarters, uh the Nagel Campus for Open Lands.

[8:52] We recently completed a new strategic plan with a revised mission,

[8:56] um a new vision, and a roadmap to continue

[8:59] our work ensuring that nature and community thrive together.

[9:03] Uh this will be we're just working on this publication for the public, and

[9:07] this will be on our website soon. Um our five new goals are deepening our

[9:12] care for the land and water entrusted to us, um building a a connected and

[9:16] engaged community of members, partners, and supporters,

[9:20] expanding our engagement and education programs, ensuring that we have the

[9:24] organizational strength needed to sustain conservation for generations,

[9:28] and still uh protecting key properties.

[9:32] During this process, which completed back in May, we were also awarded our

[9:37] fourth accreditation. So, that's um we're the first land trust in Illinois

[9:42] to become accredited and we are the first one to actually go through it four

[9:46] times, which uh exciting for me, our next cycle

[9:49] instead of being every 5 years, it goes to 7 years.

[9:54] Um this month we'll also be launching a new app on our website where folks can

[9:59] uh navigate the preserves. This has been a long-standing request. Um so, you'll

[10:03] be able to wayfind out in the preserve. You'll actually be able to see mileage

[10:07] um for all the various trails. Um

[10:10] so, that's exciting. That's been a um a long project in the works. We've

[10:14] actually working on that since last winter.

[10:17] I mentioned their new headquarters. So, we've moved um from the corner of

[10:22] Waukegan and Deerpath. Our new home for our administrative

[10:27] headquarters is actually just north of the muni- the municipal building on the

[10:31] other side of that chunk of woods in Middlefork Savanna. Uh it's the former

[10:35] headquarters for Metro Storage and Matt and Blair Nagel

[10:39] um gave this general generous gift uh at the end of last year. It was the largest

[10:44] in-kind donation that we've ever received. So, for the first time in our

[10:48] organization's history, we have all of our staff under one roof, which is

[10:52] very exciting. Lots of collaboration going on in the lunch room

[10:56] and the water cooler. I'm excited to share that uh later this

[11:01] fall we'll be breaking ground on the Negaunee Foundation Center. This is our

[11:06] new uh reimagined conservation campus with an expanded program space um to

[11:11] better fit uh the quality and the size of the programs that we're teaching now.

[11:16] So, this will be um the corner of Deerpath and Waukegan will be our

[11:20] primary programmatic hub and again all of our administrative headquarters are

[11:24] over at the Nagel Campus.

[11:30] And I'm pleased to share that our advancing innovative Great Lakes habitat

[11:35] solutions and building community coastal and cultural resilience project is well

[11:39] underway. We're actually nearly complete with our

[11:44] our our bluff armoring. So we've brought in 5,000 tons of armor stone to secure

[11:50] our bluff and revegetate it. And offshore we're completing

[11:56] the furthest into Lake Michigan offshore reefs ever done in the state of Illinois

[12:01] for fish habitat. So this was a NOAA funded project. It's a three-year

[12:05] project. Most of the construction will be completed um

[12:10] this year. Um

[12:12] and then the rest of the two-year two years remaining will be doing

[12:16] the revegetating and the monitoring out there.

[12:19] The goal is for the preserve to remain open. We're going to have significant

[12:23] trail closures. So right now the shoreline and the beach are closed

[12:27] as they transition to doing ravine work in Meaty ravine as well as

[12:32] the storm water outfall on Sheridan Road. Some other trail closures will

[12:36] will occur. For now folks are following those trail closures and the site is

[12:40] able to remain safe and open in parts while they're doing

[12:43] the work.

[12:46] And finally I'd like to acknowledge my sincere appreciation of the council's

[12:51] decision back in January to co-apply for Illinois Nature Preserve dedication for

[12:55] McCormick Ravine. I'm pleased to share that the Nature Preserve Commission has

[12:59] accepted our joint application with no changes and will formally vote to

[13:04] receive the conservation easement at their meeting next week.

[13:07] The action requested in your omnibus agenda this evening will allow that

[13:11] dedication to be finalized. So a quick reference map

[13:16] before you here. So Lake Forest Open Lands number five on

[13:21] this map is dedicating 32.2 acres as nature preserve.

[13:26] The city of Lake Forest, which which owns all of the yellow portions, uh will

[13:31] be dedicating 14.1 acres of nature preserve, all of which is already

[13:36] dedicated in conservation easement held by Lake Forest Open Lands.

[13:40] And Lake Forest Land Foundation, our affiliate, um will be dedicating .65

[13:45] acres, that's that number two parcel, um as nature preserve buffer. And then Lake

[13:51] Forest Open Lands will be dedicating uh the remaining 1.7 acres in the blue as

[13:57] nature preserve buffer. So, the total dedication is 48

[14:01] 48 acres. And this recognizes the most intact example of Lake Michigan ravines

[14:07] in Illinois, and I believe it's a proud moment in the collaboration between the

[14:11] city of Lake Forest and Lake Forest Open Lands in the preservation of this

[14:15] community treasure.

[14:20] Any questions for me or comments? >> Any questions for Mr. Monden?

[14:28] » Uh since I do like to hike on that trail, when do you anticipate the work

[14:33] um being finished and uh you're still able

[14:36] to go out down to the beach? >> We actually accelerated the schedule a

[14:41] little bit because of this winter forecast that we're anticipating with

[14:44] the super El Nino. Um it's tough to say exactly, but we're

[14:49] hopeful that most of the heavy construction will be done before the end

[14:53] of November. >> Okay.

[14:55] Well, I I recommend it and I'm very appreciative of the families and

[14:59] institutions that helped you finance that development. Thank you.

[15:05] » Yes, Mr. Cullerton.

[15:09] » A quick question, similar to yours, we like to hike down there as well.

[15:13] Are the stairs open? >> The stairs are closed.

[15:16] » Okay. >> So, there is signage as well as some

[15:19] temporary construction barricades that'll guide you where you can go.

[15:24] Um Um the main trail that folks will be able

[15:26] to do is along that Crest Trail to Hunter

[15:29] » Okay. >> Crest Trail to the north.

[15:30] » Okay. Thank you.

[15:32] » Sure. >> Others?

[15:35] » [clears throat] >> All right.

[15:37] Ryan, thank you very much for the presentation.

[15:39] » Thank you. >> Great job.

[15:42] » Thanks, Ryan. And that concludes my report this evening.

[15:47] » Okay, the next item on the agenda is an opportunity for citizens to address the

[15:51] council. Is there anybody present that would like to address the council?

[15:56] Please.

[16:09] » Thank you, Mayor and council members. Just um

[16:12] gosh, I'm so touched by everything that people are doing for our officer and and

[16:18] how it's not only expanded around uh the area, but it's expanded around

[16:24] the country and the world. So, it's it's wonderful to see people so generous to

[16:28] help out. Um so, thank you for those kind words about what's going on. Uh

[16:33] just a couple of other fun things. Um Lake Forest Day was amazing. I haven't

[16:38] We haven't been together since then. So, um thanks to everybody for a wonderful

[16:43] time and it was fun seeing everybody in the parade and and um

[16:48] just I think everyone had a fabulous event. Um and then uh just kind of a a

[16:55] thank you to our police and fire for always keeping us safe and doing a great

[16:59] job. Um just a a plug for the library. If anybody has a chance, for 2 weeks on

[17:05] their on their YouTube page, they have a wonderful history of um the naval

[17:10] station, which I found very interesting. So, um I thought you might be interested

[17:16] in that, and then um, I guess that's about it. Just thank you

[17:21] everybody. This is such a wonderful city, and and I'm just honored to be a

[17:25] part of it. Thanks. >> Thank you very much. Is there anybody

[17:29] else present that would like to address the council on non-agenda items?

[17:34] Okay, seeing none, we'll move on to committee reports, of which there are

[17:37] none this evening. Followed by items for omnibus vote

[17:41] consideration. Uh, I'm going to read all the items. If

[17:45] there are any items that alderman would like removed or taken separately, please

[17:49] let me know after I've read all the items.

[17:53] Seven items this evening. Number one, approval of the Monday, August 3rd, 2026

[17:58] City Council meeting minutes. Item two, approval of the check register

[18:02] for the period July 25th through August 21st, 2026.

[18:09] Item three, consideration of a request to waive the fidelity bond requirement

[18:14] in connection with holding the raffles in the city of Lake Forest for

[18:17] Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Health and Fitness Center

[18:20] and the Women's Board of Northwestern Medicine

[18:23] Catherine Gratz Griffin Lake Forest Hospital. Approval by motion. Item four,

[18:27] approval of a contract amendment with GSG Consultants Incorporated

[18:32] in the amount not to exceed $28,790 for additional engineering design

[18:37] services associated with the Walden Lane East Bridge repairs project. Item five,

[18:43] consideration of ordinances approving recommendations from the Building Review

[18:47] Board for 347 Cherokee Road, 1554 Big Oaks Court, 780 Green View Place, and

[18:53] 1286 North Sheridan Road. First reading and if desired by Council, final

[18:57] approval. Item six, consideration of ordinances

[19:00] approving recommendations from the Zoning Board of Appeals for 170 East

[19:04] Lewis Avenue and 347 Cherokee Road. First reading and

[19:09] if desired by Council, final approval. And finally, consideration of a request

[19:13] to authorize the city manager to sign the dedication of nature preserve

[19:16] addition to the Jean and John Green Nature Preserve at McCormick Ravine.

[19:22] Uh by motion, are [clears throat] there any items that

[19:25] the aldermen would like removed or taken separately?

[19:30] Hearing none, uh then may I have a Can I have a motion to

[19:34] approve the omnibus items as presented? >> So moved.

[19:38] » Second. >> This will be a roll call vote.

[19:42] » Alderman Powers? >> Aye.

[19:43] » Alderman Care? >> Aye.

[19:45] » Alderman L'Heureux? >> Aye.

[19:46] » Alderman Bassbell? >> Aye.

[19:47] » Alderman Walder? >> Aye.

[19:49] » Alderman Culbertson? >> Aye.

[19:50] » Alderman Clemmons? >> Aye.

[19:52] » Seven yeas, zero nays. Motion carries. >> Very good. Uh the next item is old

[19:56] business, of which there's none this evening, followed by new business, of

[19:59] which there's none this evening. Next item on the agenda is uh additional

[20:05] items for discussion or comments by council members. Is there any

[20:09] additional commentary from aldermen?

[20:14] Hearing none, okay. Uh we will now ask for a motion to adjourn into executive

[20:19] session pursuant to ILCS 120/2C6. The city council will be discussing the

[20:25] lease of property owned by the public body.

[20:28] Uh I will note that there will be no

[20:31] further business following executive session. May I have a motion to adjourn

[20:35] into executive session? >> So moved.

[20:39] » Second. >> This will be a roll call vote.

[20:49] » Alderman Care? >> Aye.

[20:51] » Alderman L'Heureux? >> Aye.

[20:53] » Alderman Bassbell? >> Aye.

[20:54] » Alderman Walder? >> Aye.

[20:55] » Alderman Culbertson? >> Aye.

[20:57] » Alderman Clemmons? >> Aye.

[20:58] » Alderman Powers? >> Aye.

[21:00] » Seven yeas, zero nays. Motion carries. >> We are adjourned into executive session.

[21:04] As previously noted, there'll be no further business following the executive

[21:08] session. >> That's it.

City Council | 09.08.2026

Transcript