A Trojan Horse?

A recent letter in the Daily Herald from a stable owner:

If the eastern bypass group get their way, Lake County Division of Transportation will not fund the bypass and will wait for the state to do it, some 20 years. Let us not stop the project and get traffic going, improve the traffic at 45-Grasslake-Millburn roads.
Don’t delay action on bypass

So many horse owners have posted letters-to-the-editor about the Route 45 Bypass, that it would seem the Pony Express has returned to Lake County.

Ha ha. As readers of this blog are ruminatively aware ...

Cadge & Release™
Circle the Wagons

a war of words is being is being fought between Lindenhurst and Old Mill Creek over the future of the Route 45 Bypass. Still in planning stages, the Bypass may be delayed further by new hearings proposed by the County Board. Read about it the News-Sun:

County Board member Newton wants full bypass airing

The position of the pro-Bypass side of the conflict has not changed: Living conditions in their area are so unbearable that work needs to begin on the Bypass -- it doesn't matter where it is built -- but immediately, if not sooner.

Of course, the last thing the typical bedroom community would want to see is a new state artery constructed in their backyards. The whole point of a being a bedroom community is to not see a semi-tractor doing 45mph past one's bedroom. But perhaps Old Mill Creek is not the typical bedroom community and your LakeCountyEye salutes their civic-minded altruism.

Ha ha, j/k. So what gives? The other big development up in the upper-right quadrant of Lake County has been the on-again-off-again Waukegan/Park City/TBD casino. The News-Sun observed ...

Gov. Pat Quinn won't sign a massive gambling expansion bill and, in its place, proposed a scaled-back alternative Monday that would still give Lake County a casino, but not in Park City.
Quinn backs county casino — not Park City

Well one doesn't need to be a Karl-Rove-political-genius to figure out what's going on. That Route 45 Bypass is being fast-tracked in anticipation of the Lake County casino that will be built up there.

Where? Not in Waukegan. Not in Park City. Yep, in Old Mill Creek.

Take it from your LakeCountyEye, it's in the bag. Or feed-bag as the case may be.

Horse feathers? Perhaps.