What will make the top stories of 2016 list a year from now is anyone’s guess — indeed, the new year might turn out to be so wrought with the unexpected that none of these possibilities will even qualify.
But here is the best of what is most likely to come:
Big business
Bringing it in, and retaining what is already here —will probably be at the front of the minds of village manager Brad Burke and Mayor Liz Brandt.
The year 2016 looked promising in the spring and summer of 2015, as hospital industry giant Medline purchased and prepared to move into the former Aon Hewitt campus, on the northwest corner of Interstate 94’s interchange with Illinois Route 22.
That plan veered off in the fall, though, when Medline made decided to move into the former Kraft Heinz property in Northfield,and scuttled the idea of moving to Lincolnshire.
Medline still owns the 40-acre plot and the two buildings on it. On Dec. 16, a Medline spokeswoman said they company was not announcing any plans yet.
‘Right-to-work’ battle
Village Hall meetings are usually quiet on Monday nights, when the trustees hold their meetings. On Dec. 14, though, more visitors jammed in than the room could fit.
Union attorneys and workers from far and wide packed the boardroom, an ancillary space next door and the hallway between them in a futile effort to stop the Village Board from making Lincolnshire one of this area’s first right-to-work zones. The plan allows for private union members to decide whether or not to contribute union dues to the union that represents them.
The next day, the AFL-CIO started sending out press releases with phrases like “legal counsel,” “exploring all options” and “outside the law.” No one has yet filed a lawsuit against Lincolnshire’s zone, but conservative think-tank Liberty Justice Center has said they will represent the village free of charge if need be.
Brandt said she sees the move —first championed by Gov. Bruce Rauner —as making Lincolnshire more attractive to potential employers.
“We set our goals on economic development, and expanding our retail and commercial base,” Brandt said.
More Top Picks Craftsman Cmcv002b
Route 53
The Illinois Tollway will spend the next year studying the environmental impacts of extending Illinois Route 53 into Lake County.
The project will cost between $2.3 billion and $2.6 billion —and that figure is in the Tollway’s assumption of what dollars will be worth in the year 2020.
Many of this area’s officials have said that the completion of Route 53, which would carry it from it current end at Lake Cook Road up to a refurbished Illinois Route 120 in Grayslake, is closer to gaining federal funding than any of its past iterations.
Dozens, sometimes hundreds, of opponents filled meeting rooms from Libertyville to Downers Grove in 2015, urging tollway and Lake County authorities to expand east-west roads to Interstate 94 instead.
The road’s current layout takes the road through a pair of marshes, in Long Grove and Hawthorn Woods. A study of how those wetlands might react to a long strip of impervious surface will surely be one of the largest topics in the year to come.
School changes
Stevenson High School students should have something to cheer about this fall: their classes will start half an hour later.
Jumping aboard a trend that is spreading around the nation, SHS voted in 2015 to move its regular start times back from 8:05 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. School will also begin earlier in August, and the 2016-17 year will end in May as well. The hope, officials said, is to catch teens at their brains’ optimal times, helping them to absorb more information.
Lincolnshire-Prairie View Elementary District 103, Aptakisic-Tripp Elementary District 102 and Township High School District 214 have all looked into the possibility as well.
Of course, it all hinges on teenagers going to bed at the same time, and not watching Netflix or doing homework for an extra half hour.
Twitter: @RonnieAtPioneer