Water

A small minority of Village homes have private wells. The following guide is a good reference for best maintenance practices for private wells.  BACOG Homeowner’s Guide to Well and Septic Systems

Electric

The Village is served by ComEd, under the terms of a franchise agreement (copy on file at Village Office). 24 hr outage updates or service questions:  1-800-Edison-1 (1-800-334-7661).  Financial Assistance Support for Residential Customers in Need

Gas

The Village is served by Nicor under the terms of a franchise agreement (copy on file at Village Office). 24 hr Customer Service:  1-888-nicor4U (1-888-642-6748)

Telephone

The Village is served by AT&T and other local and long distance service providers. Customer Service: 1-800-244-4444

Cable TV & Internet

Cable television in the Village is provided by Comcast, under the terms of a franchise agreement (copy on file at Village Office). High speed internet service and internet telephone service via cable modem are also available Village-wide through Comcast.  Toll Free Customer Service:  1-866-594-1234

AT&T and several other providers offer DSL internet service on phone lines to most of the subdivisions in Tower Lakes.  AT&T also offers internet and television service (U-verse) over the phone line system in most of Tower Lakes. You can call AT&T at 1-800-661-2570 or check their website to find out if their internet or video services are available at your residence.

Garbage & Recycling

The Village provides weekly garbage collection and waste recycling. Our service provider is LRS. For a list of items that should be recycled as well as items that should never be recycled, click here.

LRS Customer Service: 847-381-9300.

Collection dates are every Thursday.

All trash and recycling must be placed at the curb for collection by 6:00 a.m. the day of pick-up, but not before 6:00 p.m. the day before pick-up.

Scheduled collections that fall on or after an observed holiday will be delayed by one day the week of the holiday only. HOLIDAY SCHEDULE: New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day.

Yard Waste

Do not mix yard waste with your garbage. It is illegal in Illinois to put yard waste in the same landfills with with regular waste so mixed garbage will not be collected. LRS offers yard waste pick-ups on Thursdays also. The yard waste collection program runs from April 1st to November 30th. If you wish to have this service, call LRS to sign up at 847-381-9300. Yard waste stickers are available for purchase through LRS if you prefer to pay on a per-bag, per-can or per-bundle basis instead of one flat fee.  Stickers can be ordered directly through LRS.

Christmas trees will be collected the first two weeks of January at no additional charge. Do not place trees in plastic bags. The Village also conducts free brush and branch pick-ups in early May and again in the fall. Watch the Newsletter or the News & Calendar pages on this site for details.

Burning of leaves and other yard waste is restricted to Oct 1 through December 15 and April 1 through May 31, and only between the hours of 9 am – 4 pm on those days. Fires may not include lumber, may not be left unattended and may not be in roadside drainage swales.

Snow Removal

Snow removal from Village streets and deicing is provided under an intergovernmental agreement by the Cuba Township Road District, 847-381-7793, which also plows the unincorporated roads within Cuba Township and some neighboring Villages.

The Lake County Highway Dept plows Miller and Roberts Roads, and the Illinois Dept of Transportation plows IL Rt 59.  Parking on Village streets and right-of-way after a 1″ snowfall is prohibited.

Tower Lakes Residents: To report damage from plowing, missed areas, or any other comments or questions, go to the Cuba Township Road District website, click on the Winter Service tab, select Tower Lakes from the drop down menu, fill out the form and submit. This will get the quickest possible response. Note, they do not handle the above-mentioned County and State roads.

Mosquito Abatement

Mosquito spraying is provided periodically and on an as-needed basis. Our contractor for this service is Clarke Environmental Mosquito Management, 159 Garden Ave, Roselle, IL 60172.

If you wish to be notified prior to application, or if you wish for your house to be skipped when spraying occurs, you can call the Clarke hotline at 1-800-942-2555 to arrange this.

In addition to the spraying program for the Village, Clarke also provides larval control treatments to lakes, ponds and areas of standing water throughout Cuba Township, including Tower Lakes. This service is paid for by Cuba Township.

Vehicle Stickers

Vehicle stickers are required for all vehicles operated in Tower Lakes by Tower Lakes residents. This includes leased vehicles and vehicles with stickers from other Villages. Stickers must be purchased each year. They are valid from July 1st through June 30th. Sticker applications are sent to all residents annually, or may be mailed to you at any time upon request. The fee is $30 for each motor vehicle.  The fee doubles to $60 if not paid by August 1, and an additional $90 late fee applies if not paid before October 1.  Vehicles without current stickers are subject to a ticket & fine in addition to the sticker fees. New residents or people purchasing new cars have 30 days to obtain their vehicle stickers.  Senior discounts of 50% are available to residents 62 years of age and over.

Note that the Village of Barrington has a special lot on the south side of the tracks at the Barrington train station, called the BACOG lot, where holders of Tower Lakes vehicle stickers and other BACOG area residents can park at a discounted prepaid rate. HOWEVER this requires a hangar issued by the Village of Barrington for a fee, renewable quarterly. Contact the Village of Barrington to apply or to get on the waiting list.

Stormwater Management

The Stormwater Management Committee of the Village Board oversees the budget for stormwater improvement and maintenance projects in the Village.

Any construction within 50 ft of the lakes, creek or wetlands requires a permit from the Lake County Storm Water Management Commission, according to the County and Village Watershed Development Ordinances.

The Village is required to undertake several activities aimed at reducing water pollution via the stormwater system.  This US EPA  program is called the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Phase II (NPDES II).  These activities include record keeping, public education, inspection and annual reporting. Here are some links to more information on NPDES II:

Citizen’s Guide to Stormwater Best Management Practices

Sewers & Septic

Tower Lakes does not have any sanitary sewers. Sewage treatment systems are septic type on-site systems located on each individual property.

The Tower Lakes Village Board adopted an Ordinance (Village Code 4-1-4) in spring of 2014 requiring periodic inspections and maintenance of private septic systems. Homeowners are required to show proof that individual septic systems are inspected and pumped out at least once every five (5) years to comply with this Ordinance. Upon completion of the Individual Septic System Inspection and Maintenance Report and Operating Permit form and its return with the $25 permitting fee to the Village office, a compliance use permit will be issued by the Village to the homeowner.

The following guide is a good reference for best maintenance practices for Septic Systems.

BACOG Homeowner’s Guide to Well and Septic Systems