Frank John Scarpelli Jr.: Candidate Profile

Note: Answers provided have not been edited for grammar, misspellings or typos. In some instances, candidate claims that could not be immediately verified have been omitted. Jump to:BioKey IssuesQA Bio City: East DundeeWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Dundee Township parksAge: 48Family: Married, Five Daughters Margaret (Peggy) wife; Samantha 21, Deirdre 21, Victoria 20, Francesca 14, Olivia 12.Occupation: Commercial and residential property managementEducation: Bachelor of Science in Public Accounting, Elmhurst College 1984Civic involvement: East Dundee Planning and Zoning 1996-2003 2007 to current; various committees with School District 300 (Co-chair Trac committee, member of face committee, and part of the original citizens advisory panel to dist 300); Dundee Township Boys and Girls club original start up board member1995-1996; Dundee Carpentersville Jr. Charger Football board of directors/ coach 1984-2000; Treasure for St Catherine's Beacon fund 1992 - 2003.Elected offices held: Dundee Township Park District Commissioner 1999 - 2005, 2005 - April 2011; seeks re-election for 6 year term 2011 - 2017.East Dundee Village Trustee 2003 - 2007.Dundee Township Republican Committee 2000 - 2002, 2002 - 2004.Have you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: noCandidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 Getting as many units of government together to share and utilize each others services and amenities to obtain the most cost effective and best use of resources in which to provide the best benefit in serving our community.Key Issue 2 To make sure that the park district is reacting and is pro-active to the community. In our current economic times, more and more folks are forced to seek local inexpensive ways to relive daily stress as well they are looking for inexpensive forms of entertainment and relief from the daily grind. The Park District should be one of those reliefs#146;s, so we need to keep an open mind and an open ear to the communities wants and wishes.Key Issue 3 To minimize duplication of services; often times multiple units of government duplicate services. Some services are very specific in which the unit of government either must comply statutorily; however there are many services that overlap from agency to agency, and I will strive to make sure that the Park District seeks other agencies that are providing a similar service and that they work together and pool their recourses rather than running parallel programs.Questions Answers What programs aren#146;t paying for themselves? Would you keep, eliminate or change them? How and why?Unfortunately our pools are a financial drain on the Park District; they are a financial drain on all Park districts. Some of the contributing factors are the climate, we may get two maybe three months a season in which we can operate our outdoor pools. Also there has been recent federal mandates to make pool filtration safe, combined with the costs to maintain the entire pool infrastructure and all the chemicals to keep the water clear and clean. We made an attempt to eliminate a pool, and the residents of our community came out and demanded that we keep the amenity open even though it was going to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, their message was that every resident contributes a base tax to the park district, and that we should not have to have every program pay for itself. Dundee Park District is also very fortunate in that while the Golf industry as a whole has been down for the past 3 to 4 years, somewhat due to the economy, but probably more so due to an overdevelopment of golf courses in the country, our courses have been able to break even or even provide a few dollars back to the district. Is there any additional open space the park district needs to acquire? Please describe.We are always open to the acquisition of open space, and as indicated as one of my campaign issues we have worked cooperatively with both the Forest Preserve District of Kane County and the Dundee Township Open Space district, in acquiring land. Also in keeping with one of my campaign issues, the Park district is the only agency that utilizes open space for active recreation, and we have worked cooperatively with both the agencies above to utilize some of their holdings to enhance the availability of active recreation facilities such as Soccer, Softball, Baseball, Football, Golf and Parks. Are there any unmet recreational needs? If yes, what are they and how would you propose paying for them? Or, should they wait until the economy improves?We are currently in the process of providing our community with a West Side Recreation center, and the current economy has actually helped us afford this amenity. Due to a Federal program called #147;Build America Bonds#148; we were eligible to obtain funding assistance.Would you support sharing/pooling resources (i.e. printing, vehicles) with other local governments (school districts, village, etc.)? If so, what areas would you consider combining or merging to save money or improve efficiency?As for the sharing of resources, my answer is definitely yes!!! This has been an issue of mine since my first term in 1999, and we already do share services with several agencies. Back in the early 2000#146;s when our community was growing rapidly and we did not have the funds to build a west side recreation center, we teamed up with the school District to oversize a couple gyms to provide space. We have also worked cooperatively with the school district in the use our Pools and Golf courses in trade for use of their buildings. Also as previously mentioned, we have worked with the Dundee Township not only for Open space, but also in continuing to provide PACE bus service to our residents, and utilization of Open space with the Forest Preserve and the Open space district.If you are a newcomer, what prompted you to run for the park board? If you're an incumbent, list your accomplishments or key initiatives in which you played a leadership role.Intergovernmental agreements with School District 300 for use of common facilities and amenities.Intergovernmental agreements with Dundee Township Open space to enable the acquisition of open space and use of open space for recreational purposes.Intergovernmental agreement with the Forest Preserve of Kane County, for both joint acquisition and use of open space for active programming.Working cooperatively with many of the municipalities within the district to optimize park land and park amenities in all the recent growth areas of the township.To provide a new senior center that has greatly improved services to the seniors of our community.To keep a tight hold on our annual budget and being able to maintain all the park infrastructure and amenities while operating under the tax cap and not having to put the park district in to debt in doing so.Being open and available and approachable to all the residents as well as community leaders and other elected officials.