Robert Cook: 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: WaucondaWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Wauconda parksAge: 53Family: Married, 3 sons 2 grandchildrenOccupation: Lake County Chairman for the Republican party.Education: 4 years University Of Illinois Chicago (management)Civic involvement: Wauconda, Mason's, Lions, American Legion, former Cert and RotarianElected offices held: Wauconda Park Board 2007-currentPrecinct Committeeman 2004-currentLake County Chairman for the Republican Party 2010-currentHave you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: Candidate did not respond.Candidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 To bring national soft ball tournaments to Wauconda. I think it would be great for our programs and great for our local businesses. I know that the local restaurants are busy when we have the triathlons.Key Issue 2 We have to use our concession stand in the park better. I think the right thing to do would be to let the different sports programs run the concession stand and let them keep the money. Every program I have ever been associated with has run their programs with the concession stand. Since we do not have to pay our volunteers who run our sports programs they save us a lot of money. I think this is a win/win situation.Key Issue 3 No increase in fee#146;s or taxes.Questions Answers What programs aren#146;t paying for themselves? Would you keep, eliminate or change them? How and why?The beach does not bring in enough money to cover the expenses associated with running swim programs and life guards. Without the piers we would lose money on the beach. I would like to advertise the beach more than we do currently and I have suggested putting a sign on Main Street pointing to the beach. I have met a lot of people in our community that do not know that we have a beach.Is there any additional open space the park district needs to acquire? Please describe.I do not think the park district needs to expand at this time. We have Cook Park which is terrific for a town the size of Wauconda.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?Every couple of years the park district sends out surveys to determine what works and what the communities would like that we are not providing. We then look at the results of the survey and determine which programs are important to our customers and the tax payers in general. I think we are meeting the community#146;s needs within the confines of our budgeting process. We are always open to suggestions from the public.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?I think sharing resources is great. I do know that the park district has a great working relationship with the village and the township. Working together and loaning equipment is a great way to share resources. In our last meeting I made the motion to stop charging the village to store the weed harvester by the beach. This will save the village $2,500.00 a year. It does not cost us anything for them to leave it at the beach and it helps the village. This might not sound like a lot of money but I think it is a step in the right direction.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.The best thing I can say about my accomplishments is that I am a part of a team. We completed the Shoreline project and the back of Cook Park looks great. We kept cost#146;s down and lived within our means. The upstairs has been remodeled by our maintenance staff and it looks great. There is always room for improvement and I do not feel that I have accomplished everything that I want to do. I want to see the park district through the difficult times ahead.