Wheeling attorney to fill board seat until April

A 35-year-old attorney for an insurance firm was appointed to the Wheeling board Monday night to finish the term of Robert Heer, a longtime trustee who died last month.

Joseph Vito, who is resigning from his seat on the Wheeling plan commission, was Village President Dean Argiris' recommendation to fill the opening until the April 7 election. Vito says he hasn't decided whether he will file as a write-in candidate. The deadline to file is Feb. 5.

Doing so would set up a contested village board race again. Heer, a 58-year-old retired Buffalo Grove police officer, was seeking re-election, but now there are just three candidates vying for three available board seats: Trustees Dave Vogel and Ray Lang, as well as Mary Papantos, who is making her third try at the office.

“If you're going to take on that endeavor, you have to have your family committed to it,” said Vito, a former Prospect Heights resident who has lived in Wheeling for a decade. “To get into a full-fledged campaign, I just haven't decided yet right now.”

Vito, though, did plan on running in 2017 because he didn't want to challenge board veterans like Heer this April. Argiris said he would encourage Vito to run and compared his own entry into village politics with Vito's resume.

“I could see him the way I saw myself 20 years ago, start as a plan commissioner, understanding the ins and outs of the village,” Argiris said. “He believes in our vision, and he respects this board.”

Vito emerged as Argiris' top choice after the village president interviewed three other hopefuls. Trustees unanimously approved Vito's appointment Monday.

“He brings the professionalism that I want on the village board,” said Argiris, who also nominated Vito as a plan commissioner in June.

Argiris called it a “difficult task” to name a successor to Heer, who died on Christmas Eve after suffering a massive stroke. He had served on the board almost two decades.

“Truly I believe that Trustee Heer would have been saying to me or this board, 'Good job,'” Argiris said of his choice. “'That's how you started. That's how I started. We were young. We were raising a family. We got involved in this community.'”

Although his post will last just about three months, Vito said he will bring a unique perspective as the only attorney on the board, as plans for major, long-awaited developments like the Town Center take shape.

“I think there's a lot of things in front of the village right now, big things,” he said.