Dustin Heuser: Candidate Profile

Back to Volo Village Board

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:BioQA Bio City: VoloWebsite: In developmentOffice sought: Volo Village Board Age: 34Family: I live with my wife Debbie. No children as of yet, but we are planning to adopt. The rest of my extended family lives in several different states.Occupation: Wireless Network Operations technicianEducation: High school graduate. Served four years in the U.S. Army where I got my training for my current line of work About 3 years towards a Business Administration degree. A couple of technical courses for Cisco certification.Civic involvement: Served about a year on the Planning and Zoning Commission for the Village of Volo before being appointed to the empty seat on the board where I have been serving a few months. During that time, I have also been the head of the Building and Zoning Committee, and a member of the Administration, Public Safety, and Parks committeesElected offices held: Member of Planning and Zoning Commission (Aug 2013 - July 2014). Village of Volo Trustee (July 2014 - present)Questions Answers What makes you the best candidate for the job?I am part of the "new wave" of Volo residents. I moved in to the area in 2012 (although I have lived around the area for a few years) and I am aware of the concerns of the residents in this growing village. Also, since becoming involved with the Village officially in 2013, I have made myself available for everything I possibly could even before that time by attending every meeting of the board or the various committees. This allowed me to gain the needed knowledge of what was happening around myself and the other residents.What is your opinion of your community's present level of local sales and property taxes? Is the tax just right, too low or too high? Explain.The property tax for our community is just right. Although we are a home rule community, we have made a commitment to try and not exceed the property tax rates of neighboring villages and we have made strides to do just that. We will continue to keep our local tax rates at reasonable levels for our residents.Rate the efficiency of your town's police and fire coverage. Are the departments well prepared for the next decade? What, if anything, should be changed? Do you have specific public safety concerns?Currently, Volo is served by both Fox Lake (on the north side) and Wauconda (on the south side) for our fire protection. We have worked well with both and the coverage has been very good. Should our village continue to grow to the point where we need our own coverage, then that will be something that would need to be seriously looked at before it got to the point that coverage suffers. Similarly, we have a contract with Lake County Sheriff for police coverage and that has also been very good. Again, if our village continues to grow, we will continue to assess the coverage levels and adjust contracts or develop our own coverage as needed.Where, if anywhere, could the current budget be trimmed, and conversely, are there areas the budget does not give enough money to?We recently hired a village administrator who has made great strides in organizing our budget, which in itself has helped money get to where it is needed in a more efficient way. On top of that, he was able to reevaluate current staff levels and make changes where needed. Our largest budget item coming up for the next few years will be paying for Lake Michigan Water. We will need to make continuous evaluations and adjustments to make sure it is payed for with the smallest impact as possible on our residents.What's one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?Although it may not be nearly as important as many of the other things that are happening or will happen in our village in the coming years, I believe that the implementation and utilization of some form of social media would be a great idea for the village. Many people use one form or another of social media and I think it would be a great way for people to be involved in the village and also keep up to date with things that may be going on (Lake Michigan Water, for example). If done correctly, I believe it can be a very useful tool for both the village and the community.What other issues, if any, are important to you as a candidate for this office?Residential and business growth are very important to me, and both must be done correctly. We want to continue to be known as a family community and I as a trustee don't want to do anything to jeopardize that image. By bringing in the right developers, we can ensure that Volo becomes a very successful village that works well with the community as a whole. Also, I feel that our current parks are a bit underutilized. As a trustee and also a member of the parks committee, I want to broaden the use of our parks and make them more usable by our community. If the children can do a majority of their activities close to home, that takes a burden off of them, as well as the family members that would normally need to drive them longer distances. I also want to continue to keep some thoughts on the heritage district. I think a Volo "main street" would be a great thing for the community, as well as a great thing for small business owners. I am aware that funds for this may not be available at this time, but I want to keep the thoughts and ideas flowing until that time comes when we do have the funding.Please name one current leader who most inspires you.Malala Yousafzai. Her leadership probably goes along with my answer to the next question and her extreme support of education is something nobody can ignore.What's the biggest lesson you learned at home growing up?Be self-sufficient. Make sure you can take care of things yourself.If life gave you one do-over, what would you spend it on?Spend more time in the Army. The training and experiences were something I wish I had more of.What was your favorite subject in school and how did it help you in later life?English. My reading and writing abilities have helped in almost every phase of my life, from resumes to recreational reading.If you could give your children only one piece of advice, what would it be?Experience as much as possible when you are young. Travel, see things and places, but once you find an interest, dive in all the way.