Winfield trustee resigns

Winfield Trustee Christine Petitti announced Thursday she will be resigning from the village board.

Then in the evening, the Winfield village board rejected setting aside money to build a pedestrian underpass near the Metra station.

The single-term official, who was appointed in August 2004 and elected the following spring, cited family and personal reasons for her abrupt departure, which was effective immediately.

Petitti had been involved in the ongoing debate to build the underpass near the village's Metra train station, working to secure funding to ensure the village paid no local share to build the underground crosswalk.

Thursday night, the village of Winfield received assurances that the underpass could be built at no local cost.

A Union Pacific representative told the village board the railroad company would be willing to pay for the village's roughly $300,000 share of the $4 million construction project.

But he warned trustees that if the village board rejected the plan, Union Pacific would act quickly in closing down an at-grade crossing used daily by train commuters.

"There's no doubt this tunnel is going to save somebody's life if it's approved," said Tom Zappa, who works in the company's Chicago office.

But trustees Glen Vade Bon Coeur and Joel Kunesh voted against an ordinance to amend the current fiscal year's budget to include the funding for the underpass, and the measure failed under a 4-2 vote. Five were needed for the measure to pass.

Vade Bon Coeur and Kunesh did not explain their votes Thursday, but in the past they've expressed concerns about the location and fears that it might attract crime.

Village President Rudy Czech declined a suggestion by Village Manager William Barlow to give up on its claim to state and federal grant money secured for the project, apparently leaving the door open for yet more local debate on the underpass first proposed in 2001.

While she leaves behind public life, Petitti is still involved in a pending defamation suit against former Trustee Chris Levan.

She filed the suit in January 2007, claiming Levan tried to have her fired from her job as an industrial hygienist for the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The suit stems from a March 2006 meeting at village hall involving a local police officer.

Levan complained to Petitti's bosses that she had attended the meeting not as a village trustee but as a representative of the Department of Labor.

Petitti was cleared by her employers of any wrongdoing, but has claimed that the incident has harmed her job prospects and caused her emotional distress.

Resigns: Trustee has pending legislation against former trustee