New village president ready to lead Maple Park

Maple Park's incoming village president says one of her first challenges in office will be addressing funding shortages in the police department after voters rejected a minor tax increase last week.

"It's just a bad economy and people aren't willing to put out more money," Kathleen Curtis said. "We're just going to have to come up with a more innovative way of figuring things out, working within the budget we have."

Curtis narrowly defeated incumbent Village President Ross Dueringer in last Tuesday's election. Just 18 votes separated the two candidates in Kane and DeKalb counties, according to unofficial results.

Curtis said she expects the transition of leadership to go smoothly next month, after which she plans to make committee appointments. With the election done, she said the board needs to organize before tackling community issues, including funding shortfalls in the weakened economy.

The village had asked taxpayers for an additional $16,000 a year for police expenses, but the measure was handily defeated, 234 votes to 88, according to unofficial results.

"It's unfortunate that it failed but it really is consistent with what was going on in other towns" with tax requests on the ballot, Curtis said.

Curtis, 45, is an accountant and a village trustee who heads the finance committee. Both she and Dueringer, a local business owner who was seeking a second term as village president, ran on platforms of fiscal responsibility, saying the village must position itself for success when the economy rebounds.

Dueringer, 66, last week expressed thanks to his supporters and said he likely will not be involved in local politics moving forward.

"I've been doing this for 19 or 20 years," he said, referring to previous terms on the board and other community involvement. "That's long enough."

Dueringer said he felt he helped make village operations more professional during his term and also addressed local projects, such as infrastructure improvements and a special census that resulted in increased state revenue to the village.

"We made a lot of headway," he said. "I'm proud of what's happened in the last four years - win or lose."