Wheeling trustee, president explode at each over fireworks

Wheeling Trustee Dean Argiris was talking about fireworks when verbal ones exploded between him and Village President Judy Abruscato at Monday's village board meeting.

The tiff occurred at the end of the meeting when Argiris brought up taking some money the village saved on capital projects and putting it toward a small fireworks show on July 3.

Abruscato slammed the idea and Argiris for bringing it up at a public meeting before running it by Village Manager Jon Sfondilis first.

"I resent you ignoring our village manager," said Abruscato before slamming her gavel between 10 and 15 times. "I've been holding this in for weeks. If this is what you want, speak to Mr. Sfondilis. We have a village manager, and you need to speak to him instead of talking to other trustees about this over the weekend. We're a team here."

Argiris said he took offense to Abruscato's comments and then took the fireworks idea "off the damn table."

"That's enough, you stop it,"Abruscato said.

"You stop it too," Argiris snapped back. "I'm so sick of this. I've been putting up with this for 10 years. I hope you break your gavel."

Like many villages, Wheeling canceled its Fourth of July fireworks and parade this summer because of tough economic times. On Monday Argiris suggested brining back a smaller fireworks celebration, costing between $15,000 and $25,000. The village could afford the fireworks because projects like the new fire station and police station came in under budget, he said.

After the outburst, Trustee Robert Heer said the public should weigh in on the fireworks decision.

"That way we don't revisit this on Monday (May 10) with everyone having six different opinions," Heer said.

Wheeling residents can call Sfondilis at (847) 499-9090 or e-mail him at jsfondilis@wheelingil.gov to share their opinions on summer fireworks, Heer said.