Outgoing Pingree Grove president reflects on tenure

Wyman “Clint” Carey, outgoing president of Pingree Grove, says his tenure wasn't always a smooth ride.

“Our town has had its share of drama, that's for sure,” Carey said. “But I think that's a growing pain and that these kinds of things will not happen anymore.”

Carey, 51, announced late Monday that he will not seek a second term for family reasons.

Tuesday morning, he acknowledged that the village board's ongoing strife also played a part in his decision to leave village politics, due to the effect it was having on his family.

“I took this seriously and maybe I brought my work home with me... and that's a hard thing.” Carey said, adding that it took him three months to make up his mind not to run again. “I didn't expect ... that everybody would agree on everything.”

Despite tense meetings that sometimes devolved into shouting matches, the village board accomplished quite a lot under Carey's tenure.

The village more than doubled in size thanks to new annexation agreements, locked up property on Route 47 for future retail use, established its own police force, built an environmentally friendly police station, completed a plan for its downtown and wrapped three years of intense negotiations with Cambridge Lakes.

But there was also, in Carey's words, quite a bit of drama.

Pingree Grove went through two village managers and had to make painful budget cuts that involved layoffs, salary cuts and eliminating public events.

Carey also found himself at odds with a three-member bloc on the village board that includes Trustees Greg Marston, Stephanie Mette and Steve Wiedmeyer.

Earlier this year, they ordered an internal audit that analyzed Carey's expenses and use of a village credit card on business meals and that accused him of forcing village staff to watch his young son while he attended business meetings.

Then-village manager Scott Hartman found Carey did nothing wrong and the group forwarded the documents to state's attorney's office, which reached the same conclusion.

The group, along with Trustee Josh Cossiboon, later voted to terminate Hartman. The three members also voted against hiring an interim village administrator.

On Tuesday, Marston who filed petitions to run for mayor, declined to discuss the clash.

“I think that today is more of a day to thank him for his service and I'm not interested today in pointing out differences,” Marston said.

Mette said Carey could have been more transparent by updating the entire board on the Cambridge negotiations and said the entire board should get credit for all that was achieved on his watch.

That said, she also said she hopes Carey's successor shares his enthusiasm for the job.

“At the end of the day, he had a real passion for what he was doing he had passion for what he believed in,” she said.

As his term begins to wind down, Carey wants residents to see they have an amazing opportunity to shape Pingree Grove, with all of its remaining vacant land, into the kind of town they want.

But he doesn't know what the future holds for him once he leaves office in the spring.

“I've learned a lot and I hope there's something I can do that gives back to the people,” he said. “As sappy as that sounds, I guess that's what I'll be looking for and I'm not sure where that's going to lead right now.”