Robert A. Gottardo: Candidate Profile

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:BioKey IssuesQA Bio City: WaucondaWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Wauconda parksAge: 57Family: Wife- Kathy, children- Jenny(31), Laura(29), Joseph(26), Becky(22), grandson-JP(2)Occupation: Mail CarrierEducation: associate degree in hotel managementCivic involvement: served 10 years on lakes youth athletic association including past president and also in charge of concession stands. 17 year coach in youth sports baseball softball basketball and soccer.served 10 years on the NALC local 4099 board as vice president safety officer. at present wauconda republican chairman.Elected offices held: Preident lake youth athletic associationHave you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: noCandidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 i intend to be a advocate for youth sports making sure we aquire the necessary fields to serve what will be a growing youth population in our town as well as see to it that new sports are added to our menu so that we can keep as many young girls and boys out of trouble. i would sport summer basketball outdoor league, lacrosse and possibly field hockey hockey.Key Issue 2 increasing revenue to the park district by applying for USSSA girls softball national championship as well as reopening cooks park concession stand using food wagons to reach fields that are to far from playing fields. at the same time i think it is important that we scrutinize every expenditure to see if we can save tax payer money.Key Issue 3 i would like to build an indoor swimming pool at Cooks park which would be atached to the club house. I believe we would be better off with this than the water park which the voters twice rejected as it would enable seniors and the disabled to do aquatic exercises allow wauconda high school to have a swinmming and diving team, which give some students a chance to earn a scholorship a clean place for the very young to learn to swim and unlike a water park would be open year around. unfortunately we will have to wait until the economy picks up to do this it wouldnt be fair to struggling people to do it now.Questions Answers What programs aren#146;t paying for themselves? Would you keep, eliminate or change them? How and why?i know of no program i would like to eliminate but it is possible we may find programs that may be better run through the school district.Is there any additional open space the park district needs to acquire? Please describe.yes we need to have additioal fields for soccer-football-lacrosse. we need a field for 13-14 baseball outdoor basketball courts., and we could get a grant one indoor basketball.court. plus it will be necessary with large growth in population that likely to come to have small childrens parks in our new developments.With at least one of the new developments giving sufficient space for at least 2 soccer- football field and at least one 13-14 baseball fieldAre there any unmet recreational needs? If yes, what are they and how would you propose paying for them? Or, should they wait until the economy improves?i would not support raising taxes in our present economic enviroment. i support opening our concession stands which are closed due poor location and using a food wagon to get closer to the customer. i would like to apply to host the USSSA girls softball national championships which would bring in least $125000 in tournment pass salesnot to mention pictures tapes of the games clothing and of course food sales which are very high at opening ceromoniesWould you support sharing/pooling resources (i.e. printing, vehicles) with other local governments (school districts, village, etc.)? If so, what areas would you consider combining or merging to save money or improve efficiency?without cooperation with island lakes it would be almost impossible to have a baseball program and are basketball relies more on the school district than the park district . i would like see similar cooperation with lakemoor and it is also possible to see if we couldn,t organize andindoor basket ball league that would use church,school and park district courts. If you are a newcomer, what prompted you to run for the park board? If you're an incumbent, list your accomplishments or key initiatives in which you played a leadership role.my interest in youth sports is the desire to use the knowledge I have learned over a lifetime to help the kids in our town and the fact that i will be retiring soon and will have the to go all out to get things done in area i know i am doing the right thing.