William C. Grabarek: 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: ElburnWebsite: http://noneOffice sought: Elburn Village boardAge: 71Family: Married, five children, seven grandchildrenOccupation: LawyerEducation: Bachelor of Arts in English with Chemistry minor, Roosevelt University, 1968Juris Doctor, John Marshall Law School, 1975Civic involvement: Lazarus House, Co-founder, Director Secretary;Friends of the Town Country Public Library, Co-founder, Director Treasurer;Fox Valley Wildlife Center, Director Secretary;Recipient - Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award 2006Elected offices held: Appointed Offices - Elburn Planning Commission 1993-2003 Chairman 1995-2003Elected OfficesTrustee - Village of Elburn 2003-2007Trustee - Village of Elburn 2007-2011Have you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: NoCandidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 Times may be financially tough, but as a village, we must continue to maintain acceptable levels of the basic services for our residents.As elected officials we must insure that we will continue to provide clean drinking water, safely and efficiently manage our village's wastewater and stormwater flows, keep our streets in good repair and free of ice and snow accumulations, and keep our village safe and adequately policed.We rely on our administrative staff, our police and our folks in public works to keep these village services running smoothly and without interruption.To do so, means that we need to maintain fiscal responsibility by working within the limits of our revenues and not spend monies which we do not have in hand or expect to have in the near future.Until the economy again begins to grow, we should focus on the necessities. Until such time, anything not a necessity is a luxury.The number 1 issue for this campaign, therefore, is insuring that we maintain our basic services for our residents at a consistent level given our reduced revenues. Key Issue 2 My response to issue number one may make sound like we are strictly in a survival mode, but this fiscal #8220;hunkering down#8221; should not stop us from planning for our future. It is an ideal time to so look back and then look 10, 15 or 20 years down the road at our vision for the village.In fact, the continuing slack in construction gives us the time and opportunity to look back on and evaluate our prior development and, perhaps, amend our vision for future development: what should we change #8211; what should we support - what areas did we ignore while the boom was going that we should look at now? This period of slow growth has given us time to review our assets #8211; not only those within our village borders, but those outside our borders #8211; to help form this vision. We have ready access to a magnificent university to the west; to the south, an excellent and growing community college; to the east, regional medical facilities matched by few other areas in Illinois or in the surrounding states and, of course, Fermi Laboratory, whose central building can be seen to the east. And all the time, we are surrounded by some of the richest soil in our country. We may not be able to produce cheap widgets like China can, but we sure know how to grow food, much of it being trucked into Elburn to be weighed, dried, and shipped from here to the world.Now is the time to promote and strengthen our partnerships with those entities and organizations around us, whether it be our local Chamber of Commerce, our Town Country Public Library District, sister municipalities, the County, our school district, and local not for profit organizations, whether civic, educational, historical or religious. Partnering can cost nothing or very little, but the synergies produced can produce big results.The Kane County Forest Preserve District, for example, over the years has acquired over 1000 acres of land contiguous to Elburn, much of the more recent purchases with our enthusiastic approval; land in which we and our children can roam, watch the wildlife, or perhaps try our luck at getting a little white ball into the holes at Hughes Creek. Our latest partnership victory with the Forest Preserve has resulted in its December 2010 purchase from a local landowner of about 3 acres of land at west North Street extended at Read Street which will developed as a more beneficial entrance into the Elburn Woods forest preserve than that originally contemplated by the District's 2008 Master Plan. This seemingly small cooperative project between us, the Kane County Forest Preserve and the landowner will mean easier access to these open spaces for our residents and others and is certain to create more pedestrian traffic on North Street and within our downtown business district, which is sure to result in more commercial activity, and all at negligible cost to the Village.Key Issue 3 Preserving the past #8211; Providing for the present #8211; Planning for the future. That sure reads like a campaign slogan, but when we examine these three concepts, we see their interconnections.The sense of community and place of any city, town or village is build upon the work of those that preceded us. It is that history that forms the verbal and visual mythology of any special place. It is found in the names of the roads and streets, on the tombstones of the local cemeteries, in the architecture of the older homes and buildings in the historic section of town, and in the stories of our older citizens down at the local café or tavern. It is preserved through our institutions, whether it is the old class photos and athletic trophies in the main hallway of the high school, the display cases at the library, the dusty collections of a defunct historical society or the township burial records.We need to partner with the Township, with the Library, with our old-timers, with our keepers of the records, to make the history and mythology available to everyone. We need to celebrate our place as we do in August during Elburn Days or at the Boy Scout Pancake breakfast or the various pork chop or spaghetti dinners or during the Stroll.It is the sense we felt the first time we stopped in Elburn, maybe to have lunch at the Kountry Kettle and when we walked up and down Main Street we noticed people didn't divert their eyes as you walked toward them, but smiled and said #8220;Hello#8221; as you passed by. Trying to maintain that same level of place and community can be difficult. Both you and the other person have to feel comfortable in his or her own skin, in the place, and physically and emotionally safe in acknowledging each other with a smile and a #8220;Hello#8221;.It is during the tougher economic times that we can, and indeed must, come together to do the simple things, the inexpensive things, the things that support our sense of place and community, and safety. And, I believe, it is one the responsibilities of the Village Board to work to preserve and promote this sense and to protect it when developing our vision for the future.Questions Answers On what should the village be spending property tax and sales tax money?As a village, we have only one tangible item to sell #8211; our drinking water. As our only enterprise fund, we charge our users for the costs of our production of clean potable water and for the costs of its final disposal, and such costs include staff salaries, utilities, capital reserves and other allied expenses.All other expenditures must be made from our other revenue streams, the largest of which are our real estate and retail tax revenues which principally will be spent on staff salaries, including administrative, police and non-water/sewer public works staff, benefits and operational costs of the respective departments.The economic meltdown brought plans for big residential and retail growth to a halt. Should Elburn use this time to re-evaluate and adjust its plans for the future and, if so, how?It is an ideal time to re-evaluate our past development plans. We know from numerous academic studies that the real estate tax revenue generated by residential development alone does not pay for such development's service needs. Therefore, in any annexation agreement, developer payment of impact fees must be addressed, as well as inclusion of commercial development in the concept plans. In addition to the normal infrastructure improvements for water and sewer, developers must bring more than just residential rooftops to Elburn. It could be in land, new park amenities, a pool or community center, or, preferably, one or more big box stores.What can the village do to ensure it gets either money or infrastructure upfront on a development, rather than having to go after bonds for bankrupt developments like Blackberry Creek? Should the village be more aggressive in this regard, and how?I have always preferred letters of credit from the developers as there is ready cash to pursue. As to upfront infrastructure costs, particularly for water and sewer improvements, it is better for the developer to front the cost and let him recover his costs through a recapture agreement. Though Blackberry Creek did fail, much of the infrastructure had been put in the developed phases.What do you think of the current plans for the proposed Elburn Station development? Should the village insist retail be built before issuing housing permits?Shodeen's concept initially included substantial commercial acreage at Route 38 and Anderson Road. When Shodeen removed that from the last concept plan, I lost interest in the entire project. I do not believe, however, that Shodeen should be required to build the commercial phase first, but it should be constructed when some percentage of residential permits have been issued, maybe 10 to no more than 15 percent.When the economy does recover, can Elburn expect to have the growth once projected for the village? Explain.In the absence of another housing bubble, I believe that Elburn's future growth will be at a substantially more moderate pace and I also believe that the economy will remain in the doldrums for three or more years until the current stock of residential housing in the region is sold down to levels that would promote new construction. Likewise, lending standards have tightened so easy mortgage money is a thing of the past. Return to the days of 140 permits issued per year in Elburn are far in the future. Even 30-40 permits per year are probably five years or more away.