Grayslake village candidates list top issues

Four candidates seeking three seats on the Grayslake village board list economic growth and maintaining financial stability among their top issues.

Voters will decide the trustee race in the April 5 election. The trustee seats are for four years.

On the ballot are incumbents Ron Jarvis, Jeff Werfel and Kevin Waldenstrom, along with resident Quin O’Brien, who made an unsuccessful attempt for a trustee position two years ago.

Werfel, Jarvis, O’Brien and Waldenstrom covered a variety of campaign issues in a Daily Herald questionnaire each candidate completed. One question asked the candidates to name their top campaign issue.

Jarvis, a telecommunications manager for the federal government, listed business development as his number-one campaign issue. Jarvis joined the village board in 2007.

“I ran four years ago on the issue of bringing more entertainment business downtown and stop the development of condos,” Jarvis said. “The housing downturn proved me right as the condo developer pulled out while the hugely successful Emil’s (Tavern on Center) has come in. I want to help keep the village on this track for the next four years while focusing also on the (Route) 83 corridor and (Route) 120 opportunities.”

O’Brien, a school bus driver and broker/owner of a home-based real-estate company, said he’d work to seek commercial growth to bring jobs to Grayslake and help to increase nonresidential taxes.

Waldenstrom, a mold-inspection company owner appointed to the village board in 2009, said his top issue is to maintain a balanced budget and ensure Grayslake remains debt-free.

In addition, Waldenstrom said he wants to “continue to hold village operating costs below the rate of inflation while maintaining public services and a high quality of life for the residents of Grayslake.”

Werfel, a legislative aide for Republican state Rep. Sandy Cole and a village board members since 2003, said he sees the continuing need for more business and commercial development to add jobs in Grayslake as the number-one issue. He said such development would relieve some of an “onerous” tax burden on residents.

“We have made good progress in this area in my eight years on the village board,” Werfel said.