Prospect Heights: Vole for a full term

Times are tough all over, as the cliché goes, but they were tough in Prospect Heights even before the Great Recession hit.

In the past few years, there have been some businesses toying with coming to town only to settle elsewhere. There’s been a fire at city hall, ongoing water problems and debates and significant police cuts after an attempt at furloughs was found to violate the union contract.

Now there is a new police chief, a new city administrator and some hope that things will turn around as the economy does.

Prospect Heights Mayor Dolores “Dolly” Vole, 43, seeks her first four-year term after a two-year stint and several terms as an alderman. She faces a second consecutive challenge from real estate developer Nicholas Helmer, 68, while Kurt U. Giehler, 53, an architect, is running a write-in campaign we doubt will gain much traction.

We find Helmer to be harsh in his criticism of city leaders, and we question his ability to build consensus. He speaks of ending the blame game and then proceeds to dole out that blame.

Vole has made some missteps, most notably using campaign signs on a city vehicle. Still we offer her our qualified endorsement, urging her to work harder to be more open to bringing business and its resultant tax revenue to the community as it emerges from the recession.