Imperialism a threat in Winfield

My husband and I were at the Winfield town meeting on March 17, where two aspiring trustee candidates had gathered a gaggle of supporters to promote their candidacy. To that end, they disparaged both the village and those whose vision for Winfield is different from theirs.

What really aggravated us was one candidate’s self-righteous attitude about his reverence for the Constitution and how he’d never broach “eminent domain” with regard to the “Roosevelt Road corridor,” yet in the Winfield Post he placed a full-page ad saying the village needs to “milk the Rosie-velt (Road) (cash) cow” for all it’s worth. Well, excuse me, I and my neighbors happen to live on Roosevelt Road, and these are our homes, and we love them.

We pay our taxes and keep up our properties and love the “rural” atmosphere, which does enrich the area. We don’t like the implication — and the imperialist attitude underlying it — that they can just push us aside in their pursuit of power. These men and many of their supporters say that they find the small town flavor of Winfield itself repugnant and want it more progressive — like another Geneva or Carol Stream.

But most of the folks who’ve bought here came for just that small town ambience. We’d hate to see them try to transform it into just another sprawling suburb. Is this the change the people of Winfield really want?

Donald and Patricia Lamesch

Winfield