Honoring behind-the-scenes public service
When you think about local public servants, who comes to mind? For most people, it’s probably the elected officials who serve on village, school, park, township or library boards and represent us in the local decision making process.
Those positions carry some measure of prestige, along with little or no pay and lots of late nights. Local elected officials make decisions that at one time or another are likely to upset a good portion of town. And, they are critical to our way of life in the suburbs.
There are many others who toil behind the scenes of local government with equal importance and little or no fanfare on appointed committees and commissions. They, too, are public servants.
Take Fred Schaefer.
We single out the 92-year-old Schaefer to salute a lofty and rare milestone in a public service — 50 years on the Grayslake plan commission and zoning board of appeals.
“It didn’t seem that long,” he said when he was honored by the village board last week. “You look back, you wonder how you get there.”
For five decades, he has been among the architects in the community’s growth from a town of 3,800 residents when he started in 1962 to one of more than 20,000 today.
He’s done that by helping review development plans and zoning requests and making recommendations to the village board for everything from subdivisions to retail businesses.
That’s not sexy stuff, but it’s important.
While many people have used the commission and others like it as a springboard into elected office and bigger issues, Schaefer always thought this is where he was needed.
“I certainly didn’t do it for the money,” he told the Daily Herald’s Bob Susnjara.
Grayslake plan commission members like Schaefer now receives $60 per meeting and $30 for zoning board of appeals work when needed. Both boards meet on the same night once a month. That’s up from $50 for the plan commission and $25 for the ZBA.
When the issue is high profile, meetings can last deep into the evening. Schaefer was there last year for Mercy Homes’ controversial senior apartment complex proposal that ultimately gained village board approval. He also was involved in the mammoth mixed-use Heartland proposal from the 1980s near Route 83 and Peterson Road that stirred a lot of controversy. Schaefer said commissioners met weekly when the project was before the village. It never was approved.
Seeing development projects turn out the right way is what has given him the most satisfaction.
To mark his anniversary, Grayslake Mayor Rhett Taylor gave Schaefer a clock. We add to that our thanks for his 50 years’ service, plus a note of gratitude to all the public servants like him working without fanfare behind the scenes.