Gregory Hassler: 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: Villa ParkWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Villa Park Village Board (4-year Terms)Age: 46Family: Married to Jennifer. Three children Maggie(10), Ellie(8) and Lou(5)Occupation: Account Manager for an insurance agency.Education: I hold the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter(CPCU) designation.Civic involvement: I was part of Villa Park's Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee. I am currently part of the Planning and Zoning commission as a commissioner. Neighborhood watch Captian.Elected offices held: Candidate did not respond.Have you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: Candidate did not respond.Candidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 The economy remains one of the most important?issues?for voters and is critical to the future of Villa Park. The village needs an aggressive?campaign'to?attract business both large and small. This will not be easy as Villa Park is encircled by many communities that have realized much success in attracting development. It will also take more than just anOpen for Business? sign to attract development. The push to attract development to Villa Park must include controlling blight in the commercial corridors, making efforts in street maintenance and facing the challenges of reducing crime. I believe development will come to Villa Park when these efforts to improve the village are made and recognized by the broader business community.Key Issue 2 For every community, street maintenance often becomes an issue. Villa park is no exception. It appears that there has been no provisions in past budgets for maintaining Villa Park's street system. If provisions were made then there must have been no plan in place for regular street maintenance. Several years ago three street maintenance plans were created and presented to the residents. However, all the plans called for the residents to finance the street repairs through higher assessments. It was made clear by the residents to the village that street financing would have to be handled differently. Villa Park's street maintenance program needs to be re-evaluated. A maintenance plan that builds street maintenance into the regular budget needs to be created.Key Issue 3 Villa Park is without a traditional main street or a designated downtown area that many neighboring towns have. The St. Charles Road corridor stretches from east to west through the heart of the Village and can be considered Villa Park's main street. Over the years St. Charles Road has become an automobile oriented corridor with speeding traffic and narrow sidewalks. This has only severed the village into North and South sides more prominently. St. Charles Road needs to be reestablished as a viable pedestrian and bicycle friendly village center that brings the North and South sides of town together. Keys to rebuilding this corridor are controlling signage blight, enforce maintenance of the aging and deteriorating properties, and streetscape improvements. This will be a be a long-term process that will require commitment and cooperation between the Village and business community.Questions Answers What makes you the best candidate for the job?I feel?I am the best candidate?for the position of Trustee for several reasons. In my profession as a commercial lines account manager in an insurance agency every one of my clients is a business owner. These businessowners are from varied industries. I speak with them daily and understanding their concerns is key to my career. I was also a member of the Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee. The Comprehensive Plan was put together with much input from the residents. This is their idea of the direction they would like to see Villa Park headed. I believe I have a unique view from both the business community and long term vision for Villa Park's future growth or redevelopment. I have been a life long resident of the area. I believe that Villa Park has a few key characteristics not found in other communities that can set it apart and make it a destination for residents of other communities. It's my active role in creating the vision for future growth and redevelopment, my understanding of the business community, and passion for Villa Park that makes me the best candidate for Village Trustee.Given the delicate balance between the need for revenue and over-taxing local businesses, what is your opinion of your community's present level of local sales taxes? Is the tax just right, too low or too high? Explain.In the past few years Villa Park increased its sales tax in an effort to bring it more in line with surrounding communities. Although not as high as surrounding communities, I feel that we cannot take more of an increase at this time. However. I believe that there may be room for special taxing districts in the high volume traffic corridors.Talking with your friends and neighbors, what seems to be their biggest public safety concern? Explain the concern as you see it, and discuss how you think it should be addressed.There is a disproportionate amount of crime that occurs on the North side of Villa Park. This cannot be remedied by just putting more police officers on the street. There needs to be a coordinated effort by both the residents and police department. I believe that Villa Park's Citizens Police Academy and neighborhood watch programs are key to establishing and maintaining the communication and coordinated efforts needed to keep all our neighborhoods safe.In these tight economic times, municipal budgets have to be prioritized. Where, if anywhere, could the current budget be trimmed, and conversely, are there areas the budget does not give enough money to?Villa Park operates on such a fine budgetary margin. With streets in poor repair and the idea of closing one of our pools in recent years shows that we don't have much flexibility in the budget. I really don't see where any one item cut from the budget would not have a significant negative impact on the village. I believe that every department needs to be budget conscious and realize that every little effort made to save money will help the village.What's one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?I have an ideology. Being a life long resident of the area I fell in love with Villa Park as a child and have become more impassioned with Villa Park as an adult. Villa Park is unique to other communities with the combination of three bicycle/jogging paths, quiet neighborhoods and location nearly in the geographical center of the Chicago metropolitan area. These attributes that have formed my belief that Villa Park has the potential to be one of Chicago's truly great communities.