Lester: Does Trustee Zimel really live in Hanover Park? What's Mayor Craig say?
Trustees are required to live in the towns they represent.
But does Ed Zimel live in Hanover Park?
First elected in 2009, Zimel went through a foreclosure on his Hanover Park home earlier this year. He acknowledges he doesn't rent or own in Hanover Park at the moment but says he's staying with family and friends within the village.
Mayor Rod Craig says he suspects Zimel is living out of town and feels like the village is being “bamboozled.”
Craig says he's driven a number of times past the house where Zimel says he lives and “I never see his truck there.”
But Zimel sent us copies of a driver's license, issued on Wednesday, a few days after we first asked him about residency, and a pay stub. Both list an address on Waterfall Lane in Hanover Park.
Zimel blames Craig for raising the residency issue. “He's using it as a tool to humiliate me in the public eye,” Zimel tells me.
The two have been at odds in recent years, with Zimel opposing the mayor on recent key votes, including the budget, an increase in the tax levy, and whether to extend a Springfield lobbyist's contract.
Craig and Zimel once were allies who ran on the same Progress Party slate in 2009. If Zimel were to leave his post, Craig would have the power to appoint a new trustee, which would then need to be approved by the rest of the board.
The job comes with a $6,000-per-year stipend, a cellphone and an iPad.
Remembering Fox Lake officer
Former Fox Lake Mayor William Dam knew Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz when the slain officer was a young patrolman in the 1980s.
“He was very diligent, very conscientious, very easy to get along with. He had to deal with my wayward teenagers at the time,” Dam, a father of five, chuckled.
One of those “wayward teenagers” was Dam's son Case, now a trial attorney who lives in Richmond. William Dam said his son frequently remarks on Gliniewicz's ability to “nudge kids in the right direction.”
Dam and former trustee Scott Shalek set up a fund to support village police as they search for Gliniewicz's killer.
The fund, Citizens Offering Police Support for Fox Lake, is at State Bank of the Lakes in Spring Grove.
Donations can be dropped off at State Farm Insurance, 42 E Grand Ave., No. 103, Fox Lake.
Stanley Cup special wedding guest
Newlyweds Kathleen Hudson and Joe Colmone of Mount Prospect get to feature the Stanley Cup in their wedding album after Blackhawks President and CEO John McDonough showed up with the 35-pound trophy across the street from their wedding reception last Saturday Aug. 29, at the Metropolis Performing Art Center in Arlington Heights.
“We thought it was a joke,” Kathleen says. The avid Blackhawks fans, who called me from their Maui honeymoon, said they heard that the Cup was at Peggy Kinnane's Irish Pub in downtown Arlington Heights while they were having cocktail hour at their wedding reception.
They ditched their reception during the salad course and dashed over to see the trophy with their own eyes.
Meanwhile, along with the Cup, McDonough proudly showed the crowd at Peggy Kinnane's his new granddaughter, Riley, who was less than two weeks old. (Yes, she was also placed in the Cup, photos show).
9/11 ceremony
Viatorian Rev. Corey Brost will host a 9/11 remembrance Wednesday at St. Viator High School in Arlington Heights with his “Children of Abraham” interfaith coalition.
The idea for the group, Brost tells me, came out of an encounter with a Muslim banker at Chase Bank in Mount Prospect. His events have grown steadily over the past several years.
Brost tells me he believes tolerance is not enough - respecting and learning about other religious traditions, in fact, enriches his own faith.
Mayoral advice
Longtime Roselle Village President Gayle Smolinski credits former Hanover Park Mayor Sonya Crawshaw with teaching her to understand that it's OK not to immediately have an answer to a problem that's presented to her.
“You get cornered sometimes at the drugstore, at your kids' events,” she said. “It's always best to realize there are two sides to a story. It's all right to get back to (residents) in a few days.”
Smolinski has been elected head of the DuPage Mayors and Managers Conference, replacing Downers Grove Mayor Martin Tully, who completed a 1-year term.
This term in Roselle, her sixth, will be Smolinski's last. “Springfield has taken much of the joy out of running a local municipality,” she said, citing a “constant threat to our income and the way we do things.”
An avid motorcycle rider, she's looking forward to literally riding off into the sunset with husband Don on his Harley.
Selfie
State Sen. Mike Noland takes son Lucien to the school bus stop in Elgin.
Have a happy, restful Labor Day, all.