Billy Dean Saylor: 2025 candidate for Carpentersville village board

Bio

Office sought: Carpentersville village board (Vote for 3)

City: Carpentersville

Age: 63

Occupation: Retired Postmaster; also working part-time at Ace Hardware in Carpentersville

Previous offices held: Currently serving on the village’s audit and finance committee as well on the planning and zoning commission

What is the most serious issue your community will face in the coming years and how should the village board respond to it?

As our community grows, I see the most serious issue are jobs in our community, good paying jobs, that people can build a career. Our malls are disappearing because of Amazon, so we need good jobs in manufacturing as well as stores. Our village needs to look to where we can build nice medium to small manufacturing jobs.

And hopefully manufacturers can look at our community to build here, and bring a future to our youths in our town. That they can make a living and hopefully a home here in our community. And they can be proud of themselves, and have a good life in Carpentersville.

How would you describe the state of your community's finances? What should be the top priorities for spending during the next few years? Are there areas of spending that need to be curtailed?

Well, I do sit on the audit and finance committee, and Mayor Skillman has our village in good shape financially. I was totally impressed when we had our audit and finance meeting back in November. I know we have been spending moneys in the community I live in, the Meadowdale area, streets and sidewalks have been replaced, also in the area of Old Carpentersville as well. Sewers as well.

I believe we should stay the course and finish these areas that are older, to do the repairs and help our homeowners out, to keep them updating and repairing their homes. If you are proud where you live, you tend to get more involved in your community.

What do you see as the most important infrastructure project the community must address? Why and how should it be paid for? Conversely, during these uncertain economic times, what project(s) can be put on the back burner?

I believe I have answered this question in my statements above answers. The older homes in the Meadowdale area, need updating. Some of them still have Masonite walls, and the studding in the homes are not up to code, some have 2x3 walls still. Most of these homes, the electrical wiring is totally out-of-date, and old fuse boxes need to be updated to breaker boxes.

I believe our village may look at contractors, that can give the homeowners a break in price, if we can assure the electrical contractors to get more homes for work. The contractor would get security of a high volume of homes, to make his or her business profitable, plus give the citizens a price they can afford to update their homes.

The greatest commodity of a village is the people that live there, and if they are proud of their homes, they will be more likely to stay, and get involved in the community.

Describe your experience working in a group setting to determine policy. What is your style in such a setting to reach an agreement and manage local government? Explain how you think that will be effective in producing effective actions and decisions with your village board.

I usually sit back, listen to all sides, so I can make the most educated decision. Being a postmaster, I would hear the union’s grievance first. After they had their say, I would ask for a few days before handing out my decision. This way I could go through the pros and cons, and not a knee-jerk reaction. I would rather see as much information I can before jumping in. This has been working as well already in my role in planning and zoning.

What makes you the best candidate for the job?

I have the time. I have had the experience in union matters. I was a union rep before I became a postmaster. I do know how to negotiate, because not everyone sees the situation from the same angle. And sometimes you have to make an equitable decision for both sides to be comfortable.

Plus I was born and raised in this town. I have raised my three boys in this town. I have love for this town to be successful, and to be better. To do the job justice, for this town, you have to love this town and put the time into it.

To me, it’s not a steppingstone, to get to another means. Nor is it a steppingstone to proceed into a bigger picture to get into politics. It’s not a rung in the ladder for me. This is my town!

What’s one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?

Well, I think I already talked about it. By helping the citizens with upgrading their homes. Everyone probably wants to bring in more businesses for our town, which creates more money for the city. But if we invest in the citizens, they begin to love it as well, and their frame of mind or their thoughts of the bad things of the city erase. We gave them a helping hand to improve what they see every day, not some water fountain in a park somewhere.