Eleven seek DuPage County Board post
Eleven candidates have applied to fill former DuPage County Board member Debra Olson’s seat until after the fall election, including the Wheaton woman who’s expected to be the GOP nominee for the position.
County board Chairman Dan Cronin is planning to name his choice for Olson’s replacement in time for the full board to take a Jan. 24 vote on the appointment. But first, he is hosting a public forum next week to give the candidates the opportunity to make their pitch for why they should represent District 4 for the remainder of Olson’s term, which ends Nov. 30.
“We want to engage the community in the appointment process,” Cronin said of the forum, which is scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. Jan. 17 in the auditorium of the county’s administrative building, 421 N. County Farm Road, Wheaton.
Meanwhile, the county released the names of the 11 individuals hoping to replace Olson. They are: William Bedrossian of Wheaton, Erin Birt of Wheaton, Alan Bolds of Wheaton, Amy Grant of Wheaton, Patricia Kermend of Glen Ellyn, Chris Levan of Winfield, Laurel Schmidt of Wheaton, David Molitor of Glen Ellyn, Nicholas Cipriano of Glen Ellyn, Kaaren Oldfield of Glen Ellyn and Ronald Almiron of Glendale Heights.
The District 4 vacancy on the county board was created last month when Olson resigned to become executive director of the DuPage Homeownership Center. And while the Wheaton Republican filed nominating paperwork before her resignation, she said this week that she won’t seek re-election during the GOP primary in March.
That leaves Amy Grant and incumbents Grant Eckhoff and JR McBride to face two Wheaton Democrats — Dan Bailey and Charles Ditchman — in November’s general election. At that time, three seats will be up for grabs in District 4, which includes all or parts of Addison, Bloomingdale, Carol Stream, Glen Ellyn, Glendale Heights, Lisle, Lombard, Wheaton and Winfield.
Because she’s the only non-incumbent Republican in the race, it comes as no surprise that Grant would like to be appointed to the board now.
“It only makes sense for me to apply for the appointment,” the 56-year-old Wheaton resident said Tuesday.
Grant, who until recently was a volunteer coordinator for U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam, said she would like to get a jump on being a county board member. “I could get a running start,” she said.
Among the Republicans looking to prevent Grant from getting the appointment is Alan Bolds, who last week received the endorsement of the Milton Township Republican Central Committee.
Bolds said he’s “uniquely qualified” to represent District 4 because he served on the Wheaton City Council from 2003 to 2007 and was a Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200 school board member from 1997 to 2003.
“The county over the next 10 months has some important decisions to make,” Bolds said. “It helps the county board to have someone who can make a contribution on Day 1.”