Two incumbents running again for Elburn village board

The Elburn village board will have at least one new trustee this spring.

Of the three incumbents whose four-year terms are ending, Craig Swan is stepping down. Incumbents Tom Burgholzer and Jeff Humm are running for re-election. Kenneth Anderson Jr., David Gualdoni, Jerry Schmidt, Rob Swartz and Jeffrey Walter are also vying for positions on the six-member board in Tuesday's election.

Burgholzer is seeking his third term and points to the opening of the Metra station, the arrival of Jewel-Osco and the building of the Walgreens drugstore as the three biggest accomplishments of his years on the board.

As for the future, he said he "won't go into" the building of the Anderson Road bridge over the Union Pacific Railroad tracks, saying, "That's going to take awhile."

Burgholzer wants to make sure the sewage treatment plant is well-maintained and expanded when necessary. He also wants to improve stormwater management.

"The growth will start coming back, and when it does, we need to work with developers to help pay for expanding (the sewage plant)," he said. "And we also have to figure out what we can do to eliminate flooding. Somewhere our system is failing. We need to find out why."

Humm points to the removal of radium from the water system, the opening of the Metra station and the commencement of replacing train whistles with stationary horns as the board's biggest accomplishments in the last four years.

Humm, 58, was appointed to the board in 2003 to finish a two-year term and was elected in 2005.

Humm also believes flooding and sewage treatment plant expansion are important issues.

"The plant is 20 years old and not well-maintained," he said. "When growth comes back, we'll have to make a decision on whether to expand it. With this economic downturn, we have time to think about it and we should do some long-range planning."

Gualdoni says attention to infrastructure, and to public works in general, is needed. He cites upgrading the sewage treatment plant as his No.-1 priority, including installing a backup generator so that, if electrical power is lost during a storm, the plant continues to operate, keeping the system from backing up into people's basements.

"We can't forget about the old problems. They will not go away unless you fix them," he wrote in a Daily Herald questionnaire.

Walter believes village leaders should be more active in luring businesses and residential developers to Elburn, lining up projects that are ready to go when economic times are better.

"The board should not sit back and wait for the economy to turn and development to start again," he wrote.

Walter, too, thinks the village's infrastructure, including its storm drainage, must be a top priority, even as he urges expenses to be cut in other areas.

"Revenues should be focused on infrastructure-related work," he wrote.

Anderson is concerned about how the village will continue to provide services if its revenue decreases, but said he doesn't have a particular item or service in mind for cuts.

He too thinks sewage and drainage problems are a top priority that may be fixed with a variety of solutions, from better maintenance of manholes to the removal of illegal sump pump connections.

"Can we get it 100 percent fixed? Maybe not. But 80 percent would take care of the flooding from rain," he said.

Swartz has been critical of the time it's taking to build the Anderson Road bridge, and wants the village to annex and encourage more development on the edges of town, while at the same time working to ramp up sales-tax-generating business around the Metra station.

Getting the Anderson Road bridge built is Schmidt's top priority.

"Elburn residents waste a lot of time and fuel" sitting on Route 47 in downtown, waiting for trains to pass, he said.

He also wants the village to work for more development around the Metra station, such as stores and condos, and for hotels and stores along Routes 38 and 47.