Breyer, Rosenberg fighting it out for final Arlington Hts. board seat

Twenty-two votes is all that separates Bert Rosenberg and Norman Breyer. Once it is sorted out, one will stay on the Arlington Heights village board, the other will go home.

Trustees Joe Farwell and Tom Glasgow and architect Jim Tinaglia were easily elected Tuesday night to three of the four available seats. Glasgow got 7,423 votes, Tinaglia, 7,290, and Farwell 7,262.

But with all 64 Arlington Heights precincts counted, Rosenberg has 6,536 votes and Breyer 6,514. Rosenberg said that’s too narrow a margin to declare victory, and said he’ll wait until the absentee ballots to be counted.

That could take weeks, according to the Cook County clerk’s office. Absentee ballots will be counted if they come in inside the next two weeks but are postmarked by April 8. There are also provisional ballots to be examined.

Both Rosenberg and Breyer are accountants who have been on the board 12 years — Rosenberg since 2001, Breyer in the 1990s and re-elected again in 2005.

“I kind of suspected it would be between the two of us. We’ve always been neck and neck in races,” Rosenberg said. “If it ends up that I lost, then the best man won.”

Breyer said he’ll be disappointed to lose. “I would like to have another term to see some projects through.”

Village President Arlene Mulder said she will be sad to see either leave the board, but she trusts the voters.

“The good thing, I guess, is that we get to keep one of them, but they’ve both made significant contributions to our village over the years,” she said.