Lake Barrington hopefuls debate gas station's approval
Though all six candidates for Lake Barrington trustee largely agree the Speedway gas station at Route 14 and Kelsey Road is a done deal, the biggest debate in this year's campaign is over how public input on that issue was heard and considered.
Vying for the three available seats on the village board April 7 are incumbents Andrew Burke and John Schaller, and newcomers Lou Incandela, Christopher Pearson, James Thompson and Agnes Tomasian.
Incandela, Pearson and Tomasian are supporting one another on a platform calling for better communication with residents and stronger consideration of the public's will by the board.
Pearson said he was amazed the board approved Speedway after spending about seven hours listening to an audience of 300 people vehemently opposed to it.
"I would at least give them the satisfaction of saying, 'We hear what you're saying. We need to get together, we need to go over those points, to come back and discuss it with you again,'" Pearson said. "I don't think they took into account anything those people said."
Tomasian favors increasing competitiveness among local businesses but believes a development aimed more specifically at the Lake Barrington community and helping bring it together - like a restaurant or movie theater - would have been a better choice or that site.
"Why build something that people are opposed to?" she asked. "I felt that a lot of the concerns brought to the village board's attention were disregarded."
Incandela said that chief among opponents' concerns were traffic impacts and underground gas tanks contaminating the aquifer that residents depend on for water.
"As trustees, I think you have a fiduciary relationship with the people," Incandela said. "You're there to represent them. They told you they don't want this thing there. And what happened? Boom! It's there."
Thompson, who said he knows and respects incumbents Schaller and Burke, said he wants to be more involved with the community and believes he has the objectivity to represent the public well.
"In a sense, the Speedway issue really brought that to the top of my mind because it was very interesting to me, all the back and forth about what it was and should it be approved or not approved, etc.," he said. "I felt that my ability to look at all the facts and not be emotionally involved in something would give me a good perspective to be able to be a trustee for the village in future issues."
Thompson said he doesn't know how he would have voted on Speedway if he'd had all the information trustees did, but he added that the issue wasn't his inspiration for seeking a board seat.
Burke said he recused himself from voting on the Speedway plan to avoid the appearance of impropriety, given that he's met Speedway officials through his job, even though he doesn't directly do business with them.
But he strongly defended the process the village employed for the proposal. All issues and concerns were rigorously addressed by the plan commission over multiple meetings before the village board voted, he said.
"I can assure you there isn't a person on that board, myself included, that if any study said you're going to have groundwater issues, you're going to have pollution issues, you're going to have light pollution issues, you're going to have traffic issues, who would say, well, the revenue stream is more important than these other concerns," Burke said. "It was actually the opposite. We felt every one of those concerns was listened to. We felt every one of those concerns was addressed."
Schaller, who voted in favor of the Speedway plan, also defended the integrity of the process.
He considers the fact that most village board meetings are sparsely attended to be a sign that the majority of Lake Barrington business is being conducted to residents' satisfaction.
Anyone in touch with all aspects of governing would recognize that an openness to economic development is one of the village board's responsibilities, he said. And it's more difficult for a small town like Lake Barrington to be competitive with larger towns for new business, he added.
"It's important to develop retail where you can, if you can do that," Schaller said. "It's practical to attract retail where we can."