State lawmakers pay tribute to late Wheeling trustee

If it was up to Trustee Ken Brady, Wheeling would be renamed after the late Bob Heer.

Brady, though, knows the moniker might cause some head-scratching, especially when giving directions to new visitors.

"But that would cause a little confusion to say Heer (pronounced kinda like "here")," Brady said to laughter at a village board meeting this week. "'Where?' Heer."

It was a moment of levity in an otherwise somber tribute to Heer, who was elected to the village board in 1995. The retired Buffalo Grove police officer died on Christmas Eve after a stroke.

State Reps. Carol Sente and Elaine Nekritz, as well as state Sens. Terry Link and Julie Morrison also were on hand.

"A man of talent and ambition, Bob made vast contributions to the Land of Lincoln," said Morrison, reading from a proclamation by former Gov. Pat Quinn.

Brady ended the ceremony by handing Heer's family a special sign that temporarily renamed Community Boulevard "Honorary Bob Heer Way."

"This is probably I would say a textbook Wheeling family," he said.