Four seek GOP nod for two DuPage County Forest Preserve seats
The entire leadership of the DuPage County Forest Preserve District will be up for grabs during the November election. Due to redistricting last year, all six district representatives on the board of commissioners - plus the president position - are up for election.
Before that happens, Republican voters on Tuesday will select their party's nominees for two forest preserve board seats.
Don Krause of Lisle and Kelli P. May of Villa Park are vying to become the GOP nominee in District 2.
Krause is retired and wants to use his background in marketing to improve communication between the forest preserve board and residents. Krause also suggested that he wants the voters to have more of a say in the forest preserve's spending by putting the issuance of certain bonds up for referendum.
May is a District 45 board member and a stay-at-home mom. She wants to increase education about the forest preserve district and focus on fiscal accountability.
The District 2 seat currently is held by Lombard Democrat Tina Tyson-Dunne.
District 2 includes parts of Oak Brook, Lisle, Villa Park, Elmhurst, Lombard, Downers Grove and Westmont.
Incumbent Al Murphy of West Chicago and challenger Louis Addante of Wheaton are facing off in the Republican primary race for the District 6 seat.
Addante has spent his career as a DuPage forest preserve police officer for nearly 28 years. Addante plans to retire later this year and wants to continue to share his years of experience in the forest preserves by switching to an elected role. Addante would also like to convert a small pond at Blackwell Forest Preserve into a kids-only catch-and-release site.
Murphy is a former West Chicago alderman who was first elected to the forest preserve board in 2014.
He says he wants voters to have more say in the forest preserve district borrowing money through bonds via referendums. He also is interested in projects that would link the West Branch trail to the Blackwell Trail and establish a reforestation policy.
The winner of the GOP primary in District 6 will face former Winfield Village President Erik Spande in November.
Most of Winfield and Wayne townships are in District 6, including the towns of Winfield and large portions of Warrenville, Carol Stream and West Chicago.