Trustee Judith A. Sigwalt

I have some unfortunate news to report. Trustee Judith A. Sigwalt has broken her leg. Her ailment was first diagnosed as gout, but she later found out that her leg was broken. I did call Trustee Sigwalt today after learning of her misfortune to offer my best wishes to her for a speedy recovery. During our conversation she informed me that she had indeed broken her leg and aggravated the injury due to being told that walking on it may help. She had to under go surgery to fix the break and will be unable to attend our next Village Board meeting on Tuesday evening, October 21, 2008. She also asked me to inform the public that she would’ve been at our meeting, but due to her surgery, she is of course unable to attend. My thoughts and prayers are with Trustee Sigwalt at this difficult and painful time.

UPDATE: Tusteee Sigwalt did indeed attend the Village Board meeting. Apparently, she came to voice her opposition to my posting her condition on this blog. Even though she had made a point to me that she wanted the public to know of her condition, it seems obvious that she is not in favor of full disclosure. Sorry Judy, when I tell the story, I tell the whole story. What part do you object to?

Sunday Fun In The Park

Carpenter Park is the place to be Sunday, October 19, 2008. This will be the site for the first ever OktoberCross.This is a combined event offering some fun for everyone. The event will begin at 10:00 a.m. and last until 5:00 p.m. with the 4th annual Cyclocross race that brings in participants from all over the Chicagoland area. This race is sponsored by Main Street Bicycles.  Jeff Provisor, the owner of Main Street Bicycles has been the sponsor of this Chicago Cyclocross Cup series race for the past four years. This is a fun event.

This year due to some bad weather earlier in the season the Park’s Committee decided to join AutumnFest with the Cyclocross race making it a duel event.

This year’s OktoberCross will feature the European Style bike race with live music, a climbing wall for youngsters, a moon walk and other fun games and events. There will be a beer garden, provided by Randall Road House they will even provide the Chicago Bears game on TV for US avid BEARS fans and many food vendors will be on hand to provide something for everyone. There will be three bands performing throughout the afternoon. They are Brave Nu Soul, Chaotic Harmony and Midnight Run. This year’s event will also offer fire safety demonstrations by the Carpentersville Fire Department.

Everyone is encouraged to bring a non-perishable food item or two for the local, Friends, I Shall Help [F.I.S.H.] Food Pantry. There will be volunteers from FISH on site to collect your food items.

Come out this Sunday to Carpenter Park, raise a stein of beer, eat a brat and toast the racers. The weather forecast is predicting a wonderful day for an outdoor festival. Come out and enjoy the park the fun and many wonderful people. I hope to see you there.

Carpentersville Must Have A Plan

Okay, I’ve tossed out some ideas here, but that’s not going to get the job done. To succeed, WE must have a true PLAN. A plan that is set in place and is followed. It must also have some flexibility to it to adjust to changing market pressures and situations. So, the plan itself must be evaluated on a regular basis and tweaked if necessary. This obviously is NOT a complete PLAN… But, it is a start. As you read through this post you will undoubtedly notice the word cooperation often. All PLANS must have cooperation to work.

Here is MY plan. Now, I want everyone to realize this is MY plan, not necessarily the plan of the Village. I would obviously support the Village’s adoption of this plan. I have spoken with Village Manager, Craig Anderson about us developing a comprehensive strategic plan to help improve our Village.

1. We must do a much better job of combating crime. Our Police Department must find ways in which we can finally end this cycle of gang crime.The public must feel safe at school in their neighborhoods and while shopping in this community. We need to crack down on violent crimes, vandalism, loud music, and those who are known gang bangers must be put on notice that a new day has dawned. It must be made crystal clear they are not welcome in Carpentersville. They will be watched and arrested if caught breaking the law. We also must have better cooperation from the general public. We need more active neighborhood watch programs set up.  Public cooperation is vital to any crime program’s ultimate success. Our police need YOUR help!

2. We must do a much better job of enforcing our Village codes. Code enforcement must be fairly and judiciously used to help clean up this Village. No more endless extensions can be given to violators for month upon month, year upon year. We must impose reasonable deadlines for compliance and follow up and take appropriate actions. Above all, code enforcement should never be used as a political favor or to punish anyone. Everyone must be treated equally. All politics must be cleaned out of this department. If we are serious about cleaning this Village up, we must be willing to use code enforcement to bring run down properties into compliance with our current codes. We cannot allow businesses or the general public to NOT keep their property maintained. This must be diligently enforced by our code department. I can cite many examples of where this has not been done in the past. But, moving forward, I will disregard the past actions or inactions to get results in the future.  

3. Our Engineering department must be willing to work with business owners/developers to help them comply with ALL regulations. While at the same time, we must not add further burdens on these business owners who are trying to improve our community.  The following goes in the column of helping to fight crime. We must have a street light program to replace burned out street lights and to install NEW street lighting in every neighborhood and every park. Good lighting is vital to helping to eliminate crime. This must be a key part of an overall program to improve the looks and livability of Carpentersville.

4. Economic Development, is not the job of only the Economic Development Coordinator. We must approach this vital revenue generator as a cooperative effort to provide an environment that is conducive to attracting and retaining business. Economic development also involves planning itself. Proper professional planning is key to preparing a location for redevelopment or future new development. Engineering, Crime Prevention and Code Enforcement ALL play a big part in a solid economic development plan.

If we are going to be serious about revitalizing Carpentersville, we must do it in a way that is goal oriented and will truly get at the heart of the problems in our Village. We must create a workable plan and follow it. We must track that plan to see how effective it is working. We must set goals and deadlines that can be redily gauged to determine how effective the plan is working. In other words this must be a Village wide plan of attack. We cannot succeed if ALL our departments are not willing to work toward a single minded goal. That goal is SIMPLE - A Better Carpentersville for all of us to live.

We have the tools to get this job done. What we must decide is how are we going to use these tools. When I speak of a PLAN, I’m talking about an overall approach to correct past mistakes and to create an attitude in our Village of cooperation between the departments that will bring about a transformation of our Village government and OUR Village. Village staff must work together. The Village Manager must lead. He is key to the success of any plan put into place. After speaking with Village Manager, Craig Anderson about this plan, he was in agreement with the concept. If we are willing to ALL work together toward a common goal there should be a noticeable difference in our community in the very near future. Many of these things do not require any new money. It only requires a dedicated effort be made by key departments. Let’s begin today!

What’s The Goal Of This Blog

It may be time to explain to those who do not fully understand the purpose of this blog.

I believe it is useful to explore ideas. To toss new ideas into the mix to get public reaction to them. Usually, offering an idea will cause others to think about that idea and come up with some very good ideas of their own. This type of “on-line” dialog has become very popular in the past several years. It’s a good way to get feedback and to stimulate thought.

This blog since its conception on May 5, 2008 has had over 16,000 views. Granted, some are return viewers , but this blog is reaching a very wide audience. It is read by elected officials, the media, developers, business owners and just regular folks. I want to hear from all of you. Only then can I get a good feel for what the people truly want. You can post comments and remain anonymous. Or, you can post comments using your real name. I leave that up to you.

Please, do not think that what’s been posted here, by me as an idea, is something that is going to happen. This is a forum for dialog and ideas. Sure I also do post news items. There should be no mistaking those from ideas that I’ve posted. For example: If I’m announcing an event that is to be held or giving you information on “breaking news” those should be easily seen as an announcement of a “news worthy” piece of information.

Some ideas are news worthy from the stand point that they do express my views on a topic. There is nothing wrong with the Village President expressing his personal point of view and even to say that he is going to ask staff to do certain things to explore those ideas. That’s my job as the Village President.

I’m working every day to improve this Village. I retired from my “day job” to do just that. After my election, I retired after 31 years of service to the State of Illinois to devote a great deal of my time to do the job that I was elected to do. I could have chosen to continue to work for the state and do this job merely part-time, but I felt what needed to be done in Carpentersville deserved a more meaningful commitment to that task.

I’ll keep putting out ideas and news and you keep checking back when you can to get updates on those ideas and news items. Let’s work together to improve Carpentersville. We CAN do it.

Carpentersville Needs a “CAN DO” Attitude!

Since being elected Village President in the spring of 2005, I’ve learned a lot about Carpentersville. That knowledge has been a great help in my understanding of what has held this Village back for so long.

We lack that essential “Can Do” attitude that is so important to civic pride and the ultimate ability to get things done. No one ever achieved anything in life without the courage or willingness to make an effort, to try.

Unfortunately, this same attitude has infected some on our staff. For the most part we have a very good staff who want to see this Village improve. I remember shortly after being elected, commenting to some staff members that I had never seen a place with such low expectations as we have here in Carpentersville. I mean how many community’s would have put up with the decades of deterioration of their streets and sidewalks? This went on in many sections of the Village for well over 30+ years. That’s unheard of in my book. While this was going on, the same people continued to run for Village board and continued to get reelected. Unbelievable! My campaign slogan was “ A New Vision for a Bright Future “. This is more than a slogan to me. This is my promise to our Village.

Our former Police Chief asked after I’d been elected if I was planning on running again. I told him at the time I wasn’t sure. That was an honest answer. He told me that I should consider it seriously, because what needed to be done could not be done in one term. I now understand exactly what he meant. Government can move very fast or it can be painfully slow. Carpentersville seems to move slower than most other municipal governments. I do know why, but I will not get into that here. It is important however, for me to understand the reason. Understanding the problem is how solutions are found.

I’ve heard far too often why we can’t do things. I’d like to hear far more often  HOW WE CAN GET THINGS DONE. We need a new spirit of hope and optimism instilled in our Village. We also need to have a much more positive outlook. We do need to recognize what’s wrong, but not only realize it, but find ways to fix it. We have tremendous challenges ahead of us. I find that exciting. It’s an opportunity to show what we are made of here in Carpentersville. It’s OUR time to shine.

Our staff must find solutions: We must bring new business to the Village. To do this we must be willing to work with developers. We must not make it so costly or so obtrusive that they are forced to go some place else to open their business. We MUST work with them. The final goal is to attract good business and not give away the Village in doing so. We must protect safety issues and standards, while finding ways to hold down costs to the business owners. That takes some thinking and some willingness to be creative. Sometimes just going by the book doesn’t work. Anyone who thinks you can make money without spending some is badly mistaken.  What must be weighed are the benefits to the costs.