Three candidates vying to be Fox River Grove’s president
By BRETT ROWLAND - browland@nwherald.com
FOX RIVER GROVE – Three candidates are campaigning to be the next village president in Fox River Grove.
In the race are village Trustee Paulette Pelletier, former village Trustee Suzanne Blohm, and Robert Nunamaker, a member of the village’s Planning and Economic Development Committee.
Acting Village President Cindy Cramer, who was tapped to fill the position after the death of Kay Laube in office last year, will step aside to finish the final two years of her term as a trustee after the April election.
Pelletier, 41, works as a civil engineering consultant, tax preparer, home inspector and real estate saleswoman.
She is finishing her first four-year term as a village trustee. Pelletier also serves on the McHenry County Council of Governments and the McHenry County Transportation Implementation Task Force. If elected to lead Fox River Grove, Pelletier said she would focus on downtown redevelopment, maintain a balanced budget, and assess and improve the village’s use of technology.
Pelletier said she was ready to step into the position of village president.
“I feel like I hit the ground running, and I have been very involved and have accomplished a lot of things that I wanted to get done,” she said.
Suzanne Blohm, 44, a part-time registered nurse, served as a trustee for the village from 1998 to 2003 and now hopes to return to public service after taking time off to raise her three children.
Economic development also tops Blohm’s to-do list. She said her top economic priorities were retaining existing businesses, promoting open spaces for new businesses, and new development and redevelopment in the downtown district. If elected, Blohm said she would also continue studying options for relocating the village’s public works department and expanding the wastewater treatment plant.
“We need to go back and re-evaluate all of the options presented to the village,” Blohm said.
All three candidates have expressed concerns about costly improvements to the village’s wastewater treatment facility, which could require relocating the public works department. The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to require the village to make upgrades to the treatment facility.
Nunamaker, 78, serves on the village’s Planning and Economic Development committee and previously served on the District 3 School Board and worked with the Cary-Grove Chamber of Commerce. If elected, Nunamaker said he would work to revitalize commercial and retail areas to raise the funds needed to improve roads, parks and the sewer and water system. But riding out the recession would be Nunamaker’s top priority.
“We need to get through this financial problem,” he said. “We are going to have less revenue coming in, and we need to have a balanced budget. Downtown redevelopment is secondary to the financial problems.”
Nunamaker said he would look at ways to curtail spending, including partnerships with other municipalities for providing services such as plowing and road salting.
The village president’s voting power is restricted to breaking a tie. The president serves a four-year term.
