Morton Grove Mayor Debate Tackles Hot Topics

After Harvey Silverman, the president of the Woodlands Condo Association in Morton Grove, opened the mayoral debate Thursday evening, candidates Dan DiMaria and Larry Gomberg both set a friendly tone by saying that they respected and liked each other.

That set the stage for a relaxed discussion with about 40 people in one of the condo building common rooms at the Woodlands, a community of condos and townhouses east of the Morton Grove train station, and south of Lincoln Avenue.

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Both of the candidates spoke passionately about the need for economic development in Morton Grove, with DiMaria saying that as mayor, he would personally reach out to upcoming businesses to woo them to come to town.

Gomberg took a slightly different tack, saying he would work with the village's professional staff, including the economic development director, to lay the groundwork for businesses to come in. 

AUDIENCE QUESTIONS AND CANDIDATES' ANSWERS

Question from audience member Carl Lieberman: Morton Grove needs to do something about its library, whether it's modernization...or that "dirty word", a new library. Would either of you do something about it?

Gomberg: 

After clarifying that the Morton Grove library is a separate government from the village, with a board and its own taxing authority, Gomberg said, "We’re talking as citizens, not as someone who can actually bring about a new library. At one point we were talking about selling some of land we own to the library to build a new library, but that did not pass."

If the library board wanted a new library, the village could try to accommodate them by working with them to find a new place for them, if it was land the village owned, he said.

DiMaria: "They are their own board, however, if I was mayor and this came up, I would have dialogue between the village and library. If they wanted a new library and residents were behind it, it’s beneficial to have a successful library in your town.

"Part of being mayor is to work with the  library  board, park board, schools, people. You have to have a running dialogue, when things come up."

That prevents duplication of services, he said.  

Question from moderator Harvey Silverman: What if the library were to buy neighboring businesses and incorporate that space into the library, and they could go up a few stories.

DiMaria: It’s a library board issue.

Gomberg: But if the library board said 'we'd like the village to help,' we could do that through a network of connections with the village, brokers, etc. 

Question from audience member:  What do you think about the possibility of a recycling plant on Oakton, both as a garbage transfer station and a recycling center. Assuming we meet the federal standards.

DiMaria: The Lakeshore (Waste Co.) issue was not handled property by the village from the start. People should have been informed immediately from day one. This is where the concept of the town hall meeting comes in. Lakeshore should have been in the room, with residents there to ask questions.

State and federal laws actually overrule the village. We were setting it up from the village so we have the opportunity legally to say yes or no. But that was never explained to the people.

Lakeshore never applied for a permit for what they wanted to do; it never came to fruition.The recycling is now the issue.

Audience member: They could come back with the original.

DiMaria: The info we have today is they want to have a recycling plant.

So the village could set it up so they could explain, what kind of recycling is it going to be? Plastics? Construction materials?

I wouldn’t allow anything in our town that would decrease property values. If it’s aginst your health, I’m not going to vote for it.

Audience member:  Do you think any type of recycling operation would be good for property values?

DiMaria: Probably not, so I would vote against it. But I need to see all the facts.

Gomberg: For reasons of transparency, I would form ad hoc commissions so citizens would have input before it gets to be a big issue.

Dan’s talking about a town hall meeting, I’m talking about using our economic development  commission, poss members of the environmental health board. An ad hoc commission is a temporary commission formed for a specific purpose.

The Lakeshore people would have to come before this commision and explain, this is what we want to do.

There were 100 people complaining in village hall; no one wants to see that. It gives the impression people aren’t being listened to. The ad hoc commission would listen.

We passed legislation to buy a building on Lehigh for $1,050,000. Who knew about it beforehand?  Well, the commission would handle things like that. 

I’m not going to leave any stone unturned in communicating with the public. We’re hearing too much of 'we can’t' and …we should be investigating to see how can we better communicate with residents.

Question from audience member: A lot of our side streets are in bad shape with potholes. What are your intentions?

DiMaria: It comes back to ecoomic development. You get businesses in town, that's the first thing. Andy’s (Andy DeMonte, public works director) doing the best he can with the funds he has.

Gomberg: You mentioned not enough money for infrastructure improvements.

There are people in Morton Grove who would say, raise my taxes a little bit, to buy the right materials, to pay the employees so we can get the streets paved; instead, with the current mayor, for philosophical reasons, we haven’t raised the property tax levy. In my opinion, we should be asking people, are you willing to pay more taxes, 1 to 2 percent, to pave the streets? Not 10 percent or anywhere near that amount.

DiMaria: I did vote to raise the levy a few years back because it was the right thing to do at the time. But it’s too hard right now. This is not the time. The answer is economic development.

Read more in Part Two, running tomorrow, in which audience members ask about developing a downtown in Morton Grove, and candidates paint their visions of it. Also, they present their ideas about how to get more businesses in town.

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