Applicants Make Pitches for Oak Lawn Village Board Vacancy at Public Forum

Five residents step forward to fill former Trustee Jerry Hurckes' seat on the board. Deadline for consideration is Friday, Sept. 23. Dist. 1 residents have until Oct. 1 to contact the mayor with their recommendation for trustee.

A pair of real estate brokers, a home healthcare worker and a local business booster made their pitches Tuesday evening before about 100 residents to fill a vacancy on the Oak Lawn Village Board. Residents from Dist. 1 gathered at Harnew Elementary School on the west end of the village in a public forum hosted by Mayor Dave Heilmann to help select their next trustee to replace Jerry Hurckes, who resigned from the village board last month. “This is your trustee, not Dave’s trustee or the other five board members’ trustee,” Heilmann said. “I want this to be as open and democratic as we can possibly do so that when you walk away, no matter who becomes the trustee, you’re thinking only one thing—that it was fair.” Hurckes resigned less than …

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Public Forum on Oak Lawn Dist. 1 Trustee Vacancy Is Tonight

Mayor says only one resident has expressed interest in the village board vacancy, but he thinks others will step forward at the public forum at Harnew Elementary School.

Oak Lawn residents living in District 1 are invited to weigh in on their next village trustee tonight (7 p.m.) at Harnew Elementary School. Mayor Dave Heilmann, who must appoint a new trustee to take the place of Jerry Hurckes, who resigned from the Oak Lawn Village Board in August, is hosting a public forum for interested applicants. “The idea is to do something in public and to give people the opportunity to express their opinion on the person they want as representative versus it coming from the mayor or board members,” Heilmann said. “We live in a society that is very distrustful of government, and rightfully so.” “I’m hoping this will be a nice meeting for people and a nice gesture for airing out the process,” the mayor added. …

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Mayor Wants Dist. 1 Residents’ Input in Selecting New Trustee

Oak Lawn Mayor Dave Heilmann wants interested applicants for the Dist. 1 trustee's seat to speak to residents at a community meeting and says he will take residents' recommendation to the village board.

Mayor Dave Heilmann wants Oak Lawn residents to be part of the selection process when he appoints a new village board trustee to take the place of Jerry Hurckes, who resigned last month. Hurckes, who represented Dist. 1 on the Oak Lawn Village Board since 1998, resigned last month to go back to his old job as chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL). Hurckes’ last day as a village board trustee was Aug. 31. A community meeting for Dist. 1 residents will be held at Harnew Elementary School, 91st Street and Meade Avenue, starting at 7 p.m. Sept. 20. According to Illinois law, the mayor must appoint a new trustee within 60 days from when the vacancy occurs. After that, the village board must act to approve or reject the appointment. …

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'That's What You Said'

Readers Speak Out About Politics, Property Taxes, Brunswick and Other Sidetracks

Top reader comments for the week of Aug. 8 through Aug. 13.

The fine art of conversation is alive and well on Oak Lawn Patch. Readers had plenty to say this week. U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, whose 1st Congressional District now includes several blocks of Oak Lawn west of Pulaski, may be feeling some heat reaching out to suburbanites who never voted for him before. Readers also sounded off about the plummeting reassessment values in Worth Township. A reader asked why his property taxes continue to go up if his home has gone down in value. We were happy to see Trustee Bob Streit’s intervention in the Brunswick conversation at Tuesday’s village board meeting preventing another recounting of the bowling center’s troubled past. Trustee Streit was correct in saying that all of the “up the banger” discussion …

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Hurckes Rides Off Into the Sunset, Says Goodbye to Residents

Fellow Oak Lawn Village Board members and residents send departing Trustee Jerry Hurckes off on a wave of praise. Hurckes is resigning as village trustee to go back to work for U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski.

On what was supposed to be the last Oak Lawn Village Board meeting that he had to suffer gladly, Trustee Jerry Hurckes sat with a smile on his face Tuesday evening. “It’s 10:05 and I haven’t had dinner,” Hurckes said. “I won’t miss these wonderful, long evenings.” Hurckes announced his resignation last week after serving 12 years on the Oak Lawn Village Board to go back to his old job as Congressman Dan Lipinski’s chief of staff. His last day as trustee is Aug. 31. Fellow village board members and residents praised Hurckes as a dogged public servant who raked leaves for senior citizens, treated residents like family and always had time to take a constituent’s phone call, even if it interrupted dinner. It was a model of service that Hurckes…

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Lorraine Swanson

4:21 pm on Friday, August 12, 2011

You mean the Emmys.   more ›

This Week’s Coolest Stories That You Didn’t Read

Stick with us and you won't fall behind.

Sometimes the news moves pretty fast on Oak Lawn Patch and certain stories don’t get the attention that (I think) they deserve. Here are the coolest stories you may have missed this week. Take a few minutes and tell me what you think. At the start of a month-long religious holiday, a vice president at the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview, the largest in the Chicago area, tells us what Ramadan means for Muslims -- Jesse Marx.   The man behind the stacks: James Casey will soon celebrate 20 years as director of the Oak Lawn Public Library -- Justyna Kruk.   Oak Lawn Mayor Dave Heilmann hopes to fill the vacancy left by the Dist. 1 trustee 'sooner rather than later.' Hurckes resigned from the village board on Wednesday -- Lorraine Swanson, Oak …

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Editor's Notebook

What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding: Village Board Prepares to Appoint New Trustee

Patch breaks down the appointment process for a new village board trustee—and we did it without lawyers.

With Trustee Jerry Hurckes set to resign next week, what’s next in terms of filling the village board vacancy? The mayor and village board have until October to appoint and approve someone to fill Hurckes’ seat representing the village’s 1st District, according to the Illinois Municipal Code. Hurckes plans to serve until Aug. 31, when his resignation from the village board officially takes effect. After that, the sweepstakes begin. Mayor Dave Heilmann has indicated that he wants to start the process of filling the vacancy sooner rather than later. “We’ll take applications or letters of interest from anybody in the district,” Heilmann said. “We’ll set up a time to discuss qualified candidates and make a recommendation to the board.” Source…

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Mayor Says Nice Things About One-Time Political Foe Jerry Hurckes

Oak Lawn Mayor Dave Heilmann hopes to fill the vacancy left by the Dist. 1 trustee 'sooner rather than later.' Hurckes resigned from the village board on Wednesday.

Mayor Dave Heilmann seemed somewhat at a loss for words when contacted Wednesday afternoon for his reaction to his former adversary’s resignation from the Oak Lawn Village Board. Heilmann and Trustee Jerry Hurckes once opposed each other in a bitterly fought campaign for village mayor in 2009. Words were exchanged and mud was slung. On Wednesday, Hurckes emailed a letter to Heilmann and fellow village board members saying he was resigning as Dist. 1 trustee effective Aug. 31. Hurckes, who recently took back his old job as chief of staff for Congressman Dan Lipinski (D-IL), cited time demands. “I had to make a decision of what to do in my life,” Hurckes told Patch. Heilmann said Hurckes’ resignation was not unexpected. The trustee asked to …

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QC

3:15 pm on Friday, August 5, 2011

Don't throw stones kneeling down boy!   more ›

Village Trustees Take Oath of Office

The cast of characters on the Oak Lawn Village Board remains the same, at least until 2013.

It was a wild election season of lawyers, electoral board hearings, an aborted referendum petition, and a stunning near-upset by a write-in candidate – but the cast of characters on the Oak Lawn Village Board remains the same, at least until 2013. Oak Lawn trustees took their oath of office for another four-year term at Tuesday’s village board meeting. The tone of acceptance speeches was conciliatory, filled with hugs and even a few buses on the cheek as the newly sworn in incumbents pledged to work together for the betterment of Oak Lawn. Trustees Jerry Hurckes (Dist. 1), Bob Streit (Dist. 3) and Carol Quinlan (Dist. 5) were sworn in by Oak Lawn Village Clerk Jane Quinlan. Each thanked their families for putting up with their absences …

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Oak Lawn Candidates Make Their Pitch -- Part 2

Incumbents and challengers Oak Lawn district trustee seats answer residents' questions at candidates forum.

Trustees Bob Streit (3rd District) and Carol Quinlan (5th District) went toe to toe with their challengers—write-in candidate Dan Sodaro and Pete Quattrocchi, respectively—before an audience of 100 residents in Richards’ Little Theater. Streit and Quinlan are both business owners; Sodaro is a twice-elected school board member of Ridgeland Dist. 122; and Quattrocchi brings extensive business experience in the private and public sectors. Here are some more soundbytes from the Oak Lawn Village Board Trustee candidates forum at Richards High School on Wednesday evening: Do the village board trustees get medical insurance and do you feel this is appropriate for a part-time position? Term limits. Good or bad? What do you think is causing all of …

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