Board candidates on ballot win big

The three Village Board candidates who appeared on the ballot on Tuesday all cruised in earning new two-year seats.

Incumbent Pete Anzia received the most votes with 256 and Trustee Clem Gottsacker got 247, according to unofficial results.

Plan Commission member Don Gotcher got 225 votes.

Registered write-in candidate Anthony Graykowski received 28 of the 43 write-ins cast, Village Clerk Julie Lesar said.

Incumbent Gail Kowalkowski did not seek re-election.

Gottsacker and Gotcher both said they want to pave the portion of Silver Beach Road that goes into the industrial park.

“It would bring business and it would help with expansion out there of existing businesses too,” Gottsacker said. “It would raise our tax base. I know it’s an investment, but I think it would pay off.”

Gotcher said the road could spur other growth as well.

“I think we could become a little bit bigger community with a grocery store, for starters. I do think there would be other individual small businesses that would take a look at us,” he said.

Anzia said the price tag of paving the road is too much for taxpayers to handle right now.

“I feel we can’t afford that at this point. We have Main Street to take care of first,” he said. “It’s well over $3 million to do (Silver Beach Road). I don’t know if the village could handle that much more expense.”

The Village Board had delayed the project, citing the Main Street reconstruction project that was driven by the state.

The second and final phase of Main Street work is slated to start in early summer. Pre-construction work has already begun.

Graykowski said people encouraged him to run for the board. He said he’d like to land a large company to bring in supplemental businesses, and he is concerned that his taxes have gone up 25%.

“I don’t want to be priced out of a village I moved to. In my opinion, it’s a middle class community and it’s affordable,” he said.

Trustees receive $60 per board meeting and $40 per committee meeting.

Turnout was 32%, with 415 of 1,302 registered voters casting their ballots, according to unofficial results.

This was the second time the village used its new voting booths, which are easier to handle and can be folded up into the size of a briefcase.

One person can set up and take down the new booths, Lesar said, as opposed to the three people to assemble the old ones.

The Village Board in February unanimously approved buying eight used voting booths for $1,636. Municipalities are required to have one booth for every 200 registered voters.

The village first used the new booths in the February primary election.