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Editorials
Another busy year of transitions : Editorials : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisAnother busy year of transitions
| 2012 proved a year of transitions in the Oswego-Montgomery area:
| 12/27/2012
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This was the year the Oswego School District Board hired a new superintendent, Dr. Matthew Wendt, a veteran educator from Ankeny, Iowa, to replace Dr. David O'Donnell who had earlier resigned from the district citing philosophical differences with the school board. Along with Wendt, the district hired several new administrators to replace those who had also left the district for other opportunities over the past year.
Also in 2012, contractors for the school district began work on additions for both Oswego East High School and Oswego High School. The expansion projects will serve to increase the capacity of the two schools to 3,000 students each. Meanwhile, the district continued to gain more students. The district's enrollment grew by more than 500 students from November 2011 to September. As of September the district's enrollment had surpassed 17,700.
An administrative transition also occurred in Montgomery were Anne Marie Gaura's 12 year run as village manager ended when the village board voted 4-2 in April to terminate her employment. The vote came even though Gaura still had a full year left on her contract and over the objections of local business leaders and retired Police Chief Dennis Schmidt. The board later named Jeff Zoephel, the village's long-time finance director, as acting village administrator and made Jamie Ludovic, assistant village administrator.
Still more change in the administration of the village will come next spring when Marilyn Michelini steps down after a 12 year run as village president. Michelini announced in November she would not seek a four term, prompting board members Bill Keck and Matt Brolley to announce their plans to seek the village's top job in the April 9 election.
More recently, the board agreed after years of discussion, to finally proceed with replacing roughly three miles of aging water mains in the unincorporated Boulder Hill Subdivision. The much needed project should improve water quality in the subdivision and significantly reduce the number of water main breaks reported in the subdivision every year. The better quality water, however, will come at a price. Village officials said they expect they will have to increase the water bills for Boulder Hill customers by $15 per month to pay for the project
In Oswego, the village board hired Steve Jones, an experienced municipal manager, as the village's new administrator, while the director of the village's fledgling in-house economic development department left his job after just 14 months in the position.
The continued operation of the village's Metra Park-n-Ride lot was assured for a few more years when the board voted to hire KAT (Kendall Area Transit) to provide bus service to the facility, replacing Pace. KAT will provide additional trips to the Aurora Transportation Center for Metra riders and at a cheaper cost than Pace.
After two years of discussions, the board voted to award a contract to relocate a water line along Ill. Route 71. The project is necessary as part of the state's plan to widen Route 71 between Route 34 and Orchard-Minkler Road. However, a complication arose two weeks ago when the contractor who submitted the low bid for the project filed a lawsuit against the village. The board's vote to award the project contract to the second highest bidder prompted the suit.
As the year draws to a close, both the Oswego and Montgomery Village Boards had received recommendations from their staffs that they need to budget more for long-term capital improvement projects like street re-surfacing. Neither board, however, has yet to act on the recommendations, likely due to concerns over raising taxes.
The primary and general elections served to transform the Kendall County Board. Voters elected five new members to the board, including two Democrats: Amy Cesich of Yorkville was elected to her first board term, while Elizabeth Flowers was re-elected to a second term. Flowers was the first Democrat ever to be elected to county office when she won her board seat in 2008. The board lost perhaps it most outspoken member in the primary, when Anne Vickery of Seward Township was defeated. Another long-time and highly quotable board member, Robert Davidson, Jr., lost his bid seat in the November general election. After the general election, the board elected John Shaw of Yorkville as the new board chairman, ending John Purcell's occasionally stormy tenure as chairman.
Progress was made on two significant local public infrastructure projects in 2012. Contractors for the Kane County Division of Transportation completed the widening of Orchard Road between Jericho Road and U.S. Route 30 in Montgomery in October. Recently, contractors began moving utilities for the long-planned widening of U.S. Route 30 between Briarcliff Road in Montgomery and U.S. Route 34. Contractors for the state are expected to begin work totally rebuilding the busy, crumbling highway next spring.
Two extraordinarily tragic local criminal cases were settled this year. In September, Thaddeus LeSure, 25, was sentenced to 50 years in prison for the June 2009 arson fire in a home on Riva Ridge Drive in Montgomery. LeSure's cousin and brother died in the blaze. In November, Christopher Vaughn, 38, formerly of Oswego, was sentenced to four life terms in prison for murdering his wife, Kimberly, and their three children off I-55 in Will County in June 2007.
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