Few candidates for Village of Roscoe Trustee positions

By Jean Seegers
REPORTER
Trustee Kevin Muradian will not be seeking another term on the Roscoe Board of Trustees. The April 4, election ballot will have only three names listed: Two incumbents: Sue Petty and Stacy Mallicoat; and Mark Szula who is running for the first time.
Sue Petty has served on the board for eight years. She said she sees a lot of improvements and signs of progress since coming on board.
Of major concern to all of the candidates is the question of building vs, repairing the village police department building. Petty said is concerned about inadequate funds. “Yes, we need a new building,” Petty said, “But I don’t think this is the right time.”
At the March 23, meeting, Petty and Trustee Rob Baxter voted against going forward with the new build.
Over the last eight years, Petty said she has been involved with bringing new industries to Roscoe including the global headquarters of All-World Machinery Supply.
Road repair and the rebuilding of the South Main service/frontage road are current projects.
As a board member, Petty is involved in negotiations to bring Camping World and Thorntons Family Travel Center to the Willowbrook-Rockton corridor, and in the selection of a new village administrator.
Stacy Mallicoat has served two-four year terms on the board. He is running again because he believes it is his civic duty to do so. “I want to continue as a trustee because I like to serve,” he said. “Don’t complain if you don’t want to do something to make it better.”
In his first term, Mallicaoat was involved with the restoration of parks in the village and a new park in Chicory Ridge Subdivision. “Leland Park was in bad shape. We were able to make repairs and bring some of the other parks up to snuff.”
Mallicoat was instrumental in the construction of the new village hall in 2007.
In his next four year term, he would like to see more improvements to Chicory Ridge Park and in the new Denali Subdivision development.
Roads are an on-going issue, according to Mallicoat. “We need to put money aside to keep the 60+miiles of road in the village in good repair.”
Mallicoat has consistently lobbied for a new police department building rather than repairing the present building. He said less costly options are being looked at to scale down the previous plans.
Mark Szula has been a Roscoe resident since 2015. He is a heavy equipment operator and has been the business agent for local 150 international union of operating engineers for the past 11 years.
Szula decided to run for the trustee position because he believes in getting involved in the community. “I have never held a public position before, but I would like the opportunity to make a positive difference in the Roscoe com-munity,” he said.
Szula stated that he believes in term limits and plans to run for no more than two terms.
He said he isn’t in a position to comment on the subject of a new police department building at this time. “I don’t believe it’s fair to make a statement about it until I learn more about it.”
“I am interested in budgets and taxation, but right now I need to see how small government works in the village.”
Szula is a proponent of keeping roads in good condition. “Businesses will flourish if the roads and infrastructure are in good shape.”
He is the father of two daughters and grandfather of a baby girl. He owns a home in Chicory Ridge Subdivision.
There are no official candidates on the ballot for Village Clerk. However, Village resident Heather Wenstrom recently filed to run as a write-in candidate.