Northwest Herald Campaign Questionnaire
Name: Andrew A Glab
Age: 67
Town: McHenry
Office sought: Alderman Ward 2
Occupation: Retired part-time retail
Education: Graduate of Gordon Tech High School
Elected offices held: Alderman Ward 2 for 22 years, McHenry Precinct 26 Committeeman for last 13 years, board president of the former Whispering Oaks Community Center for 10 years.
Questions:
1. What is your largest priority for McHenry if elected?
Keeping property taxes frozen while improving city services such as better maintained streets in our neighborhoods, and lobbying to have all the road tax dollars collected in our city to be used to improve our city streets. Every year, McHenry residents pay through property taxes over $1.8 million dollars to township roads of which the city receives approximately $360,000 back. I have brought this up to state leaders and plan to continue to lobby them to bring this issue to Springfield.
2. What changes should McHenry make in the future?
McHenry should incorporate Town Hall meetings to discuss larger issues facing us in the future. These meetings would inform more residents of what we as a city can or can’t do and why. Just as well it would give us an even closer look at the wants and needs of our constituents, such as what kind of businesses would be supported and therefore thrive in our community.
There are a lot of properties in our business districts, which remain empty and dilapidated, which brings down the looks of our city. I will be pushing for an empty and obsolete building ordinance, which would put more leverage on out of town building landlords. Some of which do use those properties as tax right offs and are not concerned how they affect us here in McHenry. The lumberyard on the corner of Crystal Lake Road and Route 120, along with the old Kmart/Sears shopping strip, are perfect examples. The longer these buildings sit empty, the more they are falling apart and becoming more costly to reopen for a business.
3. How do you feel about the city’s potential moratorium on additional vape shops and video gambling?
Vape shops at this time are only controlled as any other business, where they can open up with an occupancy permit. This business seems to be supported by our residents as the number of shops in town is growing. Making them a conditional use would force them to come to the City Council for approval and could be looked at on a one-on-one basis. In order to control the influence on our youths, more monitoring and stings need to be established such as we do with liquor and tobacco.
Video gaming is also a large concern by our residents as well as by our present city council. Right now, the state determines the criteria for whom gets approved for these machines. Our only control is through our liquor licenses. I agree with another alderman who proposed that anyone coming in looking for a liquor license needs to show that they are looking to open a business that could exist on its own without gaming.
4. How do you feel about the city’s handling of its gambling ordinance related to the VFW’s Queen of Hearts game?
In the last raffle at the VFW, several times the city council was asked to raise the limit in our ordinances to accommodate the escalating prize fund. The impact on the community as well as our police department was as overwhelming as the prize itself. On the March 4 meeting, the city council, with a representative from the VFW, discussed the future of this raffle and came up with a game plan to reduce the payout to eventually a limit of a million dollars. The VFW and the police chief have been in numerous conversations to come up with this plan which will limit the impact to our community while still affording the VFW a great fundraiser for a great organization.
5. How do you feel about the mayor’s involvement in this race?
There are laws that govern campaigning, I would hope that everyone would follow those laws so as to have a fair and honest campaign.
6. What else should voters know about you?
In the last 22 years, I have always held firm to the philosophy from my very first campaign, to be “of the people, by the people and for the people.”