House divided in Manteno

MANTENO – Tuesday’s municipal election in Manteno signaled not only a changing of the guard at the top with Annette LaMore defeating Joel Gesky for mayor, but it also spoke for change in the village in northern Kankakee County.

With Interstate 57 intersecting the village on the western edge and its proximity to Chicago, Manteno has been ripe for commercial and industrial expansion in the past few years.

The announcement of the Gotion lithium battery factory taking ownership of the vacant Kmart warehouse in September of 2023 divided the village of 9,200.

LaMore’s Manteno Freedom Party was sparked by its opposition to the Gotion plant. She won the mayor’s seat with 55.5% of the 2,767 votes cast, not including mail-in ballots.

The Freedom Party also won two of the three village trustee seats that were up for election.

“These numbers are amazing,” said Paul Motel, who ran as a Freedom Party candidate for village trustee, of the vote totals. “For grassroots candidates to stand toe-to-toe with a five-term trustee running for mayor, this is [amazing]. I am proud of being a part of this history here.”

On election night, LaMore referenced a Manteno Vedette story, an online newspaper, where Geksy said Gotion was good for Manteno – it was key in the election.

“I know he’s done some good things, but his pro-Gotion stance hurt him,” she said.

On Wednesday, Geksy said it absolutely hurt his campaign.

“That was their whole platform – Gotion,” he said. “There was not a single other thing brought up by them. You look at the whole countywide elections, [Bourbonnais] Mayor [Paul] Schore is out because they made up a story about him putting Gotion workers in the Cigna building. That’s OK. I’m still sitting in that [trustee] chair for two more years, so I’m not going anywhere.”

Motel is currently one vote behind fellow Freedom Party candidate Michael Barry for the final trustee spot (1,287-1,286). The winner will be determined once all the mail-in ballots are counted after the April 15 deadline.

Freedom Party trustee candidate Peggy Vaughn had the highest total with 1,515 votes, followed by incumbent CJ Boudreau, of the Manteno Choice Party, with 1,316 votes. Choice Party’s Annette Zimbelman had 1,215 votes and Sherri Crawford 1,194.

“We have to keep moving forward,” Boudreau said. “People have spoken, but we have to find a pathway to going forward.”

LaMore said Tuesday she had already spoken with Boudreau.

“He plays euchre with me on Thursday nights sometimes,” LaMore said. “I saw him and I said, ‘CJ, it doesn’t matter whoever gets elected, we’re all going to work together, because our goal is to do what’s best for Manteno.’ ”

What is best for Manteno will likely be up for debate moving forward with the Choice Party still holding four of the six board seats. Is the Freedom Party going to vote against all and every industrial development that is presented to the village?

LaMore has said she is against projects that would be a threat to the safety and security of Manteno residents.

Gesky said as a board, it is in favor of “controlled development.”

“If you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backwards,” he said. “We don’t want to live in Buckley. If we do, move down there, there’s no development there.”

Motel said during public comment at Wednesday’s Plan Commission meeting, “the people spoke” on Tuesday in the election and there will be changes moving forward.

Lawsuit

The Concerned Citizens of Manteno are entrenched in a lawsuit with the village of Manteno over the change of zoning for the Gotion plant at 333 S. Spruce St. in Manteno from light industrial to heavy industrial.

LaMore was the driving force behind the suit for the Concerned Citizens, but she said she’s stepping away from that role.

“Because now that I’m going to be aligned with the village and the village is part of the lawsuit, I have to walk away from that,” she said. “But if I have the votes on the board to stop our support of Gotion, I would definitely stop supporting Gotion because I don’t think it’s good for us.”

The next hearing in the case was scheduled for April 28, but it has been continued until May 14.