February primary features two Republican candidates for Algonquin Township highway commissioner

Two Republican candidates are duking it out for a shot to appear on the April 6 ballot for Algonquin Township highway commissioner.

The winning candidate among Robert “Bob” Bragg and Danijela Sandberg will face off against independent candidate Derek Lee in the spring, McHenry County Clerk Joe Tirio said.

The three-way race for supervisor and this one for highway commissioner are the only competitive races on the primary ballot. The township’s assessor and clerk jobs also are up this cycle, and so are four trustee seats.

Richard S. Alexander is running for reelection as the township’s assessor, and Maureen Huff is hoping to become the next clerk, as the township’s current clerk, Karen Lukasik, decided not to run again.

Republicans running for the township’s four open trustee seats are Edward J. Zimel Jr., Millie Medendorp, Teresa Sharpe Decker and Theresa Fronczak.

In the race for highway commissioner, Sandberg said she decided to run because it felt like the natural next step. She currently works for the township as a road district administrator, meaning she fills in for current Highway Commissioner Andrew Gasser when he is away, she said.

Bragg said he threw his hat into the ring because he saw a need to “clean things up” after multiple incidents led to the township having to use taxpayer dollars to cover legal fees.

He said he feels his professional background working in construction and managing several Holiday Inn hotels will lend itself well to the role of highway commissioner. Bragg also served as a Cary village trustee from 2011 to 2015.

The highway and road maintenance piece of township government is directly overseen by the highway commissioner.

Bragg said he is running with the goal of making better use of taxpayer dollars and would do so by facilitating more coordination with neighboring townships to see where services could be shared or to get multiple bids on a project to reduce costs.

“I think the biggest thing is making sure our roads are safe when you’re driving on them, whether they need to be plowed or repaired,” Bragg said. “The biggest thing in my area of expertise is to make sure that’s done properly.”

Sandberg said that if elected, one of the first things she would do is change the township’s electronics recycling program to have electronics manufacturers pay for the cost of recycling rather than taxpayers footing the bill through a process called original equipment manufacturer recycling.

She estimated this would free up about $65,000 to put toward improvements to local roads.