Here are 7th Ward candidates Terri Heinecke and Rich Reis introducing themselves.
Heinecke’s interview was done over the phone Wednesday. She is recovering from an illness and was unable to meet for an interview.
Click here to read the preview.
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Here is a video of 6th Ward candidates Jim Musolino and Susan Peters introducing themselves.
Both are hoping to replace long-time Democratic Alderman Raymond “Skip” Vahlkamp who choose not to seek an eighth term.
Click here to read the preview.
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Age: 43
Political Party: Democrat
Family: Wife, Lori; Children, Ben, Simon and Sam
Occupation: owner of JH Concrete Construction Inc.
Political Experience: Appointed by Mayor John Spring to replace Ken Sparrow as 7th Ward alderman in June 2006; ran unopposed in 2007 and was elected to fulfill remainder of Sparrow’s term.
Other Interests: member of Blessed Sacrament Church
Top Issues:
• Abandoned property. “We have so much trouble with abandoned properties. When I used to get a call from someone saying this house needs to be torn down, I was like, ‘Just tear the sucker down.’ But we can’t just take people’s property. People don’t understand the course you have to go.”
• Sidewalks. “People want them fixed, but they don’t want me to let their neighbor know they were the ones who called to complain.”
• Property taxes. “That’s a big one. I get a lot of calls from people saying, ‘Why did my property tax go up?’”
On the future of hydroelectric in Quincy:
“I’m highly, highly for it. I haven’t talked to anybody who was against it. Quincy is so fortunate to have someone like (Mike) Klingner (with Klingner & Associates). I call him ‘The Mark Twain of the Mississippi.’ That guy knows the river. From what I’ve heard, they can’t believe this wasn’t done years ago. Now’s a good time to get in, with the federal government and all this green energy. As far as the money, I believe there will be a greater return on our investment. I think it’s gong to be something phenomenal.”
On how the city handled the firefighter controversy:
“I thought it was handled properly. You can’t bury it under the rug. I thought (Mayor John Spring) handed it the proper way. Those guys, that’s why they were represented by a union. The money that was spent (on lawyers), yes, it was a tremendous amount, but I don’t think you could have brushed it under the rug. If it could have went to the courts, that’s one thing, but any time you’re with an arbitrator, either you win or you lose.”
The last word:
“I do so much traveling with my job, and when it comes to the economy, Quincy hasn’t seen nothing like other parts of the country. It’s hard times out in Ohio. In Quincy, they lost a few hundred jobs at Knapheide and Gardner Denver, but when you see a place that shuts down 3,000 jobs in Ohio, now that’s huge. I know people are asking, ‘Are we going to get the jobs?’ Well, we’ve got Prince and Fitzpatrick coming in. There’s some places I’ve been where there would be people would love a job at Sam’s.”
Age: 48
Political party: Democrat
Family: Wife Patty and children Andrew, Megan and Dakota.
Occupation: owner, Bauer Auto Center, 609 Jefferson, for 19 years
Political experience: Completing his first four-year term as alderman; appointed to replace 40-year council veteran Eugene “Smoky” Mueller in 2005, ran unopposed in 2005
Other interests: Members of St. Francis Church
Top issues:
• Sidewalks. “We get a lot of people requesting sidewalks. Either they haven’t had them, or they are in disrepair. It seems that here lately, we’ve run out of time as fas as getting them done through the summer. We’re always asked to put down the six highest priorities on a list. It’s not unusual for your request to be on a list for a couple of years.”
• Abandoned property. “We’ve been knocking down about three a year in our ward, and it’s about all the money we have to demolish old places. (Before being named to the City Council,) I just assumed that people abandoned their houses so we could just knock them down. Well, you can’t just go do that. There’s more in our ward that we need to do, but you just run out of time and money. I have probably got five or six already in the works right now, and it wouldn’t surprise me if there’s not another 15 or 20 more.”
• Streets. “We’ve got streets that are in dire need of repair. Some we’re holding off on, because we know the sewers are in bad shape. There are some part of College between 20th and 22nd where the sewers are bad there. There also are a couple of places if we could just fix the curb and gutter, we would have a whole section of some streets done instead of just a little bit here and there.”
On the future of hydroelectric in Quincy:
“I’ve always been in favor of it. I don’t know that the city needs to be in the electric business or even plans to be in the business, but they need to pursue it to where they can sell it off or lease it out. Maybe you let an electric company lease it. It’s a thing of the future. From all the designs I’ve seen, I think it’ll work. Nobody’s convinced me yet that it won’t work.”
On how the city handled the firefighter controversy:
“I guess some complained they didn’t hire Quincy attorneys, but I know Quincy attorneys were working with someone who specialized in this area. The firefighters have a whole other set of rules you have to follow, and we did everything that we felt was right. If people agree with the outcome or not, well, there isn’t much you can do about it. It was an expensive ordeal, but I don’t know if it was handled wrong.”
The last word:
“I’ve enjoyed (being an alderman). It’s an interesting job. There’s things that you just don’t understand how long it takes to get some of the stuff done. For example, we’ve got houses that need to be torn down or fixed or flattened, but there’s a year of legal stuff to go through to get that done.”
Age: 68
Political party: Republican
Family: Divorced; children Carol, Mark, Robert, Daniel and Joanne; 11 grandchildren.
Occupation: retired; was self-employed doing accounting work in St. Louis County for nearly 35 years
Political experience: Election judge; served as Adams County coordinator for Steve Sauerberg’s failed campaign for the U.S. Senate seat in 2008
Other interests: Once belonged to several organizations but didn’t continue membership after retirement; volunteer for RSVP and Salvation Army.
Top issues:
• Disclosure in city government. “I want to open documents to the city through the Internet and have a budget posted so people know where the money’s being spent. There’s no compiled voting records of these (councilmen) to tell you what they’ve done. Trying to find something is impossible. I went to City Hall to get figures for the budget, and I was told I would be charged 25 cents per page. That’s not an open budget to me. … What few city council meetings I’ve been to, I’ve seen freight trains go slower through town than these meetings last.”
• Gutters and sidewalks. “We’ve got better alleys than we do streets. We’ve got streets that don’t have gutters or they don’t have sidewalks. We have to be careful about infrastructure, because the sewers are probably 75 to 80 percent too old. You can’t do something with street repair until you fix the sewers.”
• Abandoned property. “We’ve got abandoned houses galore.”
On the future of hydroelectric in Quincy:
“I know it’s a lot of money being spent and not too much has been done. I would love to see it come in, but I would like to see the city run it rather than sell it off to CIPS. This is one way we can lower the utility rates for the city, but I haven’t had too much backing on Quincy running it.”
On how the city handled the firefighter controversy:
“I couldn’t believe that when the committee met, they didn’t have a union contract in hand. We spent $400,000 on a Chicago attorney to find out we couldn’t fire them? That’s absolutely asinine ridiculous.”
The last word:
“(The campaign is) tough, there’s no doubt. At my age, it’s hard to go door-to-door, but I’ve got people working for me. Every bit helps. I’m not out doing a lot of fundraising. What money I’ve spent was given to me by the party, and I’ve done a couple of mailings. But I’m enjoying it, especially when people are willing to talk to me about problems.”
Age: 48
Political party: Republican
Family: Husband Greg, children Maranda, Lacey, Nathan and Matthew, five grandchildren.
Occupation: co-founder of White Fire Ministries International, Inc., a not-for-profit outreach program that started out of her home in 1987 to help people in the 1st Ward; motivational conference speaker in the United States and Kenya; pursuing a degree in clinical psychology.
Political experience: none.
Other interests: member of board of directors for Wingspread International, a North Carolina publishing firm; member of the advisory board at Quincy Catholic Charities.
Top issues:
• Streets. “Sidewalks are a big issue for me. I see kids walking to Washington School on dirt. I’ve got seniors at Lampe Hi-Rise who say they’ve been waiting 12 years to have a sidewalk replaced. We have a lot of streets with no curbing. Street trash also is an issue. It’s a health issue for the kids.”
• Safety. “We have trouble with gangs. We just had a robbery here recently three blocks from my house. I’d like to see a push for the Neighborhood Watch program. It just seemed to fizzle out. I also want an ‘Adopt A Block’ program. It’s used in other cities. Residents and organizations adopt blocks and clean up things. Our neighbors will begin to learn to care about other neighbors, and you’ll start watching out for your neighbors. We’ll send a message that we won’t tolerate crime.”
• Spending. “I’m a conservative. I ran a not-for-profit on a shoestring. I believe in volunteers, and I believe in this community, and the spending on the city budget is out of control.”
On the future of hydroelectric in Quincy:
“I’m a visionary, and I understand what they’re trying to do. I live in a neighborhood that has critical safety issues, but it’s kind of like this. I want to take a trip to Italy, and it would better me culturally, but if my roof is leaking, I need to fix my roof first before I take my trip to Italy. The city should be involved with getting the permits and studies, but I don’t think the city should be involved in running it. We need to take care of the needs we have.”
On how the city handled the firefighter controversy:
“I didn’t think it went well. The women weren’t treated fairly because of the union issues. If what they did was wrong, they should all have consequence. I would have used an inside attorney. If I’m going to spend $400,000, we have awesome attorneys in town. Let’s filter that money into our community. I almost felt like it was a black eye to our attorneys here.”
The last word:
“(LeXze) is a nickname I was given years ago. I never go by Glenda. It’s just a nickname my sister started calling me years ago. It doesn’t mean anything. We just had pet names for each other. It just kind of started as a joke. My parents don’t like it, but everybody else does.”
Age: 80
Political party: Democrat
Family: Wife Mary, children Michael, James and Bradley (deceased), six grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren.
Occupation: retired; worked for Heetco for 42 years
Political experience: Completing his third four-year term as alderman; appointed to replace Gary Sparks in 1992; ran unopposed in 1997 and 2005; defeated Republican Robert Anderson 672-252 in 2001; defeated Ronald Hinkamper 644-507 in 1993.
Other interests: Member of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church and Fraternal Order of Eagles; worthy past president of the state of Illinois Eagles, now state secretary for all 68 Eagles clubs in state; past president of North Side Boat Club.
Top issues:
• Sidewalks. “Most of them are bricks, and they need to be replaced.”
• Streets. “This is the oldest ward in the city, and everything is old. We need a lot of stuff replaced. You can’t let it go downhill. I’ve spent a lof of ward money to keep this going. Last year, we spent $162,000 on repairs to streets, and we’ve got a lot of them earmarked in the next year. But they can’t be done until you get engineering done on it. It doesn’t happen overnight.”
• Accessibility. “I never forget to return a phone call. If you don’t call me, I don’t know what you want. I have my own cell phone, so if they call my house and I’m out doing something else, call me if you think it’s necessary to call me. That’s why I got it. I never forget to return a phone call. If you don’t return calls, it upsets people.”
On the future of hydroelectric in Quincy:
“It’s not going to happen overnight, but I’ve voted to get it this far. As far as the city of running a hydroelectric plant, I don’t think it’s necessary, but if we acquire the license, someone else can (run) it. This could take many, many years, and we need the dam repaired. (U.S. Rep. Phil) Hare said when he was here that he’s going to try to get it redone, but you know how that works.”
On how the city handled the firefighter controversy:
“I’ve been out talking with people, and only a very few people even mention it. Most of them have forgotten about it. It’s definitely not the first thing they bring up. They want to know if I’m going to fix their sidewalk or cut down that tree. When it first happened, as far as us alderman, we didn’t have any say. You have the city and the union and all that to work with. We only have a say when it’s time to pay the bills.”
The last word:
“I’ve lived in this ward for 58 years. Unless someone just moved in here, I probably know every family who lives here and their families who were here before them.”
