This is one in a series of stories looking at contested races in the Aurora area in the Nov. 5 election.
The race for the Kane County Board seat in District 18 in the November election is between incumbent Republican Richard Williams and Democratic challenger Sandy Kaczmarski.
The general election is set for Nov. 5.
Kaczmarski, 72, of Elburn, said in talking with constituents, issues in the district include concerns about the environment, retention ponds in the area and having more transparency.
The environment, Kaczmarski, “is a concern as this is a farming community.”
“People are concerned about the way crops are affected and feel more should be done,” she said. “I think in trying to protect the environment, it really affects everything, not just farming. It includes how much salt is put on roads and the run-off goes into the ground and then the roads need repairs.”
Kaczmarski said she has an environmental background and that people are concerned about the maintenance of Mill Creek and ponds in the area.
“Mowing and other things that are being done to maintain local areas or things they haven’t done to maintain them – seeing ponds overgrown with algae – those are concerns,” she said. “There are some environmental conservation ways of planting things to make these water areas cleaner and help the environment and also requiring less maintenance in keeping the retention ponds pleasant for the community.”
Transparency, Kaczmarski said, is important “given the contention with the election cycle this time.”
“People want their elected officials to be open and honest,” she said. “I think for the most part the Kane County Board is, and things are accessible, but we can always do a better job.”
If elected, Kaczmarski said she would like to work on social services, mental health issues and transportation.
“We need to do more in the way of social services – there is a growing need in Kane County. A lot of people are doing very well, and we have some great communities, but a lot of people are also struggling,” she said. “It’s no secret that affordable housing has been an issue a number of years. Our food banks have been overwhelmed the past few years, especially since COVID.”
Mental health, Kaczmarski said, is all about “having services available and accessible to people.”
“The Kane County Board has done a pretty good job of addressing some of those but there is also more we need to do,” she said.
Transportation means “maintaining our roadways and making them safe.”
“We have some areas where we are continuing to have fatal accidents and we need to look at those and keep roads maintained well throughout the year,” she said.
Williams, 54, also of Elburn, is seeking his second term on the County Board and said issues people are concerned about in the district include taxes, immigration and public safety.
Tax concerns, Williams said, “are about taxes being higher and why they keep going up.”
“That’s a fair question and the reason they keep going up is because of excessive spending by taxing bodies including Kane County,” Williams said. “In the past six years, Kane County has almost doubled its expenditures and it’s not a sustainable model and we need to get our house in order and live within our financial means.”
Immigration concerns include “having situations where buses from Texas have dropped off migrants without any direction on how to get to the city.”
“This has caused concerns in our community about immigrants just being dropped off in Kane County and where are they going and what resources are we spending in the county for them and how do we make sure our citizens are protected and safe as well as how are the migrants kept safe,” Williams said.
Public safety includes the road network, he said.
“We have some roads that could be safer and we have a limited amount of money to improve our roads, but there’s been a fair amount of car accidents over the past several years in the western townships and we’ve lost some kids from Kaneland High School,” Williams said. “We need do everything we can to keep drivers safe, especially our youth.”
If elected to another term, Williams said he is interested in doing a revamping of zoning ordinances, maintaining funding for the sheriff’s department and state’s attorney office and investing in public road infrastructure.
“One of my goals would be to revamp our zoning ordinance. We have one that is 80 years old and doesn’t really fit where we are as a community and I think we need to spend some time looking at that so we have responsible growth in the western townships,” he said.
Williams thinks continuing to fund both the sheriff’s department and state’s attorney’s office properly “is all about keeping our community safe.”
“Both of those entities have increased challenges due to the SAFE-T Act and their demands for services have dramatically increased,” he said. “We need to support both those offices so our communities remain safe and are viable to the criminal justice system.”
Investing in roads “is about road traffic safety,” Williams said.
“My main concern is public safety – growth is incidental and we need to take care of our current residents before we worry about our future residents,” Williams said.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
