This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Politics & Government

VanderSchaaf Wins Seat on Park District Board

Victorious commissioners look forward to their challenges, citing the future use of Hubble Middle School as one of the biggest.

For the first time in nearly 10 years, a woman will sit on the Wheaton Park District Board of Commissioners.

Kim VanderSchaaf received 19.9 percent of the vote to win a spot on the board.

“I’m so excited to serve the community and the parks in this way,” VanderSchaaf said Tuesday night following the final count of the votes. “I owe all this to my supporters. It’s not possible for me to sit on the board without their help.”

Find out what's happening in Wheatonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

VanderSchaaf said it is important for a woman to serve on the board. She said 52 percent of Wheaton citizens are women.

“I think the park district and all the other boards out there need to be more representative of the population,” VanderSchaaf said.

Find out what's happening in Wheatonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The other female candidate, Ginny Christensen, lost.

Five candidates vied for four seats on the Park District Board of Commissioners. A total of 20,806 votes were cast in Tuesday’s park board election. Besides VanderSchaaf, winners are Terry Mee, Phillip Luetkehans and Ray Morrill.

VanderSchaaf said she is looking forward to the next four years as a commissioner.

Before taking her seat next month, VanderSchaaf said she plans to sit down and study the park district budget. She said it’s a confusing document and wants to have a firm grasp on where the park district finances stand. Additionally, she is waiting to see what will happen with the Hubble Middle School. She said she is anxious to see how the bid process turned out.

Also anxious about Hubble is Mee, the current board vice president, who earned 19.27 percent of the vote. Mee said he is looking forward to his second term in office. During his first four-year term, Mee said the board had a lot of successes, including renovations at Northside Park. But, he said the next four years include an unmet challenge about what to do with the Hubble Middle School property. Mee said he wants to see the board solidify its use of the facilities at the school, particularly the gymnasium and the use of the ball fields.

“We’ll have to see what happens with that when the bid process is opened in a couple weeks,” Mee said.

Incumbent Luetkehans garnered the largest percentage of support with 23.64 percent of the vote.

Like Mee, Luetkehans said his main goal is to resolve the Hubble Middle School situation. He said he wants to see the park district maintain a large portion of the property for public use, as well as see private development of the property on the corner of Naperville and Roosevelt roads.

Luetkehans said he is pleased with his first term that saw accomplishments at Northside Park and profitability at Arrowhead Golf Club. He said he wants to continue building on that success in his next term.

Calls to Morril, the current board president, were not returned. Morril garnered 19.96 percent of the vote.

Christensen was the low vote getter, earning only 17.25 percent of the vote. She said she was disappointed she did not win a seat on the board, but believes the parks are in capable hands.

“I believe the board and the director have done a great job by watching their finances, which is tough in this climate. I’m pleased they’ve looked into the future and have taken into account that lower housing prices means there will be fewer dollars to spend,” she said.

A former village commissioner in Carol Stream, Christensen said she ran a low key campaign, which may have hurt her name recognition at the polls.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?