Township trustees have record of success

As Elk Grove Township Supervisor for the last four years, I am proud of what my township board consisting of trustees Dale Niewiardowski, Dick Keenley, Brian Maye and David Perns has accomplished. In four short years their achievements have included the expansion of our mental health programs to include two new therapists, no-cost psychiatric services and an additional youth services facilitator to assist with social skills, suicide prevention and girl empowerment classes held at the Township and in District 57 and 59 schools.

They have also added a new senior benefits specialist, a veterans service office, expanded the senior transportation fleet to four buses and opened a community services office for passports, notary services and various licenses. At the same time, the board has successfully met the challenge of a dramatically increasing community need for social services that includes a 150% increase in applications for low-income financial assistance and an increase in families served by our food pantry of 340%.

Their success in tackling the rapidly growing demand for assistance and identifying and addressing new needs is reflected in Elk Grove being named the Supervisor and Township of the Year by the Illinois Social Service Caseworkers Association. The township has increasingly become an essential primary provider of community social and mental health services. All the while, the board has exhibited exemplary fiscal discipline. Despite the new initiatives and expansion of services, the township’s share of the resident’s property tax bill is less than 1%. A percentage that has stayed virtually unchanged for over 12 years. I strongly believe that if experience, performance and financial responsibility matter, these outstanding trustees should be reelected on April 1.

George K. Busse

Mount Prospect