Geneseo to elect mayor, council on Tuesday

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By Thomas Geyer | Saturday, February 2, 2008 12:46 AM CST | () comments

GENESEO, Ill. — Geneseo residents will elect a mayor and council members in city elections that piggyback on Tuesday’s primary ballot in Henry County.

The mayoral race pits incumbent Patrick Eberhardt against challenger Frances Delp, while in the 3rd Ward, incumbent Keith Kennett is squaring off against Karen West for alderman.

Current 1st Ward Alderman Ed Deener is running unopposed, as are 2nd Ward Alderman Linda Van Der Leest and 4th Ward Alderman Kevin Peterson.

Eberhardt said the most important aspect of the mayor’s job the next two years will be managing the budget.

“We’ve built a new municipal building that also houses the police station for $3.5 million,” he said. “We’re only a town of about 6,000, so that’s a big investment. We’ve had to add a new iron-removal plant to the water system and that cost $2 million.”

A feather in the cap of the town is the $6.2 million investment in two wind turbines for electricity generation, he said.

“We have our own electric department, and we’ve purchased two 1.5-megawatt wind turbines for a total of three megawatts,” he said.

Over the next year, he said, the city is trying to manage its budget and get the turbines built on 26 acres of land the city purchased along Interstate 80. Construction should be started this summer and completed a year from now.

The wind turbines will pay for themselves in nine years, and they have a life span of 30 years, he said. While the city buys most of its daily electricity from MidAmerican Energy Co., the wind turbines are expected to provide 12 percent of the city’s daily power needs.

Eberhardt, 52, a representative for Iowa Midland Supply Co. based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was an alderman from 1995 to 2005. He was appointed mayor in January 2005 to fill out a unexpired term and was elected mayor in 2006. He is a graduate of Moline High School and Western Illinois University.

He is being challenged by former city clerk Frances Delp, 51, who worked for the city for almost 15 years, the last five as city clerk.

Delp, a graduate of J. D. Darnall High School in Geneseo, said her main issue is the state of the city’s finances.

“I’m concerned the city’s current revenue stream will not sustain its debt obligations and allow it to proceed with planned future projects,” she said.

The city has about $12 million in bonded debt and that has to be paid for somehow, she said, adding that a different approach to managing the city’s finances needs to be found.

“I have learned during my campaign that many residents feel that the city is not headed in the right direction,” said Delp, who works part time for Sellman Insurance Agency.

“I’ve also learned that the residents are quite unhappy about the situation on the South Oakwood Avenue corridor,” she added.

She said the city issued permits for a strip mall, knowing the State of Illinois was going to perform work on that section of Illinois 82. The strip mall was built and businesses moved in, but access to the mall was restricted when the state started its work and the businesses suffered.

“In my opinion, the city’s lack of foresight is the major cause of the city’s problems along that corridor,” Delp said, adding that the permits for the mall should not have been issued until after the state completed its work.

“The knowledge and experience I gained during my 15 years with the city gives me insight into the issues raised by the residents,” she said. “I’m committed to implementing a less cumbersome, more efficient and more cohesive system of government.”

On the county primary ballot, the only contested races are on the Republican ballot for coroner, where incumbent David Johnson is being challenged by Carol Wiesman. The Democratic coroner candidate is Laura Heath. Also, in County Board District 1, Roger Gradert is challenging incumbent Karol Vail in the GOP primary.