Mark Gauf has been appointed to the Peoria Heights Village Board. He succeeds Dave Marfell, who recently tendered his resignation after relocating outside the Village.
Gauf, 64, will serve for the next year, at which point an election will be held -- in April 2023 -- to fill the seat for the remainder of Marfell’s original four-year term, set to end in 2025.
Gauf is a lifelong resident of Peoria Heights whose family “was in the Heights since there was a Heights.” He attended Peoria Heights High School, where he was a member of the first four-year graduating class in 1975.
Gauf worked in Public Works for the Village for 42 years, retiring in 2019. He has been very active in the community, serving for 12 years on the District 325 School Board, in addition to being Scoutmaster at Peoria Heights Troop 21 and a youth football, baseball and volleyball coach.
He and his wife of 42 years, Margaret, reside at N. 5124 Montclair Ave. They are the parents of two adult sons, Scott and Greg, and the grandparents of Amelia and Caleb.
Gauf said his Public Works experience could be an asset to the Village Board, particularly given the current review of the Heights Water Department and its needs.
“It’s tough for a small community to keep their feet under them and keep the budget under control,” he said. “The Village is on track financially and I hope we can continue that.
“We have a lot of opportunities in front of us.”
In other recent action:
The Board adopted the Village’s 2023 budget, which anticipates spending just over $4.6 million. Budgets also were approved for the Village Water Department and the Library at nearly $1.28 million and $532,000, respectively. The budgets are balanced.
Starting in May, the Village Board will be meeting twice a month – on the first and third Tuesdays -- rather than three times, starting at 5:30 p.m. instead of 6 p.m.
In addition, trustees will be permitted to attend those meetings and to vote remotely, a carryover from COVID, under the strict conditions of a sickness or otherwise disabling circumstance, a conflicting employment obligation, or a family or other personal emergency.
The measure passed 4-1, with Trustee Brandon Wisenburg in the minority.
“This normalizes remote attendance forever,” he said. “Citizens didn’t elect us not to be here ... It sets a really bad precedent.”
Mayor Michael Phelan indicated that while he doesn’t necessarily disagree with Wisenburg, “I’m not going to permit people to abuse this.” Meanwhile, this will permit the Village to conduct the public’s business in a timely fashion when unusual circumstances pop up, said the mayor, adding that he was confident in the board’s current makeup and the responsibility its members have shown to the tasks at hand.
Should any of that change, the board can rescind the policy at any time.
The Board approved a street sealcoating contract with R.A. Cullinan & Son for nearly $175,000 and a spray patching contract with D&D Pavement Solutions for just over $45,000. The Board also authorized the expenditure of almost $32,000 for beginning engineering and design work for the curb-to-curb milling and overlay of Forest Park Drive. It has been approximately 20 years since that was last done.