Five people are running for two seats on the South Lyons Township Sanitary District board, one of the most crowded races in area elections.
Signs for all five candidates appear throughout the district, which includes Countryside and part of La Grange.
Mike Grace, 59, and Karen Dal Porto, both of La Grange, are the incumbents.
Molly Price, of La Grange and Countryside residents Scott Musillami and Claribel Quintana are challenging them.
All three challengers are known in the community.
Price stepped down earlier this year as longtime head of the La Grange Pet Parade.
Musillami, 65, a Countryside business owner, has been a city alderman since 2011 and serves on the School District 105 foundation.
Quintana, 42, serves on the city’s board of police and fire commission and is a member of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.
Musillami and Quintana are running together and share campaign literature.
“We thought we’d be stronger as a team,” Musillami said.
“We’re getting a lot of good people. Not too much negative. You can see a lot of signs for us,” he said.
Musillami said he will remain a Countryside alderman if elected to the sanitary district board. He has been on the City Council for 15 years, nearly as long as Grace’s 16 years with the district.
“This will be (term) number five. I started in 2010. I really kind of dig it, the progress that we’ve made,” Grace said. “I like having an active participation to do with the neighborhood. See what I can do to help out.”
Musillami and Quintana say it is time for new blood on the board. Both are running because no Countryside resident sits on it.
“Two-thirds of the district is in Countryside,” Musillami said. “We need representation.”
Grace sees the South Lyons Township Sanitary District as one united community.
“We’ve been one district. We don’t personalize the people who live in Countryside versus the people who live in La Grange,” Grace said. “We’re one great little neighborhood here.”
Musillami said that, if elected, he and Quintana would work for the entire district, not only Countryside.
Grace said the district has replaced or improved 90 percent of its infrastructure without raising the cost of service.
“Trustees prior to me had good planning, so we did have funds. … MWRD rates us as a top-rated sanitary district. We’re real proud of that. And having not raised rates,” Grace said.
Musillami said the infrastructure still needs more attention.
Price, 50, said she is running because she wants the board to be more transparent.
The board answers questions, she said, but she wants residents to get information before they need to ask.
Price has attended two board meetings over the years.
“They did a pretty good job answering my questions. I want to do more for constituents and I want to have a more informative web site and do some kind of informational piece, even if it uses the back of the bill to tell what they did that quarter,” Price said.
She suggested an annual survey of residents to identify problem areas for “a future plan to best serve residents of the district.”
“I don’t think they’re being communicative enough,” she said. “No one knows what’s happening.”
Musillami said he has heard that the district office sometimes does not return phone calls.
“At least answer the phone or return a voice message,” Quintana added.
Price said she has “no problem” with the sewer rates, “but I’d like a visual of what it looks like under our roads. How does the sewer system work?”
This is Price’s first run for office.
“I’m trying, I’m trying,” she said.
Price is married with two children. Grace is married with three children. Quintana and her common-law husband have two children. Musillami is married with two children and three grandchildren.
Dal Porto did not return voice messages left Oct. 22 and 23.