RIVERSIDE-BROOKFIELD Also serving North Riverside $1.00
Vol. 34, No. 15
April 10, 2019
End of an era Riverside Restaurant to close April 19. PAGE 3
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Narcotics left behind at former pain clinic PAGE 5
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Komarek School referendum defeated PAGE 7
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Independents shine in North Riverside race
Voters turn aside VIP for two of three trustee seats By BOB UPHUES Editor
There’s change in the wind in North Riverside. The VIP Party, which has held almost absolute power during the past 30 years, lost a majority of village trustee seats up for election on April 2 for just the second time during that era. But most concerning, from a VIP standpoint, is how that loss played out and what it portends for the future. The two leading vote-getters for trustee last week were independent candidates Marybelle Mandel and H. Bob Demopoulos, who ran something of a coordinated campaign based heavily on North Riverside’s financial challenges. “I stayed in touch with the residents,” said Mandel, who finished second in the race for mayor in 2017 after an unsuccessful run for trustee in 2013. “It’s not just about elections. Residents wanted me to continue to be a voice for them. I stood up for the residents.” Mandel’s 985 votes were 151 more than VIP’s top finisher, Deborah Czajka, who was re-elected for a second full term. The only non-VIP candidate to do better than that in recent memory was in 2011, when Rocco DeSantis topped a six-person field. However, in that race the second-place finisher was VIP candidate Randall Czajka, whose failing health resulted in his wife, Deborah, being appointed to take his place in 2013. See NR RACE on page 12
ALEXA ROGALS/Staff Photographer
ON THE OUTS: D103 Co-interim Superintendent Patrick Patt (above, right) resigned, along with Co-interim Robert Madonia, at the April 8 meeting of the school board. It’s the second time Patt’s been forced out of an interim post there after the election of a majority aligned with Lyons Village President Christopher Getty.
D103 interim superintendents resign Patt, Madonia announce they’ll be gone by mid-month By BOB SKOLNIK Contributing Reporter
The fallout from April 2 is just beginning to register in Lyons-Brookfield School District 103. In the wake
an election that swept in a new majority on the District 103 Board of Election, co-interim superintendents Patrick Patt and Robert Madonia have resigned. The resignations were approved by unanimous vote at the April 8 school board meeting. School board member Jorge Torres, when polled for his vote on the interim superintendent resignations, responded, “Super yes.” “I don’t think I could work with the
new group of board members, and I don’t think they want to work with me either, so I guess it’s mutual,” Patt said in a phone interview with the Landmark last week. Patt’s last day will be April 15; Madonia’s last day will be April 16. Three new school board members, Vito Campanile, Oliva Quintero and Winifred Rodriguez, will be sworn in See D103 on page 11
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