Village of
Westchester APRIL, 2021
Gattuso says ‘good-bye’ as his time serving the Village comes to an end POLICE DEPARTMENT
4
FIRE DEPARTMENT
5
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
6
LIBRARY
7
SCHOOL DISTRICT
11
GIRL SCOUTS
13
SPOTLIGHT ON SENIORS
15
Its been an absolute honor to serve the residents of this Village for the past 25 years. I will cherish this time forever and I want to thank all the residents that have supported me and the board throughout these years. I wanted to take some time to reflect on what we have been able to accomplish over the last 25 years and I know that these projects have made Westchester an even better place to live for all of us going forward. When I started on the board in the mid 90’s, under the guidance of Mayor John Sinde and Trustee Angelo Luciano, we advocated for and acquired a grant to repave many alleys in our town. One of the first acts I undertook as a trustee was to oversee this project which was able to provide our residents with much better access to their garages and rear portions of their properties. It was after this project was completed, we took on and completed many more projects. I was thrilled that I was able to help improve our town and work with such a fantastic group of like minded residents and board members. It was from these experiences I knew I would be able to serve our Village in another capacity when the time would come. Sure enough that time did come when Mayor John Sinde retired and I decided to run for Village President in 2005. Upon taking the office of Village President, my board started to move on business development for the Village and we were proud to bring the 22nd and Wolf development into town. We were able to give our residents access to a beautiful shopping center with center piece businesses of Panera Bread and BP Amoco. My board and I also were able to focus our attention to developing opportunities to capture and grow financial gains for the Village by revitalizing the property on the east side of Manheim just before I-290. Our goal was to provide our residents with another helpful community asset, like BP Amoco, thus turning a vacant piece of property into a means for the Village to not only reap the benefit of physical business, but also produce opportunities for the Village to receive tax dollars to better improve our town. We were also able to partner with and bring in top notch medical providers to town. We are proud that Midwest Orthopedics at Rush and Amita Health Medical Group call their offices on Wolf Road home. We are also so proud that that Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital can now call Enterprise Drive their home to service the needs of all our residents. Also during my time as Village President we able to secure and bring in the award winning Chicago Highlands Country Club to town and we are excited
to watch them grow and provide opportunities for our residents with a fantastic place to golf and spend time with their families. We further developed and grew housing opportunities in town with the additions of the Avondale Subdivision and the Westchester Woods Subdivision both of which have provided our residents with even more wonderful housing opportunities thus confirming that Westchester is indeed, a great place to live. We are currently partnering with Gallagher Homes and Continental Homes to continue to add to this Village and they will be working on a development located on 31st street just east of Chicago Highlands Country Club. We look forward to this project being completed and adding to the beauty of our Village. During my time as Village President, we continued to improve the infrastructure of our town. We were able to specially budget for and complete a heat and replacement street project in 2006 that provided the entire Village with vastly improved streets to travel on that are still functioning properly today. This project was an overwhelming success as it was found to cost a fraction of what a complete rebuild would cost. In 2019 we decided, based on the success of the previous heat and replacement project, we would again commission this procedure in 2020 to help repair other streets in town. We were very excited to learn that the street and alley referendum from this last election cycle was supported and passed by our residents. We know that this referendum will better allow the Village to serve the needs of our residents and provide the types of streets and alleys they deserve moving forward. The last 25 years serving the amazing residents of this Village will be one of my life highlights. I am so thankful that you all have put your trust and faith in me for so many years. It is with a heavy, but uplifted, heart that my 17 years as a trustee and 8 years as Village President comes to an end this May. As this part of my life in public service ends, I am very excited to spend even more time with wife, children and grandchildren in the years to come. Although my time serving the Village on the board will come to an end, I will always serve the residents of the Village of Westchester. If anyone needs my assistance or help, you know where to find me! God Bless and thank you all from the bottom of my heart! Sincerely, Village President Paul T. Gattuso