Letter to the Editor From JC Sullivan Concerning His Visit to the Village of Northfield Council Meeting

I attended my first Northfiled Village Council meeting in awhile. See related story including the video here: https://nordoniahills.news/vics-corner-northfield-village-council-meeting-meltdown/

After  a ten minute bickering session between two Councilmen were done, matters proceeded.

My purpose in attending the meeting was twofold:

To address the fact that Council is proposing a  $5,000.00 annual salary raise for the Mayor and the misconception that the positions of the Mayor and Council members are full time.

I brought with me a recent copy of a local newspaper whose headline heralded the staffing cuts for 33 people to save the district l.67 million a year. It is a reflection of the times.

It was argued that nowhere in the Village Charter does it say the jobs of Mayor and Council are part time jobs while I argued nowhere in the Charter does it say they are full time job. It was countered that Council hasn’t a raise in about ten years. if they say it is a full time position then it is because they are making it a full time position.

Secondly, I had been told several years ago that the curbing in the streets in Wards A & B (behind the Plaza Shopping Center) would be completed one-street-at-a-time. Well, one street WAS done but nothing has occurred since. My argument was countered that there are very large projects going on at the present time, i.e. Ledge Road, Houghton Road, and I was told that ALL the Presidential streets (west side of route 8) were done with OPM  (other people’s money) in the form of grants, rather than spending cash on what we have in the bank.

I argued that with a reported 3-5 million dollars in the bank there was no reason NOT to repair the referenced streets in Wards A & B.

With MGM Northfield Park assuming control of the Rocksino and Racetrack, I would think revenues will grow and surpluses will also grow.

I propose we use the millions in the bank that are there now to leverage a low-interest loan to complete ALL the streets in Wards A & B, one street at a time. We don’t need to be outlaying that much cash for other engineering projects parks and Service Department needs.

John C. Sullivan
Former Councilman, Ward B