News Release
September 20, 2016
From the Mayor's Desk
Today officially started election season for the April 2017
consolidated elections. As I look back it’s hard to believe that there is only
seven more months before the next Mayoral election and the end of our first
four years.
Tonight, I’m informing the residents of Sauk Village that I
will not be seeking re-election as your Mayor and will be retiring from politics at
the end of my term in 2017. Let me ensure you that no one is pushing me out of
office nor am I running from anyone. This was a difficult decision because politics
is in my blood, I’ve always been a fighter and I would really enjoy facing the
mayoral candidates in the next election but I’ve served the residents of Sauk
Village well and as the Apostle Paul stated in II Timothy I hope to be able to say at the end of my term “I
have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:”
I’m reminded to a little less than four years ago when a
group of residents asked me to run for Mayor. I asked why and explained that
I was thinking about retiring from politics. At that time, I was Acting Mayor
filling the vacancy when former Mayor Lewis Towers abruptly resigned. At the
end of that term I would have served as Trustee for approximately 13 ½ years
and Acting Mayor for 6 months for a total of 14 years as an elected official.
However, in the end they convinced me that it was in the
best interest for Sauk Village and its residents to run and it was bigger than
my retiring from politics….so I did.
I reminded a group that I met with last night what I said
when we met just under four years ago. At that time, I told the small group
prior to saying yes that if I ran and was elected I would
run one term and I would also make the hard/tough decisions which, some they may
agree with and some they may disagree.
If you look back this administration has
made decisions that no other past or future administration could/would have
made.
To name a few:
- Joint Police Dispatching
- Retain and recruit new business to Sauk Village
- Winpak
- Advance Auto
- Title Max
- Day Care Center
- Bella’s
- US Post Office
- Dry Cleaners
- Tax Incentives for local businesses
- Dunkin Donuts
- Winpak
- Bear Paint
- Jacobs
- Advance Auto
- Infrastructure repairs
- New Water treatment plants
- Roads
- Fire Hydrants
- Water mains
- Bring businesses up to code
- Enforcing village bill payments
- Water billing
- Ticket enforcement
- Leans on properties
- Debit recovery
- Reducing Crime
- Hiring a qualified Police Chief
- Hiring additional officers
- Providing officers with needed resources
- Working with local, county and state agencies
I have always felt that Sauk Village is the greatest place
to live and raise a family. Even prior residents that left Sauk Village
thinking the grass was greener on the other side know I’m right. Think about it, that explains why bitter prior residents posts on social media and try to
make Sauk Village look bad. If their new place in life was so much better why
worry about and complain about a community you left….? You'd think they would be telling
everyone about the better choice they made (leaving Sauk Village)….or was it?
We still have eight months and I will do everything
possible to make sure Sauk Village is in better
shape than it was when I was elected.
This administration will continue to fight
crime, work on making Sauk Village a better place to live, making the needed
repairs in our infrastructure and recruiting and retaining businesses.
In closing, while we do have eight months I would like to take
a moment to thank my wife Linda and children for stick by my side all these
years. Attending village events, doing without me at family events because
something was happening in the village and I couldn’t attend and waiting up for
me after all those late meetings.
Thank you to the residents that didn’t agree with me on
every decision but still remembered that it’s ok to disagree but not be
disagreeable.
Thank you and God Bless Sauk Village,
Mayor David A. Hanks