Larry Emery, Tom Poznanski, Marty Waitzman, Ron Parrish, Eric Sivertsen and Tom Wilbeck address the McHenry County Young Republicans.
Friday night, candidates courted Young Republicans at the McHenry County Republican Party Headquarters, located in the “V” of the Crystal Lake Plaza.
Tom Poznanski and Marty Waitzman addressed the group. Poznanski is running for Grafton Township Road Commissioner, while Waitzman is running for Grafton Township Sueprvisor.
Larry Emery of Crystal Lake, a candidate for Algonquin Township Trustee was first up. He told of retiring recently from Sears after 33 years, starting new company HSMS Consulting, his having volunteered during the fall campaign, volunteering at the Bethesda Thrift Shop and, more lately, to help move State Rep. Mike Tryon’s office equipment and supplies to a new location.
Grafton Township Road Commissioner candidate Tom Poznanski explained that he had worked for the District for eight years and how he tried to convince his boss, Jack Freund to run for re-election. When that attempt was unsuccessful, Poznanski decided to run himself. So it was from pounding in stakes for signs in past elections to knocking on doors this year.
Marty Waitzman, who is running for Grafton Township Supervisor, spoke next. He had the audience howling as he told of confronting motorcyclists when he worked as a policeman in Lake County.
Pointing out that the men he had stopped were bigger than he, Waitzman explained that he affected an effeminate voice.
He figured that he was in a win-win situation as a result.
If the motorcyclist beat him up, all they could claim was they had beaten up a gay cop.
If he bested them, they would have been lost to a gay cop.
The quandary he put them in resulted in a successful traffic stop.
Rob Parrish
Next was Rob Parrish, who is running for Nunda Township Highway Commissioner.
“Together with his family, we made the tough decision to retire the company due to the negative economic indicators regarding the poor housing market, liquid asphalt prices reaching an all time high, ever-increasing crude oil prices, and skyrocketing salt prices.
“After 30-plus years, Parrish Paving Inc. closed it’s doors as a successful, profitable, and well established family business in McHenry County.”
Parrish said he decided to take an offer to work for Geske and Sons Inc., a larger local paving company, once a former competitor. Prior to accepting to join Geske, Rob’s main concern was finding jobs for all the valued employees that had worked for Parrish Paving for over 10 years. Rob asked the Geske family to give his men a fair shot to join the team at the company as well. After quality interviews, all Rob’s men were hired.
After joining Geske, Parrish streamlined the bidding process by implementing computerized job costing, increased crew organization and implementation on job sites which increased average daily production and ended Saturday overtime work hours.
Eric Sivertsen and Tom Wilbeck are both running for the McHenry County College Board.
Parrish said he decided to run for Nunda Township Highway Commissioner because he believes the the citizens of Nunda deserve a candidate with the proven leadership and extensive trade knowledge to run the Road District like an efficient paving business by providing Quality service at a fiscally responsible price.
YR member Eric Sivertsen was the next candidate to talk. He said he was running for both the McHenry Grade School Board and the McHenry County College Board, both of which needed more conservatives on their panels.
Also running for MCC’s Board was Tom Wilbeck. He talked about the need for a business approach to the proposed Health Club.
YR’s also discussed plans for the upcoming year, including a billboard, participation in parades, a candidates’ night and a Valentine Day’s gathering.
Details of the Valentine Day’s gathering in Island Lake, which will be held jointly with the Lake County Young Republicans.
From the McHenry County Young Republicans:
