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County candidates prioritize environment
Election 2012
Arlene Hickory
Party: Democrat
Lives: Lake Bluff
Family: Divorced; three children; nine grandchildren
Education: MS in nursing from the University of Illinois
Website: Facebook.com/arlene.hickory.
Ann Maine
Party: Republican
Lives: Lincolnshire
Family: husband; four sons
Education: Master’s and PhD in biochemistry from the University of Rochester
Website: AnnMaine.com
Article Extras
Updated: November 2, 2012 10:22AM
LINCOLNSHIRE — Protecting the environment has emerged as the paramount concern for the two candidates seeking the Lake County Board’s 21st District seat.
“The residents of District 21 are very conscious of the environment,” said Republican incumbent Ann Maine.
The Lincolnshire resident added that she supports building more regional bike paths and filling in the missing link in the Des Plaines River Trail near Milwaukee Avenue and Aptakisic Road in Lincolnshire.
Democratic challenger Arlene Hickory focused her environmental agenda on improving water conservation, supporting organic farms and increasing solar energy in southwest Lake County.
But the two also offered divergent sets of goals for their terms.
Maine, who has held the county seat for 10 years and also serves as president of the Lake County Forest Preserve District, said she brings the experience she has gained from governing in both prosperous and difficult times.
“It’s been a very interesting and exciting and engaging time for me,” Maine said. “We have to be just as careful when we have a lot of money as when we don’t.”
Hickory offered strategies to expand the county’s reach, including a plan to create a publicly owned bank for Lake County.
The institution would focus on lending to businesses intent on creating new jobs, Hickory explained. She said she also would seek ways to support the area’s small farms and get more citizens involved in the governing process.
“It’s a jobs issue,” she said. “The citizens need to know — they own the roads, they own the forest preserve. They should be involved in the projects from the beginning.”
Among her accomplishments, Hickory noted that she worked with the North Chicago Veterans Administration in the early 1980s to develop the nation’s second treatment program for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Maine touted the drop in the forest preserve’s tax levy in the last four years.
