Whether excited or dismayed, Illinoisans must face that the November elections have ended, paving the way for the April 4, 2017 municipal elections that will determine local races.

These elections begin with residents wishing to run for office picking up candidate petitions for circulation. Monday marked the start of the filing period, which ends Dec. 19.

Waterloo has four aldermanic seats up for election. These include Russ Thomas (Ward 1), Rita Trantham (Ward 2), Gerry Frederick (Ward 3) and Vicki Koerber (Ward 4). Thomas and Trantham both picked up petitions for circulation, while Frederick did not.

Koerber is now seated on the county board, and her replacement is expected to be announced at an upcoming council meeting. This appointee will serve until the April elections.

Dennis Dougherty and Emily Heusohn have picked up petitions for Ward 2, Kyle Buettner picked up a petition for Ward 3 and Eric Eichner and Russ Row picked up petitions for Ward 4.

Terms expiring for the Waterloo School Board include those of Steve Wheat (Township 3-10), Dwight Boehm (Township 3-10) and John Caupert (Township 2-10). Caupert has picked up a petition.

The rest of the current board members up for re-election did not pick up petitions, with Neil Giffhorn, Jim Yaekel, Alan Horn, Jason Wagenknecht and Kim Ahne picking up petitions.

Not more than three school board members may be selected from any one congressional township and no more board members can be seated from Township 2-9.

On the Waterloo Park District Board, commissioners Joann Harlin, Ken Niemann and Keith Buettner are up for re-election.

Village board members in Valmeyer with expiring terms include mayor Howard Heavner — who picked up a petition — village trustees Eugenia Langsdorf, James Pflasterer and Roy Unterseh.

As for Columbia, mayor Kevin Hutchinson, city clerk Wes Hoeffken and four aldermen are up for re-election. These aldermen are James Agne (Ward 1), Mark Roessler (Ward 2), Gene Ebersohl (Ward 3) and Mary Ellen Niemietz (Ward 4).

Agne, Roessler, Ebersohl and Niemietz each picked up petitions for circulation. Gene Bergmann picked up a petition for Ward 2. Hutchinson and Hoeffken also picked up petitions.

The Columbia School Board will have one unincorporated seat and three incorporated seats up for election. These are board members Brad Roessler (unincorporated), John Long, Karen Anderson and Greg O’Connor.

Kay Bieber,  Anita O’Connor, Anderson, Long, Roessler and Robert Schlegel picked up petitions for circulation for school board.

Bruce Brinkman, Daniel McCarthy and John Niebruegge have spots on the Valmeyer School Board up for election. These incumbents have picked up petitions for circulation.

In Fults, trustees Merrill Prange, Jeff Williams and Linda Sutter are up for re-election.
Maeystown’s positions up for election are village trustees Linda Coats, Tina Buchanan and Carla Coats.

In Hecker, three village trustees up for re-election are Arnold Eckart, James Mueth and Trisha Maddox. Village clerk Annette Schreder and village president Charles Kujawski are up as well — Kujawski has picked up a petition.

There are 10 Monroe County road districts, all of which have commissioners and clerks up for re-election. District 1 includes commissioner Marvin Wiegand and clerk Edward Stellhorn, both of Red Bud.

Commissioner George Gregson and clerk Kevin Poetker, both of Waterloo, make up District 2.

In District 3, Patrick Doyle of Waterloo is commissioner and John Gorka of Waterloo is clerk.
Jim Kuehner and Brian Leonard, both of Red Bud, are District 4 commissioner and clerk, respectively. For District 5, Edward Breeding Sr. of Columbia is commissioner and Harry Reichert of Columbia is clerk.

District 6 consists of Richard Heine of Waterloo as commissioner and Janet Trost of Waterloo as clerk, while District 7 is commissioner Don Voelker and clerk Heidi Ruwald, both of Waterloo.

Leroy Brandt of Fults is the commissioner of District 8, with Robert Schmidt of Fults as clerk.

In District 9, Henry Marquardt of Waterloo serves as commissioner and Judy Garleb of Valmeyer is the clerk.

Finally, District 10 includes Randy Scheibe of Valmeyer as commissioner and Paulette Englerth of Valmeyer as clerk.

Residents can call their respective clerk’s office for more information on the spring elections.
Be sure to pick up next week’s newspaper for a list of who has filed to run for seats up for election on April 4.