Danville Ward 3 Candidate Sharon Pickering Answers Community Questionnaire

These questions were created by Danville community members during the Democracy in Danville event on March 4^th at the Danville Public Library.

What are your short term and long term strategic plans for Danville?

1. Short-term plans are to have a balanced budget with enough money in our reserve to carry us through the year with some left over. This will help us long term. We must concentrate on what nature has provided us, including Vermilion River, Lake Vermilion, all of our beautiful parks, etc. One draw we have is our River Walk. The U of I engineering students designed very impressive proposals for this project; but, again this would take money. We need to look at grants and investors to make it happen.

Sell someone in 3 minutes why they should live in (or come back to) Danville.

2. Danville is a very unique city. For people who love nature, we have much to offer with our lake, river, and parks, including Forrest Glenn, Kickapoo State Park, Kennekuk County Park, and Vermilion County Conservation District. These parks offer camping, canoeing, great fishing, boating, walking trails, biking, and bird watching. We also have Heron County Park, which has a board walk in the marsh area of Lake Vermilion and a look-out stand over the river, another wonderful place to view wildlife.

Our downtown offers unique shops; mural paintings by the Wall Dogs that tell the history of Danville; Temple Plaza with its beautiful brick sculptures; Sign Garden; and historic Fisher Theater. For those who want to further their education, we have Danville Area Community College with a beautiful campus and NJCAA Basketball Tournament that brings students and hundreds of visitors to our city. We have very active organizations and clubs who sponsor varies activities in our community, including Balloons Over Vermilion and Festival of Trees. For golfers, we offer three beautiful golf courses.

If you are a reader and love to explore with books, we have a beautiful library. The Danville Public Library also provides many programs for the children as well as adults. Our children in Danville have numerous opportunities in the schools, not only for their education, but for all the extracurricular activities, such as sports, music (Show Choir, Marching Band, etc.), Debate Club, along with so many others. We also have three private grade schools and one private high school. The Veterans Administration Hospital draws people from all over the state. Not only does it provide services for our veterans and their families, but also helps to support employment in Danville. We have a variety of job opportunities ranging from fast food services to engineering.

When asked if I am proud of my home town, my reply is always "yes". I'm proud of things commonly associated with us, like great hospitality, appreciation for the simple things, unspoiled natural beauty, inexpensive fun, strong family ties, friendliness, a slower pace, front porches, good food, hugging, showing emotions, and working hard. In summary: that is why I have lived in Danville all my life and will continue to live here the rest of my life. Together we

must think "positive" and take personal responsibility for making them better.

How will you regularly engage your community? How will you keep lines of communication open?

3. I engage daily with my constituents, by email, phone, and in person. We have a City of Danville website that lists my email address and phone number. Citizens can also call the City of Danville to get the information. I encourage our citizens to attend city council meetings to voice their opinions. When I first took office, I had a Ward 3 meeting to see what problems and concerns the people had in my ward and in our city. I also started and continued neighborhood meetings at my house, with a code inspector attending, so we could address the issues in our neighborhood and city. I organized clean ups in our area. I have always

tried to return calls and emails as soon as possible and will continue to do so.

What personal experiences have prepared you for office?

I first became interested in our city government when I was asked to serve on the Fire Sustainability Committee. I have now served four years on the council. It has been an education, and one I have enjoyed. My four-year learning experience has given me an insight of how our city is run, including our budget and problems the city faces daily.

How would you help improve the relationship between the police and the community (particularly minority groups in the community)?

We need to build a better rapport between our police officers and our community. I think we can do this by a rotating system with our officers to include: getting out on the streets to know the people in their area; and attending organizational meetings where minority groups are involved.

How will you create community partnerships to engage the youth?

Danville's youth are very important for our future, and we must start when they are young. There is a need for partnership with our schools on their requests and activities; sponsor more programs for our children in the downtown area; and assure this is a safe place where they want to stay and raise their families.

What new ways can city resources be allocated to serve youth?

We must explore new ways the city resources can be allocated to serve the youth. One suggestion would be the addition of three police officers who could plan programs that involve our children, and participate in a mentoring program with younger children.

What ideas/plans do you have to address the violence in the community?

I feel the best way to address the violence in our community is to reinstate the Problem Oriented Policing (P.O.P.). This would add three police officers to concentrate in the areas that have the highest crime rate.

How will you use code enforcement to improve the condition and affordability of property in the community?

Using code enforcement can improve the condition of our city by cleaning up areas, citing houses on violations, and locating houses that need to be condemned. Being an alderman, I use code enforcement on a weekly basis; sometimes daily. There is always something that I contact my inspectors about checking to see where we stand on a citation, or advice on what to do in certain situations. The problem, where we get slowed down, is the legal system. That is where I think we need to improve. We need to revisit some of our ordinances to change them. There are people out there who know how to abuse the system, and we need to stop that.

How will you attract good jobs to the community?

First, we have to make our city attractive to businesses. We also need to make it business friendly, and that comes from our city officials. It is up to us to make sure that companies see a city that manages their money and has good infrastructure. In our defense, we do have jobs in our city! The problem being people who are not able to pass the tests needed for hiring, and I believe this is where we need to concentrate. As a city, we also need to promote the classes that are available through DACC to help our unemployed be more employable.