Although Wilmette’s business community is feeling economic hardships due to COVID-19, the town is in shape financially thanks in part to a healthy real estate market, said the village’s newly elected president.
“The village is in a great financial position right now,” said Senta Plunkett, who has a commanding lead in vote totals from last week’s election. “We did surprisingly well. There were a lot of budget cuts early on in the pandemic not knowing where we would end up for the rest of the year so we were very cautious about that.”
Plunkett received 58.9% of the vote to Joel Kurzman’s 41.3%, according to unofficial vote totals from the Cook County clerk’s office. The race for Wilmette Village Board is tighter, with five candidates running for three spots. As of April 16, Kathy Dodd had 24% of votes cast, Justin Sheperd 22.99% and Kate Gjaja 22.54%, according to unofficial totals.
Peter Barrow ended up with 21.1% and Brian Locke with 9.36%, according to the unofficial totals.
Plunkett is not new to village politics. She was a board trustee, chaired the Judiciary Committee and served on the Finance, Land Use, Public Safety and Administration committees. She was also chair of the village’s Historic Preservation Commission and served on Wilmette’s Board of Police and Fire Commissioners.
She said her experience will allow her to hit the ground running in her new role. Plunkett said that although Wilmette businesses are feeling the economic impact of COVID-19 the real estate market is picking up steam.
“With the real estate market doing so well, there’s been a lot of real estate transfers and permit fees that have come in at the end of the year to build our reserves a little higher than we had anticipated,” she said. “Certainly more than we had anticipated throughout this process.”
Plunkett commended the village staff for their work in keeping the Village Board appraised of possible budget steps to keep finances on track.
“We made those decisions in real time as to how much we were going to spend on our roads, how much we were going to go forward with our infrastructure projects,” she said.
But she also said the village is very aware that many small businesses are suffering, especially retailers.
“It’s going to be difficult,” she said. “That was a problem before COVID hit.”
A grant program for restaurants and other businesses was introduced during the pandemic and the village is working with a consultant to breath new life into the Edens Plaza, Plunkett said. Several national retailers have expressed interest in moving there. She also said the village is working on a strategy to help businesses on Green Bay Road.
In addition, Wilmette is expecting a sales tax bump in January when the state changes how municipalities are given sales taxes generated from online sales in their communities. The village is working to figure out how that money could be used to help attract new businesses.
“We’re going to look at that, whether it’s marketing or grants or whatever’s going to help that,” she added. “We really want small businesses here. Our residents have been trying their best to shop locally and we want to keep encouraging that.”
Plunkett also said diversity, equity, inclusion and affordable housing will be front burner issues for her.
“That’s a big priority,” she said.
She said the Village Board issued a diversity and inclusion statement in June and has also revitalized its human relations commission and housing commission.
“I’m really thrilled with the members of the community that have stepped up to serve on those commissions,” she said.
Brian L. Cox is a freelance reporter.
