May 2010

It seems the Elmwood Village Board is again having trouble getting their minutes published in a timely manner. To this point I have been watching the Elmwood Argus for the April minutes and I have yet to see anything put to print.

UPDATE: 5-21-10
I picked up this weeks paper dated 5-19-10 and the minutes are actually printed. Now the May meeting happened Monday night, so they are plenty late getting this done. It is a little hard for anyone to respond to what is written at a meeting, when the posting is done after the following months meeting.


It was stated by another citizen that Bill Stewart made comments that the money he receives for being the Village President is far from what it should be for all he does. In my opinion this is a statement by an over paid individual, being that every person that is voted into the Village Board should be doing it, without any pay. They put their names into the balloting to serve the Village and make things better for the community, not to get a check. I have always believed that every member should give their time to the community without taking the funds, for the much needed programs within the Village. To me, this shows GREED, as well as a largely swelled head of a Village President. Maybe the budget would not be in trouble every year if the members were not dipping into it themselves. In the minutes Bill claims it was good to see so many people at the meeting, yet most were there with complaints.

I have many times done many things for people without asking for any pay, and the "Thank You" you get is plenty enough.

It was also stated that the Village President was attempting to make a big story about how they should promote themselves for the food pantry getting funds from the citizens of the community. There was nothing said about the Village Board donating a single penny, but Mr. Stewart was pushing that a story should really be written up about this to talk up the Board. A member of the board pointed this out to the Herald reporter, stating the Argus should really write an article up. The Herald reporter responded by telling the member they could do that, but she was not with the Argus.

It was also told to me that Mr. Rupakus took it upon himself to go after a citizen that had a verbal agreement with the Village President in regards to a fence he put up, that appears to be too high. The landscaping of the property was going to be completed throughout the summer and he spoke directly to the Village President to keep from any problems with the fence before all the work was completed. This did not matter to Rupakus apparently, because he had the Village Clerk send a Violation of Ordinances letter to the Citizen. This is just one of many personal targets that happen when no one communicates with one another, or just has a simple grudge against an individual. Maybe it was simply because a friend of Mr. Rupakus had a problem with the fence without having any knowledge with the agreement that had already been made.

Hopefully things will start to get a little better now that "Polaris" Bob is no longer on the Village Board....OOOPS, he is no longer "POLARIS" Bob either now I am told. I have been told that he is purchasing the Longbranch bar in Elmwood now. This will be interesting to see if he follows every rule he was enforcing against the bars while being the head of the Police Committee. He sat outside the bar until closing then walked in with the Village Officer to write citations for being open after hours. Many believed he was simply setting up the bar owner of the Longbranch at that time, because their was conflicts between he and the owner. The other two bars in town were not watched like this one was.

I will keep in touch with community members to get as much information as possible to keep updating the blog, so keep watching and Thank You for continuing to read The Elmwood Citizen.

Seeing the minutes finally in print, I can see the Clerk is covering some butt already. A citizen went into the meeting and told the Board how he thought they were doing such a good job, and called those who complained to or about the board "Nothing but a bunch of Jerry Springer Want a Be's"

Donna Lein and Delorse Radtke also spoke over the mess they live next to, yet they did not tell how they were eye witnessed on the property taking items that did not belong to them. The Elmwood Police Officer did not follow up with any kind of investigation either with this complaint, even though he was contacted and told there was an eye witness to this. Jodell Marson was also viewed with them on the property.Her husband John once again took a chainsaw to his neighbors shrub line and cut them to the ground, even though he did this once before and a survey was forced to be done, proving they were not his to touch at all. Much of the mess and damages to the property have happened since the residents left. Everything the trio complained about while the residents lived there is now destroyed. "Funny how that seems to have happened" Even the Business sign that hung in the front yard disappeared, and was found later floating in the River down by the school. This is a block in the community many want to stay away from, and the new people that move in, need to get informed quickly about.

The Board of Review was not able to be done as needed, due to the Village did not get the assessments done on time.

The Board also went into a closed session meeting to speak over the fee's in regards to the lawsuit with the Leader Telegram. They made sure not to state the actual costs to the public for their actions with refusing to release public information over the Jodi Pulk suspension, they claimed was only a resignation over stress. ( all a story made up by Bob Rupakus. This was finally told after the paper filed the suit.) It is said this went over $4,000.00 . This will probably never be known how much they actually cost the citizens of Elmwood. This is alot like the case with Ex-Chief Adam Meyers. Reading the minutes, I find the Member of the Board that caused the problem was the person making all the motions to pay for the damages he caused. REAL NICE