The Bloomington City Council race in district four is one of two such contested races in Bloomington this election cycle. Steven Nalefski who retired from the Woodford County Highway Department is running against John Wyatt Danenberger who works as in-house legal counsel at State Farm. District four is generally bounded by Main St. on the west, Normal on the north, Veteran’s Pkwy. on the east and Oakland Ave. on the south.
In an interview with Cities 92.9 Nalefski discussed his priorities saying, “I’d like to have our council be fiscally responsible and I’d like to see a priority on spending on infrastructure, especially on the needs we have right now, things you see, roads, and things that you don’t see, sewers, to make sure we are keeping up on those.
NalefskI continued, “I’d like to keep the taxes low so we can afford to live here. Also I want to support the public safety and law enforcement to make sure that they are able to do their jobs to the best of their ability. And I want to listen to the constituents of my ward and the city.”
We communicated with Danenberger by instant messaging and learned that he is interested in exploring the possibility of using tax incentives to revitalize East Towanda Plaza. He also expressed a desire to explore what the right budget is for the Police Department and monitoring it to determine if any increases are necessary or decreases justified.
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During our interview with Nalefski we asked him about his thoughts on government assistance for Towanda Plaza and he told us, “I don’t know that, that should be a high priority for us to put a lot of money into something like that. We have other things to fix.”
Nalefski graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in Industrial Design. He and his wife have lived in Ward four 33 years. Nalefski is currently serving on the Executive Committee for the Route 66 Association of Illinois and has been the McLean County representative for seven years. He has coached in the Prairie Cities Soccer League and American Junior Baseball as well as served as Boy Scout leader.
Danenberger holds a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts from DePaul University, a Master’s degree in English Language and Literature from University College London and a JD in Law from Loyola University Chicago School of Law. Previous to working at State Farm he worked for the US Army in Wiesbaden Germany as a claims attorney and at Fort Hood as Trial Counsel. He serves as a volunteer for Special Olympics and Prairie State Legal Services.
The election is just around the corner. Voting begins on February 23rd.
