CaryForward-2021

A very, very proud day.......Thank you supports of Rick Dudek!

Team CaryForward-2021...........I cannot say enough about the support I've had since announcing my candidacy. Tonight may be even more special to me than that of my first victory in 2007, because of the headwinds I had to fight. With your help, your love, and your appreciation for my dedication to Cary, WE DID IT!!!

Thank you all, and let the positive momentum we have continue to make Cary a great place to live, work, and play!!!

In the last month, the factual information shared on this page has had over 1100 views and a similar number of engagements. For someone not a social media person, I feel that our message has resonated, our commitment acknowledged, and our vision is beyond reproach.

In the home stretch, I ask for the last time to please support the "Stick with Ricks" Team, for we have remained in lockstep all through our partnership, feel very positive about Cary's future, and will work tirelessly to implement the 3 cornerstones of our campaign platform:

* Enhance our business development efforts
* Strengthen our Downtown Core District
* Market Cary as a "great place to live, work, and play"

"Stick with Ricks" leaves you with this quote from Abraham Lincoln, for it summarizes the distinction made so clear during our campaign!!

Saturday, April 3rd was just another wonderful day in Cary. The Team was very fortunate to once again offer valuable volunteer hours to Cary Grove National Honor Society students. Six young adults participated in a civic opportunity to get out and meet our residents, learn how Cary is divided into precincts, and better understand, first hand, how the democratic process works. Volunteering with us were: Christina Pierce, Jared Bright, Sarah Jaquay, Bulava Lola Melcher, Maddie Dolezal, and Ella Hahnfeld.

As I have in the past, I spent the majority of my time visiting with Seniors, both in the neighborhoods, as well as over at Cary Senior Living, where I had dropped off some items for the residents the week before during the Loyola/Oregon game. The area where I'm standing is just outside the Community Room of the facility, something I was a strong advocate for when last on the Village Board as we were negotiating the building design.

This was a remarkable day spent covering nearly 10 miles throughout Cary talking to people. It proves once again that the very difficult choices I had to make to turn a gravel pit into a beautiful public park, a burnt down industrial facility into a residential development for working families, and a long vacant challenged site into housing for our seniors were all decisions I would make over and over, even though they cost me re-election back in 2017.

This election has been unfortunate for the voters, however, as there has been no coverage by local media, leaving the campaign to decided over the likes of FaceBook and the underground swell.

Our supporters have seen over and over again what "Stick with Ricks" believes in for Cary, we've presented our platform weeks ago, and have delivered in person, NOT MAILED, 2500 brochures out into the Community. You know what we stand for, and the opponents still have said nothing about their vision for our Town.

It's one day before the election, we ask each of you to please support us and reach out to all your friends to do so as well.

"STICK WITH RICKS"...........we'll bring a better Cary to everyone!!

Bob Mariano is a visionary, much like the Dudek / Walrath Team. Rick Dudek first met Bob in the mid-1990's when he was looking to open a Dominicks store in Mundelein while Rick was on the Village Board in that Town. During my term on the Cary Village Board, we proactively sought out Marianos, and they eventually choose to open at their current site in Crystal Lake.

Now, after cutting ties with Roundy's, Bob Mariano is back with another new concept.........smaller specialty grocery stores operating in urban, in-fill areas, where residents may go 2-3 times per week for fresh meat, produce, and bakery goods (anyone ever travelled to Europe where this concept is found all over!!!).

These new stores will be starting in Chicago, but Mariano hopes to move them into the burbs over time.

Leaders need to think strategically, making outreach to add pieces to the puzzle which align with comprehensive plans already in place. Dudek & Walrath view new retail as key to a successful Maplewood redevelopment, and an anchor like "Dom's Kitchen & Market" could be the trigger that begins to bring the Maplewood project into focus.

As the famous quote goes: "you never know until you try!".

"Stick with Ricks" for visionary ideas to better all of Cary"

CaryForward-2021 followers, some updates to share. Our volunteers have gotten over 1500 copies of our campaign literature out to the Community so far, and this Saturday, we'll be out again aiming to visit another 1000+ homes. Once again, young adults from the CG High School National Honor Society will be participating and earning valuable credit hours, so we're very excited about that for them. Our message is strong and it resonates with everyone we have a chance to meet: Proactively seek out targeted business types; Create a vibe around our Downtown through a thoughtful and participative redevelopment of Maplewood School, and Further Cary as a great place to live, work, and play!

On a less positive note, sadly, somehow, our signs seem to be disappearing or are found on the ground in and around town, almost as if Cary had experienced a severe wind warning or spot tornado. Funny how other signs for various races next to ours remain, but perhaps its just happenstance! Even more oddly, there must have been some magnetic field that ran over Cary today, for one of our supporters lost two signs that were stapled to his wooden fence, and he was so concerned that aliens were involved, a police report was filed to locate the vandals who illegally entered his property.

The "Stick with Ricks" team, nonetheless, is undeterred, and we look forward to continuing our journey this Saturday, aliens or not!

Followers of Caryforward-2021, I wanted to share another redevelopment project on a long time retail parcel-Hawthorne Mall in Vernon Hills. This Mall has been around approximately 50 years, while Maplewood was built in 1929. If you want to read the entire article on Hawthorne Mall, here is that link: https://www.dailyherald.com/news/20210325/x201cit-needs-to-be-morex201d-250-million-redevelopment-of-hawthorn-mall-officially-begins

Clearly, the trend, whether the project footprint is large, as Hawthorne is, or more compact, like Maplewood, is to have a mix of retail, residential, and open space.

Please check out the platform brochure that Rick Dudek & Rick Walrath have placed out as our vision for Maplewood......it's precisely that type of mixed use development. Will it be easy, NO, will it likely require participation by the Village of Cary in some form, YES, is it attainable with a collaborative Village Board that is not focused simply on single family homes, as Trustee Weinhammer is.........ABSOLUTELY IT IS!!!

Cary deserves Leaders with Vision: "Stick with Rick's" on April 6th!!👍

It's back........................!!!!!!!!!

Good Morning Caryforward-2021 followers, I wanted to quickly offer up some insight into the race that I didn't think would be necessary but now see is. If you are also following Trustee Weinhammer's FaceBook page, you see the discourse between a resident and her de-facto campaign manager, Chris Covelli.

I commented on that back and forth, but in case it gets deleted, here is what I posted:

Rick Dudek
Amazing how Mr. Covelli, who I do not know either, gets immediately defensive. He can dish it out against me (who he does not know) but won't allow a resident to state her feelings about his demeanor. In all my retorts to Chris Covelli, I have never once mentioned his wife, Kim, why, because we worked side by side for 2 years, and had a professional relationship. Kim often thanked me for helping her get up to speed as a new Trustee, even though we were at different places on issues.......likely still are on some, but always professional. In fact, on November 11, 2020 when I decided to run, I reached out to Kim to let her know. On November 12th, she responded, and certain of her comments I will keep in confidence as she requested. What I will share from her response to me is this: "Yes, I am happy to offer my support. While we may not always agree on everything, I always appreciated your thoughtful perspective on projects and ability to work together even when we had differing opinions." As I've offered many, many times, I did and will work for all 19,000 Cary residents, not simply NOT IN MY BACKYARD individuals. Those are always going to be tough decisions, and I made them over 10 years and can point to the benefits to our Town of doing so. My election material speaks to my future plans to continue improving Cary, but again I ask: WHERE ARE TRUSTEE WEINHAMMER's OR TRUSTEE KRAUS's PLATFORM IDEA's......NO ONE KNOWS!!!