TOM BISCAN FOR TRUSTEE

My story began in 1994 when our family moved to Manhattan, built a new home, raised two great kids and put them through the Manhattan/Lincolnway school systems, while parishioners of St. Joseph' Church throughout. I'm a DePaul University graduate with a B.S. in business management, and have 40 years railcar experience working with customers to maintain their fleet in a cost-effective manner. 

I became politically involved when the ultra-huge tract home development Lakewood Homes threatened to change the Manhattan landscape forever. Fortunately, Lakewood decided not build in Manhattan. 

But, I quickly learned you have to take a “MANHATTAN FIRST” approach towards all new commercial/residential development. Is the development positive and appropriate for the town? For example, the Mid-Town Bar and Grill along with Dollar General are two commercial developments I was involved in. And McDonald’s and Dunkin Donuts were well along in the planning stages. Developers will promise the sky, but deliver the bare minimum if allowed. The “Manhattan First” approach catches issues before they become reality. So, why am I running again?

Unfortunately, the troubled “NorthPoint Development” is today’s version of Lakewood Homes. I’ve been against this terrible development since 2020. Four years have passed since I left office. Nothing concrete has been done by this Mayor to stop NorthPoint. We need a new Mayor to try different approaches. As a re-elected Trustee, I will support Dave Beemsterboer as Mayor to work on this. 

The current Mayor also faces a host of other problems...like hiring three Village Adminstrators in 4 years (a trust issue), a frustrating lack of trust (and doing things on his own without Village Board discussion nor approval), major Finance Dept problems, unresolved personnel issues and the terrible morale at Village Hall just to name a few. And the only Trustee to run for reelection with the Mayor currently has an active Ethics Complaint against him with the State of Illinois.

I will put “Manhattan First” for development and all other problems facing our community in the coming 4 years. I’m uniquely qualified as your “Trusted Trustee” …serving 3 terms, under 2 Mayors…to hit the ground running on April 1, working with Mayor Beemsterboer to quickly resolve these problems!  I will also work with Mayor Beemsterboer to freeze or lower the dollar amount of the Village portion of your property taxes for at least 2 years  Thank you!! 

Questions? Feel free to give me a call at 815-651-0131.