New Alderman Joshua Deabel is Full of Questions

Remember that kid in class that always had a ton of questions when everyone else was ready to move on to the next lesson?

Fourth Ward Ald. Joshua Deabel may have been that kid.

One of three new aldermen to join the Chicago Heights City Council in May, Deabel has not hesitated to ask questions about ordinances on the table, resolutions and even single line items on the city's bills.

Deabel, a graduate and senior scientist with CSL Behring Biopharmaceuticals in Kankakee, spoke with Patch before his introductory ward meeting at Roosevelt School.

Patch: You've asked a lot of questions at the city council meetings. Why is that?

Deabel: One of the reasons why I'm asking questions, especially about the bill pay, is because I know the city is on a tight budget, and will probably be underfunded at some point. The budget has been balanced in the past with the sale of the Thornwood Apartments and that's when, I believe, the last budget was balanced.

I think it's really important that we start looking at our budget now, because in the future we're going to have huge changes in our budget. If we don't start looking at those issues now, we're going to have some big decisions to make. I think it's our duty as aldermen and the mayor to start looking at what things we can reduce to allow us to have a better future and allow us to keep the good services the city provides. We don't want to have to cut those.

Many of your questions at the meetings have been about board-up costs before approving the city's bills.

In regards to the board-ups, the reason why I keep asking is because if you look at the bill line item there is too much of a variation between board-up costs. That is why I keep questioning that. To do a board-up on most houses, it shouldn't be that large of a variation.

Editor's Note: Deabel is referring to instances in which board-up costs met or exceeded $1,500.

But Mayor David Gonzalez said the city is

The mayor brought up the RFQ situation but it's going to be advantageous only if this goes out to bid and we're actually going to reduce these costs much further than what some of these board-ups are costing right now.

Which board-up costs caused you the most concern?

One of them, they said there was a fire, and I understand certain situations. There might be some other activity that has to take place, maybe a little bit of extra work, but I think in most of these cases, they are single family homes. There shouldn't be that huge of a difference from, let's say $500 to $2,000 to board up a house. We're spending a lot of money on that. It's something we should look at amongst many other things on our bill run.

Have Fourth Ward residents expressed concerns about these costs?

There has not been a lot of pressure but I think it's because we haven't had a chance to really sit down and meet. That's what these ward meetings are for and I hope to get a lot of input from them.

Let's talk about liquor licenses. Why?

Obviously, the mayor did reduce the number of liquor licenses, which I'm all for. We don't need too many liquor licenses. The one issue is that an ordinance, before the one passed at the meeting, was to not allow for the sale of liquor at gas stations.

Editor's Note: The new ordinance allows for gas stations to sale alcohol should they receive a liquor license.

Anyone knows in this town that unfortunately there have been a lot of instances where that happened in our gas stations. We don't need that to be adding to our policing issues. That was my concern.

The other question that was brought up is, 'We're going to eliminate the potential of bringing in a gas station.' That shouldn't be a question, because there are many gas stations that don't need that liquor license to come in, and if they really did want to search out the BP they had mentioned, there's no reason they can't be sought after at this point. I don't believe we have lost that potential.

I think we have a lot of potential in this city, but we have issues and we need to be working towards a safer and more sound community, that was why I voted against allowing liquor sales at gas stations.