Village of Russell Gardens Mayor Steven Kirschner has had the rare opportunity at a second chance.
Kirschner has been serving as mayor since 2013 after first serving as mayor from 2003 to 2009.
“After three terms I had accomplished not everything I wanted to do, but if you are mayor forever and there are other people who want to become mayor and lead the village, you stifle people. They don’t feel like there’s mobility,” Kirschner said. “I really felt I had to move on and [Matthew Bloomfield] became mayor.”
Bloomfield was elected mayor in 2009 and served until he decided not to seek re-election in 2013, citing personal and business concerns.
Kirschner, an attorney, said he decided to run again for mayor in an attempt to stabilize the village, which he described as being in “disarray” at the time.
Kirschner, who was originally elected to the village Board of Trustees in 1989, is seeking re-election in the March 18 village elections along with trustees Martin Adickman and Jane Krakauer. All seats are uncontested. Voting will take place from 12 p.m. until 9 p.m. at Village Hall, located at 6 Tain Drive.
Kirschner said the village’s purchase of tennis courts from the Russell Gardens Association in March 2013 was at the center of controversy at the time Bloomfield decided to not run for re-election.
While there was both opposition and support for the purchase, Kirschner said, he believed the purchase was a worthwhile expense and should be paid with general tax revenues – a view not shared by everyone.
“We had just under a 30 percent tax increase,” he said. “Many mayors would get hung in effigy for that.”
He said a public meeting was held so the trustees could explain why they were against borrowing the money.
“As villages or towns or cities increase their debt load, it affects service,” Kirschner said. “We pride ourselves in providing as much service as possible to our residents.”
Before the purchase, he said, the tennis courts purchased from the Russell Gardens Association were only open to one family homeowners in the village.
When the courts are refurbished sometime in the fall, he said, they will be open to all village residents.
In his second stint as mayor, Kirschner said the village has rebuilt Village Hall for safety and more space, redone the sidewalks and expanded municipal services such as snow removal on sidewalks and curb cuts.
Kirschner said the construction of four new apartment buildings in the village has created a lot of anxiety among residents about parking. Since he was elected mayor the second time, he said, the village has added 23 new street spots for homeowners without garages.
Even though Russell Gardens is small, he said, there is always something to be done in the village to make it better.
“There’s a lot of things we have to get done once spring hits,” Kirschner said. “There will be a lot of pothole repair, eventually the roads have to get redone. We also want to spruce up the park area. “
Kirschner said he may run for one more term after this election, but then he plans to retire.
“Just like some people become the head of the PTA or a hospital volunteers, my way of giving back to the community to get things done as mayor,” he said.
Adickman, who has been a trustee for more than 10 years, said the trustees try to work through whatever problems the village has as a team, including the tennis courts.
He said the village trustees are deciding now whether to put Har-Tru surface or traditional clay on the tennis courts’ surface. The cost to refurbish the courts will be about $220,000.
The village, he said, is also looking to become more energy efficient as well.
“We’re looking to become more at energy efficiency now,” Adickman said. “We’re looking to replace our street lighting with LED lights.”
