Toepfer takes trustee seat on Bourbonnais board

BOURBONNAIS - The vacancy on the Bourbonnais Village Board has been filled and the newest trustee is Craig Toepfer.

Toepfer took the oath of office during Monday night’s board meeting.

Toepfer fills the vacancy left when Jeff Keast was sworn in May 5 as mayor. Keast was a trustee for 10 years prior to being elected mayor this past month.

Keast appointed Toepfer to the board to serve the final two years of his term. Trustees Bruce Greenlee, Rick Fischer, Randy King, Jack Littrell and Angie Serafini unanimously approved Toepfer.

“I just recently was the PTA president for Bourbonnais Elementary District, and this opportunity came open,” Toepfer said. “I expressed my interest, and I’d like the chance to have a say in what happens in the community, represent a group that may be a young family.”

Toepfer and his family have lived in Bourbonnais for approximately 13 years. He and his wife, Tracy, are parents of a 10-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son.

The 39-year-old Toepfer said it’s good to have a trustee on the board who is raising a young family.

“I don’t think there’s a lot of members with a young family so far in the board, so it’ll be good to have that point of view,” Toepfer said.

“But I’ve always lived my life with integrity, and I know that when I hear something up here, and I’m not going to be a yes-man, I’m going to be the person that’s going to question things.”

Toepfer is employed by Comcast Business.

Keast feels Toepfer is a good fit with fellow trustees.

“I believe he is going to sit in that seat and ask a lot of questions of the board,” Keast said. “I wanted to make sure that if someone was replacing me, they were going to be someone who’s going to ask those questions and hold us accountable, because that’s important to me.”