Name: Jacqueline (Jackie) Traynere
What office are you seeking: Will County Board District 11
What is your political party?
What is your current age? 63
Occupation and employer: Retired
What offices, if any, have you previously held? County Board since 2008 and precinct committeeperson.
City: Bolingbrook
Campaign website: jackietraynere.com
Education: High School
Some college including Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
Community involvement: Bolingbrook Garden Club
Bolingbrook Rotary
both do extensive volunteer projects
Midwest Pond and Koi Society
Marital status/Immediate family: Married, 2 adult children, 2 grandchildren
What are your top three priorities for this district?
Public transportation
Attainable housing
Trails and sidewalks
What types of job growth are needed in Will County to help residents keep up with rising costs, especially housing?
We have all recognized that housing costs continue to rise, the new tariffs won’t be helpful in that regard. Our County workswith the Center for Economic Development (CED), which continues to bring new employers to Will County. We always like to see jobs that have higher pay and the CED strives to attract those employers. I would love to see our energy production grow and those jobs can support a family.
What should be infrastructure priorities and projects over the next four years?
We have begun work on this with a space needs study that was completed last year. This is the second round of infrastructure improvements as we have already completed the Courthouse, Health Department and Sheriff Facility. We need a new County Office building so that we can consolidate various departments from leased space into County owned buildings. Two areas that come to mind are our Land Use Department and our Public Defender. Our States Attorney needs a new building as well, the EMCO building is at end of life and the elevators continue to pose problems. In addition, as funds permit we should build our own Health Department in Bolingbrook, rather than continuing to lease space.
What is your position on data centers? Should the county be open to their development?
Responsible development is always top of mind. We have just begun a new land use plan, it will be completed in 2027 and will include many public meetings as well as meetings with municipalities. Our last one was in 2011 and at that time, the idea of a solar farm didn’t exist. The new technology that we should prepare for, in addition to data centers is modular nuclear. I believe we should always be seeking opportunities, and as for data centers there are ways to mitigate their impact, like placing them near solar facilities and having the water come from our nuclear plants. They are coming, and good planning can make it easier to swallow.
Do you favor solar farm development? Should the county encourage more sustainable energy development?
Yes I believe we need more sustainable energy development. The data centers use a lot of energy and should be co-located with solar. I have solar on my own home. I would love to see the solar on more commercial roofs, but I also know that for the big facilities they need to be located where they can feed the power to the grid.
What should be the county’s spending priorities?
We continue to be conservative in our spending as we always hesitate to raise taxes. We are working on infrastructure, which is critical for saving tax dollars. It is my hope that we can continue to expand our Access Will program, possibly by lowering the rider age to 50. I strongly support a bridge from Route 53 into Lockport, this is an urgent need that the county doesn’t have funding for.