Freewheeling Shorewood Village Board OKs Another Four-Wheel Drive Truck

Shorewood trustee James "Mac" McDonald again stood alone against the rest of the village board as they voted to buy a brand new four-wheel drive truck for another village employee.

"I think we should be holding off a little on these vehicles," McDonald said during Tuesday night's village board meeting. "I think there's other stuff out there we can use."

McDonald later suggested that village employees drive "old police cars," and said that is practice in Joliet.

"But they have 120 employees in the building department," said Mayor Rick Chapman. McDonald said Joliet does not actually have that many.

Trustee Dan Gron called McDonald's squad car suggestion a "valid issue" that should be further explored.

The board ended up voting 4-1 to purchase a 2012 Ford Escape for $20,043. The car will go to Chief Building Inspector David Myers.

McDonald was the lone dissenter. Trustees Celine Schwartz and Gary Fitzgerald missed the meeting.

Last month McDonald bucked the board when it approved shelling out $30,305 so that Shorewood Police Cmdr. Aaron Klima could have a 2011 Chevy Tahoe.

Klima is the police department's administrative commander but is also the director of Shorewood's Emergency Service and Disaster Agency.

A 2011 four-wheel drive Chevy Tahoe would presumably come in handy in the event Shorewood faced a disaster such as a tornado or tsunami, but McDonald believed otherwise, calling the rugged vehicles "unnecessary."

McDonald went on to say that he spent many years working in the construction business, that he never owned a four-wheel drive vehicle and that he never found himself stuck in treacherous terrain.

"That's a pile of myth, it's baloney," McDonald said of the importance of driving a four-wheel drive vehicle when forced to negotiate treacherous ground, such as the rough surfaces of Shorewood's more hazardous regions.

"It's a luxury," he said of spending money on four-wheel drive sport utility vehicles for village employees.

Trustee Dan Anderson said the difference between a two-wheel drive model and a four-wheel drive is about $1,500. McDonald told Anderson to "try double or triple it."

According to Kelley Blue Book, the number is actually somewhere between Anderson's figure and McDonald's suggestion to double it. Kelley Blue Book only gave the manufacturer's suggested retail price for new 2011 Escapes. It put an automatic transmission four-wheel drive at $2,504 above a manual transmission two-wheel drive.