2023 Election Guide: SVPWD Candidates

Brian Chester, Richard Eardley, Tom Johnson, Steve Moberley, Constance Musik, Mark Reifsteck and Cameron Wygant are the 2023 candidates for the Sangamon Valley Public Water District Board. Election day is April 4, but early voting sites across Champaign County are already open. We reached out to all candidates, on Facebook, through email and by phone call, but were not able to get in contact with Musik, Chester and Wygant. The other candidates did not submit answers to the questions all candidates received. There are seven open seats and seven candidates.

Mark Reifsteck

I decided to run for the SVPWD Board because:

I have been a customer of the Sangamon Valley Water District for more than 42 years. When I heard there was a need to replace the members of the SVPWD Board, I began the process to put my name on the ballot on April 4, 2023.

I have always had a desire to volunteer to serve the needs of our community.  I have been a volunteer member of Mahomet ESDA since July 1990 (currently serving as Deputy Director), volunteered as a chain gang member at home high school football games at Mahomet-Seymour  High School for 31 years, and have served and still do serve on various committees at our church in Mahomet.

The top three issues I see facing the district in the next four years are (in no particular order):

Maintaining safe, quality water for our customers.
My solution to this issue is to have in place a professional General Manager that has all the current qualifications required and works with well with their personnel, our outside contractors and the Board.
I feel confident that the incoming Board will address this issue with the utmost diligence.

Like all Municipal Utilities, costs are rising and must be monitored to control those costs.
My solution to this issue would be again to work with the General Manager and our Engineer to maintain, service and tweak our equipment to utilize its most efficient operations.
These solutions can be discussed at the Board level and answers can be developed from those discussions.

Maintaining the sewer treatment facilities to the standards set forth by State governing agencies.
My solution to this issue is to use our resources available to us and implement the most cost effective measures that would benefit our customers.
Our Engineer would be relied on heavily to guide the Board to its conclusions.

What I believe the role of a Board member is:

To follow the SVPWD Mission which is to protect the public health and environment,
to provide quality water services in a reliable, affordable and customer-oriented fashion, and to maintain a vision for future growth and needs of our customers.
This is accomplished by having a conviction of service to those customers and our community.