Photo from the Village of Libertyville website

Libertyville Mayor, Terry Weppler (shown above), beat his opponent, Jeff Harger, in the April election.

The current mayor of Libertyville, Mr. Terry Weppler, will have a challenger in the upcoming mayoral election in April.

Former mayor of Libertyville, Mr. Jeff Harger (he held the position from 2005-2009), is running against the incumbent. In 2009, the two faced off against one another, and Weppler ended up defeating Harger, winning 71 percent of the vote. Then, Weppler had been the challenger, creating the first contested election in 20 years, according to the Daily Herald.

From 1999-2005, Harger was a village trustee and was part of the village’s parks committee. In February 2015, Libertyville voted to make Bolander Park into townhomes. According to the Chicago Tribune, the majority of village trustees voted for the new construction. This decision got the attention of Harger and motivated him to run for the mayoral position once again.

Harger believes that the current administration hasn’t had good communication with the community, and as mayor, he would fix this disconnection.

“I’m running for my reasons. I don’t want to be painted as someone who wants to turn the apple cart upside down,” Harger stated in an interview with the Daily Herald.

Before Weppler became mayor in 2009, he had been an attorney for real estate and zoning issues, a village trustee from 1979-1985 and was the head of Libertyville Days.

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Weppler said on the prospect of receiving another term, “I like working with people in the community and there are a few projects I’d like to see finished and a few I’d like to get started on.” One of the major projects that the current mayor wants to get started is rebuilding the Metra station downtown.