It was a last-minute, come-from-behind victory Tuesday night for the slate of candidates that had earned the backing of Burr Ridge Mayor Mickey Straub.
But with all precincts reporting, unofficial results show Paula Murphy, incumbent Al Paveza and Antonio Schiappa won the three seats on the board.
However, Mary T. Praxmarer, who was in the lead for the third seat until the last two precincts came in, only trails Schiappa by 32 votes with possible absentee ballots and provisional ballots yet to be counted.
“I see nothing but progress and prosperity for the village,” Straub said of the board, which will now likely have four votes supporting him.
Many of the issues facing the current Village Board were divided 3-3, with Straub having to cast the deciding vote.
“We want to preserve the quality of life in the village and be resident focused,” Straub said.
The unofficial totals show Murphy with 961 votes, Paveza with 912 votes and Schiappa with 884 votes. They were followed by Praxmarer with 852 votes, Robert A. Grela with 812 votes, Jimmy Haimann with 208 votes and Jim Broline with 170 votes.
Murphy said she was very surprised to be the top vote-getter.
“Al has been a trustee for 20 years.. He is an incumbent,” Murphy said. “And Tony worked with me. He worked extremely hard and he has a really good foothold in the southwest part of the village.”
Murphy said she couldn’t think her supporters enough.
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“I had an amazing group of women from Elm School and my book club,” Murphy said. “They all called and emailed everyone they knew. It was truly a group effort.”
Paveza said he hopes for a more harmonious board going forward.
“I hope we go into the new (village) year without the animosity that we had two years ago when Mickey became mayor,” he said.
“This election we did not have negativity on either side. Both side promoted their strong points. I have known Bob Grela and Mary Praxmarer for 20 years. There was no negativity. We all just wanted to represent the people. Now I just hope we can go and conduct village business.”