Monday evening Mayor Grove addressed the LBA (LaSalle Business Assoc) and shared with them his vision for the future of LaSalle under his leadership. Many of the alderman , including myself, were in attendance. The mayor appeared a bit nervous with his first public appearance since his election. He spoke approximately thirty minutes which was followed by a question and answer period of about thirty minutes as well.
After letting us know his administrative appointments were to be the same personnel as the previous mayor’s with the exception of Pam Broviak who was not reappointed, he began to discuss his vision which is strongly dependent upon an economic director being added to the city’s payroll.
He expects that person to be the glue between the business community and the local government and assumes that he or she will be able to attract new businesses, write grants , and create an atmosphere downtown and elsewhere which will pull customers and new commerce to our city.
He intends to go after downtown dilapidated building owners and demand that they clean up their buildings so as to make them saleable in some cases, for others to create shops. The LBA is selling murals for $150.00 which can be used to put in storefronts of empty buildings to hide the fact that they are in disrepair.
He is going to direct his building inspector, Brian Maddox, to focus on rental properties which need attention and correction as well as directing our city attorney to “go after” deadbeat owners in court.
Newly elected Alderman Boo Herndon commented that if we make an example of a few of these owners that others will see the city means business and they will address their properties for fear they will be next in court.
Other issues such as no electricity to our historic lampposts on first street and the overall problems with downtown wiring were also brought up. The mayor promised to address these with Illinois Power Company
The downtown grant program for storefront renovation was mentioned by Reverend Tom Arnold. He questioned if it still existed and was there any funding left. Mayor Grove promised to look into that issue as well.
As public addresses go it was pretty standard. A lot of general thoughts but few specifics. Yes we will have a new city website with each department contributing their ideas as to what is needed but no launch date set. The mayor showed that as a manager he will welcome everyone’s ideas but as a leader there was not much in new direction. Ways by which to fund these actions were not discussed, generally because no one really wants to discuss how much things will cost the taxpayer, just how soon these problems will be dealt with.
All in all there was a good crowd, estimated at about 50 to 60 people in the visitor’s conference center. I think most people left with the thought that they will wait and see what changes take place and at what costs.
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