March 7, 2025 • 65 mins
James Roberts is a retired, having spent his career running grocery stores. He ran for Village Trustee once before back in the early 90's. Get to know James Roberts and be sure to vote BY April 1st! Early voting starts March 17th!
Jim is running with the Mokena's Future Slate. Their website is www.friendsofmokena.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
All right.
Trustee Roberts, thank you forjoining me tonight.
You're not only running, butyou were recently appointed to
Village Trustee, so thank youfor taking the time to sit down.
It's a good opportunity to getto know our current trustee as
well as a candidate for office,so thank you for spending some
time with me tonight.
You're welcome.
Let's just get started.
(00:25):
Maybe tell me a little bitabout yourself.
Start with, maybe, where yougrew up family.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Okay, well, I'm a son of a military career Air Force.
My dad was in the Air Force.
I was born in the early fifties.
I have six brothers and sistersand around 1955, my dad was
transferred to France.
So at the time there were onlyfive kids.
So off to France.
We went and we lived in Francefor about two years until the
(00:54):
French decided they wanted theUS military out of France.
Do you remember any of thattime living there?
Not a whole lot, I mean, I wasborn in 52.
So I was only like five or soor six when the time we were
moved there.
Until we moved to Germany.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Do you remember like did your parents tell you were
you speaking French?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
No, no, nothing like that, no no, you know well, you
know you're in military housing,so you're really not around the
French that much.
So in around 1957, we ended upgetting transferred to Wiesbaden
, germany, and we lived therefor about three years and my
youngest brother, john, was bornin Wiesbaden Germany a few
(01:37):
months before we came back in1960.
And I remember a lot more aboutGermany, but we have a lot of
family videos and stuff backthen.
So I'm not sure if I actuallyremember it or I remember it lot
more about Germany, but we havea lot of family videos and
stuff back then.
So I'm not sure if I actuallyremember it or I remember it
because I see the videos andthings like that.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
That's pretty cool that you had videos.
Your dad would take videos ofyour parents.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yeah, they used to take the old reel-to-reel tapes,
videos, and my dad was prettyactive taking it back in those
days, so we had a lot of homemovies and stuff like that.
I've recently had it convertedto digital oh, that's great.
So I have it all on.
I have tons of it.
That was converted to onememory stick Wow, and it's
(02:15):
amazing.
All the totes I had is now onone little stick and it's
categorized beautifully whereyou can hit the chapter you want
to watch.
But I remember a lot aboutGermany where we lived.
I remember the school I went to.
I can visualize all those kindof things.
I remember the German firedepartment behind us every day.
(02:35):
They would go out at lunch andthey would play soccer and stuff
like that.
But I don't remember a wholelot of the travels and vacations
we took in Germany.
But then how?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
long were you?
Speaker 2 (02:49):
there.
So we were there about threeyears.
We're in Europe about fiveyears total.
So in around 1960 we moved backand we ended up.
My dad got stationed at ScottAir Force Base in Southern
Illinois and we were there until1968.
He retired in the fall of 67and got a job in Chicago and so
(03:12):
when we got out of school in 68,we all moved up here and we
moved to Hazelcrest.
So I finished high school atHillcrest High School and I went
to South Suburban College for ayear and then I was drafted
into the Army and I spent twoyears in the Army, basically at
(03:33):
Fort Polk, ait at Fort Sill,oklahoma.
Field artillery was myspecialty training and from
there I was shipped to Germanyand I spent about a year and a
half in northern Germany and wewere stationed with the Dutch
Air Force and fantastic lifeexperience being over there.
I bought a car, I traveled alot and you don't make a lot of
(03:58):
money but it goes a long waywhen it's $1, $3.20 on marks.
So it kind of felt like youwere rich.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Have you ever gone back again to visit since you
left?
I?
Speaker 2 (04:09):
haven't, and it's kind of been a dream, and my
wife doesn't have any desire togo, so it's not a trip you want
to do on your own Sure.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Wow, what a great experience.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah.
So I got you know, I got.
I spent my two years and then Igot you know, I got you know,
discharged, so to speak, orwhatever.
After my two years I came backand I love woodworking and
crafts and things like that.
So I was trying to get into theWorshman Trade School was kind
of my goal and things werepretty bad in 74 as far as the
(04:43):
schools and the economy.
So there was no openings.
So in the meantime I had afriend.
He says I'll go to Dominic's.
So I went to Dominic's and theyhired me and um hired me
full-time.
So I worked there, um, for 32years.
What did you start off doing atDominic's?
I started off just throwingcans on the shelf and within a
(05:04):
year I was closing the stores.
I was like they call him a headclerk.
So basically, when theassistant was off, you took his
spot.
So in about a year or so I gota letter from Worshamer and
Trade School that they had someopenings for me to apply.
By then I was already startingto make a little bit of income,
(05:25):
not a lot of money, but a lot.
Good enough, I was getting by.
So I said, you know, I kind oflike what I'm doing.
I'm going to stay here, and sowe did that.
So I stayed there and a coupleyears later, in 76, time moves
fast I met my wife in the fallof 76 and we got married in June
(05:47):
of 77.
It was a short, whatever datingperiod, so I met her and I just
kind of knew she was the oneyou know I had to convince her
of that.
That was more challenging.
Is she in the area too?
She lived in Oak Forest.
She's originally from FortWayne, indiana.
So we come to the spring of 77and my wife's parents, he, got
(06:17):
transferred to Mount Vernon,ohio.
So there come the dilemma whatare we going to do?
I couldn't see her moving therewhen we were talking about
getting married and we wereengaged.
So we moved up our, our weddingto, uh, to June 4th, so we knew
each other, probably about eightmonths between meeting her and
(06:37):
getting married.
And so now today we, uh, we gotmarried and lived in Tinley for
a short period and then wemoved to Country Club Hills for
a little while and we had twodaughters there and in 1990, my
daughters were getting to theage then where we had to start
thinking about education forthem and Country Club Hills
(07:00):
schools were already in shambles, so we started looking for
places to move in.
We ended up moving to Mokena.
Three days before we moved toMokena, my third daughter, megan
, was born, so she moved in.
We moved in on July 29th of1990, and she was born on the
26th Wow.
So there was a lot going onback then and my career had
(07:25):
progressed over the years.
As you would expect, I became aco-manager and then eventually
a store manager.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
And were you at some of the local stores here?
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Well, the funny thing is is, once I became a manager,
I never, ever, worked really inmy neighborhood again.
Okay, they like to move you.
So I became a manager and theclosest store I was ever at was
the store the old store inFrankfurt or in Mattson on Route
30.
Sure, there was an old storethere.
So I worked there for a littlewhile and I closed it, and then
(08:02):
from there they shipped me intothe city, worked there for a
little while and I closed it,and then from there they shipped
me into the city and from thereI worked at 47th and Kedzie I
worked 31st and Ashland.
I worked 71st and Jeffrey.
So I worked a lot of diversestores and I spent about 10
years on that little circuitbefore they finally moved me out
of the city.
Then they moved me to Joliet.
(08:24):
I spent about a year there andfrom there I went up to
Schaumburg, willowbrook,woodridge, and then in Woodridge
is when I left in 19, or 2007,2008 timeframe, and at that time
Safeway had bought us.
Things were not the samecompany we'd worked for, so it
was time to move on anyway.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Is it typical to move around that much as a manager?
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Well, if a company's growing, there's a lot of
movement.
I mean they don't just move tomove, but typically they have a
store opening, so they'reopening a new store, remodeling
a new store, so there's shift inpersonnel with that.
So it's kind of typical thatyou're going to move every
(09:09):
couple years, two or three years.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
It's very unusual to stay in a store five, six years.
What do you think the biggest?
Like what would most people besurprised?
Speaker 2 (09:23):
by of the grocery industry.
Oh, my gosh, you know, first ofall all if you've never worked
it, it's a very, very hardindustry, very hard.
It's a very demanding area oftime.
Uh, the customer demands areincredible.
They never stop.
They always want more, more,more obviously.
Uh, price of food even whenit's not inflationary, it's
(09:44):
always expensive, if you knowwhat I mean.
So I think that they would beshocked to see the effort that's
put forth to make a store lookgood every day.
You can do $200,000 or $300,000in a day.
I can leave at 6 o'clock atnight and the store looks like a
tornado went through it.
I come in the next day and itlooks like you haven't had a
(10:07):
customer in a month.
I mean, the overnight crewsthat stock your shelves are
phenomenal.
They face your store and yougot the.
You know the maintenance crewcomes in, does your floors and
you come in the next day andyou're ready for business again.
And the other thing is the lowpercentage of profits that
(10:28):
stores make.
I've been in stores that do amillion dollars a week that
barely make any money.
Wow, you know, a lot of ourleases are very, very expensive.
Utilities are very expensive inthe industry and obviously your
cost of goods.
Nothing's free and labor'sexpensive.
You know we uh, we deal with uhhealthcare, we're we're a
(10:49):
unionized company.
So, uh, you know you're givenhealthcare, you're given a
pretty good wage.
I mean my wife is making uh.
She worked part-time there.
She'd make it like 18 bucks anhour with uh, with benefits, so
um.
So there's a lot of overhead ingrocery stores.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
And what in times, like you know, we've seen over
the past couple of years wherethere's prices are like
overnight jumping, how do thegrocery stores keep up with that
and not be losing money everytime they're selling groceries?
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Well, you have a price department that is
changing tags almost 24-7.
Wow, you know, as suppliersraise prices, we get a new tag
and the tag is generated and itgoes up the next day.
So you're constantly changingtags, not only for that, but
also for your sale.
Items are going on and off sale, which is happening also every
(11:41):
week, is happening also everyweek.
So the price change thing, youknow and I would say because
obviously I'm not in thebusiness now, but I sure know
pricing, the pricing since 2020on an impact in the grocery
business, and a lot of it can beblamed on supply, maybe, but a
lot of it's also blamed on thecost of energy.
(12:03):
There's nothing in a grocerystore that doesn't require gas.
I mean whether you're heatingyour building, cooling your
building or whatever, gettingyour vehicles to market your
products in your store andthings like that.
You had semis and they werecoming out of Wisconsin and
Mariano.
So I mean, I look at the priceof eggs.
I was in the store the otherday.
A 30-pack of eggs was $30.
(12:25):
And I thought I look at theprice of eggs.
I was in the store the other day.
A 30-pack of eggs was $30.
And I thought it's incredible.
It's absolutely incredible.
I mean, the cheapest dozen islike $7, $6, $7.
So they're blaming this, Ithink, on the bird flu kind of
thing more than anything.
But I found when prices go upin the industry, they never go
(12:51):
down.
The first item I ever rememberthat to be true was probably
sugar and then coffee.
Back in the 80s, I ThinkColumbia or somebody had a bad
crop.
Price went up.
Well, can of coffee never wentdown again.
You know.
So it's um, so the marketsdriven by a lot of things, but
mostly, you know, mostly,increases uh, come from our
suppliers well, I don't want tomake this all about groceries I
(13:14):
think it's very interestingyou're gonna have no, no, I I.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
I think it's interesting, um, because it's
something everybody deals with.
I mean, my wife is at thegrocery store right now, yeah,
uh, but we don't alwaysunderstand the workings behind
it.
And, yeah, I can't imaginethinking about how many kids
just go through and throw stuffor push things down and then
have to have it clean.
It's got to be a tremendousprocess, and one that we
(13:39):
overlook and take for granted.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Well, I think in a day is what's changed, and it's
always been there, but it'snothing like today, and I think
that's the retail theft side ofthings.
That's, um, if you go intothese stores now and you see the
cages and locks on everything,that wasn't the case.
I mean, I worked.
I worked 71st and Jeffrey, wedidn't lock anything up back
then.
Okay, uh, 47, we didn't lockanything up back then.
(14:03):
Yeah, people came in and stole,but not to the volume they do
today.
We used to prosecute everybodywho caught stealing.
It was $2, because you had toput the message in the you know
out there in the neighborhoodthat we don't have a limit.
If you steal and you get caught, you're going to pay, and so
that's kind of what we did.
Today, though, I mean, peoplecome in and they literally steal
whole carts of stuff and justwalk right out.
(14:23):
Amazing and that margin there.
I mean I don't remember whatstore it was Walmart or Target,
someone.
Recently, about a year ago, itwas announced the retail theft
number and it was just astaggering number of missing
inventory.
Wow.
So you talked about your familyyour wife and your daughters, my
three daughters.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
So tell us about your family, your wife and your
daughters my three- daughters,so tell us about them.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Okay, well, my oldest is Carrie and when we moved out
here she was like in sixthgrade.
So she went through the MokenaSchool District to finish that
and then went to the splitschools back then two years at
East, two years at Central.
She's married to a Lincoln Waygraduate also and they have two
(15:08):
daughters.
The oldest is a sophomore atLincoln Way Central now and the
youngest is in seventh grade.
So they live in Ravinia, offTown Line Road, over here just
west of town.
Can't vote for me.
I didn't think about that.
Yeah, they can't vote for me.
And then my middle daughter,katie.
(15:29):
She was born in 1981, and shealso married a Lincoln Way
graduate.
She has four kids, three boysand a girl, and her oldest is a
sophomore at Lincoln Way Westand she's a good kid.
(15:49):
She lives in Elwood and herhusband's in the carpentry
business, construction stufflike that.
So, and then there's myyoungest, megan.
She was there the other night,she's the redhead, and boy did
you.
You know that Megan also marrieda Lincoln Way graduate, kevin
Connelly, and she actually firststarted going to school with
(16:12):
him in about fifth grade.
Oh, wow.
So they, they had known eachother for years and she put her
claws in him pretty early, Ithink, in life.
They pretty much dated allthrough high school.
They went to different collegesand when it was all said and
done, they came home and endedup getting married and they have
three kids.
Their oldest is in second grade, then they got a kindergartner
(16:35):
and they got a two-year-old Wow,and they live in Tinley Park.
So all good kids.
I'm proud of every one of them.
And they had good husbands andreally good kids.
I'm proud of every one of them.
They had good husbands andreally good families.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
What do the kids think about all this being
involved?
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Well, they're used to me doing crazy stuff.
So you know, I don't know if Itold you this story, but you
have so many chapters kind of inyour life, pretty much.
I retired in 2019 fromMariano's in June of 2019.
I knew I was going to dosomething, but I'm fortunate
(17:15):
Peggy and I are huge savers.
We don't waste money, we don'tspend money.
So I didn't really have to gofind a paying job to subsidize
my income.
So I was always looking out forwhat I could do to keep myself
busy.
So I joined the health club.
I did that, but that's just notenough.
My wife was meanwhilevolunteering at the hospice
(17:38):
house in Joliet, and so theCOVID came.
And then, after COVID and allthat, it was kind of over.
I was still kind of thinking,like what are you going to do?
I thought about taking apart-time job, mostly just for
something to do.
And that's when the VeteransGarage came on me and so I
started getting involved withthat in like March of 24.
(18:01):
And I came in right about amonth before they started their
move.
So I helped them do the moveand everything and spent a lot
of time down there helping themset up and do stuff like that
and then, as time went on, wedid a transformation of the
board recently, so I ended up onthe board and I also decided
(18:25):
that someone needed to keep thebooks and stuff like that.
So I volunteered to be theirtreasury.
So I'm doing that now.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
And Veterans Garage for those who don't know is
started by former Mokena Mayor,joe Werner, in this area, and
then talk a little bit about howthey ended up with the facility
they have now.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
well, you know, um, you know, after joe had passed
away, there was a lot of talkabout, you know, they were gonna
have to liquidate the veteransgarage.
We didn't really seem to have areal driving force of
volunteers to keep it going.
So, uh, there was a lot of.
When I first came on board,that was kind of like, are we
going to close, what are wegoing board?
That was kind of like are wegoing to close, what are we
going to do?
That was kind of the thoughts.
(19:06):
No one really had made adecision.
And then we have a guy namedBill Vail.
He's part of the family and heworks down in Mantino's veteran
home.
So he reached out to them andthey offered a space for us.
Wow, so at that point in timewe all got re-energized, we
(19:28):
packed up and we moved toManteno and they gave us a nice
facility.
It's rent-free, utility-free,and they also have committed to
the museum for us too.
So it's absolutely perfectlocation because we have around
three 350 vets there and um, sothe military vehicles with the
(19:48):
vets, those two things just gohand in hand.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
They're just a perfect combination together and
I've seen their facebook postswhere the veterans can come down
and help and work on thevehicles and what a what an
awesome thing to have on sitefor them there oh yeah, I um.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Sometimes, when the weather's nice, we'll uh,
because a lot of them arewheelchair-bound, we'll lift
them up, we'll put them in thetrucks and I'll give them a
10-minute ride around thefacility and stuff like that.
That's great.
We take some of them on ourevents that we go to and things
like that, but a lot of themhave pretty bad restrictions,
unfortunately, but we do what wecan to keep them engaged and
they literally love the event.
(20:26):
That's awesome.
We're there.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
So tell us a little bit about what do you do for fun
besides Veterans Garage.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Well, what do I do for fun?
Well, I mean I recreationalgolf.
I'm not a great golfer but Ihang with my daughters and their
family a lot and my wife'sfamily.
They live around here and wetypically for years we've been
(20:58):
going to.
Since I retired we startedgoing to Alabama golf shores in
the wintertime, so that's kindof it.
You know, I cut my own grass.
I got an in-ground pool thatkeeps me busy.
So just doing yard work aroundthe house in the summertime and
managing the pool and stuff likethat, it's kind of what I've
done, you know, and you know.
Then it came to about the middleof the year so I started
calling Frank, reaching out toFrank about, you know, the
(21:21):
internet services and stuff likethat.
You heard me tell this before Istarted thinking about why do
we not look at internet as autility and have the villages
negotiate rates like they do forwater and other issues water,
sewage, garbage pickup and allthat?
So Frank and I had a coupletalks back and forth about that.
(21:45):
One day, out of the clear blue,he calls me and goes hey, I got
an opening on the board, areyou interested in filling it?
So that was kind of a gut checkmoment.
I wasn't sure what I should dothere and I said why don't we,
let's get together and talk?
So Frank and I got together, wetalked for about two hours and,
(22:09):
um, I saw I decided that youknow, it's something I wanted to
do and my wife was supportive.
My daughters think I'm crazy,so I um.
So then from there he put me intouch and John the
administrator, we got togetherand we talked for another hour
and a half and two hours and um,and from there Frank appointed
me, the board approved it and Iwas put on the board on
(22:31):
September 11th.
And you know, it's like reallya golden opportunity.
I didn't have to run and I getthe benefits of actually being
behind the scenes of how avillage is run and I have a lot
of my own ideas about thevillage and I have a lot of my
own ideas about the village.
(22:52):
And I think that one reasonthat I did partner with Frank
and agree is because I feltFrank is open to a lot of my
thoughts and directions.
I think we should be going andI feel like, if we can get
elected, that we're going to beable to set an initiative out
there in some direction thatmaybe some things have been
talked about for a long, longtime.
Maybe we can actually make someprogress towards them.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
So the internet issue that you brought up is there
anything that you've done withthat since being appointed?
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Not yet, but Frank and I talked about it and, if
you know, god willing, if we'reelected, that's something that
we've talked about.
If I'm elected, we will set upa kind of a commission Let me
spearhead it and we'll getinvolved with all the Internet
providers that provide to thevillage and the ones that don't,
and see if this is a doableidea.
(23:44):
I mean legally speaking.
I don't know whether you've gota leg to stand on, I don't know
about stuff like that.
You got a leg to stand on?
I don't know about stuff likethat.
But I think if we partner andmy idea is we partner with
villages around us we needleverage and if we can partner
with villages around us, maybebetween Frankfurt, new Lenox and
(24:05):
Mokina here maybe we can findsome way to find a carrier that
will lock in rates that areaffordable for everyone and find
some way to find a carrier thatwill lock in rates that are
affordable for everyone.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Okay, you talked about that.
You'd previously run back inthe 90s, right, I did Shortly
after you moved in.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Well, fall of 96, the last one is in 97.
Okay, back then I was alreadystarting to formulate a lot of
things about the village, whatwas going on downtown.
The traffic was alreadystarting to get pretty bad, and
I was also concerned about thehomes, subdivisions we're
(24:43):
building about.
There's no lots, there's onlyhouse on top of house.
There's plenty of house on topof a house.
So my three things I wasinterested in is making sure
that we didn't put a house onless than a half to three
quarters of an acre, and do acomprehensive study on traffic
(25:11):
to see what we can do with ourtraffic patterns before it's so
bad that we can't do anything.
And so those were two of mythings.
And then the Front Street areawas dying, dying a slow death,
and I felt that we needed to dosomething on Front Street to
attract some type of businessdown there.
So those were kind of my bigthings I was looking at back
then.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
And do you think, how do you feel?
I mean looking at the issuesthat were important you know
what's that?
30 years ago?
Yeah, how do you think thoseissues are now?
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Well, the traffic is definitely much, much worse by
the time you do a trafficpattern study.
You get people to buy in on it.
You can get the state to agreeto any change that be made, get
the funding for it.
These are like 10, 15-yearprojects.
So I look at the traffic nowand I say where will we be in 10
(26:06):
or 15 years?
Because I see where we aretoday and I think that the best
efforts probably I don't knowthat the best efforts are going
to be able to ease the trafficon us for many years and I think
we've passed the window oftrying to get ahead of that.
Now we just have to figure outif we're going to do anything
(26:27):
about it.
It's one thing if traffic flowsthrough your city and they stop
at your businesses, but theydon't.
They just flow through and gohome and so we're not really
gaining anything by thepass-through traffic that we're
getting today.
You know the homes.
As far as homes and lots, a lotof the subdivisions they've
(26:48):
built since then have been, Ithink, pretty decent.
I mean we got that Whispering.
It was called WhisperingSprings or Hills Out West here
at Whispering Creek.
They did a nice job with lotsize out there.
I think those are pretty nice.
So a lot of this stuff.
I mean Old Castle Woods.
There wasn't a house up when Imoved in so they developed that.
(27:09):
I think they did a heck of ajob up in there.
So a lot of what I was thinkingabout with the lot size.
I'm not saying they listened tome because I know they didn't,
but someone had the good senseto realize that we didn't want
to just build a house at the topof a house, we wanted some
yards there.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
So what did that?
You know, going through thatelection and losing.
What did that teach you?
Speaker 2 (27:34):
It taught me I was on the wrong side.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Were you running with a slate at that time?
Speaker 2 (27:40):
I was running with a slate.
I had already made a decisionto run and then there was a guy
named Ed Lark.
He had decided he was going torun for mayor.
And then we had another gal, agal, lori Hermanson, and she was
running.
So we kind of we on thebackside we all kind of
partnered together and ran as aslate.
(28:02):
But the people we ran againstwere the same kind of group as
you have today called Friends ofMokena, but they called them
back then like Citizens Unitedor they had a different name
back then.
But they were really heavilysupported by the businesses
downtown the Tuttle family atthe time and the Tuttle family,
which I was naive to notunderstand that you know they
(28:25):
didn't want really any changedowntown because they owned the
only businesses down here.
So anyway, I end up losing.
We all three lost that year andI guess what I really learned
was the way you have to networkif you're going to do this.
You can't do it alone, and sopart of why I'm running now is
(28:46):
because I feel we have a networkability that maybe we can reach
out and do something with,because I feel we have a network
ability that maybe we can reachout and do something with.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
What did you do?
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Did you get involved anywhere after that election?
Not really, you know I was.
Well, they thought I was crazy.
I was already working 10 to12-hour days.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Well, I was wondering about that too, and I'm driving
.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Well, at the time I was driving to Joliet one of the
closer rides in my life to work.
But so another opportunityreally didn't come up.
You know, I think I don't know,I don't know if you're kind of
blackballed once you dosomething like that run against
an establishment kind of thing.
But no one really reached outto me after it and it seemed to
be a dead end at the time.
So from then I just kind ofsaid you know, well, I'm just
going to sit in the sidelinesand kind of see where we go from
(29:37):
here, and years go by and Iwould see him running.
I would say they would say thesame thing I was saying in 96
and nothing's ever changing, youknow.
And so when Frank offered methis opportunity, I'm like you
know, things come to you in afunny way.
But maybe this is my time,maybe this is the time that I
(29:59):
should be doing this, and so Ijumped into it.
And, yeah, it's already been afascinating experience, much
more involved than I thought itwas In 96, 97,.
If I'd have won, I'm not surehow I would have balanced the
type of work and being on aboard at the same time, but I'd
(30:22):
have figured it out.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
How do you think your work experience and your career
has prepared you to be avillage trustee?
Speaker 2 (30:36):
career has prepared you to be a village trustee.
Well, one is I understandfinancing incredible financing
In the industry.
One thing you learn is youlearn to tear apart your
operating statements monthly,look for all your opportunities.
So you look into all the finelines of your goods and your bad
, so that helped me understandthe financials and some of the
other things I mean.
You talk about the utilitycosts and rents and everything
else that you're dealing with.
(30:57):
There's a lot going in otherthan just selling groceries.
And then you look at thetraining side endless training
I've trained over the years.
I've trained so many managers,and co-managers and other
assistant managers were broughtin underneath me to learn and
train and develop them.
So I've learned a lot abouttraining people, a lot about,
(31:19):
I'll tell you, working indiverse communities.
You know 71st and Jeffrey.
I walked in there.
I was a white man.
They didn't like it, but I tellyou what I was there for four
years and when I walked out, alot of the ladies were crying
and we built a relationship ofwork together and what I learned
(31:41):
was is treat everybody the same.
It might be hard, but if youmake an exception for one, you
make them for all.
So my motto was that I didn'tmake exceptions and I ruled
directly down with the policiesand the employees.
In almost every case they comeinto line and they understand
(32:03):
the expectation and ourrelationships were fantastic.
So when I bring that to theboard, I think that we should be
able to work together.
I think I have a goodunderstanding of how to
negotiate things and how to dealwith difficult situations.
I've listened to some of thedisciplinary actions that go on
(32:26):
and all this stuff and I thinkto myself I've dealt with this
most of my life, so I thinkwe've got a wide range of that
Leadership wise, when I was inthe army, I went to SASCOM
leadership school.
I was entered into what's calledSCA the quarter take all the
custodial agents, guards,basically what we were security
(32:49):
of the facilities and I finishedthird in Europe on a contest
there Actually I don't know ifit's on the webpage or not I
sent in my letters.
I got several letters ofrecommendations and credited for
many inspections, and so overmy years it's just been little
pieces of learning leadership byothers that taught me.
(33:12):
I mean I had some great, greatmentors throughout my life too
Probably none better than my dad.
He was in the military anduntil I was about 16 years old,
my head was shaved about everySaturday.
Finally, one Saturday I saidDad, I want to put a comb in my
hair and he says okay.
He says then you pay for yourown haircuts from now on.
So from then on I've had thishairstyle.
(33:37):
But yeah, you know, I mean everylittle piece of life brings you
to where you are today and youknow there's a tremendous staff
at the village.
I mean they have beenabsolutely phenomenal in
bringing me up to speed on a lotof what's going on in the
village, because the villagedoesn't start and stop when
(33:59):
somebody comes on the board.
It's a not involving thing.
So there's a lot of things thatwere going on in the village
that Terrence had been dealingwith and now he's gone and I'm
slotted in there and they starttalking about this or that
project.
I mean I'm clueless to it.
So the village administratorsand Carl the attorney those guys
have been every one of themhave been phenomenal in meeting
(34:20):
with me and talking to me on thephone about what's going on and
the backdrop history of a lotof this stuff.
So when I'm there and I'mmaking decisions and voting on
stuff, I actually have a goodunderstanding of where we
started and where we are today,so I give them a lot of credit,
for I think they've got me up tospeed pretty quickly in a few
(34:42):
months.
That's great.
So, yeah, they're remarkable,remarkable people.
They've got their hands fulland they take the time from me.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Yeah, people they got their hands full and they take
the time from me.
So, yeah, so you know, one ofthe things that's important to
everybody is downtown and aswell as the businesses that come
in.
How do you think that Mokinacan be more welcoming to
businesses that do want to comeinto town, and what do you think
are some real life examples ofactions that you can take to
grow the village as a trustee?
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Okay, Well, if we want to start with downtown, we
can break that down first,because I think that's one that
we keep hearing, that people inthe village would like to see
something evolve downtown.
So they've got a project goingon called the Franklin House.
We don't know what's going tohappen with that one.
That's been going on for quitea while.
(35:31):
But when you really go downFront Street and you look at how
many vacant buildings therereally are, there's not many
vacant buildings.
You've got a dentist's office,you've got a doctor's office,
you've got lawyers, you've got aresell-it shop, you've got
insurance agents.
So almost all the buildings arereally being rented right now.
(35:52):
There might be one or two thatisn't I'm not positive on that
but almost all of them arerented or leased out to
something.
So when you look at like, howdo you bring business downtown?
First of all, where are theygoing to go?
Now what we do have is we haveseveral lots on Front Street
that need to be developed.
I'm not positive who owns those, but to me we need to reach out
(36:19):
to who owns the properties, seewhat their intent is with the
properties and find out ifthere's something that can be
done to develop those propertiesto kind of move them along.
I'm kind of a fan of the of thekind of look of the building
they put in the west side ofWolf Road over here, with the
apartments or condos above it,with some office space below it.
(36:39):
I kind of like that look alittle bit.
I think that would work alongFront Street in the vacant spots
.
But we have a lot of buildingsthat need frontal updating and
even though we have a TIFprogram, it doesn't seem like
they're interested in doing thatand obviously as a village we
can't make them do that.
(36:59):
So there's only so much sittingon a board that you can do.
Our job is to make the villageaccessible for businesses, make
it inviting for businesses.
So how do you do that?
And on Front Street, I thinkaccess is critical to get
(37:21):
businesses down here and someways we can do that is.
I look at the downtown area, aswe need a better walking
environment.
We need a better walkingenvironment, we need a better
biking environment, and I thinkthat the park district could
play a huge role if they wouldput some trails between main
park and downtown.
I would personally like to seethem wrap that farmer's field,
(37:44):
yonkers field, with a trailaround it with some landscaping
et cetera, running into downtown, but not only that.
Some people that want to jogcould jog the circle.
If they want to ride a bike,they could do that, but
ultimately downtown.
I think that what's going tomake it successful is we're
going to need almost like anoutdoor beer garden kind of look
(38:05):
maybe some sushi stores, shops.
We're going to need stuff likethat.
And so, if I'm reelected, whatI'd like to do is I'd like to
meet with all the people thatown the land that isn't
developed, see what their intentis as far as developing it and
(38:27):
what the village can do toassist them in helping them do
that, move that project alongand from there, then maybe we
can reach out to some of thesethings.
Are you familiar with the taco?
It's called an avocado theoryin Tinley.
Are you familiar with that?
Well, that guy used to work forme, okay, and I don't know if
(38:47):
you've ever been in a store andseen how the guacamole sells
when they're making it.
Have you ever been in the lines?
Well, during events like SuperBowl weekend here, there would
be 30, 40 people waiting in linebecause we make it right in
front of them, and it would belike going to a subway what do
you want in it, how hot, and wewould customize it for everybody
(39:08):
.
But I think that's a reallygood concept to bring down into
Front Street and I personallyknow the guy and I thought about
getting a hold of him andseeing if there's anything down
here that would work for him.
Sushi is extremely popularnowadays and they make drinks,
(39:29):
they make everything avocado.
So that's one of my ideas.
But I think we have to have akind of expose of businesses and
get together with them and tryto put things together with what
would work for them and whatthey'd be interested in.
But ultimately, you know 90% offront streets being leased out
(39:50):
right now, ultimately 90% offront streets being leased out
right now.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
What do you think about the idea of the village
purchasing those lots that arevacant on front street?
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Well, not knowing what they cost, I don't know
that answer.
I'm not sure that buying is myfavorite way to go.
My favorite way to go would beto put a developer together with
a property owner.
Is how I'd like to go.
Now I know we bought this placeover here in the south of the
(40:22):
tracks, but ultimately thevillage's responsibility isn't
to build businesses.
I don't think it is.
I think it's to make sure theenvironment's there.
The village has a reputation ofregulatory speaking pretty tough
(40:43):
to deal with and I think Idon't know if Nick expressed
that to you when you did hisinterview.
I don't know if Nick expressedthat to you when you did his
interview, but there was a lotof hoops that the village makes
you jump through to do things.
Some of them are kind ofover-regulation, maybe some of
(41:08):
them aren't, but I think theyshould be looked at.
Front Street's going to be agoing to be a really hard, hard
thing to develop.
You know, when you letsomething go to a certain point,
you know deteriorate to acertain level, at that point you
can't salvage something anymore, so to speak, and a lot of the
buildings and the fronts downthere are just so outdated now
(41:32):
that they just need reallythey're gonna need it probably a
complete overhaul facialspeaking in order to really
attract something aggressivelynew down there.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Talk about maybe some of the observations.
As we said, you were appointedin November as a trustee, so
just talk a little bit aboutyour time so far, what you've
observed, how well the boardworks together, anything you've
been surprised by.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Well, I guess I'm surprised by the amount of
activity going on.
You know, I mean there's a lotof development going on around
the village.
You know, with homes and condosand townhouses and there's a
lot of that stuff happeningeverywhere.
You know, I mean the waterworksjust finished over here, doing
(42:23):
that you build a policedepartment.
I mean the waterworks justfinished over here, doing that
you build a police department.
I mean there's just so muchgoing on.
It's like every two weeks youhave a board meeting and it's
like you've got a whole new,you're covering a whole new
topic.
It's like it's just constantlycoming at you and that kind of
surprised me, because it's sucha small village you wouldn't
think it would be like that.
(42:44):
It's a lot faster paced thanpeople think.
But you know, I think most ofour real growth in revenue
sources are going to have tocome on a lot of the properties
along 191st.
You know there's a lot ofunincorporated areas along
Interstate 80 there that somehowwe should really probably start
(43:04):
thinking about a way toincorporate those properties
before it's too late.
Someone else orland or someonemight grab them if we don't.
But, um, I think that's that'sone thing we should do.
But there's, I think our futurerevenue uh sources are going to
probably come from a lot ofwarehousing in those areas uh
any any areas that you believethe village could uh cut costs
(43:25):
or generate additional revenues?
Well, I uh, I probably would.
Uh, I don't want to get tooconfrontational with Frank here,
but you know I I look at acouple things that I um.
First of all, I'm not I'm notsaying I'm personally for or
against, you know.
I mean you have to look atwhat's good for the village,
(43:46):
revenue wise, and what isn'tgood for the village.
So when you talk about thingslike cannabis stores, everybody
around us has got them.
Half the village is probablyusing it.
We're not getting a penny, youknow.
I looked at the revenue thatwe're getting from gaming.
We have almost no gaming in thevillage, but the revenue is
(44:06):
pretty significant.
What we do have, we only haveit in three or four places.
I think we should look atexpanding the gaming.
It's not something I use, butthere's obviously a drive for it
.
I go to the VFW in New Lenox.
There's always people backthere playing them VFW and New
Lenox there's always people backthere playing them.
(44:28):
So I think those are two areasthat they can look at to gain
revenue in.
I think that people in thevillage are going to.
I think they want it.
I think they want it.
I know people in medicalmarijuana and stuff like that
and even that they're leavingthe village to get that stuff.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
Well, because, Mokina had the medical and it was
tucked way back in theindustrial area and we lost.
They left, so whatever revenuewe were getting there left to
New Lenox, and now New Lenox didprobably.
What I think is a smarter thingis you put it up front.
It's where you're not going tobe tucked away and have crime.
(45:07):
You know the crime concern.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
They moved it.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
Actually I did therapy for my knee right next
to that place where they movedout over there, but I think what
they did is, I think they put Ibelieve didn't they put medical
and rare cannabis together.
Speaker 1 (45:22):
Yeah, because they were able to do both.
Yeah, and that's the rightcombination to do is put them
both in the same facility andregulate it and monitor it.
Yeah, I mean, if you'rethinking of safety issues, it's
easier to have it when it's outin front of the public than
tucked away in an industrialpark area, and I think people
(45:43):
have begun to learn that more.
But you're right, you see it inNew Lenox and Joliet and Orland
Hills and Tinley Park.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
You can pull the financials up online on
Mokinaorg and look at theirbudgeting statements where
income comes from, and you'll besurprised at how much income
we're getting for the little bitof gaming that we have.
And, like I said, you know Imean things like marijuana and
gaming both of those you know.
(46:14):
A lot of people believe they'readdictive.
There's a lot of people havestrong feelings one way or the
other for it.
But I would be willing to betif we took a poll in the village
.
I bet that both of those wouldpass.
I think they'd both pass.
Frank is, I think I'm talkingabout cannabis stores, but I
(46:35):
think he's not really into thegaming side at all.
Speaker 1 (46:40):
Well, I know that when it was first being
legalized, the village boardvoted against legalizing
recreational in the village.
That's why the one store movedout.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, interesting.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
And, you know, maybe it's something worth.
You know nice restaurant downthere or a lounge down there.
Put some gaming machines inthere and open up another
business somewhere downtown andput your medical marijuanas in
it and your cannabis in it, andyour issue might become you
(47:24):
don't have enough parking.
Very true, it would be a goodproblem to have right.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
Yeah, it would be.
What do you think are some ofthe biggest challenges that face
our village over the next fiveto 10 years?
Speaker 2 (47:36):
Well, oh boy, you know, there's a couple things on
the front side that I think of,and one is things on the front
side that I think of, and one isobviously the traffic is going
to get completely brutal.
We're almost there now.
We're going to be there.
We can't get away from that, Ithink.
(47:56):
The second thing is I wonderabout funding for pensions,
because we don't have reallyanybody in retirement with
pensions right now.
There are very little, butpension funding ultimately
bankrupts a lot of places and wehave a police department that
(48:18):
eventually is going to startretiring and there'll be
pensions there.
Most of our guys, I think, arerelatively young, but I but I
look longterm thinking about thebiggest thing I see financially
stress may be, may be thepensions that we're going to be
paying one day.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
Okay, Mokina is talking about building a new
village hall.
I'm not sure how much you'veheard, or yeah, I'm in the loop
and all that.
What would you like to see fora village hall?
Speaker 2 (48:49):
well, you know, I'm very, very, very tight,
physically speaking.
Um, so I know that the village,the hall, the word now is
pretty old, but I think we're ata time when I don't know if I
could, I'm not sure how I feelabout building and spending that
(49:09):
kind of money today.
Speaker 1 (49:12):
What, kind of money.
What does that mean?
Speaker 2 (49:14):
Well, I mean we spent 20, we spent 25 million for a
fire department, a policedepartment.
So I'm going to guess that avillage hall would be at least
in that ballpark, maybe morebecause you know what, more,
because what did the land costus?
I don't know.
But what I'm in for right nowis I think that I wouldn't mind
seeing us go ahead and secure apiece of property for a future
(49:39):
build, but I'm not one thatlikes to take out bonds and
loans and things like that,because you never know what's
going to hit tomorrow.
So I'm very, very conservativein that.
Look, I think, the direction ofthe board and all that.
(50:00):
I think they're kind ofcommitted to probably building a
new village hall and I wouldhave to probably learn a lot
more about that before I wouldtotally buy into something like
that.
As far as I know, we haven'tgot a location yet and once a
location comes it'll be game on.
I'll have to make a decision ifI'm there.
(50:21):
But I think they're committedto probably putting a new
village hall up.
And I look around the villageand where would you want that?
I mean?
I look at two locations.
One is out there next to thepolice department on the west
side.
There there's some land there.
I don't know who owns it, Idon't know what it costs.
(50:41):
And then I also look at the.
You know some land over herearound the park.
Is there something there thatcould be acquired there?
But yeah, I don't know what theresidents think about that.
I mean, not many people use theVillage Hall, so to them, the
residents might feel it's notworth it.
Speaker 1 (51:02):
Yeah, and that's very true to them the residents
might feel it's not worth it.
Yeah, and that's very true.
Village Hall is irrelevant tomost residents right now.
It's interesting to look atwhat villages like New Lenox
have done.
When they built theirs, theymade the Village Hall kind of
the center.
Speaker 2 (51:19):
The centerpiece.
Speaker 1 (51:22):
Which you know Mokena definitely needs.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
It would be interesting if that was a
similar incorporation.
But if you do that, if you dothat here, you know all the talk
about the downtown area.
Now, let's just say, you takethe Village Hall and you put it
over here and you do somethinglike New Lenox did, because they
did a hell of a job over there,and you do that.
Did you just move the core ofyour downtown?
Sure, it depends on thelocation.
You could, you could have movedit.
You could move the core to thedowntown area, to where your new
(51:49):
location is and, um, you know,so it's um, I don't know, um,
the village hall doesn't botherme, but I don't work there all
the time.
Really, you know, and I know, I,you know, I think, I think
there could be some people alittle bit antsy because we just
built this beautiful new policedepartment.
It's pretty nice, right, it'sbeautiful.
(52:10):
Um, so, um, ultimately, we'regoing to have a new village hall
and, uh, I don't know whenthat'll happen, but, um, I guess
, um, I guess I might have to besold it a little bit before we
get that far.
How we're going to fund it.
Maybe if we fund it withcannabis and gaming issues.
Speaker 1 (52:30):
Well you know, another thing I think that you
mentioned, because I've heardother ideas have been along that
191st Street area but I thoughtyou know even where the police
station is.
That's valuable tax dollars ofdevelopment that we're taking
away from, especially our 159school district, is a thought to
consider, you know, should thatbe developed and bring revenue
(52:54):
for our Exactly so?
Speaker 2 (52:56):
You know, and you know they say well, our old
village hall, so we build a newone and we tear this one down.
And what do they?
What do they do with the landthen?
Do they?
Do they make a park out of it?
Do they do they sell it off asindividual lots for homes?
You know, so there's.
(53:17):
There can be some revenueoffsets by stuff like that.
We have a lot of buildings thevillage owns that we can look at
getting rid of.
You've got the one littlecommunity.
Get the little building overhere.
I forget what it's gotcommunity services or something
on it.
It's on the north side of FrontStreet over there the Esda
building, there, the what?
Speaker 1 (53:35):
The Esda building?
That's the original.
Yeah, the old jail was there.
Speaker 2 (53:39):
Yes, yes and then across the street you have the
former firehouse and policedepartment.
Yeah, got that.
I was personally not in forusing any of that for what we're
doing.
I thought we should have soldthat off for development.
So I don't, I don't think, Idon't think cities should get
(54:04):
into property owning, so tospeak.
If you look at this place onthe tracks over here that they
bought, I think that was boughta little bit out of paranoia
Because I think they were afraidthat there might be another
industrial type of building goup in that area, because I think
(54:25):
it was, at the time zone,industrial.
But you know, like you said,you're showing me there's just
so much going on in the villageright now and the village hasn't
grown for a long time and itseems like there's a lot on its
plate right now.
Speaker 1 (54:44):
And that's something I've talked about with other
people and it's a challenge Witha town like ours.
It still has this small-townfeel.
It's a challenge to grow whilemaintaining kind of holding on
to that feel.
Speaker 2 (54:57):
We don't want to be necessarily New Lenox or Tinley
Park, we're our own village, butthere is a growth that needs to
happen and balancing that theright way Well the need for
growth is mostly driven becauseyou need revenue to pay your
bills and there's only two waysyou're going to get that You're
going to get it from yourbusinesses in the community or
you're going to get it from yourtaxpayers and taxpayers.
(55:22):
You know, and I know a lot ofpeople in the village, a lot of
people are pretty fed up withwhere their taxes have headed
the last few years.
You know it's always been slowgrowth increases on our taxes,
but the last couple of yearshave been dramatic increases and
to the point that some people Iknow have even sold their homes
.
They can't afford it anymoreand I think it's really sad when
(55:45):
we get to the point where ourtax bills determine where you
live.
I think we're basicallylandlocked here.
We can't really spread out andgrow much, so we have to do what
we can with what we have righthere.
(56:06):
You talked about 191st.
We put another, we put thevillage hall over there and
you're right, we probably lost aplace.
It's gonna give us some prettygood revenue.
But yeah, I've heard some talkabout the village hall.
There's a little bit of thatgoing on about little new
village hall.
I'm not sure what time framethey're looking at or anything
like that.
It's never come up in front ofthe village a meeting.
(56:28):
So if they're looking for land,I mean eventually it would have
to come to the board to decideto purchase or not to start the
ball.
Speaker 1 (56:38):
Well, it's an exciting thought, and who knows
how far down the road.
I mean, it took almost 20 yearsto get the police station from
the time they bought the lot.
Speaker 2 (56:50):
See, I shouldn't even say this while you've got me
recording here, but I would havebuilt that village hall or the
police department about 10 or 12years ago when we had zero
interest right out there.
I wouldn't have saved $20million with zero interest on it
or whatever.
I'm sure they made some money,they invested it, but still, and
how much more were supplies?
Speaker 1 (57:12):
Yeah, the cost of goods.
It was delayed because of thehousing or the economy downturn.
But you look back now.
Speaker 2 (57:21):
When you get zero interest on something, people
jump right.
So I probably would haveprobably liked to have seen it
built 10, 12 years ago with zerointerest.
Payments are very little, butit is what it is.
Speaker 1 (57:37):
So we're going to kind of start to wrap up a
little bit, but it's been great,I probably said 10 things I
shouldn't have, but okay.
I'm about to get fried.
If you were talking to a newresident that came into town,
what advice would you give themor offer them to get more
connected and involved in thecommunity?
Speaker 2 (57:58):
Boy.
That is the golden challenge.
If there's one thing thatfrustrates me the most is the
fact that no one goes to thevillage hall meetings.
Most people don't have Comcast.
They can't even watch themeetings anymore.
I've already talked about whyare they not on YouTube, why
don't we just YouTube them?
And hopefully, if I'm reelected, if I'm elected, that we can
(58:22):
move that way.
But I really think we need tofind a way to engage and I think
it starts with programs likeyouth programs, kids in school
and stuff like that.
Bring them into the villagemore.
I know they would do that oncea year.
They used to do that but Ithink we should do it more,
maybe as trustees and mayorgoing into some of the junior
(58:44):
highs and the high schools andtalk about, you know, civic duty
and stuff like that.
But there has to be an outreach.
I mean you don't do a trustee'sjob or even a mayor's job for
the money.
There's no money in it, youknow.
I mean, if that's your drivingforce, you're definitely looking
at the wrong spot.
But we have to find.
We have to find, we have tofind younger people to engage,
(59:06):
you know.
I say I mean I feel like.
I feel like I'm sitting here ona board making a decision
that's going to be for mygrandkids, you know, and I'd
rather have my daughters heremaking those decisions, you know
, and I would, I would love, Iwould love to find someone, you
know that's 50 years old, thatwould jump in and do this
(59:26):
tomorrow morning, and there justdoesn't seem to be much
enthusiasm for that.
The only time people in thevillage get upset is when they
look at their tax bill right ortheir water bill.
Sure yeah, and if they get alittle bit more upset about that
, maybe they'd actually go outand vote and then actually do
(59:48):
something to change.
Change is more difficult onceyou let them raise your taxes.
Speaker 1 (59:54):
Now it's tough to change right, like you said.
Once the price of those thingsgoes up, same with our taxes.
Speaker 2 (59:59):
We're not going to see them tick back down.
Because the departments orwhatever the governing body is,
once they tax you and they'vegot this money, they spend it.
Yeah, so the next year, if yousay, wait, we want you to cut,
well that means they've got tocut what was spent last year and
nobody does that anymore.
(01:00:21):
We know that.
Yeah, nobody does that anymore.
We know that.
You know.
But yeah, it's.
But yeah to me, to me I wouldlove to see, I would love,
absolutely love to see anengagement by younger kids and
stuff like that, or young adultsto get into this stuff.
Speaker 1 (01:00:35):
Yeah, tell us what's your favorite restaurant.
Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
My favorite restaurant.
Wow, I'm pretty simple when youcome to that restaurant.
Wow, I'm pretty simple when youcome to that, I would say it
used to be Red Lobster, but Ithink now my wife and I we go to
Peppermill a lot, we go there alot and we go to Beggar's Pizza
(01:00:59):
, and those are probably the twoplaces we kind of go to the
most in the village All right.
Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
If you could instantly master one skill, what
would it be?
Golf?
That's a good one all right, uh, you might answer favorite area
restaurant.
Speaker 2 (01:01:13):
I don't know pepper mill, or well, yeah, I you know,
I mean my wife when we do go topepper mill a lot and she's she
always jokes.
She walks in, she'll say likethey're all seniors and you know
she doesn't realize that.
I'm 72 and you're going to be70, okay, we're seniors, peg,
but she's in denial of that.
But I like the Peppermill.
(01:01:34):
They have good food, they'rereasonably priced.
They got good service.
Speaker 1 (01:01:38):
What's your favorite Mokina community event?
Speaker 2 (01:01:43):
Oh, I think the July 4th parade, probably, probably.
I like that a lot.
Yeah, that's a good thing I got, I finally, uh, this year I got
to drive in it, which wasreally unique, uh, to actually
be on the other side of theropes for a change.
Speaker 1 (01:01:55):
It's pretty neat what do you think of that?
I had the same thing.
I I, with the lions for thefirst time, walked in the parade
.
Oh, did you so?
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:02:03):
oh it was.
You know what I mean it was.
It was just I mean I did about30 events over the summer and so
I did a lot of communities.
The enthusiasm in Mokina andthe kids is incredible.
It's just like.
It's almost like bring thetears to your eyes.
There's just so much.
You know, when people saypeople don't love America, I
mean then you go and you do thatand they're cheering you and
(01:02:25):
thanking you.
They don't know that I'm aveteran.
They're cheering you andthanking you and all those
things, and it's just reallyinspiring to see that.
I absolutely love doing theparades.
This year we did so many events.
Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
Yeah, that's my favorite.
We've been coming to that sincejust before we moved here and
we always love that events.
Yeah, we've been.
That's my favorite.
We've been coming to that since, you know, just before we moved
here and we always loved thatparade.
Yeah, all right, let's seewhat's your go-to coffee order.
Speaker 2 (01:02:56):
My go-to coffee order is black coffee.
Speaker 1 (01:02:58):
I knew that was going to be your answer.
Speaker 2 (01:03:00):
for some reason, I do throw a little cream in it
nowadays.
I used to not, but I do creamit a little bit now.
But yeah, I'm basically a blackcoffee guy.
Speaker 1 (01:03:08):
Okay, well, that's the last of my hot button
questions for you here.
So I'll just give you a minuteif you want to share.
Why should people support youand vote for you this election?
Speaker 2 (01:03:20):
Well, I guess I can't really give a good answer to
that because I'm just probablylike all the others.
We say what we'd like to do,but we get there and find out
that you can't get it done.
So I do feel really positiveright now with my conversations
with Frank and Nick and Kim.
I think we're on the same pageif we're elected.
(01:03:42):
On the same page if we'reelected.
We've talked about gettingtogether and actually the four
of us putting an agenda togetherof what we'd like to do in the
next four years and stay focusedon that.
To me, one of the problems withthe village and maybe they've
done it, but I've never reallyseen it happen I don't think
they get elected and come inwith a specific agenda that they
(01:04:04):
would like to get done.
I don't want to change the world.
I don't want to change Mokena.
I love the little small town ofMokena.
I'd like to tweak a few things.
I'd like to make it better in afew spots.
I'd like to make sure thatwhatever the citizens in the
village want, that we can try tobring that to them.
Other than that, I just go towork every day, that I work for
(01:04:26):
the village and do what I can.
That's best for them.
Four years down the road, I'llstart going back on vacation in
the winter.
Speaker 1 (01:04:34):
Well that's great Well.
Trustee Roberts, thank you verymuch for taking some time with
me tonight.
Make sure to check out all ofour candidate interviews.
We'll have the full slates up.
Speaker 2 (01:04:43):
You can check those out and be sure to vote on April
1st, april 1st or before, orbefore, that's right by April
1st.
Speaker 1 (01:04:51):
Yeah, anyway, thanks, all right, thank you.
All right.
Trustee Roberts, thank you forjoining me tonight.
You're not only running, butyou were recently appointed to
Village Trustee, so thank youfor taking the time to sit down.
It's a good opportunity to getto know our current trustee as
well as a candidate for office,so thank you for spending some
time with me tonight.
You're welcome.
Let's just get started.
(00:25):
Maybe tell me a little bitabout yourself.
Start with, maybe, where yougrew up family.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Okay, well, I'm a son of a military career Air Force.
My dad was in the Air Force.
I was born in the early fifties.
I have six brothers and sistersand around 1955, my dad was
transferred to France.
So at the time there were onlyfive kids.
So off to France.
We went and we lived in Francefor about two years until the
(00:54):
French decided they wanted theUS military out of France.
Do you remember any of thattime living there?
Not a whole lot, I mean, I wasborn in 52.
So I was only like five or soor six when the time we were
moved there.
Until we moved to Germany.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Do you remember like did your parents tell you were
you speaking French?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
No, no, nothing like that, no no, you know well, you
know you're in military housing,so you're really not around the
French that much.
So in around 1957, we ended upgetting transferred to Wiesbaden
, germany, and we lived therefor about three years and my
youngest brother, john, was bornin Wiesbaden Germany a few
(01:37):
months before we came back in1960.
And I remember a lot more aboutGermany, but we have a lot of
family videos and stuff backthen.
So I'm not sure if I actuallyremember it or I remember it lot
more about Germany, but we havea lot of family videos and
stuff back then.
So I'm not sure if I actuallyremember it or I remember it
because I see the videos andthings like that.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
That's pretty cool that you had videos.
Your dad would take videos ofyour parents.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yeah, they used to take the old reel-to-reel tapes,
videos, and my dad was prettyactive taking it back in those
days, so we had a lot of homemovies and stuff like that.
I've recently had it convertedto digital oh, that's great.
So I have it all on.
I have tons of it.
That was converted to onememory stick Wow, and it's
(02:15):
amazing.
All the totes I had is now onone little stick and it's
categorized beautifully whereyou can hit the chapter you want
to watch.
But I remember a lot aboutGermany where we lived.
I remember the school I went to.
I can visualize all those kindof things.
I remember the German firedepartment behind us every day.
(02:35):
They would go out at lunch andthey would play soccer and stuff
like that.
But I don't remember a wholelot of the travels and vacations
we took in Germany.
But then how?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
long were you?
Speaker 2 (02:49):
there.
So we were there about threeyears.
We're in Europe about fiveyears total.
So in around 1960 we moved backand we ended up.
My dad got stationed at ScottAir Force Base in Southern
Illinois and we were there until1968.
He retired in the fall of 67and got a job in Chicago and so
(03:12):
when we got out of school in 68,we all moved up here and we
moved to Hazelcrest.
So I finished high school atHillcrest High School and I went
to South Suburban College for ayear and then I was drafted
into the Army and I spent twoyears in the Army, basically at
(03:33):
Fort Polk, ait at Fort Sill,oklahoma.
Field artillery was myspecialty training and from
there I was shipped to Germanyand I spent about a year and a
half in northern Germany and wewere stationed with the Dutch
Air Force and fantastic lifeexperience being over there.
I bought a car, I traveled alot and you don't make a lot of
(03:58):
money but it goes a long waywhen it's $1, $3.20 on marks.
So it kind of felt like youwere rich.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Have you ever gone back again to visit since you
left?
I?
Speaker 2 (04:09):
haven't, and it's kind of been a dream, and my
wife doesn't have any desire togo, so it's not a trip you want
to do on your own Sure.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Wow, what a great experience.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah.
So I got you know, I got.
I spent my two years and then Igot you know, I got you know,
discharged, so to speak, orwhatever.
After my two years I came backand I love woodworking and
crafts and things like that.
So I was trying to get into theWorshman Trade School was kind
of my goal and things werepretty bad in 74 as far as the
(04:43):
schools and the economy.
So there was no openings.
So in the meantime I had afriend.
He says I'll go to Dominic's.
So I went to Dominic's and theyhired me and um hired me
full-time.
So I worked there, um, for 32years.
What did you start off doing atDominic's?
I started off just throwingcans on the shelf and within a
(05:04):
year I was closing the stores.
I was like they call him a headclerk.
So basically, when theassistant was off, you took his
spot.
So in about a year or so I gota letter from Worshamer and
Trade School that they had someopenings for me to apply.
By then I was already startingto make a little bit of income,
(05:25):
not a lot of money, but a lot.
Good enough, I was getting by.
So I said, you know, I kind oflike what I'm doing.
I'm going to stay here, and sowe did that.
So I stayed there and a coupleyears later, in 76, time moves
fast I met my wife in the fallof 76 and we got married in June
(05:47):
of 77.
It was a short, whatever datingperiod, so I met her and I just
kind of knew she was the oneyou know I had to convince her
of that.
That was more challenging.
Is she in the area too?
She lived in Oak Forest.
She's originally from FortWayne, indiana.
So we come to the spring of 77and my wife's parents, he, got
(06:17):
transferred to Mount Vernon,ohio.
So there come the dilemma whatare we going to do?
I couldn't see her moving therewhen we were talking about
getting married and we wereengaged.
So we moved up our, our weddingto, uh, to June 4th, so we knew
each other, probably about eightmonths between meeting her and
(06:37):
getting married.
And so now today we, uh, we gotmarried and lived in Tinley for
a short period and then wemoved to Country Club Hills for
a little while and we had twodaughters there and in 1990, my
daughters were getting to theage then where we had to start
thinking about education forthem and Country Club Hills
(07:00):
schools were already in shambles, so we started looking for
places to move in.
We ended up moving to Mokena.
Three days before we moved toMokena, my third daughter, megan
, was born, so she moved in.
We moved in on July 29th of1990, and she was born on the
26th Wow.
So there was a lot going onback then and my career had
(07:25):
progressed over the years.
As you would expect, I became aco-manager and then eventually
a store manager.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
And were you at some of the local stores here?
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Well, the funny thing is is, once I became a manager,
I never, ever, worked really inmy neighborhood again.
Okay, they like to move you.
So I became a manager and theclosest store I was ever at was
the store the old store inFrankfurt or in Mattson on Route
30.
Sure, there was an old storethere.
So I worked there for a littlewhile and I closed it, and then
(08:02):
from there they shipped me intothe city, worked there for a
little while and I closed it,and then from there they shipped
me into the city and from thereI worked at 47th and Kedzie I
worked 31st and Ashland.
I worked 71st and Jeffrey.
So I worked a lot of diversestores and I spent about 10
years on that little circuitbefore they finally moved me out
of the city.
Then they moved me to Joliet.
(08:24):
I spent about a year there andfrom there I went up to
Schaumburg, willowbrook,woodridge, and then in Woodridge
is when I left in 19, or 2007,2008 timeframe, and at that time
Safeway had bought us.
Things were not the samecompany we'd worked for, so it
was time to move on anyway.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Is it typical to move around that much as a manager?
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Well, if a company's growing, there's a lot of
movement.
I mean they don't just move tomove, but typically they have a
store opening, so they'reopening a new store, remodeling
a new store, so there's shift inpersonnel with that.
So it's kind of typical thatyou're going to move every
(09:09):
couple years, two or three years.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
It's very unusual to stay in a store five, six years.
What do you think the biggest?
Like what would most people besurprised?
Speaker 2 (09:23):
by of the grocery industry.
Oh, my gosh, you know, first ofall all if you've never worked
it, it's a very, very hardindustry, very hard.
It's a very demanding area oftime.
Uh, the customer demands areincredible.
They never stop.
They always want more, more,more obviously.
Uh, price of food even whenit's not inflationary, it's
(09:44):
always expensive, if you knowwhat I mean.
So I think that they would beshocked to see the effort that's
put forth to make a store lookgood every day.
You can do $200,000 or $300,000in a day.
I can leave at 6 o'clock atnight and the store looks like a
tornado went through it.
I come in the next day and itlooks like you haven't had a
(10:07):
customer in a month.
I mean, the overnight crewsthat stock your shelves are
phenomenal.
They face your store and yougot the.
You know the maintenance crewcomes in, does your floors and
you come in the next day andyou're ready for business again.
And the other thing is the lowpercentage of profits that
(10:28):
stores make.
I've been in stores that do amillion dollars a week that
barely make any money.
Wow, you know, a lot of ourleases are very, very expensive.
Utilities are very expensive inthe industry and obviously your
cost of goods.
Nothing's free and labor'sexpensive.
You know we uh, we deal with uhhealthcare, we're we're a
(10:49):
unionized company.
So, uh, you know you're givenhealthcare, you're given a
pretty good wage.
I mean my wife is making uh.
She worked part-time there.
She'd make it like 18 bucks anhour with uh, with benefits, so
um.
So there's a lot of overhead ingrocery stores.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
And what in times, like you know, we've seen over
the past couple of years wherethere's prices are like
overnight jumping, how do thegrocery stores keep up with that
and not be losing money everytime they're selling groceries?
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Well, you have a price department that is
changing tags almost 24-7.
Wow, you know, as suppliersraise prices, we get a new tag
and the tag is generated and itgoes up the next day.
So you're constantly changingtags, not only for that, but
also for your sale.
Items are going on and off sale, which is happening also every
(11:41):
week, is happening also everyweek.
So the price change thing, youknow and I would say because
obviously I'm not in thebusiness now, but I sure know
pricing, the pricing since 2020on an impact in the grocery
business, and a lot of it can beblamed on supply, maybe, but a
lot of it's also blamed on thecost of energy.
(12:03):
There's nothing in a grocerystore that doesn't require gas.
I mean whether you're heatingyour building, cooling your
building or whatever, gettingyour vehicles to market your
products in your store andthings like that.
You had semis and they werecoming out of Wisconsin and
Mariano.
So I mean, I look at the priceof eggs.
I was in the store the otherday.
A 30-pack of eggs was $30.
(12:25):
And I thought I look at theprice of eggs.
I was in the store the other day.
A 30-pack of eggs was $30.
And I thought it's incredible.
It's absolutely incredible.
I mean, the cheapest dozen islike $7, $6, $7.
So they're blaming this, Ithink, on the bird flu kind of
thing more than anything.
But I found when prices go upin the industry, they never go
(12:51):
down.
The first item I ever rememberthat to be true was probably
sugar and then coffee.
Back in the 80s, I ThinkColumbia or somebody had a bad
crop.
Price went up.
Well, can of coffee never wentdown again.
You know.
So it's um, so the marketsdriven by a lot of things, but
mostly, you know, mostly,increases uh, come from our
suppliers well, I don't want tomake this all about groceries I
(13:14):
think it's very interestingyou're gonna have no, no, I I.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
I think it's interesting, um, because it's
something everybody deals with.
I mean, my wife is at thegrocery store right now, yeah,
uh, but we don't alwaysunderstand the workings behind
it.
And, yeah, I can't imaginethinking about how many kids
just go through and throw stuffor push things down and then
have to have it clean.
It's got to be a tremendousprocess, and one that we
(13:39):
overlook and take for granted.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Well, I think in a day is what's changed, and it's
always been there, but it'snothing like today, and I think
that's the retail theft side ofthings.
That's, um, if you go intothese stores now and you see the
cages and locks on everything,that wasn't the case.
I mean, I worked.
I worked 71st and Jeffrey, wedidn't lock anything up back
then.
Okay, uh, 47, we didn't lockanything up back then.
(14:03):
Yeah, people came in and stole,but not to the volume they do
today.
We used to prosecute everybodywho caught stealing.
It was $2, because you had toput the message in the you know
out there in the neighborhoodthat we don't have a limit.
If you steal and you get caught, you're going to pay, and so
that's kind of what we did.
Today, though, I mean, peoplecome in and they literally steal
whole carts of stuff and justwalk right out.
(14:23):
Amazing and that margin there.
I mean I don't remember whatstore it was Walmart or Target,
someone.
Recently, about a year ago, itwas announced the retail theft
number and it was just astaggering number of missing
inventory.
Wow.
So you talked about your familyyour wife and your daughters, my
three daughters.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
So tell us about your family, your wife and your
daughters my three- daughters,so tell us about them.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Okay, well, my oldest is Carrie and when we moved out
here she was like in sixthgrade.
So she went through the MokenaSchool District to finish that
and then went to the splitschools back then two years at
East, two years at Central.
She's married to a Lincoln Waygraduate also and they have two
(15:08):
daughters.
The oldest is a sophomore atLincoln Way Central now and the
youngest is in seventh grade.
So they live in Ravinia, offTown Line Road, over here just
west of town.
Can't vote for me.
I didn't think about that.
Yeah, they can't vote for me.
And then my middle daughter,katie.
(15:29):
She was born in 1981, and shealso married a Lincoln Way
graduate.
She has four kids, three boysand a girl, and her oldest is a
sophomore at Lincoln Way Westand she's a good kid.
(15:49):
She lives in Elwood and herhusband's in the carpentry
business, construction stufflike that.
So, and then there's myyoungest, megan.
She was there the other night,she's the redhead, and boy did
you.
You know that Megan also marrieda Lincoln Way graduate, kevin
Connelly, and she actually firststarted going to school with
(16:12):
him in about fifth grade.
Oh, wow.
So they, they had known eachother for years and she put her
claws in him pretty early, Ithink, in life.
They pretty much dated allthrough high school.
They went to different collegesand when it was all said and
done, they came home and endedup getting married and they have
three kids.
Their oldest is in second grade, then they got a kindergartner
(16:35):
and they got a two-year-old Wow,and they live in Tinley Park.
So all good kids.
I'm proud of every one of them.
And they had good husbands andreally good kids.
I'm proud of every one of them.
They had good husbands andreally good families.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
What do the kids think about all this being
involved?
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Well, they're used to me doing crazy stuff.
So you know, I don't know if Itold you this story, but you
have so many chapters kind of inyour life, pretty much.
I retired in 2019 fromMariano's in June of 2019.
I knew I was going to dosomething, but I'm fortunate
(17:15):
Peggy and I are huge savers.
We don't waste money, we don'tspend money.
So I didn't really have to gofind a paying job to subsidize
my income.
So I was always looking out forwhat I could do to keep myself
busy.
So I joined the health club.
I did that, but that's just notenough.
My wife was meanwhilevolunteering at the hospice
(17:38):
house in Joliet, and so theCOVID came.
And then, after COVID and allthat, it was kind of over.
I was still kind of thinking,like what are you going to do?
I thought about taking apart-time job, mostly just for
something to do.
And that's when the VeteransGarage came on me and so I
started getting involved withthat in like March of 24.
(18:01):
And I came in right about amonth before they started their
move.
So I helped them do the moveand everything and spent a lot
of time down there helping themset up and do stuff like that
and then, as time went on, wedid a transformation of the
board recently, so I ended up onthe board and I also decided
(18:25):
that someone needed to keep thebooks and stuff like that.
So I volunteered to be theirtreasury.
So I'm doing that now.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
And Veterans Garage for those who don't know is
started by former Mokena Mayor,joe Werner, in this area, and
then talk a little bit about howthey ended up with the facility
they have now.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
well, you know, um, you know, after joe had passed
away, there was a lot of talkabout, you know, they were gonna
have to liquidate the veteransgarage.
We didn't really seem to have areal driving force of
volunteers to keep it going.
So, uh, there was a lot of.
When I first came on board,that was kind of like, are we
going to close, what are wegoing board?
That was kind of like are wegoing to close, what are we
going to do?
That was kind of the thoughts.
(19:06):
No one really had made adecision.
And then we have a guy namedBill Vail.
He's part of the family and heworks down in Mantino's veteran
home.
So he reached out to them andthey offered a space for us.
Wow, so at that point in timewe all got re-energized, we
(19:28):
packed up and we moved toManteno and they gave us a nice
facility.
It's rent-free, utility-free,and they also have committed to
the museum for us too.
So it's absolutely perfectlocation because we have around
three 350 vets there and um, sothe military vehicles with the
(19:48):
vets, those two things just gohand in hand.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
They're just a perfect combination together and
I've seen their facebook postswhere the veterans can come down
and help and work on thevehicles and what a what an
awesome thing to have on sitefor them there oh yeah, I um.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Sometimes, when the weather's nice, we'll uh,
because a lot of them arewheelchair-bound, we'll lift
them up, we'll put them in thetrucks and I'll give them a
10-minute ride around thefacility and stuff like that.
That's great.
We take some of them on ourevents that we go to and things
like that, but a lot of themhave pretty bad restrictions,
unfortunately, but we do what wecan to keep them engaged and
they literally love the event.
(20:26):
That's awesome.
We're there.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
So tell us a little bit about what do you do for fun
besides Veterans Garage.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Well, what do I do for fun?
Well, I mean I recreationalgolf.
I'm not a great golfer but Ihang with my daughters and their
family a lot and my wife'sfamily.
They live around here and wetypically for years we've been
(20:58):
going to.
Since I retired we startedgoing to Alabama golf shores in
the wintertime, so that's kindof it.
You know, I cut my own grass.
I got an in-ground pool thatkeeps me busy.
So just doing yard work aroundthe house in the summertime and
managing the pool and stuff likethat, it's kind of what I've
done, you know, and you know.
Then it came to about the middleof the year so I started
calling Frank, reaching out toFrank about, you know, the
(21:21):
internet services and stuff likethat.
You heard me tell this before Istarted thinking about why do
we not look at internet as autility and have the villages
negotiate rates like they do forwater and other issues water,
sewage, garbage pickup and allthat?
So Frank and I had a coupletalks back and forth about that.
(21:45):
One day, out of the clear blue,he calls me and goes hey, I got
an opening on the board, areyou interested in filling it?
So that was kind of a gut checkmoment.
I wasn't sure what I should dothere and I said why don't we,
let's get together and talk?
So Frank and I got together, wetalked for about two hours and,
(22:09):
um, I saw I decided that youknow, it's something I wanted to
do and my wife was supportive.
My daughters think I'm crazy,so I um.
So then from there he put me intouch and John the
administrator, we got togetherand we talked for another hour
and a half and two hours and um,and from there Frank appointed
me, the board approved it and Iwas put on the board on
(22:31):
September 11th.
And you know, it's like reallya golden opportunity.
I didn't have to run and I getthe benefits of actually being
behind the scenes of how avillage is run and I have a lot
of my own ideas about thevillage and I have a lot of my
own ideas about the village.
(22:52):
And I think that one reasonthat I did partner with Frank
and agree is because I feltFrank is open to a lot of my
thoughts and directions.
I think we should be going andI feel like, if we can get
elected, that we're going to beable to set an initiative out
there in some direction thatmaybe some things have been
talked about for a long, longtime.
Maybe we can actually make someprogress towards them.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
So the internet issue that you brought up is there
anything that you've done withthat since being appointed?
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Not yet, but Frank and I talked about it and, if
you know, god willing, if we'reelected, that's something that
we've talked about.
If I'm elected, we will set upa kind of a commission Let me
spearhead it and we'll getinvolved with all the Internet
providers that provide to thevillage and the ones that don't,
and see if this is a doableidea.
(23:44):
I mean legally speaking.
I don't know whether you've gota leg to stand on, I don't know
about stuff like that.
You got a leg to stand on?
I don't know about stuff likethat.
But I think if we partner andmy idea is we partner with
villages around us we needleverage and if we can partner
with villages around us, maybebetween Frankfurt, new Lenox and
(24:05):
Mokina here maybe we can findsome way to find a carrier that
will lock in rates that areaffordable for everyone and find
some way to find a carrier thatwill lock in rates that are
affordable for everyone.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Okay, you talked about that.
You'd previously run back inthe 90s, right, I did Shortly
after you moved in.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Well, fall of 96, the last one is in 97.
Okay, back then I was alreadystarting to formulate a lot of
things about the village, whatwas going on downtown.
The traffic was alreadystarting to get pretty bad, and
I was also concerned about thehomes, subdivisions we're
(24:43):
building about.
There's no lots, there's onlyhouse on top of house.
There's plenty of house on topof a house.
So my three things I wasinterested in is making sure
that we didn't put a house onless than a half to three
quarters of an acre, and do acomprehensive study on traffic
(25:11):
to see what we can do with ourtraffic patterns before it's so
bad that we can't do anything.
And so those were two of mythings.
And then the Front Street areawas dying, dying a slow death,
and I felt that we needed to dosomething on Front Street to
attract some type of businessdown there.
So those were kind of my bigthings I was looking at back
then.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
And do you think, how do you feel?
I mean looking at the issuesthat were important you know
what's that?
30 years ago?
Yeah, how do you think thoseissues are now?
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Well, the traffic is definitely much, much worse by
the time you do a trafficpattern study.
You get people to buy in on it.
You can get the state to agreeto any change that be made, get
the funding for it.
These are like 10, 15-yearprojects.
So I look at the traffic nowand I say where will we be in 10
(26:06):
or 15 years?
Because I see where we aretoday and I think that the best
efforts probably I don't knowthat the best efforts are going
to be able to ease the trafficon us for many years and I think
we've passed the window oftrying to get ahead of that.
Now we just have to figure outif we're going to do anything
(26:27):
about it.
It's one thing if traffic flowsthrough your city and they stop
at your businesses, but theydon't.
They just flow through and gohome and so we're not really
gaining anything by thepass-through traffic that we're
getting today.
You know the homes.
As far as homes and lots, a lotof the subdivisions they've
(26:48):
built since then have been, Ithink, pretty decent.
I mean we got that Whispering.
It was called WhisperingSprings or Hills Out West here
at Whispering Creek.
They did a nice job with lotsize out there.
I think those are pretty nice.
So a lot of this stuff.
I mean Old Castle Woods.
There wasn't a house up when Imoved in so they developed that.
(27:09):
I think they did a heck of ajob up in there.
So a lot of what I was thinkingabout with the lot size.
I'm not saying they listened tome because I know they didn't,
but someone had the good senseto realize that we didn't want
to just build a house at the topof a house, we wanted some
yards there.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
So what did that?
You know, going through thatelection and losing.
What did that teach you?
Speaker 2 (27:34):
It taught me I was on the wrong side.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Were you running with a slate at that time?
Speaker 2 (27:40):
I was running with a slate.
I had already made a decisionto run and then there was a guy
named Ed Lark.
He had decided he was going torun for mayor.
And then we had another gal, agal, lori Hermanson, and she was
running.
So we kind of we on thebackside we all kind of
partnered together and ran as aslate.
(28:02):
But the people we ran againstwere the same kind of group as
you have today called Friends ofMokena, but they called them
back then like Citizens Unitedor they had a different name
back then.
But they were really heavilysupported by the businesses
downtown the Tuttle family atthe time and the Tuttle family,
which I was naive to notunderstand that you know they
(28:25):
didn't want really any changedowntown because they owned the
only businesses down here.
So anyway, I end up losing.
We all three lost that year andI guess what I really learned
was the way you have to networkif you're going to do this.
You can't do it alone, and sopart of why I'm running now is
(28:46):
because I feel we have a networkability that maybe we can reach
out and do something with,because I feel we have a network
ability that maybe we can reachout and do something with.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
What did you do?
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Did you get involved anywhere after that election?
Not really, you know I was.
Well, they thought I was crazy.
I was already working 10 to12-hour days.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Well, I was wondering about that too, and I'm driving
.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Well, at the time I was driving to Joliet one of the
closer rides in my life to work.
But so another opportunityreally didn't come up.
You know, I think I don't know,I don't know if you're kind of
blackballed once you dosomething like that run against
an establishment kind of thing.
But no one really reached outto me after it and it seemed to
be a dead end at the time.
So from then I just kind ofsaid you know, well, I'm just
going to sit in the sidelinesand kind of see where we go from
(29:37):
here, and years go by and Iwould see him running.
I would say they would say thesame thing I was saying in 96
and nothing's ever changing, youknow.
And so when Frank offered methis opportunity, I'm like you
know, things come to you in afunny way.
But maybe this is my time,maybe this is the time that I
(29:59):
should be doing this, and so Ijumped into it.
And, yeah, it's already been afascinating experience, much
more involved than I thought itwas In 96, 97,.
If I'd have won, I'm not surehow I would have balanced the
type of work and being on aboard at the same time, but I'd
(30:22):
have figured it out.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
How do you think your work experience and your career
has prepared you to be avillage trustee?
Speaker 2 (30:36):
career has prepared you to be a village trustee.
Well, one is I understandfinancing incredible financing
In the industry.
One thing you learn is youlearn to tear apart your
operating statements monthly,look for all your opportunities.
So you look into all the finelines of your goods and your bad
, so that helped me understandthe financials and some of the
other things I mean.
You talk about the utilitycosts and rents and everything
else that you're dealing with.
(30:57):
There's a lot going in otherthan just selling groceries.
And then you look at thetraining side endless training
I've trained over the years.
I've trained so many managers,and co-managers and other
assistant managers were broughtin underneath me to learn and
train and develop them.
So I've learned a lot abouttraining people, a lot about,
(31:19):
I'll tell you, working indiverse communities.
You know 71st and Jeffrey.
I walked in there.
I was a white man.
They didn't like it, but I tellyou what I was there for four
years and when I walked out, alot of the ladies were crying
and we built a relationship ofwork together and what I learned
(31:41):
was is treat everybody the same.
It might be hard, but if youmake an exception for one, you
make them for all.
So my motto was that I didn'tmake exceptions and I ruled
directly down with the policiesand the employees.
In almost every case they comeinto line and they understand
(32:03):
the expectation and ourrelationships were fantastic.
So when I bring that to theboard, I think that we should be
able to work together.
I think I have a goodunderstanding of how to
negotiate things and how to dealwith difficult situations.
I've listened to some of thedisciplinary actions that go on
(32:26):
and all this stuff and I thinkto myself I've dealt with this
most of my life, so I thinkwe've got a wide range of that
Leadership wise, when I was inthe army, I went to SASCOM
leadership school.
I was entered into what's calledSCA the quarter take all the
custodial agents, guards,basically what we were security
(32:49):
of the facilities and I finishedthird in Europe on a contest
there Actually I don't know ifit's on the webpage or not I
sent in my letters.
I got several letters ofrecommendations and credited for
many inspections, and so overmy years it's just been little
pieces of learning leadership byothers that taught me.
(33:12):
I mean I had some great, greatmentors throughout my life too
Probably none better than my dad.
He was in the military anduntil I was about 16 years old,
my head was shaved about everySaturday.
Finally, one Saturday I saidDad, I want to put a comb in my
hair and he says okay.
He says then you pay for yourown haircuts from now on.
So from then on I've had thishairstyle.
(33:37):
But yeah, you know, I mean everylittle piece of life brings you
to where you are today and youknow there's a tremendous staff
at the village.
I mean they have beenabsolutely phenomenal in
bringing me up to speed on a lotof what's going on in the
village, because the villagedoesn't start and stop when
(33:59):
somebody comes on the board.
It's a not involving thing.
So there's a lot of things thatwere going on in the village
that Terrence had been dealingwith and now he's gone and I'm
slotted in there and they starttalking about this or that
project.
I mean I'm clueless to it.
So the village administratorsand Carl the attorney those guys
have been every one of themhave been phenomenal in meeting
(34:20):
with me and talking to me on thephone about what's going on and
the backdrop history of a lotof this stuff.
So when I'm there and I'mmaking decisions and voting on
stuff, I actually have a goodunderstanding of where we
started and where we are today,so I give them a lot of credit,
for I think they've got me up tospeed pretty quickly in a few
(34:42):
months.
That's great.
So, yeah, they're remarkable,remarkable people.
They've got their hands fulland they take the time from me.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Yeah, people they got their hands full and they take
the time from me.
So, yeah, so you know, one ofthe things that's important to
everybody is downtown and aswell as the businesses that come
in.
How do you think that Mokinacan be more welcoming to
businesses that do want to comeinto town, and what do you think
are some real life examples ofactions that you can take to
grow the village as a trustee?
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Okay, Well, if we want to start with downtown, we
can break that down first,because I think that's one that
we keep hearing, that people inthe village would like to see
something evolve downtown.
So they've got a project goingon called the Franklin House.
We don't know what's going tohappen with that one.
That's been going on for quitea while.
(35:31):
But when you really go downFront Street and you look at how
many vacant buildings therereally are, there's not many
vacant buildings.
You've got a dentist's office,you've got a doctor's office,
you've got lawyers, you've got aresell-it shop, you've got
insurance agents.
So almost all the buildings arereally being rented right now.
(35:52):
There might be one or two thatisn't I'm not positive on that
but almost all of them arerented or leased out to
something.
So when you look at like, howdo you bring business downtown?
First of all, where are theygoing to go?
Now what we do have is we haveseveral lots on Front Street
that need to be developed.
I'm not positive who owns those, but to me we need to reach out
(36:19):
to who owns the properties, seewhat their intent is with the
properties and find out ifthere's something that can be
done to develop those propertiesto kind of move them along.
I'm kind of a fan of the of thekind of look of the building
they put in the west side ofWolf Road over here, with the
apartments or condos above it,with some office space below it.
(36:39):
I kind of like that look alittle bit.
I think that would work alongFront Street in the vacant spots
.
But we have a lot of buildingsthat need frontal updating and
even though we have a TIFprogram, it doesn't seem like
they're interested in doing thatand obviously as a village we
can't make them do that.
(36:59):
So there's only so much sittingon a board that you can do.
Our job is to make the villageaccessible for businesses, make
it inviting for businesses.
So how do you do that?
And on Front Street, I thinkaccess is critical to get
(37:21):
businesses down here and someways we can do that is.
I look at the downtown area, aswe need a better walking
environment.
We need a better walkingenvironment, we need a better
biking environment, and I thinkthat the park district could
play a huge role if they wouldput some trails between main
park and downtown.
I would personally like to seethem wrap that farmer's field,
(37:44):
yonkers field, with a trailaround it with some landscaping
et cetera, running into downtown, but not only that.
Some people that want to jogcould jog the circle.
If they want to ride a bike,they could do that, but
ultimately downtown.
I think that what's going tomake it successful is we're
going to need almost like anoutdoor beer garden kind of look
(38:05):
maybe some sushi stores, shops.
We're going to need stuff likethat.
And so, if I'm reelected, whatI'd like to do is I'd like to
meet with all the people thatown the land that isn't
developed, see what their intentis as far as developing it and
(38:27):
what the village can do toassist them in helping them do
that, move that project alongand from there, then maybe we
can reach out to some of thesethings.
Are you familiar with the taco?
It's called an avocado theoryin Tinley.
Are you familiar with that?
Well, that guy used to work forme, okay, and I don't know if
(38:47):
you've ever been in a store andseen how the guacamole sells
when they're making it.
Have you ever been in the lines?
Well, during events like SuperBowl weekend here, there would
be 30, 40 people waiting in linebecause we make it right in
front of them, and it would belike going to a subway what do
you want in it, how hot, and wewould customize it for everybody
(39:08):
.
But I think that's a reallygood concept to bring down into
Front Street and I personallyknow the guy and I thought about
getting a hold of him andseeing if there's anything down
here that would work for him.
Sushi is extremely popularnowadays and they make drinks,
(39:29):
they make everything avocado.
So that's one of my ideas.
But I think we have to have akind of expose of businesses and
get together with them and tryto put things together with what
would work for them and whatthey'd be interested in.
But ultimately, you know 90% offront streets being leased out
(39:50):
right now, ultimately 90% offront streets being leased out
right now.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
What do you think about the idea of the village
purchasing those lots that arevacant on front street?
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Well, not knowing what they cost, I don't know
that answer.
I'm not sure that buying is myfavorite way to go.
My favorite way to go would beto put a developer together with
a property owner.
Is how I'd like to go.
Now I know we bought this placeover here in the south of the
(40:22):
tracks, but ultimately thevillage's responsibility isn't
to build businesses.
I don't think it is.
I think it's to make sure theenvironment's there.
The village has a reputation ofregulatory speaking pretty tough
(40:43):
to deal with and I think Idon't know if Nick expressed
that to you when you did hisinterview.
I don't know if Nick expressedthat to you when you did his
interview, but there was a lotof hoops that the village makes
you jump through to do things.
Some of them are kind ofover-regulation, maybe some of
(41:08):
them aren't, but I think theyshould be looked at.
Front Street's going to be agoing to be a really hard, hard
thing to develop.
You know, when you letsomething go to a certain point,
you know deteriorate to acertain level, at that point you
can't salvage something anymore, so to speak, and a lot of the
buildings and the fronts downthere are just so outdated now
(41:32):
that they just need reallythey're gonna need it probably a
complete overhaul facialspeaking in order to really
attract something aggressivelynew down there.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Talk about maybe some of the observations.
As we said, you were appointedin November as a trustee, so
just talk a little bit aboutyour time so far, what you've
observed, how well the boardworks together, anything you've
been surprised by.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Well, I guess I'm surprised by the amount of
activity going on.
You know, I mean there's a lotof development going on around
the village.
You know, with homes and condosand townhouses and there's a
lot of that stuff happeningeverywhere.
You know, I mean the waterworksjust finished over here, doing
(42:23):
that you build a policedepartment.
I mean the waterworks justfinished over here, doing that
you build a police department.
I mean there's just so muchgoing on.
It's like every two weeks youhave a board meeting and it's
like you've got a whole new,you're covering a whole new
topic.
It's like it's just constantlycoming at you and that kind of
surprised me, because it's sucha small village you wouldn't
think it would be like that.
(42:44):
It's a lot faster paced thanpeople think.
But you know, I think most ofour real growth in revenue
sources are going to have tocome on a lot of the properties
along 191st.
You know there's a lot ofunincorporated areas along
Interstate 80 there that somehowwe should really probably start
(43:04):
thinking about a way toincorporate those properties
before it's too late.
Someone else orland or someonemight grab them if we don't.
But, um, I think that's that'sone thing we should do.
But there's, I think our futurerevenue uh sources are going to
probably come from a lot ofwarehousing in those areas uh
any any areas that you believethe village could uh cut costs
(43:25):
or generate additional revenues?
Well, I uh, I probably would.
Uh, I don't want to get tooconfrontational with Frank here,
but you know I I look at acouple things that I um.
First of all, I'm not I'm notsaying I'm personally for or
against, you know.
I mean you have to look atwhat's good for the village,
(43:46):
revenue wise, and what isn'tgood for the village.
So when you talk about thingslike cannabis stores, everybody
around us has got them.
Half the village is probablyusing it.
We're not getting a penny, youknow.
I looked at the revenue thatwe're getting from gaming.
We have almost no gaming in thevillage, but the revenue is
(44:06):
pretty significant.
What we do have, we only haveit in three or four places.
I think we should look atexpanding the gaming.
It's not something I use, butthere's obviously a drive for it
.
I go to the VFW in New Lenox.
There's always people backthere playing them VFW and New
Lenox there's always people backthere playing them.
(44:28):
So I think those are two areasthat they can look at to gain
revenue in.
I think that people in thevillage are going to.
I think they want it.
I think they want it.
I know people in medicalmarijuana and stuff like that
and even that they're leavingthe village to get that stuff.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
Well, because, Mokina had the medical and it was
tucked way back in theindustrial area and we lost.
They left, so whatever revenuewe were getting there left to
New Lenox, and now New Lenox didprobably.
What I think is a smarter thingis you put it up front.
It's where you're not going tobe tucked away and have crime.
(45:07):
You know the crime concern.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
They moved it.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
Actually I did therapy for my knee right next
to that place where they movedout over there, but I think what
they did is, I think they put Ibelieve didn't they put medical
and rare cannabis together.
Speaker 1 (45:22):
Yeah, because they were able to do both.
Yeah, and that's the rightcombination to do is put them
both in the same facility andregulate it and monitor it.
Yeah, I mean, if you'rethinking of safety issues, it's
easier to have it when it's outin front of the public than
tucked away in an industrialpark area, and I think people
(45:43):
have begun to learn that more.
But you're right, you see it inNew Lenox and Joliet and Orland
Hills and Tinley Park.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
You can pull the financials up online on
Mokinaorg and look at theirbudgeting statements where
income comes from, and you'll besurprised at how much income
we're getting for the little bitof gaming that we have.
And, like I said, you know Imean things like marijuana and
gaming both of those you know.
(46:14):
A lot of people believe they'readdictive.
There's a lot of people havestrong feelings one way or the
other for it.
But I would be willing to betif we took a poll in the village
.
I bet that both of those wouldpass.
I think they'd both pass.
Frank is, I think I'm talkingabout cannabis stores, but I
(46:35):
think he's not really into thegaming side at all.
Speaker 1 (46:40):
Well, I know that when it was first being
legalized, the village boardvoted against legalizing
recreational in the village.
That's why the one store movedout.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, interesting.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
And, you know, maybe it's something worth.
You know nice restaurant downthere or a lounge down there.
Put some gaming machines inthere and open up another
business somewhere downtown andput your medical marijuanas in
it and your cannabis in it, andyour issue might become you
(47:24):
don't have enough parking.
Very true, it would be a goodproblem to have right.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
Yeah, it would be.
What do you think are some ofthe biggest challenges that face
our village over the next fiveto 10 years?
Speaker 2 (47:36):
Well, oh boy, you know, there's a couple things on
the front side that I think of,and one is things on the front
side that I think of, and one isobviously the traffic is going
to get completely brutal.
We're almost there now.
We're going to be there.
We can't get away from that, Ithink.
(47:56):
The second thing is I wonderabout funding for pensions,
because we don't have reallyanybody in retirement with
pensions right now.
There are very little, butpension funding ultimately
bankrupts a lot of places and wehave a police department that
(48:18):
eventually is going to startretiring and there'll be
pensions there.
Most of our guys, I think, arerelatively young, but I but I
look longterm thinking about thebiggest thing I see financially
stress may be, may be thepensions that we're going to be
paying one day.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
Okay, Mokina is talking about building a new
village hall.
I'm not sure how much you'veheard, or yeah, I'm in the loop
and all that.
What would you like to see fora village hall?
Speaker 2 (48:49):
well, you know, I'm very, very, very tight,
physically speaking.
Um, so I know that the village,the hall, the word now is
pretty old, but I think we're ata time when I don't know if I
could, I'm not sure how I feelabout building and spending that
(49:09):
kind of money today.
Speaker 1 (49:12):
What, kind of money.
What does that mean?
Speaker 2 (49:14):
Well, I mean we spent 20, we spent 25 million for a
fire department, a policedepartment.
So I'm going to guess that avillage hall would be at least
in that ballpark, maybe morebecause you know what, more,
because what did the land costus?
I don't know.
But what I'm in for right nowis I think that I wouldn't mind
seeing us go ahead and secure apiece of property for a future
(49:39):
build, but I'm not one thatlikes to take out bonds and
loans and things like that,because you never know what's
going to hit tomorrow.
So I'm very, very conservativein that.
Look, I think, the direction ofthe board and all that.
(50:00):
I think they're kind ofcommitted to probably building a
new village hall and I wouldhave to probably learn a lot
more about that before I wouldtotally buy into something like
that.
As far as I know, we haven'tgot a location yet and once a
location comes it'll be game on.
I'll have to make a decision ifI'm there.
(50:21):
But I think they're committedto probably putting a new
village hall up.
And I look around the villageand where would you want that?
I mean?
I look at two locations.
One is out there next to thepolice department on the west
side.
There there's some land there.
I don't know who owns it, Idon't know what it costs.
(50:41):
And then I also look at the.
You know some land over herearound the park.
Is there something there thatcould be acquired there?
But yeah, I don't know what theresidents think about that.
I mean, not many people use theVillage Hall, so to them, the
residents might feel it's notworth it.
Speaker 1 (51:02):
Yeah, and that's very true to them the residents
might feel it's not worth it.
Yeah, and that's very true.
Village Hall is irrelevant tomost residents right now.
It's interesting to look atwhat villages like New Lenox
have done.
When they built theirs, theymade the Village Hall kind of
the center.
Speaker 2 (51:19):
The centerpiece.
Speaker 1 (51:22):
Which you know Mokena definitely needs.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
It would be interesting if that was a
similar incorporation.
But if you do that, if you dothat here, you know all the talk
about the downtown area.
Now, let's just say, you takethe Village Hall and you put it
over here and you do somethinglike New Lenox did, because they
did a hell of a job over there,and you do that.
Did you just move the core ofyour downtown?
Sure, it depends on thelocation.
You could, you could have movedit.
You could move the core to thedowntown area, to where your new
(51:49):
location is and, um, you know,so it's um, I don't know, um,
the village hall doesn't botherme, but I don't work there all
the time.
Really, you know, and I know, I,you know, I think, I think
there could be some people alittle bit antsy because we just
built this beautiful new policedepartment.
It's pretty nice, right, it'sbeautiful.
(52:10):
Um, so, um, ultimately, we'regoing to have a new village hall
and, uh, I don't know whenthat'll happen, but, um, I guess
, um, I guess I might have to besold it a little bit before we
get that far.
How we're going to fund it.
Maybe if we fund it withcannabis and gaming issues.
Speaker 1 (52:30):
Well you know, another thing I think that you
mentioned, because I've heardother ideas have been along that
191st Street area but I thoughtyou know even where the police
station is.
That's valuable tax dollars ofdevelopment that we're taking
away from, especially our 159school district, is a thought to
consider, you know, should thatbe developed and bring revenue
(52:54):
for our Exactly so?
Speaker 2 (52:56):
You know, and you know they say well, our old
village hall, so we build a newone and we tear this one down.
And what do they?
What do they do with the landthen?
Do they?
Do they make a park out of it?
Do they do they sell it off asindividual lots for homes?
You know, so there's.
(53:17):
There can be some revenueoffsets by stuff like that.
We have a lot of buildings thevillage owns that we can look at
getting rid of.
You've got the one littlecommunity.
Get the little building overhere.
I forget what it's gotcommunity services or something
on it.
It's on the north side of FrontStreet over there the Esda
building, there, the what?
Speaker 1 (53:35):
The Esda building?
That's the original.
Yeah, the old jail was there.
Speaker 2 (53:39):
Yes, yes and then across the street you have the
former firehouse and policedepartment.
Yeah, got that.
I was personally not in forusing any of that for what we're
doing.
I thought we should have soldthat off for development.
So I don't, I don't think, Idon't think cities should get
(54:04):
into property owning, so tospeak.
If you look at this place onthe tracks over here that they
bought, I think that was boughta little bit out of paranoia
Because I think they were afraidthat there might be another
industrial type of building goup in that area, because I think
(54:25):
it was, at the time zone,industrial.
But you know, like you said,you're showing me there's just
so much going on in the villageright now and the village hasn't
grown for a long time and itseems like there's a lot on its
plate right now.
Speaker 1 (54:44):
And that's something I've talked about with other
people and it's a challenge Witha town like ours.
It still has this small-townfeel.
It's a challenge to grow whilemaintaining kind of holding on
to that feel.
Speaker 2 (54:57):
We don't want to be necessarily New Lenox or Tinley
Park, we're our own village, butthere is a growth that needs to
happen and balancing that theright way Well the need for
growth is mostly driven becauseyou need revenue to pay your
bills and there's only two waysyou're going to get that You're
going to get it from yourbusinesses in the community or
you're going to get it from yourtaxpayers and taxpayers.
(55:22):
You know, and I know a lot ofpeople in the village, a lot of
people are pretty fed up withwhere their taxes have headed
the last few years.
You know it's always been slowgrowth increases on our taxes,
but the last couple of yearshave been dramatic increases and
to the point that some people Iknow have even sold their homes
.
They can't afford it anymoreand I think it's really sad when
(55:45):
we get to the point where ourtax bills determine where you
live.
I think we're basicallylandlocked here.
We can't really spread out andgrow much, so we have to do what
we can with what we have righthere.
(56:06):
You talked about 191st.
We put another, we put thevillage hall over there and
you're right, we probably lost aplace.
It's gonna give us some prettygood revenue.
But yeah, I've heard some talkabout the village hall.
There's a little bit of thatgoing on about little new
village hall.
I'm not sure what time framethey're looking at or anything
like that.
It's never come up in front ofthe village a meeting.
(56:28):
So if they're looking for land,I mean eventually it would have
to come to the board to decideto purchase or not to start the
ball.
Speaker 1 (56:38):
Well, it's an exciting thought, and who knows
how far down the road.
I mean, it took almost 20 yearsto get the police station from
the time they bought the lot.
Speaker 2 (56:50):
See, I shouldn't even say this while you've got me
recording here, but I would havebuilt that village hall or the
police department about 10 or 12years ago when we had zero
interest right out there.
I wouldn't have saved $20million with zero interest on it
or whatever.
I'm sure they made some money,they invested it, but still, and
how much more were supplies?
Speaker 1 (57:12):
Yeah, the cost of goods.
It was delayed because of thehousing or the economy downturn.
But you look back now.
Speaker 2 (57:21):
When you get zero interest on something, people
jump right.
So I probably would haveprobably liked to have seen it
built 10, 12 years ago with zerointerest.
Payments are very little, butit is what it is.
Speaker 1 (57:37):
So we're going to kind of start to wrap up a
little bit, but it's been great,I probably said 10 things I
shouldn't have, but okay.
I'm about to get fried.
If you were talking to a newresident that came into town,
what advice would you give themor offer them to get more
connected and involved in thecommunity?
Speaker 2 (57:58):
Boy.
That is the golden challenge.
If there's one thing thatfrustrates me the most is the
fact that no one goes to thevillage hall meetings.
Most people don't have Comcast.
They can't even watch themeetings anymore.
I've already talked about whyare they not on YouTube, why
don't we just YouTube them?
And hopefully, if I'm reelected, if I'm elected, that we can
(58:22):
move that way.
But I really think we need tofind a way to engage and I think
it starts with programs likeyouth programs, kids in school
and stuff like that.
Bring them into the villagemore.
I know they would do that oncea year.
They used to do that but Ithink we should do it more,
maybe as trustees and mayorgoing into some of the junior
(58:44):
highs and the high schools andtalk about, you know, civic duty
and stuff like that.
But there has to be an outreach.
I mean you don't do a trustee'sjob or even a mayor's job for
the money.
There's no money in it, youknow.
I mean, if that's your drivingforce, you're definitely looking
at the wrong spot.
But we have to find.
We have to find, we have tofind younger people to engage,
(59:06):
you know.
I say I mean I feel like.
I feel like I'm sitting here ona board making a decision
that's going to be for mygrandkids, you know, and I'd
rather have my daughters heremaking those decisions, you know
, and I would, I would love, Iwould love to find someone, you
know that's 50 years old, thatwould jump in and do this
(59:26):
tomorrow morning, and there justdoesn't seem to be much
enthusiasm for that.
The only time people in thevillage get upset is when they
look at their tax bill right ortheir water bill.
Sure yeah, and if they get alittle bit more upset about that
, maybe they'd actually go outand vote and then actually do
(59:48):
something to change.
Change is more difficult onceyou let them raise your taxes.
Speaker 1 (59:54):
Now it's tough to change right, like you said.
Once the price of those thingsgoes up, same with our taxes.
Speaker 2 (59:59):
We're not going to see them tick back down.
Because the departments orwhatever the governing body is,
once they tax you and they'vegot this money, they spend it.
Yeah, so the next year, if yousay, wait, we want you to cut,
well that means they've got tocut what was spent last year and
nobody does that anymore.
(01:00:21):
We know that.
Yeah, nobody does that anymore.
We know that.
You know.
But yeah, it's.
But yeah to me, to me I wouldlove to see, I would love,
absolutely love to see anengagement by younger kids and
stuff like that, or young adultsto get into this stuff.
Speaker 1 (01:00:35):
Yeah, tell us what's your favorite restaurant.
Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
My favorite restaurant.
Wow, I'm pretty simple when youcome to that restaurant.
Wow, I'm pretty simple when youcome to that, I would say it
used to be Red Lobster, but Ithink now my wife and I we go to
Peppermill a lot, we go there alot and we go to Beggar's Pizza
(01:00:59):
, and those are probably the twoplaces we kind of go to the
most in the village All right.
Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
If you could instantly master one skill, what
would it be?
Golf?
That's a good one all right, uh, you might answer favorite area
restaurant.
Speaker 2 (01:01:13):
I don't know pepper mill, or well, yeah, I you know,
I mean my wife when we do go topepper mill a lot and she's she
always jokes.
She walks in, she'll say likethey're all seniors and you know
she doesn't realize that.
I'm 72 and you're going to be70, okay, we're seniors, peg,
but she's in denial of that.
But I like the Peppermill.
(01:01:34):
They have good food, they'rereasonably priced.
They got good service.
Speaker 1 (01:01:38):
What's your favorite Mokina community event?
Speaker 2 (01:01:43):
Oh, I think the July 4th parade, probably, probably.
I like that a lot.
Yeah, that's a good thing I got, I finally, uh, this year I got
to drive in it, which wasreally unique, uh, to actually
be on the other side of theropes for a change.
Speaker 1 (01:01:55):
It's pretty neat what do you think of that?
I had the same thing.
I I, with the lions for thefirst time, walked in the parade
.
Oh, did you so?
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:02:03):
oh it was.
You know what I mean it was.
It was just I mean I did about30 events over the summer and so
I did a lot of communities.
The enthusiasm in Mokina andthe kids is incredible.
It's just like.
It's almost like bring thetears to your eyes.
There's just so much.
You know, when people saypeople don't love America, I
mean then you go and you do thatand they're cheering you and
(01:02:25):
thanking you.
They don't know that I'm aveteran.
They're cheering you andthanking you and all those
things, and it's just reallyinspiring to see that.
I absolutely love doing theparades.
This year we did so many events.
Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
Yeah, that's my favorite.
We've been coming to that sincejust before we moved here and
we always love that events.
Yeah, we've been.
That's my favorite.
We've been coming to that since, you know, just before we moved
here and we always loved thatparade.
Yeah, all right, let's seewhat's your go-to coffee order.
Speaker 2 (01:02:56):
My go-to coffee order is black coffee.
Speaker 1 (01:02:58):
I knew that was going to be your answer.
Speaker 2 (01:03:00):
for some reason, I do throw a little cream in it
nowadays.
I used to not, but I do creamit a little bit now.
But yeah, I'm basically a blackcoffee guy.
Speaker 1 (01:03:08):
Okay, well, that's the last of my hot button
questions for you here.
So I'll just give you a minuteif you want to share.
Why should people support youand vote for you this election?
Speaker 2 (01:03:20):
Well, I guess I can't really give a good answer to
that because I'm just probablylike all the others.
We say what we'd like to do,but we get there and find out
that you can't get it done.
So I do feel really positiveright now with my conversations
with Frank and Nick and Kim.
I think we're on the same pageif we're elected.
(01:03:42):
On the same page if we'reelected.
We've talked about gettingtogether and actually the four
of us putting an agenda togetherof what we'd like to do in the
next four years and stay focusedon that.
To me, one of the problems withthe village and maybe they've
done it, but I've never reallyseen it happen I don't think
they get elected and come inwith a specific agenda that they
(01:04:04):
would like to get done.
I don't want to change the world.
I don't want to change Mokena.
I love the little small town ofMokena.
I'd like to tweak a few things.
I'd like to make it better in afew spots.
I'd like to make sure thatwhatever the citizens in the
village want, that we can try tobring that to them.
Other than that, I just go towork every day, that I work for
(01:04:26):
the village and do what I can.
That's best for them.
Four years down the road, I'llstart going back on vacation in
the winter.
Speaker 1 (01:04:34):
Well that's great Well.
Trustee Roberts, thank you verymuch for taking some time with
me tonight.
Make sure to check out all ofour candidate interviews.
We'll have the full slates up.
Speaker 2 (01:04:43):
You can check those out and be sure to vote on April
1st, april 1st or before, orbefore, that's right by April
1st.
Speaker 1 (01:04:51):
Yeah, anyway, thanks, all right, thank you.
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