Melissa Fedora - Candidate for Mokena Village Trustee - Mokena's Front Porch Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
All right, melissa, thank you for sitting down with
me.
I know you're no stranger tothe camera You've been doing
stuff with the chamber and allthat for years but I appreciate
you kind of taking a differentrole Maybe the one being
interviewed this time, right.
But again, I really appreciateit.

(00:25):
I think this has been a greatopportunity for voters to be
better informed about who'srunning and kind of some of the
different issues too.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
It definitely has, and thank you for that.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
So just start, maybe tell us a little bit about
yourself.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Sure, I was not originally from Mokina, I was
from a little bit closer outyour way, where you lived
briefly as well.
So I grew up in I say Mattson,because otherwise people think
I'm talking about Wisconsin, butit's actually pronounced
Madison, m-a-t-t-e-s-o-n justeast of here.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
I've never called it Madison.
I lived there for nine years,11 years, and never called it.
It's always Mattson.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Yes, their mayor Strickler.
Back in the day with thehandlebar mustache, he would
hand out little cards with thecorrect pronunciation.
Oh, that's funny he was very,very adamant about it and he
even made the metro trainre-record their recording for
their stop.
So I'm very aware that it's alittle controversial how you
pronounce it, but I'm just sotired of having to say not

(01:25):
Wisconsin.
So whatever way you want topronounce it, that's where I was
originally from.
I went to St Lawrence O'TooleSchool, also in Madison, which
has now since closed,unfortunately.
They have a beautiful stainedglass church, but that's closed
as well.
A lot of those churches outthat way have closed and the
schools.
And then I went to MarianCatholic High School in Chicago

(01:47):
Heights.
That's an easy one to pronounce, sure, and of course you call
it the Heights if you're fromout there, what?

Speaker 1 (01:54):
was that like High school?
What was Marian like then?

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Okay, so in high school I kind of tried to fly
under the radar.
I did do some choir, though,and some theater that was kind
of more my thing and journalismI wrote for the school newspaper
and I did find myself in alittle bit of a controversial

(02:21):
spot there.
Really, uh-huh, that was alittle foreshadowing too for
something that happened later onin my career, but I wrote so
typically Marian Catholic, youwould graduate at the World when
it was the World, sure.
So that was very exciting getto walk across the stage.
You know, and it was stillnewer back then, obviously, back
then, obviously.

(02:42):
And the year that it was oursenior year, they, like halfway
through our year, announced thatthey wanted to move the
graduation to the at the timevery new Tinley.
Park Convention Center that wasconnected to the Holiday Inn and
of course you know, after fouryears of looking forward to this

(03:02):
and all your friends before youall got to graduate, the world.
We don't want to be in someconvention center.
You know, it's a lovely place,no offense, but it's not the
world.
So I wrote this piece, oh, andthen they took a vote and they
did some goofy.
The administration did somegoofy things with the numbers.
I will stand behind that.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
The students took a vote.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yeah well the admin hosted the vote and they said I
think I'm trying to rememberthis now I think the vote did
come back the world.
But then they said, oh well, wecan't go there because X, y, z,
nonsense reason which I don'tbelieve, and they made the
numbers like a lot closer than Itruly believe they were.
So I wrote this article aboutit and we had this wonderful

(03:49):
journalism teacher.
He just retired from MarianCatholic just this past year.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
He let me write this article and I thought it was
very fair.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
I thought it talked about both sides, but I should
try to find it one day.
I'd probably laugh at it now.
But the director of studentactivities or something called
me into his classroom andcornered me and said like you
better not write this article.
And I fought back, which wasnot like me.

(04:20):
Back then I again was likeflying to the radar, very quiet,
didn't want to get in argumentswith authority, but I stood my
ground.
My journalism teacher backed me.
The article came out.
I'll never forget.
It was a Friday and again agirl who tried to fly into the
radar.
I had people I'd never talkedto before coming up to me in the
halls, high five, and sayinggood job, you stood up for us.

(04:42):
Like I respect you.
Thank you so much for writingthat.
That's what we've all beenwanting to say and that's what
we've all been thinking.
So that was pretty validating.
And I think you have these smallmoments as you grow up that
kind of give you the strength sothat when you're an adult you
do have it in you to stand upfor things that you think you
should push back on or stand upto.

(05:02):
So that was probably one of myfirst moments of going through
that and I mean I wish I had abetter ending, but we ended up
graduating at the Tilly ParkConvention Center.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
I didn't even want to go to my graduation.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
I don't think I even brushed my hair.
I mean, I just showed up andwas like, let's just do this.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah, how did you feel after, like putting up a
fight for the other side andthen you lose and you kind of
have to go sit through what youfought against it?

Speaker 2 (05:28):
wasn't fun.
But you know, at that ageyou're in, you're in high school
, like you're kind of, you'restill, you're still kids, you're
still used to like kind ofbeing told no, it's just you
know because.
I said so and you just move on.
So yeah, it wasn't the best,but I mean it made for a great
memory.
And then, later on in my career, I kind of had to do something

(05:49):
similar when I worked for anewspaper.
I had to stand my ground onsomething and I ended up leaving
the paper which I loved workingat.
I could get into I don't knowwhat your next line of
questioning is I might roll intothat.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
Go ahead and talk about that, okay, so after?
Well, how about this?
Talk about?
And we can go a little bit backmore, but you end up in
journalism.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
So when I went to what's kind of the brief road to
journalism?
Then tell your story.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
So that really sparked something in me.
Obviously, I had alreadydecided at that point, though,
that I was going to ColumbiaCollege for journalism, which is
one of of the best schools, andit happens to be located right
here.
I just jumped on the Metro inMantison and took that train
right up there on the electricline.

(06:33):
So first I did a year atPrairie State College just to
get the gen eds done, you know,just paid my way through that,
trying to take out as small of aloan as possible, so paid my
way through that the first year.
Then I was able to get Columbiadone in three years, and all
the while I was still takinglike the gen ed classes at night

(06:55):
, on weekends, over the summer,I was just like go, go, go all
the time.
I didn't like school, but I didlove college because you were
able to kind of more do your ownthing and pick your own classes
and really focus on.
Columbia is very, very focusedon your major.
You don't have to take a lot ofthese other kind of goofy

(07:16):
classes.

Speaker 1 (07:17):
Is it rigid or is it more of a loose, like an art
school You'd think of, kind of aloose.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
It is.
It is like mostly an art school, but then it has that component
of journalism.
So ours was probably a littlemore rigid than most, but it was
still a really laid back schooland I mean, you're on Michigan
Avenue, it was just absolutelybeautiful.
And to get to be in the citywhat?
Four days a week, it was very,very cool.
So I had decided when I was veryyoung that I was going to go to

(07:43):
Columbia I mean I'm talkinglike kindergarten, because my
mom's friend said somethingabout so when I was little.
Of course, like every littlekid, I wanted to be an actress
or a singer, but then you startto realize how, even as a kid, I
knew how hard that would be.
Like it's like a one in amillion shot.
So my mom had said, well, youknow, if you like being on TV
and you like talking andcommunicating, my mom would say,

(08:05):
well, if you like being on TVand you like talking and
communicating, why don't you dowhat the news people do, and the
Channel 5 news, whatever thebroadcasters?
I thought, well, yeah, thatwould be a good way to do
something.
You work your way, you don'thave to hope for a lucky break.
It just seemed like a moresurefire way to do something,
then that's why I did the classin high school.
Then, sure enough, I went tocollege.

(08:26):
One of the big disappointmentsfor me, though, was and it could
have changed my life really soTom Skilling was always the
weather teacher there, themeteorology teacher at Columbia
oh, that's cool.
Yeah, and so when you tookjournalism, everybody took his
class, whether they wanted to goin weather or not.

(08:48):
You just took it.
Well, I thought weather wasactually something I might want
to explore, so I wanted to takeit.
And I want to say, like myfirst year there, I couldn't
take it yet.
And then after that he didn'tteach there anymore.
I don't know if he ever wentback.
So I still took this meteorologyclass and I ended up dropping
it.
It was terrible.
It was not meteorology.

(09:09):
It was taught by this very,very I think it was like his.
I don't even think he had hisfull teaching degree.
I think he was like afirst-year student and it was
more about like it wasn't aboutweather, it was about like
ground, and it was actually soover my head too.
It was more like I don't evenknow, like a geology class, I
don't know.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
so it's all the science, more the deep into the
science of weather yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
So I ended up, um, having to drop it and never got
into weather.
And you know, now I watch allthese girls on tv, these ladies.
I'm like could have been me,but wasn't Cheryl Scott.
No, I'm teasing you, but I didend up with a concentration in

(09:52):
radio.
So I did journalism withconcentration in radio, which is
really a fun component.
I mean you don't have to becamera ready, so that's kind of
nice.
I did have a teacher, alan Stagg.
I don't know if some peoplewould remember him.
He had this show at night onthe drive and maybe before the
drive.
I forget what channel he was on, maybe XRT.
It was called Sanctuary.

(10:12):
It was a really neat show.
So I had him two times.
It was wonderful.
I loved doing that.
But what I really enjoyed waswriting for radio.
They would my favorite thing.
They give us like the frontpage news story Okay, so it's
like three pages right after youturn it and you'd have to take
that and you'd have to turn thatinto like a 20 second.

(10:33):
You'd have to whittle that downto like a 20 second radio spot.
So that was really fun.
To just pull out the mainbullet points.
You had to cut like you had tofigure out what to cut, what was
fluff and what was like the who, what, where, when, why.
So that was really neat.
Yeah.
So I graduated from there andthen was hoping to, you know,
find something.

(10:54):
It's sort of a double-edgedsword living in Chicago because
you're fortunate that you have,you know, these big local
stations and most of ourteachers at Columbia were
working professionals either inradio, print TV.
But the hard thing is youreally have to move.
In most cases you have to moveto a smaller market and then

(11:16):
work your way back to Chicago.
You don't just say hello, nbc.

Speaker 1 (11:19):
I'm here.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
So you know, I struggled with that and I really
didn't want to move and I justreally wasn't in a place to do
that.
You know, I struggled with thatand I really didn't want to
move and I really I just reallywasn't in a place to do that,
you know.
So I ended up um finding.
Luckily, not long after Igraduated I moved to um
Frankfurt and that was my firsttime moving out of the house
because I commuted to school, soI lived at home to save money.

(11:41):
So I I moved to downtownFrankfurt and I was just walking
down the street and this womanwalked up to me and said I'm
doing this feature called Facesin the Crowd.
I don't know if you rememberthis.
I worked for a brand newnewspaper that we're just
getting ready to launch.
It's called 22nd Century Media,is the company and it's the
Frankfurt station, and we dothis little piece where we ask

(12:04):
people in the crowd, um that youknow they sometimes go to
library, they walk down thestreet, wherever they are, they
ask five people a question andthen they take their picture and
then they put their answer andit's like lighthearted stuff.
So she had asked me, um, whatmy favorite movie was, I think.
So I answered this question.
She takes my picture and then,of course, I'm like I just
graduated journalism school acouple months ago, I think, it

(12:25):
was like one month ago.
I'm like are you hiring?
And she's like we absolutelyare.

Speaker 1 (12:29):
So she whisked me right into their office.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
Their office was in downtown Frankfurt at the time.
It then moved to Orland and nowit has unfortunately since
closed, but it was in thebuilding where the Frankfurt
Bowling Alley is in.
But it was on the first floor.
So they whisked me into thisoffice and, like before you know
it, I'm like on this interviewand she's introducing me to
people, and so I ended upstarting there as a stringer, a
freelancer, so just like kind ofpaid per news article that

(12:54):
you'd go out and do.
And then eventually they werelaunching so at the time it was
only the Homer paper and theFrankfurt paper, but then they
were getting ready to launch theOrland Park paper so they
needed another full-time person.
So then I was able to come onand I was the assistant editor
of all three.
Wow yeah.
So that was very exciting.
And then the next paper theylaunched was Nulonix and I think
after that was Mokina.

Speaker 1 (13:15):
So how often were you writing articles when you were
as a freelancer?

Speaker 2 (13:19):
Um, like probably one a week, maybe two sometimes.

Speaker 1 (13:23):
So was that full time ?
Are you still working?
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (13:26):
So I also.
No, it was not full time.
You're just paid per article.
I want to say you're gettingmaybe, like it depended how long
of a day that you had there andhow many pictures they needed
and the length of it, but it waslike between like 40 and 60
bucks.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
Oh, wow, yeah, so no, it was not paying all the bills
.

Speaker 2 (14:06):
Almost oh wow.
So I worked there for a littlewhile and then there was
something that kind of happenedthere where the publisher wanted
to write, wanted to.
How could I say this withoutsaying this?
I mean, I just I don't want topull him into anything, but our
publisher at the time, who was aGoogle-able person, former
politician as well wanted theeditor at the time to write in

(14:27):
her, because we always had aletter from the editor you know
your editorial in every page.
I think it was like on pagefour.
He wanted her to write thisarticle saying that one of the
villages was not beingsupportive of us and not giving
us their legal notices becauseof course, the paper was free,
so it was all run onadvertisements and that's how

(14:47):
they were funded.
So he wanted us to write thisstuff about these legal notices.
And we knew why.
We knew why we weren't gettingthe legal notices because we had
already talked to thatvillage's mayor about it,
because we would be at eventswith that mayor and talk to the
mayor all the time, because ofhaving the right articles and
having to get quotes and beingat events that he was at.
And we knew it was just becausethe time out that it took to

(15:09):
publish the paper, like to sendit to print.
To get it printed then to bringit back was such a long amount
of time and legal notices haveto be out so many days in
advance legally and theturnaround time was just too
long.
So he was going more with thedailies and there was a lot more
of those at the time you had,like Southtown Star and all
these other papers.
So I mean, that was the onlyreason why.

(15:29):
So it was more on us.
If we could make our lead timeshorter, we could get the legal
notices, which was what we weretrying to tell the publisher.
He wasn't having it.
He wanted us to just sm'tappreciate that we have this
local paper in town.
And so the editor fought back,said I'm not doing that, that's

(15:50):
not right.
I have to interview this persontomorrow, you know.
And so then she was let go.
Then I was asked on a Sunday inthe middle of a football game.
I'll never forget it.
I was at my house.
I got the call.
You know, um, she's no longerhere with us.
Um, you know you're theassistant, so obviously you'll

(16:12):
take the role, Um.
And I said, well, of course,that's wonderful, and I was
getting ready to launch the newLinux paper that was going to be
my paper.
I was gonna be the editor ofthat one, and this was right
around the corner.
I'd actually already, um, we'dalready hired my, my, my,
assistant.
Um, I said, well, of course,that's wonderful, but will I now
be expected to write this piece?
And they said, well, of course.
And I said, well, this isn'tgoing to work.
So writing was on the wall.

(16:33):
I quickly went in the next dayand gave my letter of
resignation and had to leave myvery first job, which was
horrible, Horrible.
It was my first time having asalaried job.
I obviously needed the money.
It wasn't much, but it wasmoney and I loved what I did and
just all of a sudden I'm justgone out of these three towns

(16:57):
just like that.
So that was kind of a traumaticexperience.
But it reminded me of that highschool experience when I stood
my ground and said, no, this isnot right, I'm not going to do
that, I'm not going to lose myjournalistic integrity.
I remember was what I said andI stand behind it.
So then that was really my lasttime in media because then after
that I switched over tomarketing.

(17:19):
I had made connections becauseI was in Frankfurt with the
owners of CD& Me in Frankfurtand I mean they didn't have a
website.
They had like a very, very,very basic website, like a
one-page website, and theyweren't on Facebook yet Facebook
was still you know, all thiswas still newer.
So it's not like they were waybehind the times, but they knew

(17:41):
it was time to get there.
So they brought me on as theirmarketing person and so I did
the website for the banquetfacility, then also for their
sister business, which isGervais, the landscape company.
So I helped with their websiteand social media and the VIP
experience I was in charge of.

(18:02):
So it just kind of transitionedinto that.
And then I've just sort ofstayed more in the marketing
lane ever since, which isn'tterrible, because also at the
same time the media landscapejust completely changed.
I mean, look at how manynewspapers are gone, and it
still continues to change.
Look at the legacy media now,like their budgets are being cut

(18:23):
, they're laying people off.
So I think I kind of got inmedia at maybe not the best time
, but you know it all led mehere.
So it's okay.
But I'm not a weather woman,you can see that.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:43):
So talk about how you ended up coming to Mokina and
how long?
You've been here.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
So my CD&ME position was only part-time and I needed
something more, and I was.
I was bartending there on theside as well, but you know, I'm
like starting to get a littlebit older.
I mean not that I was probablyin my mid to late twenties, but
kind of looking for somethingmore at this point, because I
was at CDME for a handful ofyears.
So I had heard about the jobthat was available at the

(19:13):
chamber.
This was also part-time, though, but I thought, well, maybe we
can grow it into somethingfull-time and spoiler alert, I
did so.
I went to apply.
It was very, very, very lastminute to when I saw it.
I think the day I saw it wasthe deadline day Did you know
many people in Mokina, then no.

(19:35):
No, not really.
And I didn't know where thechamber office was in Mokina.
I had to Google and figure outwhere am I going for this
interview.
So I it was, and I'll neverforget I almost canceled it.
I knew I was last minute.
I was kind of hesitant on it.
I did not know Mokina very wellat all.
This was 2009.

(19:56):
I mean, I knew I lived inFrankfurt, I obviously did come
out here and shop, but I mean Ididn't like know it, know it.
So I almost canceled that day.
It was a rainy, dreary day.
It rained all morning, one ofthose just cold.
It was November, cold Novemberdays.
And I just was thinking I'm not, I don't know how to run a
chamber.

(20:17):
You know, you start gettingthat doubt in your head, sure.
So I'm like I should justcancel.
And then I thought no, becausesome friends knew that I was
going to this interview and I'mlike, oh, they're going to give
me so much grief if I don't go,because they were really pushing
me along and encouraging me.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
And what did you know of the chamber and what made
you think I mean, I don't knowif it's something what made you
think you could do that job?
Well, that's exactly what I wassaying to myself.

Speaker 2 (20:42):
What makes me think I can?

Speaker 1 (20:42):
do this job.

Speaker 2 (20:44):
I liked the special events part of it, because I did
help with a lot of that stuffat CD&ME and there was a lot of
communications in there, becauseI knew Constant Contact,
because that was another thingthat I started when I was at
CD&ME was their email blast.
I set up all their ConstantContact and that was one of the
things that they wanted you toknow for the chamber job.
So I was checking some boxesalong the way.

(21:05):
But, yeah, I'm like I'm in mylate twenties, I like businesses
.
I don't, I don't know.
So there was some things I haddoubt on.
So I finally I like drag myselfto the shower and get ready and
I go to this interview.
It's pouring rain, it's cold.

(21:27):
At the time, um, the chamber wasin the building on wolf road
just north of aurelio's pizzawhere the yoga studio is now.
Um, and they were, they hadtorn out the parking lot, they
were like repaving it.
So I'm like trying to figureout where to park and you know
I'm in heels, not knowing I'mgonna have to like walk across
this gravel.
So I finally and it's pouringrain, so I get in there.
I was a mess and then I had tosit down at a table about the

(21:50):
size of your table and there wasfour people in the room and I'm
like, well, this isn'tintimidating, I'm like sitting
here four people around me.
I already have this doubtcreeping in my head, but I just
started talking to them.
It was actually.
It was Mary Martin of MartinHeating and Cooling, sharon

(22:11):
Filkins, who actually worked atthe village for a while,
although she had retired by thatpoint, edjian Kauskas, who
still lives in Mokina, and LeeKaz, who still lives in Mokina
and has a business in Mokina.
So I just started talking tothem and you know, it was just
one of those things where we alljust clicked immediately and I

(22:32):
think I ended up sitting therefor like two hours.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (22:36):
Didn't feel like two hours.
Never felt like it was on thespot.
I was just clicking with thesepeople and with this job, like
beyond my wildest dreams.
So I get ready to you know, I'mpacking up my things finally
after two hours and I'm leaving.
And I remember I said to the Iwas at the door, I turned around
and I said you know, if youdon't pick me, I just want you

(22:57):
all to know I just had like thebest two hours with the four of
you and I wish you guys the bestfor this organization and for
the town.
I mean, I was and everybody likewe all, I think we all, like
some of us, even hugged.
So I leave and as I'm drivinghome, I'll never forget it this
huge rainbow went over Wolf Roadas I was driving back, as I was

(23:18):
driving south, and I'm likethis has to be a sign.

Speaker 1 (23:21):
It must be yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:25):
So this was late on a Friday, and then I got the call
Monday morning that they wantedme to have the job.
I couldn't believe it.
So then we got very busy.
It was right around theholidays.
Our first event was theChristmas parade.
I mean just had to like jumpright into everything.
And then we had ourinauguration dinner in January
and that first year is awhirlwind because you have to
get through the first year to doall the events, the golf outing

(23:48):
, the 4th of July parade I hadnever been to the 4th of July
parade.

Speaker 1 (23:51):
Oh my gosh.
And then you have to run it.

Speaker 2 (23:53):
And I cut my toe the night before.

Speaker 1 (23:56):
Oh, no Bad.

Speaker 2 (23:58):
Bad.
I was on a friend's boat inShanahan and we were can, like
you put the anchor down SandbarSandbar Thank you, yes.
So I'm walking along that andsome boat had the rope on their
anchor like way too long becausethis boat's way out there.

(24:19):
So I'm walking, thinking I'mfine, and I like kicked this
anchor as I was walking.
Oh my gosh, on my big toe cutit open, bad, bad, but it was a
way where, like you, couldn'treally stitch it so and we were
spending the night on the boatand I was going to just get in
my car and drive straight herethe next morning.
I believe that year was a yearof the parade was at noon Cause

(24:42):
it was a Sunday, so I had alittle extra time.
But I mean I, so I, I get here,I had, and that year the
chamber was, we had an entry inthe parade, um, so I now have to
get myself with this wrapped upand I had on flip.
I was so unprepared, no onetold me how big this parade was.

(25:02):
I had to walk from the chamberoffice all the way to line up at
the Oaks and then walk in theparade.
I ended up hitching a ride onthe VFW.
It might have been Mayor JoeWarners, it was somebody's.
It was their deuce and a halftheir military transport vehicle
.
They were already packed in andI'm hobbling down the road and

(25:22):
I knew some of the guys fromthat VFW because I would go to
the Frankfurt VFW and some ofthem were the same.
So I'm waving them down likehelp, help and they threw me in
the back.
They had already taken theladder down and people were
sitting on a ladder, so theyliterally threw me in the back

(25:42):
and they drove me to my spot andthen I was on the vehicle.
I was on, we had a flatbed andwe were handing out bags for
businesses.
So businesses had paid to havethese bags pre-stuffed and then
we handed them out along the wayand then the kids could use
those bags as their candy bags.
We still sort of do that today,but it's a little different now
how we distribute it and it wasso hot.

(26:02):
We get to the end of the paradeand we were in Mary Martin's
back parking lot at MartinHeating and Cooling and it was
gravel at the time and I'llnever forget I went to step off
and like everything went whiteand Lynn Ingram from Image 360
and Lee Kaz both like grabbed meand they like basically dragged

(26:25):
me into the office and Lee'skids, his twins they were young
at the time and like they'retaking care of me.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
Oh, it was a mess, but I learned how big that
parade was after that experienceand now I am prepared.
Yeah, no, going on a boat thenight before.
Get a good night's sleep no,going on a boat the night before
, get a good night's sleep, um,and then, well, and then in 2014
, um, I was pregnant with my sonand I went into labor like two

(26:54):
hours after the parade, but Imade it through the parade oh my
gosh.
Cindy gamboa told me no babytill after this parade, and so I
listened yeah gamboa tells yousomething.
You listen.

Speaker 1 (27:04):
That is funny.
Wow.
So then when did you move intoMokina?

Speaker 2 (27:10):
So I moved into Mokina.
Well, our house was on themarket while I was pregnant with
my son.
Unfortunately, the housingmarket was not great back then,
and that house was on the marketfor about a year Wow yeah.
So doing the commuting andfinally it sold.

(27:33):
And when it sold, though, thenthere wasn't.
I think schools were just kindof going back in, so there
wasn't a lot on the market atthat time, because people wanted
to be moved in before the startof school.
So I was very limited, and alot of the houses throughout
that year that I had beenlooking at had sold because I
had to sell our house so that wecould afford that house.

(27:56):
We needed the monies, so a lotof the houses I looked at were
gone.
I looked at one over here, Ilooked at the one Terry lives in
.
I mean, I'd still drive bythese houses and I'm like I was
in that house.

Speaker 1 (28:07):
I liked that house.

Speaker 2 (28:09):
And then there was one house on the market that I
had looked at online and I justkind of thought, eh, I don't
know.
It had a washer and dryer in thekitchen and I just thought, eh,
I don't know, it seems weird.
And my realtor Lincoln WayRealty it was Joe Swinsky and I
had looked at some houses andjust none of them were clicking.
And Joe said what about thathouse on Mokena Street?

(28:31):
I'm like, yeah, I don't know,joe.
I'm like it's kind of washerand dryer in the kitchen, like
the whole thing is just kind oflike I don't know.
It's just, I don't know, I justdismissed it.
He's like, melissa, don't youhistory of that house?
Well, I too love history, likeyou all, and I mean matt galick
and I.
He, he does projects for us,for the chamber, so I'm like
there's history to the house.
No, do tell.

(28:51):
So he told me that it was, uh,clyde and dorothy yunker's house
.
Who?
That would be?
Dell and joe.
So that was dell yunker'sparents.
Dell of, of course, was marriedto Joan Yunker, and Joan Yunker
and Del he had passed by thispoint, but Joan and Del helped
us for years and years at thechamber with the Food and Wine

(29:13):
Festival, and Joan actuallyhelped cover the office, like
right after I had my son.
So I'm like in communicationwith Joan through all this and I
had no idea.

Speaker 1 (29:23):
Oh, how cool.

Speaker 2 (29:24):
So I'm like, all right, I'll take a look at the
house, You've convinced me.
And I didn't realize too thatthe backyard was against Yunker
Farm, which I love farms, I lovefarms.
So I said, all right, joe, Iwill look at this house.
And I remember the second wewalked in the front door I was
like this is the house, we justknew it.
And it's not that it wasanything magnificent or anything

(29:46):
special, it just had that vibe.
You know you just sometimesyour gut just tells you, just
like it did in that interviewwith the chamber.
So we bought that house andactually I'll tell you, having
the, the, so the people thatlived there before me, the lady
she had bad knees so shecouldn't go up and down the
stairs to where the washer anddryer were, so she put a
stackable in the kitchen andtook out a cabinet.

(30:08):
But having a now one-year-oldby this point, having that
washer and dryer upstairs was sonice.
Otherwise I would have had tohave brought him down the stairs
with me and the laundry,because I wouldn't want to leave
him upstairs, and then I wouldhave been carrying all this, him
and the clothes back up.
So it actually was wonderful.
You just had to make sure youcoordinated like laundry and
dinner at the same time.

(30:29):
We eventually did redo thekitchen and move it back
downstairs, because my son isnow 10, um, but I yeah, it was.
It actually was a blessing tohave that upstairs yeah, and
that's such a cool neighborhoodtoo.

Speaker 1 (30:43):
Like uh I, it was neat for me learning the history
.
Built up right after the war.
It was the first post-World WarII community and it just feels
like such a neat small towndriving and walking through
there.

Speaker 2 (30:58):
And the Mineral Springs that Matt wrote that
wonderful article about.
I won't go into the detail, butit's really worth checking out.
What is it Matt's Old Mok worthchecking out and what is it
Matt's Old Mokina?

Speaker 1 (31:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
Is that his website?

Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yeah, and we did a podcast episode about it too,
about it too, so that house istwo doors down from me which is
just so neat.

Speaker 2 (31:15):
It's a great story worth checking out.
It really is, yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:25):
So, talking about the chamber and more so the
organization overall, tell us alittle bit about what do Chamber
organizations do in thecommunities and what do they do
for businesses.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
So Chambers are non-profit organizations.
That's always the first thingthat I start out with, because I
think that really lays down thefoundation of something that is
very important, and that isthat we rely on all of the
membership dues from thebusinesses and the sponsorships
from community events that wehost and then if you have, you

(31:50):
know, ticketed events or thingslike that.
So all of the money, everysingle dollar, has to be raised
yourself.
A lot of people think thatwe're like a branch of the
village and that we get taxdollars and all these wonderful
things.
And no, we don't.
We don't get anything handed tous.
We are a 501c6.

(32:11):
It's a six because that'smembership organizations and
unfortunately during COVID,501c6s were not given the PPP
loans, only 501c3s.
So here we have members thatare struggling to pay.
We're, honestly, we're trying tofigure out ways to still

(32:32):
provide value because we're nothaving our monthly membership
meetings, which are wonderfulways for people to network and
get together and introducethemselves to their fellow
businesses.
And then we always have a guestspeaker that educates either on
something business related orsomething on the community.
We've brought out the ParkDistrict, we brought out Lincoln
Way Special RecreationAssociation.
We brought up the library,because I think it's important

(32:53):
for these business owners toknow more about their local
taxing bodies, especially.
Not all the business ownerslive in Mokena, so how would
they be exposed to these things?
But they obviously have avested interest in Mokina
because their business is inhere.
So at these membership meetingsI think that's something that

(33:14):
provides a lot of value, and wedidn't have those happening
during COVID.
So we were trying to pivot andfind other ways to make money.
And then to not get the PPPloans was a difficult thing.
By the second round theyfinally opened it up for us, but
you had to apply for the firstone before you could get the
second one.
So you apply for the first onethen, but then by the time you

(33:36):
could apply for the second one,because there was a certain
amount of time that had to go bythen it was over, so we were
able to get one.
At least we had one.
It was over, so we were able toget one.
At least we had one.

Speaker 1 (33:48):
You know at that point something was better than
nothing after we had struggled.

Speaker 2 (33:51):
So long to get through that and did those end
up being forgivable loans, yeahthey did, they did, and then I
had also reached out to WillCounty.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
I don't want to go on a tangent about COVID, but it
was a very.
It was hugely significant forthe chamber as well as the whole
community and our businesscommunity.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
And I'm glad by that point I had years of experience
under my belt running thechamber.
I would have been lost becauseyou had to completely pivot.
I mean everything that youthought you knew.
You know, after you do it a fewyears, it's like, okay, copy
and paste, you know we're goingto change this a little bit and
maybe modify that, but you'vegot a good playbook that you're

(34:28):
working off of.
By year three, four, five,basically take that playbook,
throw it out the window andstart over and figure out what
does a chamber look like now?
So everything got turned upsidedown and all these organizations
were reaching out saying we're,you know, we're here to help
businesses with this, with this,can you get the word out?

(34:49):
Well, of course, that's how Iwas showing my value, even
though we can't have in personnetworking events and this thing
and that thing.
And you know, of course,illinois was very restricted
with their in-person stuff for along time, even when other
states were coming back.
We were still, you know, in thephase one and because we were

(35:12):
broken up by regions and all ofthose things.
So Will County reached out andsaid can you, you know, blast
this out?
And I said, of course we can.
But I need to tell you this wasmonths in.
I'm like I always use theanalogy of when you're in the
airplane.
You know how they say put youroxygen mask on first, even
though you want to put yourchild's on, but you have to save
yourself first so you can savethe child.
I'm like we need an oxygen maskbecause we have been helping

(35:33):
everybody for so long and Idon't know how we're going to
keep our doors open.
And I mean it wasn't just uniqueto the Molkina chamber, it was,
I mean, really everybody.
None of these chambers weregetting any help.
So they were like we didn'trealize this was happening and
so they in their credit, youknow we we had a separate
meeting and I kind of went moreinto detail about things with

(35:53):
them and I said, you know, andlike we all need help.
I didn't want to just likelet's bail out Mokena and, you
know, everybody else.
Oh well, so they ended uphelping all the I think it was
all the Will County Chambers,you know with.
It was a grant and so it wasforgivable.
I mean it wasn't a ton of moneybut it was a little, every
little bit at that point helped.

(36:14):
So we were able to get someassistance too, because other
businesses were too, so we wereable to tag on to what they were
giving.
Other businesses is what Ishould say.
This wasn't something reallyspecial, just for us.
We were able to be included onwhat they were giving out.

Speaker 1 (36:28):
And again talking a little bit about COVID with the
Lions Club.
You know experienced similarstruggles and having to relook.
But talk a little bit about the, because you did see a lot of
those organizations cometogether and what was kind of
the chamber's role in that andyou guys kind of almost
organized a lot of thesecharities, help bring them

(36:49):
together, um, so just brieflytalk about that and kind of what
some of the things you saw yeah, I saw us as like the, the, the
one stop resource, becausethere were so many things out
there.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
How would a business owner be able to run their
business?
If you're a parent you weree-learning at home, as I was
with my then kindergartner howwould you be able to be out
there and even knowing where tolook for this information?
So we were trying to be likethe you need information, like

(37:24):
here is everything that we have,and we were sending out these
huge emails with all these linksand because we're a chamber,
it's not even like if we werelike a restaurant organization,
I would only have to give outinformation about restaurants.
Well, we were, we're ineverything.
So I had to have information onevery different type of
business a small business, amedium-sized business.

(37:46):
I even tried to help the largebusinesses, because who knows if
they know about thisinformation.
So we had a page on our website,we tried to do that and then we
still did, very luckily, twomonths before COVID hit, one of
my members said hey, I tried outthis new thing.
It's called Zoom and he's sortof explaining it to me and I'm

(38:08):
not quite getting it.
He said I'd love to teach youhow to do it.
Maybe one day you'll need it.
And I thought, well, you know,he's excited about this, he's a
member and I'm always up forlearning something new.
I'm like, all right, I'll jumpon.
So a couple of days later, wejump on this Zoom thing and he's
showing me how to do it and Ithought, well, that's pretty
neat.
I'm like, maybe one day, if wehave a meeting and we need

(38:29):
people to come from far awayrather than having them commute,
maybe then we'll use it.
Didn't really think much of it.
And then fast forward twomonths and Zoom was all we did.
So then we moved our monthlymembership meetings to Zoom.
So we were still able to dothem, and we would do them in

(38:50):
the evening.
Um, so that you know you couldlike do it like while having
dinner everything was so laidback that remember, which was so
different.
We were not used to likeworking from home or like even
like dressing casual, so to havethese like kind of like evening
dinner party was just so neat.
It was kind of exciting to trythese different things, like
evening dinner party zooms, wasjust so neat.
It was kind of exciting to trythese different things, because
if it didn't work, what do youdo?
Well, you know COVID, you justblamed it on COVID.

(39:13):
You were able to reallyexperiment with different things
.
And then I felt so bad thatthere were things because I had
a kindergartner and I'm seeingthere's no pictures with Santa
this year, there's no photoswith the Easter Bunny this year,
there's no trunk or treats thisyear, there's no acons this
year.
All these things that I knewpersonally my own child was
missing out on and I'm thinkingwell, all these kids are missing

(39:35):
out on this.
So then we try to figure outways that we can still have
something fun where we weren'tviolating the restrictions put
on by the state.
So that's when we pivoted andthis is why I say thank goodness
I had years of experience on mebecause I was kind of able to
come up with these things.
We did a Halloween scavengerhunt and we did an Easter

(39:58):
scavenger hunt where we just hadlike 20 businesses participate.
As many could participate asthey wanted, it was about 20.
And they would give me I thinkit was 20 bucks to participate
and I just use that to buyprizes for the kids so they
could go into the business.
See, it helped the business too.
We would hide, like forHalloween.
It was like an inflatablepumpkin.

(40:19):
We hid that somewhere in thestore and I would tell them if
it was a retail store, hide itwhere you want people to go.
So, like Ace, they hid it bytheir Christmas decorations,
like where do you want to guidepeople to?
So then kids would be able tofill out the card and they were
still able to do something fun.
You still felt like you wereparticipating in something neat.

Speaker 1 (40:35):
Yeah, those were great.
They were great and thecreativity that came out
throughout COVID was reallyreally cool to see that was the
silver lining really.
And there's some things thatyou know we still keep around
today.
So we talked earlier thissummer getting to talk a little
bit about the election and youhad mentioned you weren't

(40:55):
necessarily sure that you wouldrun again this election, so
maybe just start talk.
What made you decide that afterfour years you want to run
again for Village?

Speaker 2 (41:05):
Trustee.
Well, I did some soul searching.
I had both sides asking me torun with them and, not wanting
to really be caught in themiddle, I just thought, well,
maybe I should just not run.
But then I did some soulsearching on that and I thought,
well, that's not really fair tome, because there is a learning

(41:27):
curve being a trustee, and Ifelt like I'm, I'm in.
It was about three and a halfyears, I guess.
At that point I was in and Ifelt, you know, I've got my feet
under me now, like I reallywant to keep moving this forward
.
You know, when you're a Iequate it to high school years
because it's four years andyou're a freshman and sophomore

(41:49):
trustee you know you still haveso much to learn.
You can't always be, you know,the first one trying to suggest
something, or you're just you'retrying to really see what's
happened before you, what'sgoing on right now.
I mean it really is a lot totake in.
So then by your junior andsenior year of being a trustee,
you know, you feel like you knowwhat you're doing and I just

(42:10):
thought that would be a shamefor these years of knowledge and
experience to just throw thatout the window now and not, you
know, keep going so and plusonce you have like you know,
like we're in the middle of alot of things and you just, you
want to see them through.
So I just decided, nope, youknow what, I'm going to stick.

(42:33):
I'm going to have to just picka side.
I'm going to have to stickthrough this because it's what I
, it's what I want to do and Ithink it's.
I think I'm good for thevillage I do.
If I didn't think I was goodfor this role, I would say, you
know what?
There is somebody out therebetter than me that can take
this over.
I will just stick with mychambering, but I do think I'm

(42:54):
good at it and I can still learnmore.
I still have three and a halfyears.
You never stop learning.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
So, based on this flyer you got here, you did
choose a side.

Speaker 2 (43:04):
So do you want to?

Speaker 1 (43:05):
talk about why you chose to run with George.
Now we're getting to thehard-hitting questions.

Speaker 2 (43:14):
Yeah well, friends of Mokina is who I ran with last
time.
Friends of Mokina, we rantogether with George's trustee
and we ran with Melissa Martinias clerk, and this is the group
that we like to get things done,and get them done quickly, not

(43:36):
recklessly quickly, but quicklywhere we see progress happening
at a good pace.
So I just decided to really, Imean, I stayed where I was, I
stayed with Friends of Mokena.

Speaker 1 (43:50):
So what have you learned over the last four years
as a trustee?

Speaker 2 (43:55):
You learn that there is so much that goes into
everything, like the littlestthing, like you, really the
amount of things which it's notalways a bad thing.
I mean there are some thingsthat are there's a lot of red

(44:15):
tape and those are things thatwe want to look at and address,
but I just mean the things howmuch goes into making sure that
you're you have all the facts,that you're making a solid
decision.
Um, you know you're not goingup there and just winging it and
or you know saying, let's throwthis against the wall and see
what sticks.
I mean you have to do so muchresearch and it's so many

(44:36):
different things because youknow I was more comfortable
working with the business sideof things, but now you have to
get very familiar with theresidential side of things and
like new housing development,townhouse developments, and
there's just so much to learn.
Like I said, and that's why Idon't think you want a ton of
turnover, because you wantpeople up there that do have

(44:57):
years of experience.
You want a good blend ofturnover and experience, because
you want people up there thatcan think back on things and say
well, you know we tried thatbefore and that didn't work
because X Y Z or you know wetried this before and that
didn't work.
Because X Y Z, or you know wetried this before and it did
work.
So maybe we should considerutilizing that for this.
But then you do want the newcrop of people too that are

(45:17):
bringing a new, freshperspective.
So it's just how much goes intoeverything, like, obviously I
knew a lot did, but it's evenmore than you realize.
Things are well thought out, Iwill say, and I don't know if
this is just this town or ifthis is just every town, but

(45:38):
things are very well thought outbefore they're done.

Speaker 1 (45:42):
Explain that a little more.

Speaker 2 (45:44):
Well, like.
So, like when you see an agenda, for instance, like you might
watch a board meeting and saythere's A, b, c, d, e and F on
this consent agenda and you seein the meeting you know we just
take roll and we all vote for it.
Or even under, like newbusiness, you might see there's

(46:06):
a brief PowerPoint and we allvote yes on it.
That has already been throughat least one workshop, sometimes
multiple workshops, sometimesit's it has gone over the course
of maybe a year or two or three.
Um, where you're, you'reworking out all the details on,
on all of these things of youknow what size the housing

(46:28):
development is, do you want R1,R2, r3, or?
Um, you know what size thehousing development is, do you
want R1, r2, r3?
Or you know, is that the rightfit for that business in that
spot?
So you work through all ofthose things in workshop, and
workshops are open to the public.
Anyone can go to a workshop.
They're on Mondays or on thethird Monday of the month, but
so we work out those detailsthere so that when we're in the

(46:49):
board meeting, yeah, we alreadyknow, we know what we're doing,
not that you can't always changeyour mind at the last minute.
I mean, no one's locked inuntil it's till your name is
called and then you vote.
But all these things arealready thought out and planned
out and done.
So that's why the board meetingmight look like oh, they're

(47:10):
just like they blew through allthese in you know 15 minutes.
Yeah, that was after a lot ofmeetings to get to that point.
This is this is like you knowthe, like your final paper that
you turn in.
That's what the agenda is.

Speaker 1 (47:24):
And I've seen you know your interactions on the
board and you have on thingsagreed with.
You know different sides.
You know the mayor on somethings and with, say, george or
whoever on other things.
What's, what's yourdecision-making process?
That goes into how you makeyour vote, especially in those
more contentious situations.

Speaker 2 (47:44):
I'm glad you've noticed that I do vote on my own
.
I wouldn't say a lot, butfrequently enough.
I remember, kind of right atthe beginning of my first year
there, I was the only one thatwas a no vote on something.
You know, we run together tokind of go back to the group

(48:07):
because you want to run withpeople that sort of have the
same vision.
Otherwise, you would have sixpeople up there arguing with
each other through an entiremeeting and you're getting
nothing done because everybodyis so on different pages.
So that's why we like to run asa group, because we're all
individuals, but for the mostpart, we all have the same
vision.
So we're all, like you know,rowing the boat in the same

(48:30):
direction so that you can get towhere you're going quicker,
right?
So there are times, though, thatyou know you do your own
research and I, before I vote onsomething I always remember
like I am not trustees are notelected to be Melissa Fedora
Like you're elected becauseyou're supposed to be the voice

(48:52):
of the people.
So I always think, okay, if Ilike had the luxury of time to
knock on every single door inthis community and ask people
how do you feel about this Likewhat, what is the majority going
to say?
So I always try to take myselfout of it.
You have to use your owndecision-making skills and pull

(49:16):
your own knowledge to work outthe problem.
But at the end of the day, thisisn't Melissaville.
I have to represent everybodyand so I really try to lead with
that.
Sometimes you have to takeyourself out of it and say what
is best for everybody, becausenot everybody is, you know, 42

(49:36):
year old Melissa, who lives onMokina street with a 10 year old
son, that I have to representeveryone.
So, um, I, I, you know, I'm notafraid to vote my own way, even
if it goes against other people.
It doesn't, it doesn'tintimidate me.
I, at the end of the night, atthe end of the day, when I go to
sleep at night, I have to feelconfident in what I did and I, I

(49:58):
do.

Speaker 1 (49:59):
And are there people that you've looked to for advice
or counsel on decisions relatedto the village?

Speaker 2 (50:07):
Well, definitely, and you should.
So we get our agenda.
You know, the week before themeeting, like Thursday, we get
it.
So you have Thursday, Friday,Saturday, Sunday and then most
of Monday to get out there andask questions.
So I mean, it depends on, like,each particular thing.

(50:28):
But maybe you need to talk to abusiness owner, Maybe you need
to talk to a developer.
We, we talk a lot.
We have good communication withour staff because you know, they
sort of they're sort of in theday-to-day with these projects,
right, Like we're not day-to-day, we don't work full-time, you
know, at City Hall, right so,but they do, they're day-to-day

(50:51):
in the village.
So we pull a lot from like okay, when, like previous maybe
discussions that they've hadwith whatever that project is.
It's just like you just have tokeep drilling down.
So it's almost like everydifferent thing on the workshop
is like a different mystery tosolve, because you're trying to

(51:11):
get, you know the whole andwe're briefed very well by staff
, very well by staff, andthey're super accessible, which
makes this so easy that you knowthat you can get a clear answer
out of staff.
That is just wonderful and thatmakes the job so much easier
that you're not having to argueor fight or get down to the
bottom of this.

(51:31):
So a lot of research goes intoall of these things.
And then, once you get to theworkshop, you know and there's
been times that I've gone intothe workshop and I thought that
I already had my mind made upbased on all this research that
I've done leading up to it butmaybe there's that one resident
that was there, and sometimesit's more than one resident,
Sometimes it's a lot ofresidents, and that's when you
really have to listen to theother side.

(51:52):
Or maybe another trustee askeda question and you thought, wow,
you know, I didn't look at itthat way and then.
So then you go okay, we'regoing to have to like rethink
about this and re-explore.
I never, typically, when you'reat a board meeting, like I said
, you kind of have your mindmade up because we've already
gone through this whole process.
This is just that we're nowhere to like formally vote and

(52:14):
sign off on it, Right.
But I've gone frequently to aworkshop thinking I thought I
knew.
But then once you see, I meanthat's why we're there, so is to
get the whole full presentationRight and to hear directly from
the business owner or whateverit is the developer.
And there's frequently beentimes I thought, wow, you know,

(52:36):
walking into this room I thoughtI was going to go this way, but
now I think I'm going that wayand then, luckily, you still
have a little more time to lookat it because you don't have to
vote until.
That's why, you know, I said,sometimes at the board meeting
you do change your mind, butit's just like research,
research, research, research andeven like my journalism.
It's like you kind of do thewho, what, where, when, why.

(52:57):
Make sure that you have all ofthat in your head before you
make a decision.

Speaker 1 (53:01):
This past week.
You talked about the worksessions of the board and that
occurred this week and I wentand they had the presentation on
the update of the comprehensiveplan which surprisingly got a
lot of at least views interestbetween Facebook and YouTube and
that.

(53:22):
So it just what do you think?
Do you think there's a way thatthe?
Well, maybe one.
Do you think those are meetingsthat should be made public?
Well, maybe one.
Do you think those are meetingsthat should be made public,
maybe recorded in addition tothe regular meetings, or maybe
not?
And do you think, how do youthink the village, you know,
could increase how wecommunicate, how they

(53:43):
communicate with the community?

Speaker 2 (53:55):
Well, so that's two questions, so remind me about
the second one, okay, so, causeI have thoughts on that.
So the first question though um, should they record it?
That was our first um like bigpresentation of, of the findings
of it?
Um, I don't know that I wouldeven say big presentation, but I
believe, as this is kind ofbrought more together, um, I
believe that would be moreduring board meetings.

Speaker 1 (54:18):
And I think I mean more, not necessarily this
meeting, but the idea of shouldthose work sessions?
I mean, you said how importantthose are and that's where the
real work gets done, so why not?
Why shouldn't those be, youmean?

Speaker 2 (54:25):
work sessions in general.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
In general yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:27):
Oh, I'm sorry.
Okay, Work sessions in general,Well, you know, honestly,
you're not able to speak asfreely.
I feel like when all this isout there, ready to be picked
apart, A work session kind ofhas to be a safe space I guess
is what I'm trying to say andthey're open to the public.
I mean, if you really want tocome out, that bad, come out to

(54:50):
it Like.
I know I'm going to catch heatfor this, I just know it.
But you know it's so easy tojust like, oh, let me sit at
home and armchair quarterbacksomething.
I feel like you need to comeout and be part of this.
So, to record all theseworkshops.

(55:11):
I don't feel like people, Ifeel like everybody's going to
be.
I feel like it's bad foreverybody.
People aren't going to reallybe able to speak as freely when
you know I'm going to beclickbait tomorrow or whatever.
Okay, and I mean, there'snothing bad that happens at them
.
Come out and see them.
Sure, yeah, there's nothing badthat happens at them.
Come out and come out and seethem.

(55:31):
But you know you can kind ofget in the weeds in them
sometimes because you're tryingto get down to the bottom of
something.
And you know, maybe sometimessomething does get a little bit
heated and I just, I don't knowthat you want that like splashed
all over.
You know the internet, onceit's on the internet, you know
it's the world.
I don't, it just doesn't seemlike the right fit for something

(55:52):
.
I could be wrong.

Speaker 1 (55:53):
This is just me speaking, oh there was a second
part of that question.
Oh right, how do you think thevillage could better communicate
?

Speaker 2 (56:02):
Oh, better communicate, Right?
Okay, well, I've been saying,for you know, for since I've
been on here, it may be evenbefore, just because you know,
chamber Melissa, you know, forsince I've been on here, it may
be even before, just because youknow, chamber Melissa I see a
different perspective of things.
We need a, like a marketingperson, at least a part-time,
possibly a full-time somebodythat is a it's village staff

(56:23):
that you know their whole roleis promoting the village.
We were very fortunate to havethe village.
We were very fortunate to haveat the time our assistant
village administrator, kirkZollner.
He was with us for many, many,many years.

(56:43):
He's since retired.
He was so good with the writtenword.
I always told him you need towrite a book.
So he did all of like thevillage emails and the
newsletters.
And now since he's retired, youknow it's kind of just it's
gone here and there amongststaff.
But I think we need one personwho solely just promotes Mokina
I mean like what I do at thechamber, but somebody that just

(57:05):
does that, that just doublesdown and gets the written word
out there and the message.
And I think someone too youknow people don't realize that,
especially if you don't get aprint water bill anymore.
A lot of people just do online.
Well, so you're not gettingthat newsletter in the mail, but
you can still receive it.
Like there's a way online youcan like opt in to get

(57:27):
newsletters emailed to you.
Make sure that you're on that.
Make sure that you're on that,make sure that you're getting
all these communications.
They usually come out around4.30,.
I want to say it's got theagendas for the board meetings
and for the plan commissionmeetings and the economic
development committee.

Speaker 1 (57:44):
Yeah, and you can sign up for any or all of them
if you want, right.

Speaker 2 (57:47):
Right, and then the text messages you can sign up
for that.
That's Everbridgebridge, Ibelieve, is the name of that so
you can get um text messageupdates and they don't like
flood your phone with a bunch ofnonsense.
It's more like an importantthing.
Like you know, this road isshut down because there was an
accident or a water main break,or or sometimes it's like a
reminder like this starts leafand branch pickup this week, so

(58:10):
you have to.
The residents need to know thatthat's out there so that they
sign up, but you don't know whatyou don't know, and so I just
feel like it would be kind of abetter way to communicate.
We do now in the last few years.
Now we have Instagram for thevillage and Facebook for the
police department, which was ahumongous step in the right

(58:32):
direction.

Speaker 1 (58:32):
And a YouTube channel now, right, yes.

Speaker 2 (58:35):
Humongous step in the right direction.
But you know you need somebodyto man all of that and you know
it needs to all be like onecohesive piece and I think that
person could like do likemarketing and special events.
I'd love to see the village domore special events.
That's what the community wants, you know.
I switched back to the chamber,tried to do that but again,

(58:55):
like we talked about smallbudgets, you know I'm a staff of
one and my assistant is likeone day a week, so I don't have
the manpower to do all that, Idon't have the budget to do all
that.
If we had somebody on a villagelevel role that could do like
marketing at special events, Ithink that would be a big
benefit to everybody and wouldreally get the word out there,

(59:15):
because Molkina is a great placeand we need somebody telling
people that.

Speaker 1 (59:20):
How do you think that the village can be more
friendly to new businessescoming into town?

Speaker 2 (59:26):
Less red tape is.
I've heard this for 15 yearsnow I've been at the chamber.
I've always heard about thestruggle that it is to like get
up and running and going.
So I think a lot of things canbe streamlined, especially if
you're doing a build out.
Especially if you're doing abuild out, streamline things

(59:59):
easier.
And you know being you can'tjust promote the new businesses,
you have to remember all ofthem.
You can't forget about the onesthat have been here you know 10
, 15, 20 years.
It's like you can't just befocused on just like the bright,
flashy new things.
It's got to be 100% across theboard, everybody.
And you know that even includesyour retail, your downtown
businesses.
But then you know we've gotlike the light industrial park,

(01:00:19):
like it's got to be everybodyacross the board, because it
takes everybody to make thiswhole thing run.
That's how you keep your taxesdown.
They have four cents on thedollar.

Speaker 1 (01:00:28):
You knew I had to throw that in there.
Absolutely, your chamber officeis right on Front Street.
The food trucks on Front thisyear have shown that people want
an active, viable downtown.
What do you think are thingsyou can do individually as a
trustee, and as a whole, as avillage, to attract more

(01:00:50):
business?

Speaker 2 (01:00:51):
trustee and as a whole, as a village, to attract
more business.
Have a really great reputation,first of all for how easy and
wonderful it is to open abusiness in Bokina.
Yes, you know, word of mouth isstill it's the most old school,
but it's still the mosteffective Word of mouth, a good
reputation.
It's still the most effectiveWord of mouth, a good reputation

(01:01:12):
.
And I really want to encourageresidents to drive down Front
Street and take a look around,because I hear it so many times.
People say oh Zap Taco, whendid that get here?
It's been here for years now.
Yeah, been here for years now,or even like the new clothing
boutique or Hustle and Heart orthe resale store or like the

(01:01:36):
salons that we have there.
I hear so many times people say, oh, I never knew that was
there.
And I think, well, when was thelast time you drove down Front
Street?
Like, make sure that you comeand check it out, because there
are always things being added on.
I think Resale for Rescues hasbeen there about eight years now
.
The theater's been there nineyears.
Zapp's been there about fouryears, maybe five.

(01:01:58):
Hustle and Heart is new.
They're maybe not even one yearyet.

Speaker 1 (01:02:02):
And that's exciting because you know Hustle and
Heart being retail, because I'veheard so many people say, oh,
you can't bring retail, nobody'sgoing to come down.
And God, the number of womenand young girls I've heard so
many people say, oh, you can'tbring retail, nobody's going to
come down.
And God, the number of womenand young girls I've seen coming
out with their new hats.
Yes, I think again.
It just shows like there is adesire for more in downtown.

Speaker 2 (01:02:22):
There absolutely is, and let's not forget about.
As I said, we can't forgetabout our older businesses.
Let's not forget about how longEtc Cafe has been there.

Speaker 1 (01:02:30):
Yeah, absolutely forget about our older
businesses.

Speaker 2 (01:02:33):
Let's not forget about how long Etcetera Cafe has
been there.
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:02:37):
A mainstay?
Yeah, so they're.
And Little Al's, you knowthey're the best burger, they
say, and I think you've been toAurelio's a few times.

Speaker 2 (01:02:42):
I know it falls within that area there.

Speaker 1 (01:02:43):
Absolutely yes, that's part of the it's part of
the downtown too.

Speaker 2 (01:02:44):
So I just encourage people, you know, come out,
because there might be morethere than you realize and
there's new things that pop up.
You know there's Lashology, theeyelash place right across from
Hustle and Heart.
Then you could go to Etceterahave some brunch.

Speaker 1 (01:02:58):
I mean, there is still ways that it's not where
it needs to be, 100% it's not,but there are still some fun
things that you can do downthere, and the more things like
the more people do that, themore likely it is for businesses
to realize the value there too.

Speaker 2 (01:03:12):
Correct.
We don't want these businessesto leave, so do come out and
support them.

Speaker 1 (01:03:31):
So one of the things that came up at your last
candidate meet and greet thatyou all hosted somebody who was
very passionate about the ideaof cannabis in town and
recreational legal marijuana andthat, and so I got the chance
to talk to a couple of thetrustee candidates and, as you
know, the village, when itbecame legalized, voted to not
allow it in the town and themedical facility moved to New
Lenox.
Now and you know New Lenox,mattson, madison, orland Hills,

(01:03:54):
joliet, a lot of the surroundingareas have adopted it and seen
it implemented different ways.
Do you think the village shouldreconsider that or look at how
we address that?

Speaker 2 (01:04:05):
I can't remember if that was a workshop vote or if
it was a board meeting.
Vote about that now becausethis is going back.
I remember the newspaper articlemore than it, but but OK, so we
Mokina this was before I was onthe board.
I remember being the chamberand seeing this and I was
shocked that Mokina was allowingyears back the medical

(01:04:28):
marijuana place.
It was called Greenhouse at thetime and then they changed the
name to Cure Relief, okay, sothey were operating in like a
light industrial area.
I really was like, wow, good onthis board for allowing that
and I thought, let me.
I'm curious to see how this isgoing to play out because I
wasn't in it, I was able to justkind of sit back and watch and

(01:04:49):
I thought I wonder how theresidents are going to take this
.
And actually there really wasn'tI don't remember there really
being much pushback on it orcontroversy about it.
So they were back thereoperating for a handful of years
and then that's when theIllinois law changed and then it
was legal.
I was like very new at thispoint, but this is how I

(01:05:10):
remember it.
Um, they wanted to stay inMokina.
I don't know if they wanted toexpand, I think they wanted to
expand.
They needed a bigger facility,I believe.
But they wanted to stay inMokina and I think it was in a
workshop.
Um, the board kind of came to aconsensus these aren't, like you
know, like official votes, likein a board meeting but they

(01:05:31):
came to a consensus that theydidn't want to allow it.
I was one of the people thatwas fine with it, actually,
because they'd already been hereoperating all those years.
We'd had no problems with themand I, I think some of the
thought was are are we going tobe like inated with people

(01:05:53):
wanting to come?
But every town sort of hastheir own.
So I don't think that wasreally a big issue.
I was fine with it.
But then of course I mean thewriting was on the wall they
were going to leave town.
Why would they stay and just bemedical when?
you can be everything.

Speaker 1 (01:06:10):
So they left, which they've now moved to New Lenox,
to New Lenox, and New Lenox, Ifeel like, took an interesting
approach of you know, theydidn't tuck it back into an
industrial park.
They put it right on 38, rightby Walmart, which I think
provides an additional level ofsecurity there as well as but.

Speaker 2 (01:06:29):
And they may have wanted to move in Mokena to a
different area.
Now that you say that thatactually is ringing a bell, I
have notes on.
These are my scribble notes onall my agendas on all my
workshops.
I mean I have, I keep notes oneverything, so I would have to
go back and pull that one, but Ido believe that they did want
like a more visible spot inMokina.
I mean, that was one of thosewhere I was one of the.

Speaker 1 (01:06:51):
You know I vote how I vote and I was a yes, so do you
think, and I don't know wherethey all boarded.
But is it something that itshould be reconsidered or
thought about again?

Speaker 2 (01:07:00):
Sure, I think it could always come back.
Things can always be broughtback up.
I mean, nothing is chiseled ina stone, you know.
I think it could always bebrought back up.

Speaker 1 (01:07:09):
What do you think that our village does really
well?

Speaker 2 (01:07:14):
Not spending money like we're printing it in the
basement, that's true, which?
Sometimes I could almost saythat's something that the
village does bad, but no,obviously to be able to build
the.
you know, that's one of thosethings that it's not like a fun,

(01:07:35):
exciting thing that people arelike, yeah, we got a new sewer
plant like take that other town,but it's so important to have,
but they're very expensive.
But that was all paid for incash.
And then, of course, the policedepartment mainly cash, small
loan, but we're earning intereston that and of course it's

(01:07:56):
beautiful and that's somethingthat we will not have to address
for decades.
So you're welcome future.

Speaker 1 (01:08:02):
Mocanians.

Speaker 2 (01:08:04):
You got that police station there and you are set
for such a long, long time.

Speaker 1 (01:08:08):
Yeah, and one of the things that came up when I was
touring the police station wasthe idea that the next project
is probably a village hall.

Speaker 2 (01:08:17):
Probably a village hall.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:08:18):
So you know what?
What do you think the villageshould do?
You know, if you were, you know, running the whole thing and
you were getting a wave, you'reone.
What does the police stationlook like?
Where would you want to see itto wave your wand?

Speaker 2 (01:08:31):
What does a police station look like?
Where?

Speaker 1 (01:08:34):
would you want to see it?

Speaker 2 (01:08:40):
The Village Hall.
Yeah, sorry, village Hall.
Well, I am actually on theVillage Hall committee and we
just, you know, you've got toscout out the properties.
There's not a ton of property,you know big, big properties,
not a ton of big pieces of landleft in Mokina and obviously it
has to stay in Mokina.
So I really I can't say a lotabout it, to be honest, because

(01:09:05):
you know, you don't.
There's some pieces of propertythat we're interested in.

Speaker 1 (01:09:09):
Okay, of course I don't want you to give anything
away.

Speaker 2 (01:09:14):
Then they'll get more expensive.

Speaker 1 (01:09:16):
Sure yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:09:18):
You see what I'm saying.
Well, with the police station.

Speaker 1 (01:09:20):
It's interesting because we held that property
for was it 12?

Speaker 2 (01:09:24):
years.
I believe that was bought underMayor Joe.

Speaker 1 (01:09:27):
Warner, I want to say so you know, in that case, I
mean, I think the idea then wasit would have been sooner but
you'd hope that we're not inthat kind of long stretched out
situation again.

Speaker 2 (01:09:39):
I don't think we're buying land today and building
20 years from now.

Speaker 1 (01:09:42):
I wouldn't think it'd go that way at all.

Speaker 2 (01:09:45):
Because we have outgrown the current village
hall.

Speaker 1 (01:09:49):
So for people that don't spend time there, don't
know why have we outgrown orwhat explain that like what's it
look?

Speaker 2 (01:09:55):
yeah so of course it was originally.
I wish matt was here right nowit was originally a schoolhouse
built in 1920 something I need aphone to friend somewhere
around.
Yeah, after the original schoolbill, right and yeah, and then
you know there's like thegymnasium in the basement.
So it's just been repurposedand repurposed and repurposed,
much like the former policestation had been repurposed,

(01:10:16):
because it was the firedepartment then it was police
station.
So you know, it's just, it'sused up, its its term, its its
length, its life span.
You know, I'm sure it's not howyou would lay out a village
hall now if you were laying oneout.
You know, remember it was builtbefore computers and things, so

(01:10:37):
it's no longer working at itsbest capacity.

Speaker 1 (01:10:42):
What do we need?
It's older.
What do you think we still needthat we're lacking in the
facility.

Speaker 2 (01:10:48):
For the facility.
Well, definitely like a bettermeeting space, a bigger, better
meeting space that boardroomgets crowded it does it does and
you know the village hall movedin there when the population
was a lot smaller than it istoday, so that village hall was
probably huge and beautiful backthen.

(01:11:10):
um, or the board, the boardroom,I mean.
So yeah, we definitely need abigger space to to fit these.
You know, 20,000 residents thatthat we have here now.
So, yeah, better board space,better working space for staff.
You know they're very likedisjointed right now because
you're just you're likeretrofitting you know an old
space, basements, not usable foroffices.

(01:11:33):
You can put storage down there.
That's about it.
And people they don't even knowwhere it is because it's right
in the middle of thisneighborhood.
So people kind of find that odd, but it is nice to have them in
the downtown at the same time.
So there is that.

Speaker 1 (01:11:50):
You mentioned the old police station building on
Front Street.
Any ideas or thoughts of whatcould be done with that?

Speaker 2 (01:11:55):
So for now, because the village owns it, for now
they have ESDA using it, becauseESDA had been sharing some
space with the street departmentand then they weren't able to
put all of their vehicles inside.
Of course you want them insidefor weather, so then you get a
longer life out of them.
So they were able to ASDA wasable to move their thing and

(01:12:20):
they're a very important grouptoo.
I mean they can't be overlooked.
They deserve nice facility andspace.
So they've been able to moveout, utilize that space at the
police department.
Now the street department hastheir big barn space back, so
now they can put their vehiclesin there.
And, like we said about thevillage, about running out of

(01:12:41):
space for staff, I mean they'veconverted every possible thing
that they can into offices andnow they were able to move some
village people that don't haveto really interact with the
public as much.
They were able to move themover there Because, of course,
the people where you need tomeet with people and developers
and stuff, you want them at thevillage hall, but they were able
to move another department overthere that they're fine over

(01:13:04):
there.
So we're just utilizing thatspace for now.
Hopefully once things getpopping on Front Street.
You know, we can alwaysrepurpose that space, do
something different with it,whatever that will look like
down the road, but for now, weare outgrowing our space, so why
not use a space that's sittingright there in the meantime?
So there, you know, we havesome people moved over there for

(01:13:26):
now.
For now.

Speaker 1 (01:13:28):
And what do you think are the biggest challenges that
the village will face over thenext five to 10 years?

Speaker 2 (01:13:35):
Um, probably well, getting front street going, Um,
but I don't think that's it's adoable challenge.
This isn't a.
You know, how are we going todo this?
How will we ever be able to dothis?
Um, we're.
I think a lot of it, too,depends.
You're riding the wave of likemore like national things, like,

(01:13:56):
um, housing and like economy.
So you don't always know what'scoming at you, because it's not
.
You know it's the trickle downeffect.
It's, you know, is.
Is there going to be a?
Is the housing bubble going toburst?
Is, is there going to be arecession, depression, and so
you have to react to all ofthose things.

(01:14:17):
But Mokina, in itself, I mean, Ithink we're a very well-oiled
machine that's moving along here.
So there's nothing that I lookat down the road and say, oh my
gosh, this is going to hit ushard.
Look at down the road and say,oh my gosh, this is, this is
going to hit us hard.
I think if we just keep ongoing, if we keep on getting
that sales tax coming in, um,our homes, you know, are

(01:14:40):
beautiful and people wish therewas more homes on the market,
especially more townhomes.
Those go in a second.
I mean, they're building themand they're selling them like
immediately, because, uh, youknow, a lot of people want to
downsize but still stay inMolkina, and that's wonderful.
That's wonderful that peoplewant to stay here, and that's
wonderful that new families wantto come here.
So I don't think there's somemajor crisis that's coming our

(01:15:03):
way.
I mean, we survived a tornadodown Front Street.
Certainly did, yeah, All right.

Speaker 1 (01:15:13):
Well, I have a couple , couple kind of lighter
questions.
Uh, get to get to know yourquestions.
So, first, if you were talkingto a new resident or coming into
town, what advice would youoffer them to help get them
involved in the community?

Speaker 2 (01:15:24):
oh, I like that.
Well, mr israel, I would say weare so blessed to have a
wonderful and I'm not justsaying this because you're
sitting here.
I swear I have said this topeople before and that's why I
was able to come up with theanswer so quick off the top of
my head Join the Lions Club ifyou like to do service.
We have such a strong, robustLions Club organization and I

(01:15:47):
don't know if this is justunique to Mokina or if they're
all this wonderful, but theLions are at everything You're.
What's your role this year?

Speaker 1 (01:15:55):
I'm president Right.

Speaker 2 (01:15:58):
I was getting you and Don confused.
I thought you were president.
You guys are at everything andyou guys do so much, so there's
that.
There's the Community AffairsCommission at the Village.
That's kind of a fun one thatyou can do.
They do like Clean day and thebeautification awards Um the
chamber's always looking forvolunteers.
The shameless plug for myself.

(01:16:18):
The park district always looksfor volunteers for their events.
Um, there's so many differentways um that.
I've the.
I'm sure there's ways tovolunteer at the library.
Yeah, you could be um afriends's friends the library.
They do their um book salesthere.
Um, yeah, they're, they're booksales right as long as that not
sound right there, Um, and theyalways need volunteers for that.

(01:16:39):
There's so many different waysthat you can get involved in
this community.
There really is.
I mean we should, we shouldmake a list and put it on the
website.

Speaker 1 (01:16:46):
All right, let's do it.

Speaker 2 (01:16:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:16:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:16:48):
You can help Matt research stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:16:54):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (01:17:01):
What is your favorite breakfast restaurant?
There is no way you are makingthe chamber of commerce
executive director pick theirfavorite.

Speaker 1 (01:17:08):
This is thank God.
I only have one child.

Speaker 2 (01:17:12):
Because this would be like saying who's your favorite
child?
Go on and and tell me, it's notthe weird young one, right?

Speaker 1 (01:17:15):
you like the older one?
No way can I answer that, allright, I'm gonna have to cut a
couple, a couple, off my uh-oh.

Speaker 2 (01:17:21):
No, go ahead and ask me and I'll make fun of you do
you have any collections?

Speaker 1 (01:17:26):
do you collect anything?

Speaker 2 (01:17:28):
oh huh, these are the questions that always stump me.
These questions that should bethe easiest things about your
own self are the ones that stumpme the hardest.
I do not that I really collectthem, but I do have some cool
stamps.
I have the Mr Rogers stamps, Ithink I have the Muppet stamps.
There's a Betty White stampcoming out soon, yeah, so I have

(01:17:50):
a couple of those, but I guessand I don't know if this is a
question you're going to asklater because this is sort of
like what I'm known for.
I have a huge collection ofCincinnati Bengals gear.

Speaker 1 (01:18:02):
Oh jeez, I wasn't even going to bring up the
Bengals, but I did See.

Speaker 2 (01:18:08):
Slid that right in there.

Speaker 1 (01:18:09):
Very funny.
Okay, how about maybe afavorite or exciting new Mokina
business?

Speaker 2 (01:18:17):
Well, I think it's the one that everybody keeps
asking me about everywhere.
I go, and I'm sure you alreadyknow what I'm going to say.
The dock, absolutely yeah,because it is right here on
Front Street and because thatbuilding has been needing some
tlc for so long.
I'm lucky I was able to be inthat place, though, so the last

(01:18:38):
place it was paulie's, it's whatI know it, as is a newer
mokinian so you got to go.

Speaker 1 (01:18:44):
It was open and I was able to.

Speaker 2 (01:18:45):
Yeah, we had a chamber luncheon there like my
first year, so I was able to beinside of that and and I
consider myself pretty luckythat I was never before.

Speaker 1 (01:18:55):
Yeah oh, it was interesting what do you think
that's going to do for downtown?

Speaker 2 (01:19:00):
well, I think everybody's hoping that that
this is the thing that reallykicks it off, is the catalyst
for things, um, but you know, Ithink we also need to be very
strategic about the things thatare on the market now, things
that will be on the market inthe future.
It's not a ton of space onFrench Street.

(01:19:24):
So what you do have, you needto use to the absolute best of
your ability, and I think wehave to be very strategic about
what we do.
What we do have.
You don't want to see thingsturning into things that you
don't want them to be.

Speaker 1 (01:19:40):
Let's get out of the lighter questions briefly.

Speaker 2 (01:19:44):
Right, right, right I knew I was stepping right into
this one which is fine which isfine I want to talk about it.

Speaker 1 (01:19:49):
Well, the, so the, the terafin lot is a potential
development now and going backand forth, but that's something
that will also be amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:19:58):
That's a nice big piece, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:20:00):
And the village purchased that lot years back.
Years back, yeah, in order tokind of control it and be able
to have a hand in what was beingdeveloped.

Speaker 2 (01:20:07):
Right, and we, which is something I personally like
to see a little bit more of.

Speaker 1 (01:20:11):
And we have two vacant lots that have been
sitting empty on Front Streetfor quite a while now.
So how do you feel should thevillage be doing more of that,
or how do you feel the villageshould approach those lots?

Speaker 2 (01:20:24):
I feel, yes, which was why I said earlier you know,
a great thing about the villageis that we don't spend a lot of
money.
And then I said but sometimesthat's the bad thing too.
I think we should bestrategically buying those
pieces of land.
Obviously, you have to be, youcan't be paying outrageous costs
for these things, and, you know, I would certainly hope that

(01:20:45):
people developers, people don'thear this and say, oh well, I
can put whatever price tag Iwant on this and that village is
just going to buy it becausethey want it so bad.
Because, no, this isn't, we'renot doing anything unfiscally
responsible here, but we do wanta downtown and I think we do
need to be more strategic aboutpurchasing these properties so
that we can control them,because that is a fantastic

(01:21:07):
example of how it can go rightwhen you do that.
To even go a little bit deeper,I would love to how we're doing
the comprehensive plan.
So we hired, you know, anoutside company that specializes
in doing these things and theycome in and they're helping us

(01:21:28):
through this process of acomprehensive plan.
I would love to do somethinglike that, where we hire
somebody that helps us developour downtown, because none of us
are.
None of us do this for a living.

Speaker 1 (01:21:44):
And do you think that would be more specific than the
comprehensive plan overall?

Speaker 2 (01:21:48):
Yeah, and we have to wait and see what comes back
from this comprehensive plan.
Maybe we will have the answersthat we need in that and maybe
we just need to do a little tinybit more of digging in that.
I'm not really sure what'sgoing to come back because this
comprehensive plan is on thewhole entire village, not the
downtown, but of course, as weknow with through the resident
input, that that's one of thebig hot things.
I mean no surprise, right, thatthat's what people want.

(01:22:10):
Everybody that lives in thistown knows that that's the hot
thing that everybody wants.
So we do have to kind of waitand see how that comes back.
But if we need to dive in deeper, you know, I say if I was to
remodel my house, I would hiresomebody, because if you're
spending that amount of money, Iwould.
I'm not an interior designer, Iwouldn't know.

(01:22:32):
Oh, I want to knock down thiswall and put this here.
I would need somebody to comeand help me make those decisions
so that I don't do it and thengo.
You know I don't like it.
I messed up, I spent all thatmoney and now like I hate the
way my kitchen looks.
So I think you do need to getsome help and I know that that's
another cost.
But if you're going to do it,do it right, Because we're
talking developing a whole area.

(01:22:53):
This isn't something that youcan just like erase and start
over area.
This isn't something that youcan just like erase and start
over.
And people want it and theywant it done right.
So let's do it right.
Let's bring in some experts.
I'm not an expert on building adowntown.
I went to school for journalismand I didn't take that
meteorology course.

Speaker 1 (01:23:11):
Maybe that would help .
Maybe that would help.
What's your favorite Mokinacommunity event?

Speaker 2 (01:23:19):
Softball for you or the July parade, but also my
other little event that doesn'tget as much love and attention
and it's something that came outof COVID, my Christmas tree
walk and pictures with Santa.

Speaker 1 (01:23:33):
Yeah, that came out of.

Speaker 2 (01:23:34):
COVID, because you know no events, you couldn't do
the gathering and all that stuff.
No pictures with Santa thatcame out of COVID because you
know no events, you couldn't dothe gathering and all that stuff
.
No pictures with Santa.
And again I was like how arethese kids going to get their
pictures with Santa?
Like this generation is justgoing to have like no pictures
of Santa from like this year tothis year.
It just it bothered me.
So at the chamber office we'relucky to have that big front
window.
So we decorated the windowbeautiful, my assistant Marietta

(01:23:55):
, and we put Santa inside andthen you could stand outside.
So I mean he's in the building,you're outside of the building
and you can take your picture,you know, in front of him and
that's Don, one of the Lions.
Club members was our Santa,Don't you're not.

Speaker 1 (01:24:07):
Santa, it's Santa.

Speaker 2 (01:24:08):
And then we had, we had at the time- we had 12, now
we're up to like 25 Christmastrees on the corner of Front and
Wolf, around the Front Street.
Frosty and the businesses candecorate the tree in their theme
and then that's some publicityfor them.
We put a sign with their name,I put it on social media.

(01:24:28):
But this one night we have thepictures with Santa.
We put a bin underneath everysingle tree and the residents
are welcome to come out.
Underneath every single tree andthe residents are welcome to
come out and you can vote foryour favorite tree by bringing
either non-perishable food itemsthose are donated to the
frankfort township food pantryor unwrapped toys those were
donated at the time to toys, towtrucks for tots.

(01:24:51):
Now we are donating those tothe um children's department at
Silver Cross Hospital, okay.
Or pet food supplies, oldblankets, old towels, anything,
and that all goes to NAWS, ofcourse, here in Mokina.
And so every item underneaththe tree counts as a vote.
So you could bring a whole bigSanta bag of stuff and put it

(01:25:13):
under one tree or spread it allaround, and then that gets
counted by myself and myvolunteers.
And then we declare first,second, third, fourth, fifth and
sixth place winners.
We're up two now and they get atrophy, and all that is donated
to those organizations rightaround Christmas, which, of
course, is a wonderful time todonate when people need it.

Speaker 1 (01:25:33):
Well, the Lions have been doing a tree on that corner
for years before the chamber.
We just have not caught up tothe decorating.

Speaker 2 (01:25:40):
Very big improvement this year.
Yeah, yeah, very bigimprovement.

Speaker 1 (01:25:42):
We're going to work on a good theme next year and
we're going to be in that topfive.

Speaker 2 (01:25:46):
Yeah, we did kind of take your area and I do
apologize for that.

Speaker 1 (01:25:50):
It's awesome to see and we always say that now it's
so cool and we started it youdid, you did, but it's great.
It's a great addition, and theglasses you guys always give out
are so fun the glasses whereyou look at the Christmas lights
and you see a snowman or a.

Speaker 2 (01:26:05):
Santa yes.
Very fun, and another part ofthat, too, was coming out of
COVID and trying to figure outhow businesses find a way to
promote themselves and, ofcourse, have pictures with Santa
for the kids.
It's the first Saturday inDecember every year, from 5 to 7
pm, but also at the time thisgoes back to 2020 then we and

(01:26:28):
thank goodness, the problem isno longer a problem.
At the time, there wasn't asmuch decoration on Front Street
for the holidays and I thought,well, maybe we can try to solve
the problem.
By you know, the chamber couldtry to solve the problem.
I was, I a trustee then, no, soI we filled up that whole area

(01:26:49):
there with Christmas trees andit looked beautiful on the
corner.
Now it just it's all big, onebeautiful, cohesive piece and
it's just, it's just amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:26:57):
It's so festive on Front Street now.
It's awesome, and they'readding more every year.

Speaker 2 (01:27:02):
Yes, Kudos to the Public Works Department and I'm
so glad that we've been able toall vote as a group to up the
budget a bit for that.

Speaker 1 (01:27:11):
And the lights are still, are those staying up all
year round?

Speaker 2 (01:27:14):
now.
Okay, so I'm going to patmyself a little bit on the back
here.

Speaker 1 (01:27:18):
All right, go ahead.

Speaker 2 (01:27:20):
So I was at my office two years ago was the first
time they put them up and Iwatched the public works, I mean
they decorate all that.
I watched them run that lineback and forth because they put
up like a metal line first and Iremember we were like what are?

Speaker 1 (01:27:36):
you doing.

Speaker 2 (01:27:37):
Like oh, we're going to hang these lights.
And my assistant was there thatday.
She goes is this going to work?
They're like, we hope so.
So they run this line back andforth and then they run the
Christmas lights over on backand forth and it just looks so
beautiful and I thought, gosh,every year now they're going to
have to take this down and putthis up.
It just seemed like so mucheffort.
So I thought, well, why don't wejust make them where they can

(01:27:59):
change colors and then justleave them up, and it'll look so
cool, like for the food trucks.
So I suggested that andeverybody was like, yeah, let's
do it.
So they ordered differentlights, because that year they
were like the Christmas lights,where every light was like a
different color.
So they I think I believe I'mjust guessing, but I believe
those are the lights now thatthey put along the fence by the

(01:28:20):
metro, just because it lookslike them to me, but I couldn't
be wrong and now they havelights that are color changing.
So they're red right now forvalentine's day and I'm sure
they'll be green very soon herein the next few days.
So yeah, that was you know if,if that's my legacy, you know we
overlook a lot of those smallthings.

Speaker 1 (01:28:38):
You're right, but it really is.
What kind of creates the charmand creates?

Speaker 2 (01:28:42):
connectivity.
I got the zigzag lights and Igot garbage cans on the north
side of Front Street.

Speaker 1 (01:28:48):
Oh, wow, Well, and as you said, there's so much I'm
sure that is involved in thevillage, that is not the flashy
stuff and that goes unnoticed.

Speaker 2 (01:29:00):
Right.
You know, yeah, I was noticinggarbage on the north side of
Front Street and I'm like weneed some garbage cans on this
side.
So you know we got two garbagecans.

Speaker 1 (01:29:08):
So, before we wrap up , why don't you tell me a little
bit about the fest that theChamber is doing on Front Street
?

Speaker 2 (01:29:13):
Oh, I am so excited about this.
So it's going to be calledFront Street Fest and it will be
held May 16, 17, and 18.
The chamber is running this one, okay, so this is my chamber
hat I'm wearing, but of course,with the assistance of the
village, you know, public WorksPolice Department.
So it's going to look similarto the firecracker dance.

(01:29:38):
If you've ever been, have youever been to the lions
Firecracker dance?
You know, I have once or twice,and also we're actually the.

Speaker 1 (01:29:44):
The lions are moving our event down to Yonker Farm
this year, which we're excitedabout, but kind of left a hole
on front street right.

Speaker 2 (01:29:51):
Right, exactly.
So, of course, your event is inthe middle of July, um, and as
event is in the middle of July,and as the chamber, we've kind
of been looking for like a bigevent so that it will help our
budget, as we talked aboutearlier nonprofit, all those
things.
So we've been looking for a bigevent that we can do and we've
been wanting to do something onFront Street, but not, you know,

(01:30:13):
like what can we do?
That's different than thefirecracker dance, because why
would you have two eventssimilar within just a couple
months of each other?
But now, with you guysexpanding out into Yonker Farm
and spreading out over there, Ithought, well, now why don't we
do our event here?
So the footprint's going tolook very similar.
We'll have the big white tentin the Metro lot right across

(01:30:34):
from the chamber office.
We'll be able to use our ownoffice.
Now we had been sharing thechamber office with the Lions
Club for their event thatweekend, so that they had kind
of a home base and a place tocount the tickets and do all
their things.
So they kind of took over ouroffice that weekend.
So we'll be using our ownoffice now for that event.
So we're going to have livebands Friday, saturday and

(01:30:59):
Sunday.
We're looking at two bandsFriday, three bands Saturday and
one band on Sunday.
Wow, it's going to be 21 andover.
Except for Saturday day, we'regoing to have a fun event.

(01:31:19):
We were honestly we were tryingto find like a Taylor Swift
experience type person, um, butthey're all booked up, so we, of
course they are yeah Right.
Um.
So we were able to um, secure,um, another band.
It's a female fronted band,it's beyond the blonde, beyond

(01:31:41):
the blonde, and they performedat jmo's live and things around
here before.
Um, but that one, uh.
So they do like all of the girlstuff taylor, swift, uh, gwen,
stefani, pink, katie, perry, um,so that'll be fun for, like
moms and daughters, of course,anybody.
But we just kind of we're goingto have sort of a girl vibe that
day and we're going to get somebusinesses involved with maybe

(01:32:03):
like some hair tinseling and funthings like that.
But then everything else willbe 21 and over.
We've got a nineties band.
Friday night we have an openerand then a nineties band.
And then Saturday night we havelib Funk Circus.
They perform often for theHalloween party at CD&Me and
they perform around here BourbonStreet.

(01:32:24):
And then Sunday we have acountry band and we're going to
do like a big food truck thingwe're thinking on Sunday, so
people can kind of come out andhave lunch and listen to the
band.
So we're really excited aboutthat.
Hopefully, fingers crossed thedock is planning on being open
by then.
So that'll be a good, cool wayto experience them.

(01:32:47):
And they've got that patio onthe front big patio on the back.
Actually, a Four Seasons roomthey're putting in the back that
will be able to be utilizedyear-round for banquets, just to
give them a little plug.
So we're really looking forwardto this event.
It's going to be a lot of work.
Anybody wants to help andvolunteer.
We are going to need as muchhelp as possible, but that
should be something really neat.

(01:33:07):
Front Street Fest.
Yeah we're going to startannouncing that and launching
all that soon.

Speaker 1 (01:33:12):
Oh good, Well, we'll be sure to be there and share
some of that as well.

Speaker 2 (01:33:18):
And thanks for sharing your space with us then.

Speaker 1 (01:33:19):
Absolutely.
So just take a minute.
And if you want to just tellpeople why they should vote for
you, excellent Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:33:27):
Thank you.
Yeah, we really want to getthings moving.
Our group has a lot of energy,we have people on the board, we
have our group.
Three of us have been on theboard and then three of us would
be new to the board.
So I think we've got a good mixof experience, new ideas, a lot

(01:33:50):
of energy.
We want to get things movingforward.
We want to stay fiscallyresponsible but you got to spend
money to make money and we dowant to put some money out on
some things that we think areneeded to improve the village.
You know, village hall, frenchstreet I don't want to speak for
the whole group, but I knowthose are some things.
You know, I personally wouldlove to see the marketing person
and I know I believe Georgeeven spoke on that, because we

(01:34:10):
did pull out of the South EndConvention and Visitors Bureau
and so now we can, you know,keep those monies inhouse.
So we have a lot of ideas and alot of things that we want to
get working on here and we justwe want to, just we want to get
moving.
We want to move things forward.
We want to see progress, andquick, but not too quick, not
reckless, quick, like I saidearlier.

Speaker 1 (01:34:29):
And how can people learn more about you guys and
your slate?

Speaker 2 (01:34:32):
So we have more meet and greets, although this might
be after that.
We have more meet and greets,although this might be after
that.
This might come out after that,but we have meet and greets
March 6th at the 19th hole,march 27th this will be out
before March 27th.
March 27th at the VFW.
We have a website that iscoming out soon, but we are the
Friends of Mokina, so we are thewhite signs that you see with

(01:34:54):
the big sunburst.

Speaker 1 (01:34:58):
And quite a few of the mailers.

Speaker 2 (01:34:59):
Are we're getting those coming through the mail?
Yes, oh, there's more coming.

Speaker 1 (01:35:02):
Well, great, I really appreciate you taking time to
sit down and talk with me.

Speaker 2 (01:35:06):
We appreciate you taking the time to sit down and
talk with us, so thank youAbsolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:35:11):
You know, early voting starts on March 17th, so
make sure you vote on April 1st.
And again, melissa, thank youvery much.

Speaker 2 (01:35:17):
Thank you so much, Israel.

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Melissa Fedora - Candidate for Mokena Village Trustee

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Melissa Fedora - Candidate for Mokena Village Trustee