Mayor's Message - Fall 2014

Mayor’s Message

 

Glenwood lost a dear friend Gabe Loukaki, the owner of Gabe’s Place on Main Street. Our condolences go out to his family, wife Sula and daughter Maria. Gabe was a dear friend, confidant and mentor that will be missed, but never forgotten by his friends. His entrepreneurial spirit drove the development of the corner of Main and Young Streets giving us the premier breakfast lunch restaurant in the region. Gabe’s compassion was evident in his generous nature of giving back to the community and the Village accepted him as one of our own. We are grateful to all that came out and expressed their condolences to the family; it was an overwhelming experience to see the number of lives Gabe touched during his time with us.

Our restaurants are the envy of many in the Southland and the recent closing of Sanfratello’s Pizza was a shock to the Village. We continue to work with the founder of the business, Joe Sanfratello, to re-establish the restaurant on Main Street and hopefully they will have a grand re-opening soon. The Village is finishing a redevelopment agreement with Glenwood Oaks that included parking lot resurfacing, lighting and landscaping improvements. Wendy’s on Halsted Street will be remodeling their restaurant soon also benefitting from a redevelopment agreement to upgrade the store to the new corporate model.

The success of these and the other restaurants in the Village will continue to keep our Village as the destination breakfast, lunch, dinner and banquet location of the Southland. Ownership of the Town Center Plaza recently met with Village Officials to work out the details for two more potential destination restaurants. Hopefully the parties can come to agreement and increase the options available for dining in the Village.

Landauer Corporation, a manufacturer of dosimetry in the Village is completing the rehab of their location in the Industrial Park. The Village continues looking forward to helping Landauer expand their presence in the military application of their new products.

Westside Transport continues to grow and will soon be expanding as we develop the 14 acres of Village owned land north of their current site, funded in large part by a grant from the US Department of Commerce. The two million dollar grant was awarded to the Village to develop the land formerly owned by Nicor on Chicago Heights-Glenwood Road. The Village is grateful to all three of our representatives in Washington that continue to work diligently on this project with us, Representative Robin Kelly, and Senators Durbin and Kirk. The Village Administrator, Donna M. Gayden, and I have continued to meet with them and their staffs to develop the entire footprint of the former Nicor site.

We are anticipating Baker Pump’s occupancy of the site, the corner of 195^th Street and Chicago Heights-Glenwood Road that they recently acquired from the Village. We owe a great deal of thanks to Kevin Welsh for his work on that project and all of the others he is actively working on at this time. Kevin in addition to his duties as Fire Chief and Building Supervisor has been working on numerous economic development projects for the last few years.

Glenwoodie Golf Club continues to grow, and recently the Board of Trustees created a discount card for resident owner occupied taxpayers both residential and business to receive a 50% discount on golf. Contact the Village Hall to get your discount card!

Glenwood Seniors are also benefitting from a recent Board action, discounted taxi service! Our seniors are a valued asset to our community and the Board of Trustees have funded a taxi voucher program to help them regain the mobility they require and that we often take for granted. Contact the Senior Center for details.

The Police Department is finalizing the acquisition of a license plate reader to enable the collection of overdue fines owed to the Village. The ordinance allows the boot/tow of vehicles with outstanding ticket debt to the Village. Contact the Police Department for details.

The Public Works and the Building Departments are finalizing the removal of infected ash trees throughout the Village. This process is painfully expensive but the trees need to be removed due to the danger they present. If you have an ash tree on your property you have most likely received a warning ticket to have it removed. Those that cannot afford the removal are encouraged to contact the Village Administrator to work out a plan for the removal of the tree.

Sprinkler backflow devices are a hot item for those that have lawn irrigation systems. We have been audited by the EPA and are required to implement a process to have backflow devices installed and monitored for all properties with sprinklers. I will be presenting to the Board a program that will finance a portion of the maintenance of the device since the water billed through the system is charged for sewer service but does not use it. The ordinance should be ready by October.