Three keys to City’s success: planning, planning and planning
By Dee Longfellow
For The Elmhurst Independent
Tuesday, Jan. 9 was one of those unseasonably warm mornings we’ve had lately when 150+ business and community leaders gathered at Community Bank of Elmhurst (CBE) for the annual State of the City address delivered by Elmhurst Mayor Steve Morley.
Ken Bartels from CBE served as moderator as he usually does, but this year he was wearing an additional hat. Bartels is currently the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Elmhurst Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ECCI), who co-sponsors the breakfast. He will remain at the helm of the ECCI as it begins the celebration of its 100th anniversary year.
Bartels introduced ECCI President & CEO John R. Quigley who began the program with a “State of the Chamber” report, noting this was the 21st annual State of the City address.
“At 21, we’re legal now,” he quipped. “They should have served liquor this morning.”
State of the Chamber
Quigley affirmed that 2018 was the ECCI’s 100th year and a year-long Centennial Celebration would be officially kicked off at the Drake Oak Brook, where the Annual Awards Gala and 100th Birthday Bash will be held on Friday, Jan. 26 from 5-9 p.m. The evening will also serve to salute the 2017 award winners which include Nancy Peterson, Ambassador of the Year; Brewpoint Coffee, recipient of the A. J. “Toche” Terrones” Business of the Year award; Ralph Pechanio will receive the Chairman’s Award; and Jack Island of Silverado Grill will be inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame.
Starting with the finances
Mayor Morley took the podium and began by announcing that the City currently had 291 full-time employees, 17 Boards and Commissions with 100 people serving, 17 elected officials, 40 volunteers and, when you count the library and the History Museum, there are 650 people in total who make the City tick. Morley gratefully thanked everyone, noting they are the reason the City’s is doing so well. He added that there were three secrets to Elmhurst’s success.
“The secret to our success can be summed up in three words – planning, planning and planning,” Morley said. “We now have the North York Corridor Plan, a strategic plan for economic development, and with all the planning, we can say ‘if it happens in Elmhurst, it didn’t happen by accident.’”
He said the City’s finances continue to be strong and Elmhurst currently enjoys a AAA Bond rating, which is the top rating the City can have.
“What that bond rating means is that we get the lowest rate possible when we go out for Capital projects,” Morley said. “The Triple A rating allowed us to refinance about $7 million in debt, which resulted in a $900,000 savings to the taxpayers. There is $18 million in the General Fund Balance, or the ‘checkbook’ if you will. Our policy is to have about 25-33% of our operating budget in the coffers, which is actually $12- to $15-million and we are well above that.”
State of Illinois is fly in the financial ointment
While it was good news for the City’s finances, there was a certain darkness lurking behind it, which was, of course, the state of Illinois.
“Financial challenges remain in our state,” Morley said. “We are in a constant battle with the state. We send our tax dollars there and they are supposed to come back, but they don’t always.
“Or they give us unfunded mandates. They come up with a great idea in Springfield and make us do it, but don’t provide money to pay for it. One example is defibulators – they want us to have them, but don’t provide them or the dollars needed to train our first responders. They direct us to do it but don’t provide funds.
“We send our taxes to Springfield and they are supposed to send a portion of it back to us. Even our sales tax is supposed to come back to us but this year, they’re even adding a 2% ‘maintenance fee’ to that. So that is even more that they are taking away from us. As Springfield faces more and more troubles, it could be cut more.”
New Metra station on the horizon
The next topic Morley talked about was the Metra station which is slated to be rebuilt over the next few years.
“I met with our Congressman Mike Quigley and told him our station had a facelift about 30 years ago, but no maintenance for 50 years. I explained that we need to put our best face forward at the Metra station, which sees 120,000 riders per month or a million over the course of a year. The price tag to rebuild it is $17 million, which is a great deal, but through hard work, our staff went out to look for dollars available to help fund it. We were able to obtain a CMAP grant for $10 million and another $2.4 million in STP funding, so we already have $12.4 million.”
Keeping our foot on the gas…
Economic development was the next thing Morley talked about.
“Our policy with economic development is, keep your foot on the gas at all times,” he said. “There’s competition out there and there is no level playing field. We want to bring development dollars to Elmhurst because it brings services to our community and broadens the tax base. When we broaden our tax base, we reduce the burden on everybody.”
He mentioned the new BMW dealership and the expansion of Toyota and Jaguar. The 192 luxury apartments at the Elmhurst 255 building, which Morley said was an increment of land that now generates almost $750,000 in taxes. He talked about the Opus development going up at First & Addison.
“The Opus development will generate a lot of tax dollars, but will be a smaller burden to the school system,” Morley said.
According to Morley, the high-end Fitness Formula facility is coming in directly across from the new Addison St. parking deck.
“It would not be going in there, if not for the parking deck.”
Morley offered a shout-out to Willis Johnson, whom he called “the heartbeat of downtown Elmhurst,” drawing hundreds of thousands of people to York Theater.
The overall vacancy is below 4%, Morley said, for office, industrial and retail space. Over the past year, there has been $100 million in development going on, 93 home permits and 243 commercial permits have been granted and seven storm water projects came on line this year.
“When you consider it, we had none five years ago, we now have the capacity for 68 acre-feet of flooding,” he said. “An acre-foot is 325 gallons of water. Imagine one foot of water in a football field – that’s one acre-foot.
“We received a Certificate of Achievement from the County for all the work we’ve done in storm mitigation. Our goal is to be able to mitigate storm water for a 100-year flood event. We’re getting there, but it’s a lot of work and a lot of money.
Fond farewell to a friend…
Toward the end of his comments, Morley offered a salute to Darrell Whistler who passed away in the past year.
“He was Chair of the Zoning & Planning Commission and when I looked it up, I realized he’s been on the ZPC since before I was born!” he laughed. “When we added it all up, Darrell had served as a member of 63 boards, committees or commissions over the course of his lifetime. He is and always will be missed.”
