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 One of the many reasons that people choose O’Fallon as their home is our superb quality of life. In fact, in 2002 Site Selection magazine ranked O’Fallon number 41 in the top 100 U.S. Small Town for Corporate
Facilities. Our good quality of life and well-educated workforce were two of the criteria that helped us to achieve this great ranking. We were the only city in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area to make the list.
When people think of quality of life issues, the things that come to mind are good schools, quality cultural and recreational activities, access to health care facilities, employment opportunities and availability of housing. Looking back over the past eight years, we have made great strides in improving and enhancing the quality of life in O’Fallon. It is important to note that all of these improvements and enhancements were accomplished with no increase in City property taxes.
One quality of life issue that we have focused on is the need for more park space to accommodate our growing number of families. Our efforts have materialized with the opening of Thoman Park, Rock Springs Park and St. Ellen Mine Park. We have also purchased 117 acres for a new family sports park that will serve as a family-oriented facility, providing a broad base of recreational activities. In addition to opening new parks, we have also built a bike trail from State Street to Illini and a trail at St. Ellen Mine Park to accommodate the ever increasing number of bike riders in our community. Many improvements have also occurred at Community Park. We renovated Memorial Pool, remodeled Katy Cavins Community Center, built sidewalks around the park, erected a new maintenance building and new public restrooms, and
installed a new state-of-the-art children’s playground. Thanks to the assistance of O’Fallon’s Rotary Clubs, a new Nature Center is nearing completion at Rock Springs Park.
Another quality of life issue that has received a lot of our attention is what I call community issues. Access to health care is always an important issue to a community. To provide easier access to health care for our citizens, we successfully attracted two medical facilities during the past eight years. In addition to the two facilities, Memorial Hospital also teamed with the YMCA and opened a recreational facility that provides recreational options for families. Other community improvements include the completion of the second floor of the library, the addition of sidewalks to the elementary schools, the addition of period lighting downtown, the replacement of aging sewer lines, the construction of the Seven Hills Road water tower, the looping of water lines to provide better water pressure, and the construction of
the new Public Safety Facility. One the economic development side, we have attracted numerous new car dealers, 200 new businesses, and added 500 new jobs. As a community service, we also provide police officers and crossing guards to the schools and provided a site for the new Veteran’s Monument.
Roads are yet another quality of life issue that is important to citizens. We have made numerous improvements to our infrastructure over the past eight years. Improvements include the construction of our new Exit 16 at Green Mount Road, the building of Central Park Drive, the reconstruction of the Hartman Lane/Highway 50 intersection, the reconstruction of Old Collinsville Road from Highway 50 to the Frontage Road, the extension of Pierce Blvd. to Green Mount Road, the extension of Illini Drive to Fulton Jr. High, improvements to Kyle Road, the repaving of 30 miles of residential streets, the reconstruction of First Street and the downtown parking lots, the resurfacing of Highway 50, and the improvement to Lincoln Avenue via a partnership with St. Clair County.
As always, I welcome your suggestions and comments and encourage you to contact me at 624-4500. It is through your input and dialog on important issues that we will make O’Fallon an even better place to live and work. It is an honor to serve as your Mayor, and I appreciate being given the opportunity to work for the residents of O’Fallon.
Gary L. Graham
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