Print
Share page with AddThis

2020/07/13 - Mayor's Column: Laying the Groundwork

­“An Open Door to O’Fallon”
A Weekly Note from Mayor Herb Roach
­­­

This community has deep history that goes back over 166 years. O’Fallon, which started as a railroad stop and coal mining community has transformed and evolved over the years. We are again in a point in time of evolution. Over the past years, O’Fallon has turned from a bedroom community, into a hub of economic activity, jobs, and family friendly amenities.  As we continue to move forward, it is important for us to continue to grow our economy, but to do it in what I refer to as “smart growth.”   Smart growth is a solid plan development of a community.  It consists of, but not limited to:

  1. Developing a plan for marketing your community.
  2. Making sure your infrastructure is maintained and in place to handle future developments.
  3. Diversification of the local economy.
  4. Identifying locations that can be redeveloped for future growth.
  5. Building upon existing assets that are already in place.  
  6. Long range planning of land usage.
  7. Maintaining or building attributes that add to the quality of life.
  8. Attracting businesses or industry that compliments your other businesses or fills a need.

During my business career, I visited over 100 communities and was able to study what made good and not so good communities for future development as I helped establish over 15 facilities around the U.S. and in other countries.

The development and long-term growth of a community is an ongoing project that has many facets as you can see above.  Two facets that do not get much fanfare are the maintaining of your infrastructure and redevelopment of older sites that have been neglected.  It is not as glamorous as a new five-story building but is so very important to the overall health of the city.

During the past two years, we have had some good successes in addressing both.

On the infrastructure, we have identified those areas of infrastructure that needed attention and have allocated the resources to replace or repair miles of old sewer lines, water lines and streets.  We have also identified areas where storm water threatened homes and/ or businesses and started to take action to correct them. All of this has been done in a fiscally sound manner which did not require borrowing any money or selling any bonds.

We are also completing plans to expand our sewer plant and keep it in compliance with EPA regulations.  We will go more in-depth on some of this work at the August 12th Town Hall.  Please sign up early if you want to attend because we need to limit attendance due to COVID-19.

We have also worked for the redevelopment of several high-profile properties in our city.  These include:

  1. Three locations on Route 50 on the west end of town, which have seen new facilities either built or approved for redevelopment.
  2. The old lumber yard property.
  3. The old Paul’s Frame Shop (Drug Store) in the Downtown District.
  4. Southview Plaza.
  5. The old trailer park on the east end of the City, off of the Scott/ Troy Road (by the RecPlex).

All of this and more is what the City Council and City Staff are working on for the future development of our City.

As residents of O’Fallon, you should always be able to reach out to your elected officials and ask questions about what is happening in O’Fallon. Having open communications is important to me and something I care very deeply about. Thank you for reading, and please remember, my door is always open (virtually, at least)!