Angel Contreras, Taste Of Joliet, DQ And More: Joliet Patch 2023

JOLIET, IL ? This year, 2023, was an incredibly memorable one for the Joliet area in many facets. There was a tremendous change in leadership at City Hall, not just in the mayor's office, but the city went through three city managers, Jim Capparelli, Rod Tonelli and now Beth Beatty.

The following is a month by month compilation of significant stories published by Joliet Patch during 2023:

January: Photos: World's Largest Guitar Now On Display In Downtown Joliet

Between 400 and 500 people braved the cold on Jan. 20 to attend the GIGANTAR guitar lighting ceremony in downtown Joliet for the Illinois Rock & Roll Museum. The ceremony featured an appearance from Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen.

?GIGANTAR will be the museum?s icon,? remarked Ron Romero, executive director of the Illinois Rock & Roll Museum. ?We are thrilled with the work Shannon has done and we can?t wait to show it to music lovers throughout Illinois and the world.? The Illinois Rock & Roll Museum commissioned world-renowned artist Shannon (MacDonald) to create the 24-foot tall sculpture.

The artwork, named GIGANTAR, began its nearly week-long trek to the museum in downtown Joliet with a launch party at the legendary Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey. GIGANTAR made its way across 5-states on an open flatbed truck, stopping at prestigious and historical sites on the way to its final destination, adorning the entrance to the museum in downtown Joliet.

February:

Fire At Haley Mansion Under Control: Joliet Fire Chief

On Feb. 1, a fire broke out Wednesday afternoon at Joliet's historic Patrick C. Haley Mansion at Center and Marion streets. Joliet Fire Chief Jeff Carey said crews responded to the blaze around 3:45 p.m., finding heavy smoke coming from the roof and heavy fire in the attic.

He said firefighters entered the second floor of the mansion and opened the ceiling to attack the fire, bringing it under control in around 40 minutes. Now home to a popular wedding and event venue known simply as the Haley Mansion, the mansion was built by New York-born attorney Patrick Columbus Haley, who moved to Will County as a child and went on to become the mayor of Joliet.

Carey told Patch the preliminary estimate of $1.25 million does not include any loss of revenue from canceled events. According to the Haley Mansion website, construction on the home began in 1891 and was completed two years later.

March:

Kevin Fox, 46, Father Of Riley Fox, Dies In Head-On Crash

On March 21, Kevin Fox, the former Wilmington man who was wrongly arrested by the Will County Sheriff's Department in the death of his 3-year-old daughter Riley Fox in the summer of 2004, was killed in a head-on crash in Arkansas. Fox was 46.

"Kevin was one of the most courageous clients I have ever had," Fox's wrongful conviction lawyer Kathleen Zellner wrote Joliet Patch's editor the following day. "He will be remembered as the best father to his children anyone could have ever been. It is heartbreaking that he died so young."

Zellner told Patch that Fox was living in Arkansas, along with his new wife and their two young daughters, ages 1 and 2.

Kevin Fox was initially charged with his daughter?s June 2004 murder in Wilmington. Under questioning by Will County detectives, Fox confessed to the crime, but was later exonerated through DNA evidence after attorney Zellner pushed to have a private lab test ?inconclusive? saliva samples.

In 2010, imprisoned sex offender Scott Eby confessed and was later convicted of Riley?s murder. The Fox family was ultimately awarded $8 million in a civil rights suit filed against Will County authorities.

April: Terry D'Arcy Defeats Mayor O'Dekirk In Joliet Elections

As the polling data showed, popular Joliet businessman and philanthropist Terry D'Arcy of D'Arcy Motors soundly defeated Bob O'Dekirk by a wide margin in the Joliet mayor's race, with all of Will and Kendall County precincts reporting.

"I worked hard to make sure we were always one vote ahead," D'Arcy told Joliet Patch's editor at Tuesday night's victory party, which was attended by more than 300 people at the Inwood Golf Course's golf cart barn. "They wanted a better attitude for the city."

Vote totals showed D'Arcy with about 62 percent of the vote, while O'Dekirk and a third candidate on the ballot, Tycee Bell, combined to capture the other 38 percent.

"I bought four failing businesses and I turned them all around," D'Arcy remarked. "I believe we have a lot of really good people working for our city. My job is to lead people and manage that. I will be very easy to work with. I've been working in the city for 30 years and I want to help the city thrive."

May: Sex Abuse In Diocese Of Joliet Far More Extensive Than Reported: AG

On May 23, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul released the names of 451 Catholic priests, religious brothers and clerics that Raoul says abused 1,997 children across all six dioceses in Illinois. A large section of the report focused on the Diocese of Joliet, notably under the leadership of the late Bishop Joseph Imesch, and 17 priests who have been credibly accused of abuse.

The report addressed the diocese's practice of allowing extern priests ? those who were ordained for one diocese but are working in another ? to serve despite previous abuse accusations.

"Prior to the Attorney General?s investigation, the diocese disclosed only one extern priest as a credibly accused abuser who ministered in the diocese, and zero religious order priests as such. Today, the diocese?s list contains 13 extern or religious order priests, but omits 4 such priests whom the diocese knows have been credibly accused of child sex abuse," Raoul's office revealed.

According to the AG's findings surrounding the Diocese of Joliet, "When these errors came to light years later, the diocese often rejected opportunities for transparency and healing, refusing to publicly list extern or religious order priests who had ministered in the diocese and had been convicted or otherwise substantiated as a child sex abuser."

June: Taste Of Joliet's Headliner Cost $300,000, Had Record Turnout

The Joliet Park District's annual Taste of Joliet, a three-day-long food and music festival in late June, drew more than 55,000 people to Memorial Stadium, an all-time attendance record.

Joliet Park District Executive Director Brad Staab attributed the 55,000 figure to the beautiful summer weather and the high quality music acts who performed on the outdoor stage over all three days.

He said the $300,000 price tag for Train was well worth it, given the Friday night concert attendance, and the positive reaction from the crowd to Train's concert.

"It's definitely industry-wide. Expenses have gone up in entertainment expenses," Staab told Joliet Patch. "Train has three Grammys, they're a huge name, and they've had a dozen Top 10 hits."

July: Ex-Joliet Mayor Files Federal Suit: Roechner, Reid Among 8 Defendants

More than three months after losing his bid for a third term in office, former Joliet Mayor Bob O'Dekirk retained a Palos Heights law firm to file a federal RICO lawsuit against former Joliet Police Chief Al Roechner, Roechner's wife, Nancy, current Elwood Police Commander Marc Reid and a host of others.

The federal lawsuit also names former Joliet Herald-News editor Joseph Hosey, who also previously worked for Patch, plus current Joliet City Councilman Pat Mudron and former City Councilman Jim McFarland as defendants. The lawsuit contends all the defendants acted as an enterprise "to further deliberate illegal conduct against O'Dekirk."

Joliet Patch interviewed Palos Heights attorney Michael Ettinger, whose firm, Ettinger and Associates, filed the lawsuit. "We believe we have a very strong case that we filed," Ettinger said. "We just filed it today. I would hope the public would read the complaint. It's all spelled out in there."

August: Mayor D'Arcy Takes Stand In St. Joe's Nurses Strike: Photos

August 22 marked the first day of more than 500 nurses at St. Joe's hospital going on strike. Nurses say they had threatened a two-day strike after management lawyers from their hospital?s parent company, Ascension Health, refused to offer market rate wages. Ascension responded by locking all union nurses out of the hospital for four days.

Joliet Mayor Terry D'Arcy told the nurses he is on their side in their labor dispute against the Ascension management group.

"A little over a month ago, I asked the director of labor relations for Ascension to do all it could to protect the patients they serve in Joliet's only hospital," D'Arcy told everyone. "I asked them to listen to their own care teams and bring staffing levels back to pre-pandemic levels. Losing 40 percent of nurses in five years is not acceptable and puts lives at risk."

September: Asylum Seekers Grant Obtained By Joliet Township, Not City Hall

On Sept. 30, a spokeswoman for Joliet Mayor Terry D'Arcy said the city did not apply for the grant that involves the awarding of millions of dollars to house asylum seekers that was announced by the governor's office.

The mayor's spokesperson, Rosemaria DiBenedetto, told Joliet Patch that as soon as D'Arcy found out about Governor JB Pritzker's multi-million dollar grant for Joliet, D'Arcy immediately began reaching out to City Council members.

DiBenedetto said the city of Joliet government did not apply for the grant to house asylum seekers coming to Illinois from other countries. Rather, the grant went through Joliet Township government and Supervisor Angel Contreras, she pointed out.

"This has nothing to do with the city of Joliet government," DeBenedetto emphasized. "If residents have concerns about this issue, they should contact Supervisor Angel Contreras and other Joliet Township officials."

October: World's 1st Dairy Queen In Joliet Acquired By Historical Museum

The Joliet Area Historical Museum has acquired one of Joliet's long-lost treasures ? the world's first Dairy Queen store ? at 501 N. Chicago St. The two-story brick building is on the northern edge of downtown near the old Tezak Funeral Home.

"So many people are shocked to hear that the very first Dairy Queen was right here in Joliet, in this humble little building," remarked Greg Peerbolte, the Joliet museum's executive director, during the late October Joliet Patch interview at the site.

The building housing the original Dairy Queen dates back to the 1890s.

Dairy Queen opened its first ice cream store here in the summer of 1940; Peerbolte said the museum has not determined exactly when the original Dairy Queen closed, but a city directory listed the property as being a lawn mower store, starting around 1954-1955.

November: Woodlawn Cemetery's New Road, Bridge Gets Built: Photos

On November 14, Joliet Patch reported that people who were frustrated with the lack of progress at fixing the one and only road leading into Woodlawn Cemetery's Memorial Park 2 will now be able to visit their loved one's gravesite.

Contractors from Pennsylvania got to work building the entrance road and bridge over the creek at Woodlawn Memorial Park 2. Woodlawn is owned and operated by Pennsylvania-based Everstory Partners, formerly known as StoneMor. Everstory offers funeral services, cemeteries and cremation services in 23 states plus Puerto Rico. Woodlawn Cemetery 2 was closed to the public since August or September after storms downed several trees and washed away a large section of road that served as a bridge over the creek.

December: New $185 Million Joliet Casino Will Rival Las Vegas, Cullinan Says

On Dec. 13, Joliet Mayor Terry D'Arcy, new city manager Beth Beatty and several members of the Joliet City Council joined up with Will County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant and State Rep. Natalie Manley for a celebratory groundbreaking of Joliet's new $185 million Hollywood Casino.

The casino is being built at the Rock Run Collections property that has been in the works for many years at Interstate 55 and Interstate 80, in Troy Township.

Joliet's new Hollywood Casino will replace the existing one along Route 6 that has been around since 1992. The new casino will feature 850 slots and a 10,000 square foot event center.

Diane Cullinan, whose company is creating the Rock Run Collections, told everyone gathered under the tent that the new Hollywood Casino in Joliet "will rival Las Vegas. He's laughing," she responded. "I'm dead serious."