'I'm Tired Of People Saying 'Oh, Joliet, Oh Joliet': Quillman

JOLIET ? When four-term Joliet City Councilman Larry Hug drives around the city of Joliet, he notices plenty of art sculptures on public display, artwork that was funded and unveiled several years ago. Today, the city's public artwork, in many places, has fallen into disrepair and "half of them look like garbage," Hug declared.

Hug has also been around Joliet long enough to remember that past city managers, former mayors and councils talked about lofty visions and exciting plans to create a downtown city square. Lots of talk, lots of meetings and lack of action and lack of execution.

Hug told his colleagues he grew up in Mokena, when it was a small town of 2,800.

"Joliet is not a small town, it is the third-largest by population, second largest at roughly at least 70 square miles, so there's a lot of focal points from east to west to north and south," Hug said prior to Tuesday night's vote on awarding a $20.1 million contract to Austin Tyler Construction, for downtown Joliet streetscape improvements and the creation of a new City Square across from the Rialto Square Theatre.

Joliet wants to have the project finished in time for the 2026 100-year anniversary celebration of Historic Route 66 and the 100-year celebration of the Rialto. Both happened in 1926.

"A downtown would be good, but let's not pull punches," Hug declared. "This is going to be the 13th or 14th time since 1974 that this city has tried to turn around downtown and each time it's been a failure. This one could be a success. My hang up is on the fact that, and I want to be clear, for those watching, it is not $20 million for the plaza. It is $11 million for the infrastructure, water and sewer, that you're seeing being done all over town ... so $11 million of the $20 million goes toward that even without the plaza."

One of the key reasons for the downtown streetscape work, according to Hug, pertains to "one of the past downtown mistakes and kind of screwing up Chicago Street for the biggest length going through the downtown. My hang up is with the $9.5 million. That was originally estimated verbally when this all started some years back, three, three-and-a-half years ago, four years ago, $6-$7 million ... I'm very frustrated that a former director who's no longer here never gave us a breakdown last fall. We were all here when I asked for it. We never got it. No staff member here is responsible for that. No member of the Council is."

Before making his vote in favor of the $20.1 million city square and streetscape improvements across from the Rialto, Hug told everyone, "I'm a little disturbed we don't have any projected maintenance cost or budget for this. This is a larger asset. I'm torn. I'm willing to give the downtown one more chance, too, if it's done correctly."

Councilwoman Jan Quillman said she was initially unsure whether she would vote in favor of the Austin Tyler Construction contract, but in the end, she, too, was a yes vote on spending $20 million "for a town square."

"I'm tired of people saying, 'Oh, Joliet. Oh, Joliet," Quillman remarked. "I've been wanting a town square for a very long time, and I was against this ... because ... I just could not understand how we could do all this at once or maybe in the future we could time this better so it would be more user-friendly to all the families that want to come downtown to Joliet because right now there's not that much down here for people and families to do.

"And if we can attract them in some other way in addition to this, this would be an asset to our downtown and I agree with Suzanna (Ibarra), every small town I ever went, they have a small (square) where everybody goes on Friday nights to listen to the band or fireworks ..."

Councilman Joe Clement said he would have preferred Joliet staff separated the streetscape and city square project rather than bundle the work together, resulting in the $20.1 million contract for Austin Tyler of Elwood.

Lindblad Construction, based in Joliet, submitted a lower bid for the work, but city staff opted to disqualify the Lindblad bid, city memos reflect.

Austin Tyler Construction has donated more money in recent years to various Joliet City Council members and mayoral candidates, a Joliet Patch review of campaign donations showed.

Austin Tyler donated $1,000 to Larry Hug's campaign last October, $2,500 to Terry D'Arcy in February 2023, and also $2,500 to two-term Joliet Mayor Bob O'Dekirk, the following month, in March 2023.

Austin Tyler also gave $1,500 to Hug in November 2022, another $3,100 to O'Dekirk in September 2022, and $1,400 to Hug's challenger, retired Joliet Public Works official Mike Eulitz, who lost to Hug in the April 2023 elections.

The last time Lindblad Construction made a significant campaign donation to a Joliet elected official came in February 2019, when Councilwoman Sherri Reardon received a $500 donation.

Lindblad made no campaign donations of major significance for the 2023 city elections, according to the Illinois Sunshine website.

"I have no problem with any of the contractors at all," Clement said. "Maybe our contractors and Beth (Beatty, city manager) and our city staff, we can all come together and bounce some ideas off so we can have a clear understanding when these bids come out and maybe we have a checklist ... Again, this project has been a long time coming, and it's a lot of money."

Clement pointed out that while he knows the city of Joliet "has a lot of needs, but to stop now, like Jim (Roolfs) said, we have a renaissance coming here and to stop it wouldn't make sense to me."

Councilwoman Suzanna Ibarra said she's done a lot of traveling to other communities over the last few years, "and every good city that I wish to come back and visit again, such as Utica and La Salle, they all have one focal point of the city. It's one focal point where they have events, where they do musical performances and it actually is a huge moneymaker for every good city to have this focal point and so I'm definitely thinking we should not kick the can down the road and stall this project another 10 years. The time is now."

Mayor D'Arcy said the city square project will be important for enhancing Joliet's image and drawing more out-of-town visitors.

D'Arcy noted that about $2.5 million is from the Illinois Department of Transportation for the public infrastructure and roadways "and there's about $3 million for the city square" coming from the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

"And this process started back in 2015," D'Arcy reminded everyone. "It kicked the can to 2016, 2017, 2018. I can only imagine if we had prepared for three years and done this in 2018, it might not have been $8.9 million. So, the longer we wait, the more it's going to cost to invest in the downtown and this is going to be the radiant part of our downtown.

"I know that a lot of people, I've been to events at the Rialto, and I'll sit next to somebody from Wisconsin or Iowa. We get that one chance at a first impression and that is the jewel of the downtown, the Rialto, so I feel pretty strongly that this is going to be a good investment, and then we'll continue to phase out through town over the years."