Monmouth’s new city administrator says his first few months on the job have been a trial by fire.
Lou Leone came to Monmouth in early July as the community was recovering from an EF-1 tornado that traveled a mile within the city limits.
His first few months at the helm have also included boil orders, water main breaks, collapsed sewer lines, and well pump failures. Leone told TSPR unplanned incidents like these take funds away from established priorities.
“What ends up happening is they draw from your budget. So projects that you were going to put into play, you actually had to push off,” Leone said. “I’m of that mentality of I’d rather fix it and be done with it today because I know what the price is today.”
Leone said he’d like to do more scoping of sewer lines and more preventative maintenance to have fewer emergency replacements and repairs, because there are other things he’d like to focus on.
He said he was interested in Monmouth because he’s worked for a number of cities that are about its size in Nebraska, Kansas, Wisconsin, and northern Illinois.
“What really actually draws me to a city like Monmouth is, like that desire to want to move forward,” Leone said. “You hear that from time to time from communities, and sometimes you get that you want to move forward a little bit, but then let's get back to our comfort zone.”
The city has around 8,500 residents, and is home to Smithfield Foods, the largest employer in the region. Leone would like to see the city grow to what it once was – closer to 12,000 people.
Leone said a new TIF district on the city’s east side meant to spur housing development is a good start, but he said drawing people to a community is not just about housing.
“You can build a thousand houses and if nobody wants to come here, then you just have a thousand houses,” Leone said. “So that's where we go back to the quality of life. We want to show the public, the outside world, what we here in Monmouth already know. It's a great community.”
Leone said he’s working on infrastructure and road improvement master plans. Another priority that is already coming into focus is recreational improvements.
The city is applying for a $3 million Illinois Transportation Enhancement Grant that would help build a multi-use path along both sides of North Main Street.
“The west side will be a traditional sidewalk, but on the east side, that will be mixed use, which means it'll be shared pedestrian and bike,” Leone said.
The multi-use path would cross U.S. Route 34 on a solar-lighted crosswalk, ending near the west entrance to Smithfield Foods.
The city also has applied for a matching grant through the state’s Open Space Land Acquisition and Development program. Those funds would be used for the first phase of constructing a walking and biking bath around the city-owned Citizens Lake.
“Eventually you should be able to start on one end of Citizens Lake and walk completely around,” Leone said.
Leone is also working on a bike path master plan for Monmouth that would use Broadway Avenue to connect the east and wide sides of the city and extend the path along Main Street from North to South.
As those visions take shape, Leone says another aspect of his trial by fire is the city adjusting to a full-time administrator after Lew Steinbrecher worked on a part-time basis for nearly a decade.
“You have kind of several transitions happening, so that's been an adjustment for everybody,” Leone said.
If you add in the tornado recovery and community concern about infrastructure and some high-profile issues at Smithfield Foods, Leone said it’s been an interesting few months at city hall.
“The nice thing is as a team, we've learned very quickly how to work together,” he said.
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