Community honors Village Bank, retiring chairman

There were two reasons to raise a glass in toast to Village Bank and Trust Tuesday.

The first was to congratulate the Arlington Heights bank for marking 20 years of business in the community. The second was to honor and thank Chairman S. Michael Polanski, who was retiring after leading the bank for the past 15 years.

Bank officials and the business community celebrated both milestones Tuesday evening during a gala at the Rolling Green Country Club.

Village Bank senior vice president and Arlington Heights Trustee Carol Blackwood spoke of the mission the bank's founders had when they started in 1995.

"They all had this idea of how this bank would be a special segment serving special people, and those people were the residents and small businesses of this community," Blackwood said.

Polanski, who was with First Northwest Bank before he joined Village Bank in 2000, told the crowd he would most miss the relationships he had developed in his 44 years of banking.

"The most rewarding thing is the people you work with and the customers you work with, so while I look forward to retirement, I'll miss all the great people I met through the years," Polanski said.

Polanski successfully managed the merger of Village Bank with First Northwest Bank in 2005, and oversaw the sale of First Northwest Bank to Rosemont-based Wintrust Financial Corp. In addition to being bank chairman, he was president and CEO from 2000-2009.