Longtime Vernon Hills trustee and former mayor calls it a career
Barb Williams' first brush with local government was as president of a condo association in the late 1970s.
The outspoken driver/dispatcher for a school bus company lived in a developing residential area called New Century Town in Vernon Hills. Much of the village then, including an area bordering the new subdivision east of Butterfield Road, was being farmed.
"They wanted to put manufacturing in there. Residents were knocking on my door - 'You've got to do something,'" Williams recalled. "So, I went to a board meeting."
And the rest, as the saying goes, is history.
Williams would go on to serve 28 years on the Vernon Hills village board, nearly half as long as the town has been incorporated.
Her tenure, which included four years as mayor, came as the town exploded in geographic size through annexations, and grew tenfold in population to its current level of about 26,000.
During that time, she has championed common sense and high standards, and emphasized the trustee position represents the entire community rather than any particular area.
"I've always tried to vote with my mind as well as my heart," she said. "If it's going to better the community and fits where it wants to be put, I'll vote for it."
On Tuesday, Williams is expected to visit village hall for the last time in an official capacity. She chose not to run for another term but is expected to see the next board seated.
"It's going to be strange not coming here," she said.
Williams served as a village trustee from 1981 to 1989; mayor from 1989 to 1993; and has been back on the village board as a trustee since 2001. Williams Way in the Grosse Pointe subdivision is named in her honor.
"Barbara came, I think, with the dirt and the brick and mortar for the village of Vernon Hills," joked Mayor Roger Byrne, who has served in that capacity since 1993.
The pair "fought like tigers" early on but have gained each other's respect over the years, she said. Byrne convinced Williams to run for election in 2001 after her eight-year absence from village politics.
"I've never been shy about voicing my opinion," said Williams, who is known for unvarnished observations particularly on development proposals.
Among the many significant events that occurred during her tenure are construction of Vernon Hills High School and a new village hall; the arrival of Metra train service, a post office and senior living facility; and the expansion of Hawthorn Mall, which was new when Williams moved to the village.
Williams rose to become site manager for the bus company, essentially running her own business. And business is what Vernon Hills has been about as open areas have been transformed into vast corporate parks and shopping centers.
Those uses were welcomed, Williams said, to spread the burden if the village ever needed to enact a municipal property tax. But that has not been the case and Vernon Hills remains one of few without one.
A native Virginian, Williams moved to Chicago in 1968 and then to the suburbs. After researching schools, Williams and her husband in 1977 chose Vernon Hills, then just a blip with a population of 2,300.
Her husband was ill and daughter, Cindy, in college when she walked away after her first term as mayor, saying she didn't have the time to do it right. As every ensuing election neared, Williams was asked to return. She eventually relented after eight years away.
In recent years, Williams, 72, has had several health challenges. And when her daughter, son-in-law and two grandsons last summer moved to North Carolina, she decided this term would be the last.
Next week, after 40 years in town, Williams will be joining them in the Tar Heel State.
"They're the true reason I'm leaving," she said.
@dhmickzawislak