Warrenville keeps rolling with the changes

Warrenville's Cantera commercial development keeps attracting businesses, a new middle school is coming and residents are celebrating the town's 175th anniversary.

The changing face of Warrenville was a theme Mayor David Brummel returned to several times last week while addressing the city's chamber of commerce in his annual State of the City address, a luncheon at Courtyard Banquets in Warrenville.

"I sometimes wonder how my father's Warrenville world was changed from his birth in 1913 to his death in 1995," Brummel said. "When you hang around for nearly half of your community's history, you see a lot of things come and go."

Brummel spent much of his time highlighting the promising developments in the last year, most notably the successful Feb. 5 ballot measure that paves the way for the construction of a new Hubble Middle School.

More than 75 percent of voters who cast ballots within three precincts at city hall voted in favor of the $58 million building project, Brummel said.

Brummel also lauded the work of Police Chief Ray Turano, noting his establishment of a part-time officer program, adding several community service officers and creating an in-house process to adjudicate certain ordinance violations.

The mayor mentioned several building projects proposed or under way at the Cantera retail development, including a 135-room Hilton Garden Inn under construction south of Diehl Road.

Another 15-acre office, retail and hotel development is planned for the northeast corner of Mill Street and Ferry Road.

And Central DuPage Hospital said it hopes to usher in a $140 million proton therapy cancer treatment center on a 10-acre parcel within Cantera, a project that still depends on state approval.

"Pretty exciting stuff for our little town," Brummel said.

Brummel briefly mention a few areas he said community leaders should consider, including improving the ambiance of the city's civic campus and Old Town area and developing Route 59.

But the mayor was short on details. Instead, he asked the audience to consider how best to pursue such matters.

"Answers to such questions are rarely one size fits all," he said. "And frankly, I don't pretend to have the answers. I'm much better at asking questions and I prefer to have you think about the answers."