Des Plaines won't soon forget Mayor Arredia

Standing in the corner of a room full of Northwest suburban mayors that day in 2000, the soft-spoken, newly appointed mayor from Des Plaines watched leaders of other communities mingle.

Tony Arredia went unnoticed until Palatine Mayor Rita Mullins asked him who he was. Then she introduced him to the crowd.

"If I had missed that first meeting, they wouldn't have known I wasn't there," Arredia says wryly.

That was the day he promised himself he would make Des Plaines a leader, and get the blue-collar city "into the ballgame where you are a major player."

Now, as Arredia is about to leave office, he is confident Des Plaines has achieved that recognition.

"We go down to Springfield now and fight legislation and win, and also fight for legislation and win," he said.

State Rep. Elaine Nekritz says Arredia made Des Plaines a regional force. They worked closely on Des Plaines River flooding prevention, attending hours of meetings.

"No one has been more tenacious and fought more for Des Plaines," Nekritz said. "He cared about the whole watershed. He built relationships, cajoled people, yelled at people and pushed people all in the name of getting something accomplished. And he has something to show for it."

Arredia was 8th Ward alderman when he was appointed mayor Jan. 5, 2000. The previous mayor, Paul W. Jung, died suddenly in October 1999, midway through his term.

After finishing Jung's term, Arredia was elected in April 2001. He has worked with three city councils and was unable to run for re-election last month because he came up against Des Plaines' term limits law.

He would have liked to. The city's aging sewer system needs an overhaul, flooding is still a major problem and a glittering new casino is going to be built on the South side.

Instead, on Monday, Arredia will give the gavel to Martin Moylan, the 2nd Ward alderman elected mayor April 7.

Arredia endorsed Moylan, but admits it's kind of disappointing. "I'm not sure how I feel about leaving," said Arredia, 72. "I'll miss all the action."

A man of the people

James Macchiaroli, one of the owners of Ace Hardware on Oakton Street, said Arredia gave voice to the business community, and talked openly with them about what he wanted to accomplish.

"There's a lot of activity in what ... has been a degrading environment for development over the last couple of years," said Macchiaroli, board president of the 610-member Des Plaines Chamber of Commerce and Industry. "(Arredia) believed Des Plaines was someplace where every business, every hotel, every retail operation would want to locate in."

Arredia explains: "When I was an alderman, the two mayors I've worked with, I never could get them to understand that we were a standstill city ... like we were people stuck in a time warp. Nothing was moving in terms of development."

Arredia said when he announced Des Plaines would compete for the state's 10th and final gaming license, other mayors laughed. But the city beat out Rosemont and Waukegan, and now the casino is targeted to open in 2011 on 21 acres at River Road and Devon Avenue.

As well, Des Plaines became a destination for businesses once it starting rebuilding its downtown. Arredia acknowledges there were missteps, and despite the city's $90 million investment, vacancies exist in Metropolitan Square.

"We had never done it before," he said. "We had no clue how this would work, what it would take to develop our downtown."

Arredia said he and city officials take heat over the five tax increment financing districts to spur redevelopment. Yet, TIFs are a necessary tool that helped bring a grocery store, Walgreens, restaurants and hotels to town, he said.

Under Arredia, Des Plaines dropped out of the fight against Chicago's $6.6 billion O'Hare International Airport Modernization Program.

At the time the defection was controversial, but Arredia believed O'Hare expansion was inevitable and that Des Plaines stood to gain some economic benefit.

"We are probably the biggest air courier network in Cook County right now," he said. "When you get these big companies in, all these other companies come in right next to them. It's kind of like the Bible: One begot the other. The starting point was the downtown development."

A regional force

Arredia believes his greatest legacy will be in the fight to alleviate flooding along the Des Plaines River, specifically levies 50 and 37.

"Levy 50 is the best thing that ever happened to Des Plaines," Arredia said. "We fought to overturn the governor's veto of not supporting the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District as the manager of the watershed. When we won that, that was a big move for the flooding."

After disastrous floods in 1986 and 1987, the Army Corps of Engineers in 1996 recommended six projects along the upper Des Plaines River, including the two levies and the expansion of Big Bend Lake.

Former Mount Prospect Mayor Gerald "Skip" Farley said the ensuing years were frustrating, as he and Arredia took turns playing "good guy, bad guy" in negotiations with state and federal agencies.

Farley, now 77, said he had worked on regional flooding issues before Arredia came along, but thinks Arredia helped things move faster.

"He was tireless," Farley said. "He was primarily responsible for getting Levy 50 and Levy 37 under way. I give him that much credit, because he was so diligent in the pursuit of getting something done. He was easy to work with in the sense that he was cooperative and he could see both sides of a question."

Nekritz said Des Plaines now won't go back to standing on the sidelines. "When (Arredia) calls the county board president or a U.S. senator, they have a sense of Des Plaines," she said. "And that is something that he has built."

Santa, library card

Arredia always seemed to have fun being mayor.

As alderman, he voted against building the library downtown on Ellinwood Street, saying his constituents in the 8th Ward were opposed. Once it was built, however, he made a point of enjoying it.

"He always participated in events that involved children and reading stories to them," said Sandra Norlin, library director since 1994.

"He was very proud of how well used his library card was. And it was his goal to show by his example how important the library is to the spirit of the community."

At one Christmas tree lighting ceremony, he dressed as Santa and made a pantomime of arriving at the festivities by rappelling down the side of the library. An experienced repeller made the actual trip, but it was a clever ruse that the crowd enjoyed.

Now, as he thinks about the next few years, he said he hopes the next city council has the nerve to ask taxpayers to fund the $19 million reconstruction of the city's sewer systems, and not wait for casino revenue.

He hopes mayor Moylan cleans up parts of town he wasn't able to get to, such as Oakton Street and Elmhurst Roads, near where he lives.

"I wanted to do them all, River Road, Rand Road, Oakton, Elmhurst and Touhy Avenue," Arredia said. "I ran out of time."