Mt. Prospect looks forward to turning 100

The 100-year anniversary of Mount Prospect’s incorporation is coming up in the year 2017 and it is not too soon to start planning for the celebration.

At this week’s village board Committee of the Whole meeting, Mayor Irvana Wilks suggested a commission be formed for that purpose.

Wilks mentioned at Tuesday’s meeting that a committee was formed to celebrate the 75th anniversary in 1992.

The village has ample material for reference, since the late Lil Floros, wife of former Trustee Leo Floros, and Janice Farley, wife of former Mayor Gerald “Skip” Farley, “saved every single scrap” of memorabilia, including minutes and newspaper clippings, Wilks said.

“They have an amazing record of what happened.”

Wilks noted that the village needs to digitally preserve the memorabilia.

Trustee Paul Hoefert praised the idea for being forward thinking.

“Five years seems like a long ways off, but it’s not a long ways off,” Hoefert said. “There is a lot of thinking that needs to go into this.”

“I do think that this anniversary deserves the status of a commission” since it will have broad-based participation, said Trustee Arlene Juracek, who is also a member of the village’s Historical Society.

She noted the society has its own five-year plan to get the interior of the old Central School house finished by the 100th anniversary date, Feb. 3, 2017. This will enable the village to recreate the signing of the town’s articles of incorporation in the school house.