A look at Mount Prospect's record-setting 10th mayor, Gerald 'Skip' Farley

Mount Prospect's 10th mayor, Gerald L. "Skip" Farley, grew up on a farm in Guthrie County, Iowa. There, he learned the value of public service from his father, who spent as much time serving the needs of the larger community as he did taking care of the livestock and crops on his own farm.

One day when a young Skip asked his father about the difficulty in trying to balance all those responsibilities, his dad responded, "If we can't help each other in times of need, what good are we?"

It would be that philosophy that would stick with Farley and motivate him to spend 33 years in public service, starting as a school board member in Indianola, Iowa, where he lived prior to moving to Mount Prospect in 1973.

Farley served the village for 27 years. Prior to becoming mayor in 1989, he spent 10 years on the village board and one year on the plan commission.

In the 32 years from the time he became a resident until the end of his record-setting fourth mayoral term in 2005, much had changed in Mount Prospect. This included its boundaries.

This was a departure from the agenda of his predecessor, Carolyn Krause, who held the line on annexations to contain a village that, in her opinion, had been growing aggressively prior to her nine years in office.

Farley, himself, guided the village through many changes. When he took the helm in 1989, the village was showing its age as a "maturing" community. Roads were starting to deteriorate. Flooding was still a common problem. Although redevelopment efforts started several years prior, the downtown area was showing only a few signs of life.

Farley's first priorities as mayor were to implement a $14 million storm water management project, stimulate the downtown area, and continue the trend of relying on a smaller share of property taxes as a source of revenue for the village.

Under his watch, construction of a new police and fire building became a reality with the blessing of voters in April 1991, a new village hall and parking deck was completed, and the library saw its own renovations.

In addition, he pledged to work closer with neighboring communities through organizations such as the Northwest Municipal Conference and the Illinois Municipal League. He was even president of the Conference from 1997 to 1998.

Farley advocated for more intergovernmental cooperation within all governments, despite the old "lot-line" mentality that still existed at the time.

During his final "State of Mount Prospect" address in February 2005, Farley had much positive progress to report, as evidenced by completed development projects that could be seen on all sides of town.

The most visible change in the village was a resurging downtown area, in part due to the demolition of the old village hall, which paved the way for a rebirth of new retail, including restaurants and residential properties on that site.

In addition, the opening of big box retailer Costco and Home Depot were among many improvements to the Randhurst shopping district.

A project during his final months in office included a comprehensive, villagewide traffic control plan to establish a universal set of traffic standards for the village's 125 miles of residential roads, which encompassed nearly 700 neighborhood street crossings.

The comprehensive study of every residential street and intersection would take place the summer following his retirement from office, commemorated by a dinner held in his honor on April 22, 2005 at Bristol Court Banquets.

Just prior to leaving office in May 2005, Farley indicated that flood prevention was both his most shining achievement and greatest shortfall as mayor.

Although major improvements were now keeping homes near Weller Creek dry, the village was still waiting on the construction of Levee 37, which was proposed after the floods of 1986 and 1987 along the west bank of the Des Plaines River. According to Farley, it had already been 20 years the village had been working on "this confounded thing."

When asked about his "finest hour" for an April 2005 newspaper article, Farley responded not by singling out one particular accomplishment, but instead indicated that his time in office was "to basically make a difference in other people's lives."

It's very apparent the words Farley heard his father say at a young age remained ingrained and served as his philosophy during nearly three decades of service to the citizens of Mount Prospect.

Today, Farley and his wife, Janice, continue to serve on the Mount Prospect Sister Cities Commission and have also played integral parts on the Mount Prospect Centennial Commission.