Reflections of the past: How town square monuments help tell cities’ stories

Years ago, they were commonly referred to as “town squares,” gathering places for people and the best locations for sculptures or plaques recognizing a city’s history or important individuals.

By any name, areas in which a city reflects on where it has come from and who helped build that city provide important information to local residents and visitors.

It might be most important to any person or family considering moving into the Tri-Cities. For those, in addition to typical research about property values and taxes, schools, crime rates, jobs and transportation options, visiting the “town square” provides information about what makes a city tick.

And it’s more interesting and fun than just scrolling a screen to research things.

First, for anyone considering becoming a resident here, my initial suggestion is you can’t go wrong in St. Charles, Geneva, Batavia or the villages west of those cities.

But if anyone needed a sense for what these communities are all about, think in terms of the dedications made to various individuals, organizations, past city leaders or philanthropists in a central location or spread throughout town.

In St. Charles, a visit to the picturesque Freedom Walk along the Fox River starts with a sculpture of philanthropist Dellora A. Norris near the front of the Municipal Building, for which she and her husband Lester donated the land.

Other areas are dedicated to the firemen of the city, the Pottawatomi tribes that populated the Fox River valley, and the volunteers so important to the city.

Sculptor Guy Bellaver’s 15-foot Chief Ekwabet statue has looked over the Fox River as a tribute to the Pottawatomi since 1988, while his “Reflections” sculpture has caught attention since 2015 in an area known as Volunteer Plaza, dedicated to Max and Doris Hunt for their prolific volunteerism and contributions to the city.

Other important monuments list key individuals and groups, with one to the Freedom Walk itself in commemorating its 1976 creation. Or the school bell from the old Shelby School mounted upon concrete, created in 1984 to honor the city’s first settler, Evan Shelby. That particular shrine includes a time capsule, scheduled to be opened in 2034.

Just north of the former police station, the Freedom Shrine exhibit created by the Tri-Cities Exchange Club stands as a display of the country’s most famous and historic documents.

In Batavia, similar dedications can be seen in the Riverwalk area near the city band shell and Depot Pond. In that area, one can find plaques dedicated to donors and supporters who made the Riverwalk possible, a dedication to Batavia musician and philanthropist Micheal Heaton, and a Vietnam monument, welcoming home those military veterans.

More recently, the newly constructed Patriots Park stands near the Peg Bond Center as a tribute to Bernard Cigrand, a Batavia resident who founded Flag Day.

In Geneva, a historic 1915 monument created by sculptor Carl A. Heber stands at the Kane County Courthouse to honor the county’s soldiers and sailors.

This monument, and its location, has played the role of the town square in the past, especially when a presidential candidate like John F. Kennedy made a campaign stop there in 1960.

In addition, diamond-shaped marble inlays dot the sidewalks along Third Street, serving as historic plaques that, in some cases, provide quick lessons about what was once located in those areas more than 100 years ago. In other spots, they honor top citizens, businesses or achievements that shaped Geneva.

Just south of downtown, a War Memorial stands near the Kane County Government Center, honoring the county’s veterans in every war the nation fought in which Kane County sent men and women.

That’s a lot of stuff in small parts of each city that gives longtime and new residents a good sense of what these cities are all about.

A packed plaza

It doesn’t take much more than the eyeball test to see that the Fabyan Randall Plaza in Batavia is one of the more popular retail strips in the region.

This is what happens when you have a grocery store like Trader Joe’s as an anchor, but also highly popular offerings like Walgreens, Dollar Tree and Sierra clothing store as part of the plaza.

Lumes has been a consistently busy restaurant on the east side of the plaza, and Taco Dale continues to draw customers on the west end.

The newest entrant is Grand Appliance, which chose the Fabyan Randall Plaza to open its 31st showroom earlier this year.

All other businesses in the strip benefit from the popularity of the major anchors and restaurants.

The packed parking lots nearly every day tell us a retail sector can thrive with the right names that draw shoppers and, most importantly, buyers.

A story last fall revealed that Cushman & Wakefield brokered the sale of the plaza from NetCo Investments to a private investor. That private investor surely took the eyeball test on more than one occasion to trigger an interest in obtaining what, on the surface, looks like a little gold mine.

Either that, or some due diligence would reveal that more than 62,000 vehicles pass through the Randall Road and Fabyan Parkway intersection daily. And, according to Cushman & Wakefield, the five-mile radius around the plaza consists of more than 109,000 residents with an average household income exceeding $144,000.

Ollie’s smiling face

It’s at least a little unusual to walk into a store and see the store’s logo character above nearly every aisle — and you think Professor Irwin Corey is staring at you.

Well, that’s what “Ollie,” the logo for the new Ollie’s “Good Stuff Cheap” store on the east side of St. Charles, looks like. If you aren’t familiar with comedian Irwin Corey, then you’re lucky you’re not as old as those of us who do.

In any case, my first visit to this store was enjoyable. There are a million things to look at from pottery, to games, toys, books, pillows, stuff to clean everything, food, and T-shirts (some for 99 cents, no less).

When telling my wife what Ollie’s is like, I said “it has everything from air conditioners to jalapeno kettle chips.”

Plus, it’s possibly the only store on the planet in which women’s bras are displayed on a wall, right next to plastic storage bins.

I had long found the Ollie’s concept interesting, most definitely as a place with decent prices, but also potentially for “hard to find” things. I wasn’t there long enough to say the latter is true, but one could walk around this place for quite a while exploring all of the different products.

I left thinking that Ollie’s is a cross between a dollar store, a home décor store, a toys and books store, and a small appliance or hardware store.

One could argue that Walmart and Target also offer such an array of goods, but there’s something about “Ollie” smiling above every aisle that convinces you that this is different — and a nice addition to the local shopping scene.

Tax bill makeover

As we pay our real estate tax bills this week, I would include myself among those who were at least somewhat surprised about the “new-look” bills that showed up in our mail.

Daily Herald correspondent Alicia Fabbre recently addressed the concerns of some Kane County residents regarding the bills that were quite “busy” in terms of color, charts, and photos of the county treasurer that came off like a campaign mailer during an election cycle.

On face value, the new bills are potentially more eye-catching and do supply some important data — if you are inclined to spend the time to figure it out.

I’ve had a good handle on where our tax money goes, so it’s maybe not fair for me to say I wouldn’t spend a lot of time trying to decipher the new bills. But my guess is that many people who don’t understand their tax bills still might not take the time to decipher it via this new bill format.

Past bills made it easy to compare your current bill to last year, with figures for each government entity’s tax rate and what you paid each year listed at the bottom of the bill. That’s all most of us care about.

It’s hard to imagine there was an outcry to change the bills in this manner. Many of us know what Treasurer Chris Lauzen looks like, so three photos of him in one mailing speaks to the unnecessary “political feel” of the widespread mailing.

When Gordy Volkman was county treasurer in the 1980s and ‘90s, his name, of course, was on the mailing. But his photo never appeared. Lauzen’s had not graced past bills, either.

So, I chalk this up as a “swing and a miss” by whoever was convinced this new look was needed.

Ultimately, a bill is a bill, no matter how detailed or fancy or whose smiling face pops up on it — and that means we have to pony up some cash again.

dheun@sbcglobal.net