Schaumburg mayor's call for return to in-person work catches eye of Chicago media

Chicago television and radio took interest this week in the Daily Herald's coverage of Schaumburg Mayor Tom Dailly's state of the village address, in which he asked the local business community to return to in-person work as soon as it's safe to support Illinois' second-largest hub of economic activity.

"One of my lifelong mottos working in (information technology) has been 'Don't tell me we can't do it,'" Dailly told members of the Schaumburg Business Association Tuesday morning at Chandler's. "Tell me what it will take to do it, and then let's figure out how to make it happen. That's what we ask of you."

On Wednesday, a day after his address, Dailly spoke with the anchors on Fox 32 Chicago's "Good Day Chicago" in the morning and was later interviewed about his request on WGN radio in the afternoon.

Schaumburg's local economy is second in size only to Chicago in Illinois. The pandemic has demonstrated how important the daytime population of office workers is to the village's concentration of retail, service, hospitality and entertainment businesses.

Dailly explained how the village government had been able to safely keep its buildings operating without shifting to remote work. His request to office-based businesses to follow suit came only after he'd named a number of ways village government is providing support for the community's private enterprise during tough times.

"The village rolled out three forgivable loan programs in response to the pandemic," Dailly said. "More than 40 grants were awarded to Schaumburg small businesses in the amount of $650,000. These programs helped maintain over 100 jobs and helped attract customers to small businesses in the community."

He added that the village is continuing its work with the nonprofit business accelerator program Next Level Northwest to help businesses grow. Two Schaumburg businesses, Pilot Pete's and Xtra Mile Running, were selected into the program.

"I want to let you know that I believe in the success and future of all our businesses, regardless of whether they are big or small," Dailly said. "So one of my public service take-aways for this morning is that I hope you continue to do what you can to help your fellow businesses. Let's keep Schaumburg's future healthy and bright."