Street named after former Mundelein Mayor Kenneth H. Kessler
A street in a new Mundelein subdivision will bear the name of former Mayor Kenneth H. Kessler, officials revealed Monday.
Kessler Drive will be found within the Crossings of Mundelein near routes 83 and 60. The neighborhood, construction on which is expected to begin this spring, will be behind the similarly named Mundelein Crossing shopping center.
Kessler Drive will enable passage between the homes and the shopping center.
With Kessler in the audience, the village board approved naming the street in his honor Monday night. After the vote, Mayor Steve Lentz gave Kessler a street sign and a framed copy of the resolution describing the honor.
Kessler served two terms as mayor, from 2005 to 2013. He served as a Mundelein trustee from 1999 to 2013.
As veteran Trustee Ray Semple noted, Kessler led the town through the Great Recession. As real estate developers disappeared, businesses closed and municipal revenue dropped, Kessler was among the leaders who kept Mundelein afloat financially by enacting some tough budget cuts, Semple said.
"He was a mayor for two rough terms," Semple said. "Naming a road after you is the least we can do."
After taking the sign and plaque from Lentz, Kessler joked with Semple about the difficulties he faced as mayor.
"Ray, I forgot how much fun we had," Kessler said.
Kessler also noted that the location of Kessler Drive is particularly fitting because his first ribbon-cutting ceremony as mayor was in 2005 at the Home Depot in the Mundelein Crossing center.
Kessler isn't the first village official to be honored with a street name in Mundelein. McRae Lane, Noel Drive and Rouse Avenue all bear the names of former mayors.
So do the police station, which is formally the Marilyn Sindles Public Safety Building, and Maurice Noll Park.