Paxton Mayor Bill Ingold speaks Tuesday, Nov. 18, during a meeting of the city’s joint review board.
PAXTON — Toward the end of the Nov. 18 annual meeting of the joint review board for Paxton’s tax-increment financing district, former city Alderman Bill Wylie, now a public representative on the JRB, commended Mayor Bill Ingold for the TIF district’s successes in revitalizing the downtown and attracting development along the West Ottawa Road corridor around Interstate 57 — and for the countless hours of work that the longtime mayor has invested to help make it all happen.
Wylie asked the 76-yearold Ingold, who is now about seven months into his 21st year as mayor, how the momentum would be kept going once Ingold finally retires from the elected position he has held since 2005.
“I think Bill Ingold is a hero, but some day he’s going to run out of gas,” Wylie said.
“Is there some councilman who’s really up to speed on this thing and could assume a leadership role to keep it rolling?” Wylie asked Ingold, before turning to City Attorney Tony Schuering and asking: “Tony, what happens whenever an experienced (mayor) decides he’s going to pack it in?”
Paxton Mayor Bill Ingold gives his annual Independence Day speech. Will Brumleve/Ford County Chronicle
“If and when that day ever comes — assuming that whoever replaces Mayor Ingold will still have me (as city attorney) — I will be there to help them, as the (city) council, I’m sure, will,” Schuering replied.
Ingold, who was elected to his sixth four-year term as mayor last spring, said he has been preparing for the inevitable — finally stepping away from public office — and is leaning toward doing so once he serves out the remaining three-plus years of his new term. In the event Ingold were to choose to run for reelection in 2029 and serve one more four-year term, he would match his late predecessor, Jim Kingston, as the city’s longest-serving mayor ever — at 28 years.
“Right now, I don’t intend to run again, just because of my personal life, my wife’s health,” said Ingold, who has been married to his wife, Lynn, for 55 years. “With that, I’m not ever going to say never, but that’s the way it’s looking right now.”
After Ingold retired in summer 2016 from a lengthy career in farm equipment sales and service, mayor became a full-time job for Ingold — despite earning what he equated to only about $3.70 per hour. With Paxton having no city manager, Ingold has helped manage much of the day-to-day tasks of one — and the work has not gone unnoticed.
“A substantial portion of the community understands how hard Bill works on a daily basis for the city,” Schuering said.
Because the next mayor may not have the same available time, though — and because Ingold’s time, too, could become more limited while he is still in office — talks have already been under way about the possibility of creating a part-time position to assist the mayor with various administrative tasks.
“One of the things I was thinking about was, in lieu of having a city manager, … is to have an executive assistant, or someone like that, who can do the day-to-day stuff of the mayor and be not as expensive as a city manager but would still be here and would be able to carry on doing that,” Ingold said. “There’s not too many people who have a real job who are going to support a family on $3.70 an hour — and I use my own truck. So, do we need to find somebody (to help)? Yeah, we do. It’s one of those things where I don’t want an ‘oh, (no)’ moment where something happens and I drop dead and then everybody’s scrambling trying to do this (job).”
Also to help ensure a seamless transition, Ingold said he has files of information organized for the next leader to use.
“I feel like I have a pretty good backbone of information there when somebody would take over that they could go to my files and find out what’s going on,” Ingold said.
Ingold noted there is also “good support staff — as far as the leadership in the city itself, as far as the jobs and responsibilities of everybody.”
“With the attorney (Schuering), with the financial advisor (Fredi Beth Schmutte) that we have, it should be a seamless transition,” Ingold said.
Wylie again thanked Ingold for his dedication to the community, calling him a “hero.”
Ingold — who served as an alderman from 1990 to 2005 before being elected mayor — said receiving praise was never the goal.
“Statues don’t mean a lot when you’re gone, and that’s not what I’m looking for,” Ingold said. “But I’m very proud of what we’ve done.”
Under Ingold’s watch, the downtown has seen lots of improvements, including new storefront awnings and facades, fully renovated buildings, and a reconstructed Market Street complete with new sidewalks and curbs. There has been economic development along West Ottawa Road, as well, where there is a new 41- room hotel and new car wash and where there is expected to soon be a new convenience store and fast-food restaurant.
“And we’ve gone quite a ways away from where we started off with financially in the city to where we are today,” Ingold said of the city’s finances. “I’m just super proud of that.”