Big, Beautiful Brown Wall Funded By Joliet Taxpayers Cost $2 Million: Ferak Column

(The following opinion column is by John Ferak, Joliet native and editor of Joliet Patch the past eight years.)

JOLIET, IL — When city planning director Jim Torri informed Joliet's City Council of his retirement plans last November, John Mezera was the first person Torri praised when reflecting on his career at City Hall. Mezera was Joliet's long-time city manager from 1987 until his retirement in 2008. One of Mezera's dumbest decisions running Joliet City Hall more than a quarter century ago continues to haunt and hurt the taxpayers of Joliet to this very day.

The combined city of Joliet operating budgets from 2023, 2024 and 2025 are spending around $2 million in taxpayer funds — perhaps more —to pay for the demolition of the former Joliet Catholic High School gymnasium and cafeteria near the busy intersection of Hickory and Jefferson streets.

How in the world did today's Joliet taxpayers get suckered into paying for that construction work?

For that one, you can thank the late John Mezera, who died Nov. 2 at the age of 74.

As Joliet Patch reported last year, Mezera, along with part-time Mayor Art Schultz and the rest of the Joliet City Council from 1997, agreed to take ownership of the former Joliet Catholic gym and cafeteria under a land donation to the city.

Back in the 1990s, the Victory Senior Centre did not want the gym and cafeteria for its redevelopment of the old Carmelite-run parochial high school being converted into senior citizen apartment units.

At the time, Joliet officials indicated they would pursue plans to renovate the former gym and cafeteria into a community recreation center, but that never happened.

Once Joliet acquired the property deed for 25 North Broadway Street in 1997, the gym and cafeteria sat empty year after year. Years of harsh winters took a toll. The former high school gymnasium showed signs of serious wear and tear and became structurally unsafe, over the course of 25 years after people leading Joliet's City Hall allowed the property to fall into neglect.

Then in 2023, the Joliet City Council awarded a contract for nearly $316,000 to Universal Asbestos Removal for the Victory Center Gymnasium, 25 N. Broadway St. Last October, Joliet Patch reported that at a total cost of nearly $2 million, the city of Joliet taxpayers were funding the demolition of the old Joliet Catholic High School gymnasium and cafeteria.

The city hired Joliet-based R. Berti & Son Contractors as project manager for the demo work.

At the recent May 6 meeting, community development director Dustin Anderson convinced the Joliet City Council to approve a budget amendment of more than $404,000 for The Victory Centre Demolition and Stabilization Project. Anderson said the capital funds were already approved in past city budgets and needed to be carried forward into the 2025 budget.

Meanwhile, at the corner of Hickory and Jefferson, the fruits of that demolition are starting to show.

Thousands of motorists trying to cross — the now-indefinitely broken Jefferson Street Bridge — can sit in traffic congestion at the stop light and admire the view of their new brown retaining wall.

Perhaps the beautiful brown wall becomes the new hot spot for taking Joliet selfies.

Now that the retaining wall construction has reached the final stretch, maybe the city could tap into its cash reserve funds and set aside a little bit more money for the project.

More money? Why, you ask?

It's time to add a large boulder, a portrait of Mezera and a bronze commemorative plaque listing all the Joliet City Council members who approved the land donation in 1997.

That way, today's citizens — and future generations — will always have a permanent reminder of Joliet's ill-advised plan of turning the old Joliet Catholic gym into a community recreation center, a bonehead decision that cost today's Joliet taxpayers around $2 million.

Money that could be better spent fixing neighborhood parks, patching potholes, replacing and building new sidewalks — and adding more traffic turn lanes along several miles of Black Road.