Okon: Remembering Charles Connor

State Rep. John Connor, D-Lockport, said some of his early memories of his father, the late Charles Connor, were of his concern about corruption in the local Republican Party in the 1980s.

Connor, a Republican himself, died last Sunday at the age of 90.

He was a big figure in local government and politics in the 1980s when he served as a circuit judge, then chief judge of the Will County Circuit Court, and finally as mayor of Joliet from 1987 to 1991.

“It seemed to me he was never in a fight with Democrats. It was always other Republicans,” John Connor said.

Maybe that made it easier for Charles Connor’s son to become a Democrat.

The Republican Party was dominant in Will County in the 1980s, but its image was burdened by corruption tied to then-coroner Robert Tezak, a party leader who was eventually convicted and served time in federal prison for an arson scheme.

Connor’s last job in public service was as an investigator assisting Democratic Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow in the 1990s in related probes into Tezak corruption.

Son John Connor later worked for Glasgow as an assistant state’s attorney before becoming a state legislator.

Partnering up

Joliet is looking for partners – as in neighboring cities and villages – to join in the search for an alternative water source, as Joliet plans to move away from the aquifer that now supplies city water.

Utilities Director Allison Swisher told the city’s Environmental Commission last week that she and Nick Gornick, the city’s water plant operations superintendent, recently met with “15 potential partners.”

“We consider everyone who is on a groundwater source to be a potential partner,” Swisher told the commission. “I think there is a viable possibility that we will have potential partners.”

AT&T Apartments?

An auction for the 97,000-square-foot AT&T building downtown did not draw a bid that met the minimum price the seller sought, economic development specialist Derek Conley told the Joliet City Council Economic Development Committee.

The city has joined the effort to put the vacant building back to use.

“We are talking with developers,” Conley told the committee last week.

Economic Development Director Steve Jones said the city would like to see the building converted to residential.

“We’re pushing for residential because we don’t think there’s a market for 97,000 square feet of office – unless it’s one user,” Jones said.

Name a neighborhood

AMITA Health Saint Joseph Medical Center Joliet is spearheading efforts to use a tax increment financing district to redevelop the business district that surrounds the hospital.

Giving the area a name could be part of the program.

“It would be great if the area around the medical center would actually have a neighborhood name,” said Shannon Jermal, regional director of community health integration for AMITA Health. “It just gives it a good community feel.”

• Bob Okon is a longtime Herald-News reporter. He can be reached at bokon@shawmedia.com or 815-280-4121.