:quality(70):focal(528x331:538x341)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/shawmedia/E3BURCM5GVD77DIT3MXJA22K44.jpg)
Name: Alex Clubb
What office are you seeking? Mayor of Morris IL
What is your political party? Republican
What is your current age? 33
Occupation and employer: CEO of A. Clubb Lawn Care & Landscaping, INC./ CEO of Clubb Racing INC./ 3rd Ward Alderman City of Morris
What offices, if any, have you previously held? 3rd Ward Alderman since 2019
City: Morris IL
Campaign Website: Alex J Clubb for Mayor on Facebook
Education: Morris Community High School Class of 2010 Joliet Junior College Automotive Technology Certificate 2012
Community Involvement:
Marital status/Immediate family: Wife, Ashlee, son, Parker, 4, daughter Kennedy, 1
Questions:
The city is already in the midst of multiple park projects. What projects would you like to see tackled in the upcoming term? Would you continue seeking out grant dollars for further projects?
Our current parks plan is very underwhelming with extremely high price tags. I want to see a large improvement of equipment and space management. Goodwill Park needs a lot of work as does Westside Park. I would like to see updates to those parks before we continue with other parks. I would like to fix both Goodwill and Westside in year 1. After that I would like to make improvements at the rest of our parks 2 per year. We would continue to go after grant dollars for future projects, with common sense and proper planning being number one.
The Grundy Resiliency Project just unveiled the Advancing Grundy plan in January. What is the city’s role in the success of that project?
The city of Morris is a small part of a big web of people, businesses, and community leaders from our county. Everyone is working to keep Grundy County moving forward in the event of Industry closures, natural disasters, and economic downturn. The city’s role in this project’s success is to work together with leaders and groups to keep everything moving in a positive direction. The project is to help with proper growth for jobs, housing, and infrastructure expansion. It helps with state and federal funding for advancements in the community.
Morris is in need of more housing, specifically affordable housing. How would you go about improving the city’s housing stock?
This is a tough subject for many reasons. We do need affordable housing very badly, the problem we are facing is the cost to build places, and the room to build them. We also have to think about the strain this growth would put on our school system, the need for more parks and things for kids and adults to do, the police, and fire departments for public safety. Everything would need to be expanded evenly for proper growth. In city limits there is not much room to build. There is some land to the west but I believe to do this type of expansion correctly expansion needs to take place north of Interstate 80. With the expansion it will also cost us valuable farmland, that we also need to take into consideration during the process.
The Illinois Department of Transportation has shared a plan to expand and improve the stretch of US Route 6 from Ashton Road to Illinois Route 47. What other improvements would you like to see along that stretch of road to make it safer?
I think expanding Route 6 is needed. With this I would like to see turn lanes, crosswalks with lights in the road, and stop lights. I would also like to see more crosswalks put in along Route 47 as well.
What are your top three priorities for our city, and how do you plan to address them?
My top priorities for the City of Morris are to end the corruption and pay to play politics, stop the rampant overspending and no new tax increases, new parks and infrastructure plans and no new landfill expansion. Business growth!
I would start with ending the handout jobs that the current administration put in that are unnecessary for their friends and campaign managers. Stopping the pay to play politics by not accepting money or donations to political funds from any businesses that do work in the city of Morris. No new taxes is easy. I will not raise our sales tax. A loophole for taking more money is property values going up but our tax multiplier stays the same in turn bringing in more property taxes. This should be adjusted to offset that. Our current parks plan is not good, it lacks equipment and is extremely expensive. This needs to be redone with a common sense approach for better parks and less spending. Infrastructure is a big thing that needs to be addressed. Most of the 3rd Ward in Morris is in major need of repairs from drainage, curbs, sidewalks and streets nearly 70% need fixed or completely redone. The battery fire property needs to be removed! Landfill expansion can not happen! We have too many issues with our old and closed property, we do not need more problems. I will not let any landfill expansion happen. Business growth is also very important. We need more sit-down non-fast food places to eat, and more things for kids and teens to do in our community.
How do you intend to balance economic development with environmental sustainability in the community?
We need to expand and grow as a community at a slow pace. The biggest problem with most bigger communities is that they grow and expand at a rapid pace. We can not do that in Morris. We need controlled growth so we do not overwhelm our schools, police and fire department, and our infrastructure.
What are your plans for enhancing public transportation and infrastructure in the city?
I would like to see more buses added to our Grundy Transit System. It is a great service that gives riders a ride anywhere in Grundy County and Joliet. Our City’s infrastructure is pretty good in most areas but there are many areas that need work. The 3rd ward of Morris needs a lot of work from the drainage system to our streets, curbs and sidewalks. The lithium battery fire site still sits much like it did when the fire happened in 2021. That needs to go as soon as possible. We need to have some new codes for buildings in downtown Morris. After the building collapse I believe we need to have regular inspections done on all of our older buildings downtown. Thankfully no-one was hurt when this happened. I would also put in place pre-salting of all roads including side streets, and cul-de-sacs prior to storms in our area.
What role should the city council play in supporting local businesses and economic growth?
We should work hand in hand with everyone to the best of our ability. As public servants we are supposed to help the community including all businesses. There are many grants available for all types of businesses and business owners including grants for female and minority owned businesses. Far too often places come and go and help seems to never be offered from the city. I believe now is the time we change that.
What are your top public safety concerns for our community and how would you propose addressing them?
We have to get our community safer. From 1992-2019 we had three murders in Morris one in 1992 one in 2000 and one in 2019. During the current administration’s time from May of 2021 we have had six murders in the City of Morris. August 2022, September 2023, and we had four murders in 2024 two in August, one in November, and one in December. We have an amazing police force, we will help them with more flock cameras, ballistic vests, and anything else that will help make their jobs safer and easier. We will set up regular patrols of areas that are having the most issues with crime. This will help keep everyone in our community safer and give peace of mind to residents.
How will you ensure that city policies promote inclusion for all residents?
I believe we live in one of the best places in not only Illinois but America. We are not a perfect city, but none are. I would make sure every decision we make as a city includes everyone no matter their race, color, sex, National origin, creed or religion.
Do you support requiring government officials to publicly disclose potential conflicts of interest, and how would you enforce this?
Yes, I fully support this! As candidates we have to sign a statement of economic interest, and file it with the County Clerk prior to turning in our petitions, to be placed on the ballot.
How will you make sure you are accessible to your constituents?
I will be available for contact at my city email aclubb@morrisil.org city of Morris desk phone if elected, my Cell phone 1-815-768-9739 that was setup when I became Alderman, in 2019 via call or text. I will also be open for meetings with constituents during normal business hours at city hall. I believe in full transparency and will always answer any questions truthfully and to the best of my ability.