Dixon council recognizes Lott, Dishman during Black History Month presentation

DIXON — The Dixon City Council honored two people at its regular meeting Tuesday in observance of Black History Month.

Gerald Lott, founder and executive director of Sauk Valley Voices of Recovery, was presented the Ike Mercer Certificate of Achievement Award.

The Lifetime Achievement Award was dedicated to Jim Dishman, the city’s public property commissioner in the late 1960s.

The Mercer award recognizes people making a difference in the community like its namesake, Ike Mercer.

“Mr. Mercer was a man of our community who lived a life of service,” Councilman Mike Venier said. “He is a decorated citizen that we still recognize and respect today.”

Mercer died in January 2019. He was well known for co-founding the Al Morrison Baseball League as well as serving on the Lee County Board and Dixon’s public safety commission.

Lott said he remembered meeting Mercer when he first moved to Dixon about 12 years ago.

“He was an amazing man...he was very kind to me. It’s an honor to be even considered in the same space as him,” Lott said.

Aaqil Khan, director of patient accounts at OSF Saint Katharine Medical Center, presented the formal nomination to Lott.

“[He is] a dear friend of mine,” Khan said. “I’m very honored and privileged to be able to give this nomination”

Khan said he remembered back in 2019, working in a different position at the then KSB Hospital, “a group of us professionals are working on addressing substance use disorder in our community.”

After a two-hour session, Khan said, they thought they laid out a great plan approaching the issue from an academic perspective when “a voice in the corner of the room spoke up and said, ‘you know, if you don’t mind, I’d like to give you some feedback about this' and that voice was Gerald.”

Lott, now celebrating over a decade of sobriety, brought a much-needed new perspective – lived experience, he said.

They “handed the marker to Gerald, threw up the papers, erased the whiteboard, and said, ‘Gerald, you lead us,’” Khan said.

Throughout the course of several meetings, Lott worked with the group to engage those in the community who were actively using substances, former users and those seeking treatment, Khan said.

“There’s a major gap in trying to get individuals who want help into treatment,” Khan said. “It became very clear that we needed to put more energy and resources into this.”

Lott, having earlier moved from Chicago to Dixon, began to feel isolated in the community and noticed that it lacked the recovery supports that were once so readily available to him, Lott said in a previous interview with Shaw Local.

Lott then decided to leave the security of his well-paying job and started Sauk Valley Voices of Recovery. He was backed by a three-year grant from KSB, giving him $5,000 a month “to start doing events, newsletters and promotions,” Khan said.

[ Sauk Valley Voices of Recovery works to build a sober community ]

Fast-forward about six years later: SVVOR has become Dixon’s one-stop shop for recovery services by opening a sober living home, assisting people in finding treatment and building a sober community.

In all, it’s raised about $4 million for the community, driven more than 100,000 miles and taken over 700 people to treatment, and grown to a staff of 10 recovery coaches, Khan said.

“It’s our neighbors who are struggling,” Khan said. “One in four adults struggle with substance use disorder.”

“Gerald and his team are making strides in efforts to address all of that. For that, we’re forever indebted. I am forever indebted,” Khan said.

The Lifetime Award was presented by former city commissioner Walt Lohse, who was a mentor to Dishman when he first joined the council.

Lohse was elected to the council in 1968 and reelected five more times, serving a total of 20 years, he said. During that first term, the council needed to appoint a new public property commissioner as that commissioner had just died.

The mayor at the time advocated for Dishman to be appointed, telling the council that he thought he “would be a good man on the council,” Lohse recalled.

“When it came time to vote, it was unanimous,” he said.

Dishman was sworn in, served the remainder of that unexpired term and “was elected by the good citizens of Dixon,” he said.

“He was competent, he was knowledgeable, he was always friendly, he was dependable, and he possessed a great amount of integrity,” Lohse said.

Over the years, there have been 13 recipients of the Ike Mercer Award. The Lifetime Award was created in 2024, Venier said.