Galesburg Mayor and WGIL owner John Pritchard continues to be optimistic about the direction the city is taking.
In his “State of the City” address to the Galesburg-Area Chamber of Commerce, Pritchard says infrastructure improvements continue to be made, and structures are getting their due, too.
Pritchard says economic development is getting better, and things like infrastructure are getting stronger. And, he says, there’s one area that is even surprising him in terms of growth.
“Frankly for reasons I really don’t necessarily understand, is an economist there seems to be tremendous interest still in additional retail development coming into the community. You know I just didn’t think we were terribly under retail but there’s there seems to be more on the way hopefully,” Pritchard said.
There’s one thing Mayor Pritchard said more than once when describing Galesburg’s state, “Everything is gonna be okay.”
He pointed to things like new homes being built for the first time in a long time, saying “We’ve had residential houses built in this community for the first time in many years. Mark Klein and his subdivision up there.. there’s actually homes building sold in occupied, and now of course we have Mike Martin who is – if you look north of Aldis – are installing a new street headed due north on the west side of the street will be residential development, on the east side will be some more commercial development lots.”
Pritchard also talked about the potential of a boutique hotel downtown, nut he also cautions that things like budget constraints will continue.
He feels city finances are in good shape, and that the rest of the city’s operations are the same way.
