There is history around each and every bend that we come across during the course of our lives; in Springfield, we can see it everywhere, and because much of it is marked and noted, different looking and unique to the tune of an entirely different historical era, it is easy to remember the past in our present. The present was once the future, and will soon be in the past, yet the past is also truly the present.
Riverton also has a past, it has a present and a future as well. The past lies tangibly all around the village; from the landmarks of the past that proudly stand, still functioning – defiant of the passage of time – to those whose doors long since shut forever, whose few, sparse remnants remain to remind us of that which could not sustain the changing seasons of time.
Mayor Tom Rader remembers most of these landmarks – still standing or not. He has been in Riverton for nearly all of his life. While he travels for work and as most others do – for pleasure or obligations, as and when the schedule allows – he always finds his way back to the village just a quick drive away from the capital city of Illinois; his pride for the place cannot be contained as one speaks with him.
“I moved to Riverton when I was one. I was born on March 27, 1967, in Springfield. So, I have lived in Sangamon County all my life. I have enjoyed learning about the rich history that we have in Sangamon County and in Riverton. I grew up with a family that was always giving back to their community. I have watched my parents give their blood, sweat, and tears to our community. So, I have a tremendous amount of pride for my community. I have been in local politics for 21 of the last 23 years, and my goal has always been to try and give our community the tools it needs to be successful.”
And WMAY has had many chances to speak with him over the last five months. Highlighting the stories and communities around Illinois remains crucial for so many reasons, and it is an obligation that we at WMAY and the entire Midwest Family-Springfield take incredibly seriously. Giving people across Springfield, Sangamon County and Central Illinois their voice is imperative. Mayor Rader is always happy to spend some time with us – answering questions easy and hard – as often as we can schedule it.
Across our numerous discussions – ranging in topic from personal and professional obligations to social and economic innovations, to fixing the roadways, growing the village, their upcoming 150th Birthday Party, rezoning efforts, to their work with neighboring Spaulding, and, of course, regarding Riverton after the tornado hit the village – we have covered a lot of ground. And so we’re providing you with some of the most interesting bits from our conversations with the veteran magistrate of Riverton; we hope that you enjoy them and the insights they provide as much as WMAY enjoyed learning, questioning, and listening!
Mayor TR: My LinkedIn page is up-to-date with my business profile. My business background was achieved outside of a classroom. I have been blessed with people that have come in and out of my life that wanted to show me how to be a better person.
I graduated from Riverton High School in 1985. I spent two years at Lincoln Land Community College for Electronics. In March of 1988, I was hired by Hobart Corporation and worked there thru June 2004. In June of 2004, I accepted a job with Gateway Proclean. In November of 2010, Swisher Corporation bought out Gateway Proclean. I was promoted to Senior Account Manager with Swisher in September 2013. I worked with our management team to create growth and work at strengthening our relationship with our distributors. I assumed the day-to-day responsibilities of our key customers within my territory. I also worked with our account managers in Central and Southern Illinois in growing their assigned territories and focusing on our service that would drive our sales objectives.
I have also had the privilege of serving as a village trustee in Riverton, Illinois from 2001 to 2009. During that time I was a part of the Administration Committee, and the Public Safety Committee, along with serving as the Mayor Pro Tem for two years. I then took a position in 2011 on the Fire District Board in Riverton and served as their treasurer until May 2013. In April 2013, I was elected Mayor of Riverton.
I have been working with our residents and the village board to move our village in a positive direction. I have created a new committee that is dedicated to economic development and controlled growth for our village. We have started a new venture with the Sangamon County Regional Planning Commission on the development of a new comprehensive plan. I have been grateful to have served as the chairman of the Sangamon County Regional Leadership Council for 4 years and currently co-chair this group. In 2021 I was selected to be part of the Bicentennial Committee for Sangamon County. I also serve on the Sangamon County Comprehensive Plan of 2040 and chair the Hazard Mitigation group for Sangamon County. In 2021 I was also asked to serve on the executive committee for the Interstate Municipal Gas Agency.
I left Swisher on August 29, 2014. I am now with MJ Kellner in Springfield, IL. I was able to get their ware wash and laundry program operational in the fall of 2014. In 2019 MJ Kellner decided to bring their beverage program in-house. I was tasked with creating a beverage program that would strive to compete against well-established beverage programs. I have been able to create a team of service techs, and a coordinator that devote themselves to being the best at customer satisfaction. In July of 2022, I was promoted to Director of Chemical/Beverage/Equipment for MJ Kellner.
WMAY: The history of the town of Riverton is interesting itself. “Judy’s Ferry,” the lumber, rail and later, mining industries, Jamestown, Howlett, Jacob Bunn and the wealth of Springfield, the Italian-American population and the history of how so many came to live in Riverton, and so much more; with that all noted, what is your vision of Riverton moving forward, and how do you see it evolving?
Mayor TR: Our history here in Sangamon County and Riverton is amazing. We are so fortunate to have had our 16th president call Springfield home. The history of Camp Butler National Cemetery has a remarkable story to it. Our community has such a rich history with some famous people in history leaving their mark on our community. We have had James Reed who was part of the Donner/Reed Party who left from just outside Riverton on their fateful journey west.
Historians have told us that Abraham Lincoln’s first steps in Sangamon County towards Springfield, began just outside Riverton as he floated down the Sangamon River. The famous Jesse James was reported to actually stay overnight in our community on his way to Minnesota with his gang.
We can’t forget the legendary Al Capone who would make trips down to Riverton to partake in some games of poker. In 1873, Riverton began to attract more people. The makeup of our town was originally mainly of Irish immigrants. This would begin to change in the early 1900s as Italian immigrants began to migrate to Sangamon County from the old country and the east coast.
We will celebrate the 150th anniversary this year of Riverton being incorporated, in fact. In the past 150 years, we have known our town to have several different owners and names. It started with a ferry going across the Sangamon River in 1829 and has now grown into a community of over 3,500 people. This town has been resilient over the years.
The board and I have been working hard to ensure that Riverton will continue for another 150 years and beyond. Our focus has been on bringing more businesses to town in such a way that it doesn’t undermine our neighborhoods. The creation of the commercial and industrial park is our vision to help sustain our village for years to come.
More On Riverton’s 150th Birthday
“…we’re gonna have it [the celebration] from July 27-29, right over there at the Field of Dreams over there. So we’ve got a huge array of things. They’re having meetings before our board meetings on the first and third Mondays of every month; they’re meeting with the committees, so they’ve got things laid out now…So this is where the village hall is that we’re going to have a car show here on Saturday. They’ve got what we need in this area with the Redneck car show, with their souped-up trucks and crazy stuff, Jeeps, and all that can be over there.
JFL will have an expo on Saturday, the Carnival will be here Thursday, Friday, and Saturday – food trucks too. We’ll have a silent auction. We’ve got a couple of other events going through here too. They got bags, tournaments going, and then the VIP area, where we’re going to have bands and stuff, and then we’ve got Parmaley – the country band, that’s been in the top 40 – there, and they’re coming in to play Saturday.
Also on Friday and Saturday night, we’re going be setting off fireworks over in this area [points to farmland]. We’ve got a couple of individuals here in town – one of them’s from Italian descent – who had a lot of his relatives and many of his ancestors grew up here, so he’s got a lot of that history memorized, and then another gentleman has done our history for years around here. He has photos and things like that and knows that stuff remarkably intimately. We’re going to have each of them here, have them set up some of their displays of that stuff.”
WMAY: Concerning the road quality, not only in Riverton, but across Sangamon County, what would you say to constituents who see that–even with nearly 40% of transportation expenditures as per 2021-22 upon road maintenance–roadways across the county continue to show frustrating signs of damage and pitting?
Mayor TR: This is such a hard issue for our community. The winter weather is hard on the roads. We work really hard to keep our roads clear in the wintertime. In order to do that, you have to plow them and salt them. The salt alone can be hard on blacktop roads. The cost of overlaying blacktop roads has increased at an incredible rate. We have a program in place for our oil and chip roads.
The town is broken into sections that are done every four years. The roads that are blacktop have a completely different schedule. When a road is overlayed, we hope that the road will last for 15 to 20 years before we have to do the road again. We did approximately a mile of overlay for our roads and concrete work to prepare a road to be overlayed in 2023. We were fortunate enough to have 750 thousand dollars channeled our way from Representative Tim Butler. There is no way we could have done that this past year without that assistance. The money that we receive from MFT doesn’t keep up with the rate our roads are deteriorating.
On the Riverton-Spaulding Police Force Merger
“…We’ve been getting good feedback from Spaulding that, you know, they’re happy to see officers in the area patrolling and you know, when you have a small community like Spalding, they didn’t have the money to put 24-hour police service out there. So now you do see cars out there at all different types of day.
We are out on 54 trying to slow people down out there. And we were gonna go through a period of time where – unless somebody was just excessive – we were giving out a lot of warnings; it’s a 40 mph zone here, so let’s slow down. But obviously, if you’re creeping into the 60 and 70 mph range, you’re probably getting a ticket. You know, we can go a little over and understand for sure, but not that far over. But everybody seems to be embracing it….”
WMAY: With the transportation budget cut as thin as it is already, would it be fair to say that greater state and federal funding–not the reallocation of funds from other sectors of the local transportation budget–would be useful in remedying this problem? If not, do you see a viable alternative solution(s) or path to improving local and county road quality?
Mayor TR: I do believe that over the next 10 years, it will be crucial for state and federal dollars to be allocated to communities to shore up some of their roadway needs. I do feel that this problem shouldn’t be met with raising just taxes. There is always a balance to be found when issues arise in our communities. I like to say that its not a bad thing to think out of the box.
WMAY: Another circumstance that has piqued the interest of the local communities is surely the public-private initiative, designed to remedy the blight of homelessness across Sangamon County; what is the position of the Mayor and his office concerning this investment in the people of the community and state, as well as regarding strong social safety nets to assist individuals who fall upon difficult times by one reason or another?
Mayor TR: The conversation that we had and enjoyed on this topic does come with more questions than answers. I am grateful that we don’t have a large homeless issue, but we do have lower-income issues.
Communities of our size and smaller do not have the funds to help with these issues. In our community, our choices are limited to create a higher tax rate. If we would become a Home Rule Community, we could do that. The problem with that is how do we shelter our lower-income members of our community from that?
They are already hit with more Federal and State taxes, along with the cost of goods and transportation going up. The village continues to work towards keeping our utility rates as low as we can, while still offering the services needed. I have watched over the years as the so-called box stores have come in and really have taken a bite out of small businesses. This is the same problem smaller municipalities have with their services.
The bigger power companies, gas companies, water and sewer districts can spread their cost over thousands of customers; we do not have that luxury.
I do want to add that I applaud that a shelter for the homeless is being worked out in Springfield. This will help the needs of the homeless and answer most of the communities concerns in Springfield.
On leading a community and dealing with other local and state governmental bodies
“You know, when you’re in this realm, you have to be able to compromise. You’re not always going to get your way but you shouldn’t always be given everything up here. So it is a compromise and we do that with our residents and things like that. We have ordinances in the book for a reason. But I’m also a person that I don’t mind having a little gray area because there’s certain circumstances that could warrant a bit of nuance in dealing with the needs of the community.”
On being a part of a community and what people mean to the mayor
“…That’s what I tell people to you know, you. You go through life, and you can let the negativity drag you down. Or you can do positive things on a daily basis, holding the door open for somebody. It’s something small, but you hope that you gave that person a little hope that humanity is still alive and well. It’s somebody’s willing to do something for you. And that’s what I tried to do. I try to put positive things out there walking down a grocery aisle and just smile at somebody.
WMAY: Are there any other hyper-local issues that require greater local, state, or national attention than they are receiving? If so, what are they, and why do you think they are not being considered as they should be?
Mayor TR: I have been an advocate for our smaller communities in Sangamon County. I know how hard it is for a community to try and hold on to its history and identity. In order for you to accomplish this task, you will have to look at some form of change.
We all know that change can be hard. I feel it is better to make a change while you can still control your story. I have seen some communities within the state that waited too long, and they were forced into a change, or it was just simply too late. I have been advocating with the Sangamon County Planning Commission to help find ways for small communities to apply for grant money and low-interest loans to help them. It is a known fact that these communities do not have people on staff that have the time to do this or the knowledge.
I do feel that the mindset of our rural communities is they are not as important as our urban areas. This is our home! We have chosen to live a slower-paced life, a life with small businesses as our way of life. A life where your school mascot and colors flow through your community.
Trent, I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to our small communities.
Our thanks to Mayor Tom Rader, and the city of Riverton for all of their time, information and conversation.
