Mayoral candidates outline goals

Kelly Eckhoff and Bill Alvey participated in a candidate forum with Casson Media this month.

Two Republicans are running for mayor of Pontiac in Tuesday’s (Feb. 25) citywide primary.

Incumbent Mayor Bill Alvey faces a challenge by current city council member Kelly Eckhoff.

Eckhoff grew up in Pontiac and was raised on a farm northeast of town. She graduated from Illinois Wesleyan with a Bachelor of Arts in accounting. Eckhoff came back to Pontiac, got married and has three children and eight grandchildren. She was elected to the city council in 2007. She describes community service as her life, saying she is “all in” when getting involved with something.

“I decided I wanted to take on a bigger role and so I was going to give it a try to be in the leadership position,” Eckhoff explained.

Alvey is married with one son and two grandchildren. He graduated from Pontiac Township High School in 1965 and attended Illinois State University. He has worked at Wright’s Furniture for 39 years and worked as advertising and marketing director for the Pontiac Daily Leader prior to that. Alvey served on the city zoning board to fill-in for someone before he was asked to fill a vacancy on the city council. When the former mayor decided to retire mid-term, Alvey became mayor.

“The city has changed some – not population-wise but geographically,” said Alvey. “We are expanding and growing. We are looking forward to continued growth.”

Each candidate has plenty of ideas and goals in mind for the next four years, should they be elected.

Alvey said there are so many projects going, he wants to see them through.

“We have a new substation we are planning. I would call it about a third of the way there.”

In addition, Alvey is looking at new sales tax revenue with more infrastructure plans and street work.

“Plus, we are in the middle of a housing study, so we are looking at ways to rehabilitate and grow our ability to attract people,” noted Alvey.

Alvey points to success in many areas and credits a “team effort” for bringing everything together.

Eckhoff has attended several seminars, one on stopping the migration of young people from communities.

“If you look at our demographics, we are an aging population in Pontiac and Livingston County,” Eckhoff stated. “We need more young people living in Pontiac so we need to find ways that what we do for our residents attracts them.”

Community engagement is also important to Eckhoff. She’d like to get more residents downtown, wanting to come to meetings and speak out. One of her goals is to start a monthly conversation with the mayor – a laid back session where people can talk and share ideas. Eckhoff would even consider establishing a youth advisory team.

“My priority is getting more people educated about what we are doing,” adds Eckhoff.