Civil Municipal Magazine - Nov 2023

92 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 11 infrastructure needs and addressing its environmental concerns. The Village invests $2.6 million yearly to resurface its local roads, and in next year’s budget, a little over $1 million to make repairs to curbs, sidewalks, and street lights, and promote pedestrian accessibility. Mokena is Tree City USA, and its Hickory Creek Forest Preserve encompasses 2,000 acres in the south part of the village. All of its street lights have been converted to LED, and a new police station, nearing completion, will be heated and cooled via the installation of geothermal wells. “We honor Arbor Day with a proclamation to protect our trees and our woodlands,” says PREFERRED VENDOR/PARTNER n Ozinga ozinga.com n Studio GC www.studiogc.com Studio GC is a Chicago-based architecture firm founded with the intent of providing very personal services. For 30+ years, we have worked as a passionate, community-minded partner committed to creating imaginative and well- designed spaces. In addition to architecture and interior design, we offer planning, programming, cost estimating and facility assessment services. Anderson, “We like to promote tree growth with our businesses whenever they’re coming in and developing. That’s something that our developers work closely with our Village Board to make sure that we’re promoting an eco-friendly business environment. We also hold an annual Village-wide cleanup day in April with the help of volunteers in our efforts to keep our Village clean.” All of these efforts have proven successful and, going forward, Mokena expects its growth and development to continue apace. “When a business decides to plant roots in Mokena, they tend to stay and expand,” says Lee Kaz, Past President of the Mokena Chamber of Commerce and current Chairman of the Mokena Economic Development Commission. “I’ve seen a whole lot of expansion over my years here, and I’ve been here since ’96. When a business sees everything that Mokena has to offer, they tend to want to stay here.”