Eckhoff ready to get to work

City Attorney Alan Schrock administers the oath to new Pontiac Mayor Kelly Eckhoff, photo provided.

Pontiac’s newest mayor is excited to get started in her new role.

Kelly Eckhoff was sworn-in to office earlier in the week during the regular Pontiac City Council meeting. She shared goals with the council which she would like to start reviewing.

“I’ve set some timelines and hopefully over the next few months, we’ll be able to get some things moving on items we’ve been talking about or have in the pipeline that we haven’t been getting a lot of action on,” Eckhoff told Eye On Central Illinois.

Eckhoff is currently focused on filling two seats on the Pontiac City Council – her seat which was vacated when she moved into the mayor’s position and a vacancy in Ward Two where the individual elected for office has already moved.

“We have two open seats and I’m going to be doing an application process for that.”

On the top of Eckhoff’s to-do list is a visual organizational chart for the city which shows citizens the flow of roles and responsibilities for the people working in the city. She wants to get that on the city’s website eventually.

Eckhoff also plans to review all committee assignments and establish a semi-monthly schedule of meetings. She wants to speed-up the process of the bike trail plan which resulted from a grant several years ago.

“I’m hoping we can have some target readiness by August 1 and know where we are going,” Eckhoff explained.

She also wants to review an infrastructure improvement plan which was previously set by the city to see if modifications can be made to it if additional funding might become available.

“We have a lot of construction going on right now,” notes Eckhoff. “Some of the road work that was bid out last year didn’t happen and it is now occurring.”

Bids have been let on many other improvements in town as several sidewalks will be done along with the city parking lot.

“It should be a busy summer if our contractors have time to get everything done.”

Putting together a Youth Advisory Panel is another goal for Eckhoff in order to stop the migration of young people from the area.

“I think it’s really important we use their minds to help us in the decision-making process because the future is for them,” said Eckhoff.

When it comes to the TIF district, the new mayor would like to create a five-year strategic plan and have it in place by October 1.

“Let’s work on a future looking through the windshield, not the rear-view mirror.”