Mayor Ben Dietz

10/13/2026

Due to a lack of quorum, tonight's Comittee of the Whole meeting will be rescheduled to Tuesday, October 20th. The rescheduled Comittee of the Whole meeting will begin at 5:00PM, Finance Meeting will follow at 6:30PM, and City Council will begin at 7:00PM.

All items from tonight's agenda will remain and up for discussion/presentation during the 10/20 Comittee of the Whole meeting. That meeting will begin at 5:00PM. All items needing approval will be placed within the order of business section for the 10/20 City Council meeting. There will be no consent agenda for the 10/20 Regular City Council meeting.

10/06/2026

Let's welcome some exciting new additions to our Island Parks!

At the Gemini Giant; new signage has been installed to help tell the story of Wilmington and our local area. From Wilmington's beginings to our help in the war effort with the Joliet Arsenal, to where we are today. A nice addition to our visitors stroll around the Gemini Giant path.

On the North Island at the municipal parking lot visitors will have 2 more places to charge their vehicles while they visit downtown. The new chargers are located right by the ped bridge.

On the South Island our new 9 hole disc golf course is ready to enjoy. Full concrete tee boxes and tournament-ready pins are ready to for Fall on the Island. Course signage is coming but in the mean time feel free to let em rip.

09/30/2026

For longer than I've been alive (sorry Eric), Eric Fisher has been at the helm of the Free Press Advocate. Today, however, is the last edition that will circulate with his name as Publisher.

I've had the pleasure of working with Eric and his staff for the last 7 years and they have always been fair with the city and share a common goal that I have; to keep the public informed.

Newspapers have been around for generations, but we have always had the luxury of having a local paper. I've clipped countless articles of my kids on honor roll, school articles, and my swearing in as Mayor. It's what people have done for generations.

Eric (and family), thank you for helping educate, communicate, and celebrate our community for the last 46 years! Congratulations.

09/21/2026

Last Thursday through Saturday myself, along with Alderman Orr and City Administrator Wiak, attended the Illinois Municipal League’s annual conference. The IML represents all 1,294 municipalities in Illinois and provides educational and legislative support to continue to advance and advocate for municipalities across the state.

During this 3-day conference we attended many educational sessions on a variety of topics. Additionally, it gives us an opportunity to continue to network with our peers across the state, as well as discuss issues facing different municipalities.

Personally, I had the opportunity to learn more about retail recruitment, developments in the data center space, disaster management, new funding opportunities, tourism, and capital improvement planning. I will be sharing some of those learnings with our city council and will be looking to take some action on proactively getting ahead of the ball.

Hope everyone has a great Homecoming Week. Go Cats!

The Illinois Municipal League was founded in 1913 and has worked continuously for the benefit of municipalities. The governing board is comprised of Mayors and Village Presidents.

09/01/2026

Spread the word and vote!

Great recognition just to see Wilmington nominated in so many different categories.

IT’S TIME TO VOTE FOR THE 2026 SCENIC BYWAY AWARD FINALISTS!

The First Annual Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway Awards Gala will be a special evening exclusively for Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway members, celebrating the businesses, communities, attractions, organizations, and individuals who help preserve, promote, and strengthen the Mother Road across Illinois. The inaugural event will take place on November 10th at Ace Sign Company Museum.

It’s time to vote for the incredible businesses, communities, attractions and people who help make Illinois Route 66 the Mother Road we know and love.

Help us vote for the best in each category. Voting is open September 1 and close September 14. ANYONE CAN VOTE!

Begin voting here:
https://bit.ly/BywayAwardNominations2026

Please note: The voting categories feature a selection of eligible Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway members for consideration in this year’s awards.

08/29/2026

Congratulations on 300 career wins!

Decades of success, generations of excellence.

Congratuations to Coach Reents on an exceptional milestone. It takes a village and you, Coach Southall, & Coach Bolser are a cornerstone of what dedication, hard word, commitment , and community are all about.

CONGRATULATIONS

08/26/2026

Today, Wilmington hosted a special guest when Governor JB Pritzker stopped by for not one, but two stops. His first stop was at the iconic Gemini Giant. While here I presented him with his own Gemini Giant bobblehead and thanked him for the state's investment into preserving Route 66 for the next 100 years.

The Govenor also toured the Apprenticeship and Skill Improvement Program (ASIP) Local 150 right here in Wilmington. There the Governor was given a tour of their state of the art and largest of its kinda facility where they train their 24,000+ members from Iowa, Indiana, and Illinois right here in Wilmington.

Having met the Govenor a couple of times before it is always an honor but really cool to see him right here in Wilmington.

Five years ago the Govenor made an effort to begin promoting Route 66 ahead of the 100th anniversary of the route. Over the last 5 years Wilmington has been awarded multiple grants and been a party to others. Those grants have helped us build a new parking lot downtown, open the Landing Pad, create a new park area, build new welcome signs, and of course save the Gemini Giant. In all more than $1,000,000 in direct benefit to our community as well as benefiting our local small businesses.

--

On a personal note; I wasn't going to make that post because I have already seen other comments about todays news. Governor, like him or not, is the leader of the 5th largest state in the US and one of the top 20 economies in the world...and he's visiting Wilmington.

We are better than that. We need to be the example and quite frankly a better one.

As Mayor, I don't care if our Governor, Senator, or President of the United States is a Democrat or Republican. I have and will continue to meet with any of our elected officials to help make our community better and do whatever I can for Wilmington.

08/26/2026

South Island Park is now open!

Thank you for your continued patience as our Public Works team has been working to restore not only the South Island, but all over town. The Island Parks still have a significant amount of twigs, sticks, and debris (feel free to help us clean up!!), all of the large debris has been cleared and stacked.

City crews will continue to make additional curbside debris pickup through the residential neighborhoods throughout the remainder of the week. Please continue to be patient. In addition to continuing the storm restoration efforts, Public Works has still been completing the normal everyday tasks of mowing, service repairs, and their everyday tasks.

08/19/2026

Flock Cameras have been a hot topic around the area. There have been quite a few questions asked about the program here in Wilmington and how it's used. Some of those questions raise valid concerns, while other comments include quite a bit of false and misleading information about how it is used here in Wilmington.

I want to get your questions and concerns addressed, as well as dispel some of the inaccurate information about the how and why behind our use of the program here and give some real examples on how this technology is helping keep our community and businesses safe.

Please join me on Wednesday, September 2nd at 6PM at City Hall. I will be hosting an open learning session regarding our use of the Flock Safety Cameras. This session will be at City Hall and will include members of the Wilmington PD as well as a representative from Flock Safety to answer your questions.

In addition, the city has launched a transparency dashboard that provides the public with real-time data about the system here in Wilmington. How long we store the data, who we share the data with, and how many searches have been initiated in the system. The transparency portal is located at https://transparency.flocksafety.com/wilmington-il-pd

08/14/2026

Friday Update

It appears that 99.99% of power has been restored to Wilmington. A huge thank you to all those at ComEd for your efforts.

Island Parks remain closed to vehicles and pedistrians.

Public Works completed initial debris pickups in Northcrest, O'Brian's, and along the East Baltimore Street corridor yesterday. They will continue south today with the goal of completing the entire town by the end of the day today. This is only an initial pass to remove the bulk of the debris. If you were unable to clear prior to the pickup, Public Works will be making additional pickups next week.

West Baltimore Street (IL-53) conitnues to remain closed. ComEd crews are mobilized on site and are working to restore.

Oakwood Cemetary is in need of volunteers to assist in cleanup. They will be starting at 8:00AM. I would encourage anyone able to come help. If your student needs service hours this would be a great opportunity to start the school year off right.

Yesterday I issued an Executive Order declaring a State of Emergency for the City of Wilmington. This allows the city the ability to expidite processes needed to restore our community as well as seek funding should it become available. I have also been in communication with our County Executive, State Representative, State Senator, and the Governor's Staff.

This will be my final update on the storm and our recovery efforts. Thank you again for your continued patience as we get through this.

Looking forward to seeing many of you at Purple and White Night tonight.

We Are Wilmington, We Are One!
🟪⬜️ Go Cats ⬜️🟪