Urbana Mayor Laurel Prussing unseated the three-term incumbent Tod Satterthwaite in a tight race in February 2005. But, Mayor Prussing’s first term is no fresh spin in political circles for her; she served as a State Representative for the Illinois House in the early 1990s.
Running on a platform to build up the Philo Road area as well as Urbana’s downtown, during Mayor Prussing’s three years in the City Building, the southeast area of Urbana near the Philo and Windsor intersection went from very little development to building up housing subdivisions and attracting popular businesses including Milo’s Restaurant.
She’s also voiced strong rejection to Ameren’s electrical and American Water Company’s water rate hikes. Mayor Prussing, at a City Council meeting, said about the hikes, “We have higher than average water rates. Our rates are higher than publicly-owned systems, and our electrical rates are higher. Both of those together are a drag on our economic growth.”
Some citizens were unhappy about the recent vote the mayor favored to allow Urbana’s Lincoln Hotel to be developed without a historic designation seal that would have protected the portion built by local architect Joseph B. Royer in 1923.
How do you view Mayor Prussing’s first three years in the mayor’s chair? What decisions do you agree or disagree with?