Mayor Terry Weppler will be retiring this year after serving the Village of Libertyville for more than 12 years, saying he believes that it is time for somebody else to step into the mayor’s office. 

“You need new blood and new ideas on a regular basis, and I’ve truly enjoyed [being mayor],” he said. 

 Another reason for his retirement is because of the heavy workload. Even though Weppler said being mayor is not meant to be a full-time job, it does require daily work and because Weppler and his family purchased a second home in Oklahoma two years ago, “It’s tough to go down there when you’ve got to be here all the time,” he said. 

Weppler first ran for mayor and was elected in 2009. He wanted to see Libertyville become more enterprising from a business standpoint because he “didn’t feel like they were as proactive as they could be.” 

Throughout his time in office, Weppler said he and the Village Board have accomplished a number of achievements to reach his goal. 

“When I became mayor, there were about 12 vacancies on Milwaukee Avenue, and we were able to bring [in] stores to fill them up,” said Weppler.

He and the board were also able to build a second parking garage in the downtown area, in addition to getting the Libertyville train station rebuilt.

Furthermore, a recent project they are developing is the Village-Wide Master Stormwater Management Plan. 

“Back in 2017, we had a number of houses flood when we had that huge rain and our storm system was developed years ago, [so] with climate change, we are getting much more strong and intense storms, and it’s causing houses to flood,” Weppler explained. 

The village may add a stormwater utility fee into residents’ water bills to pay for the reconstruction of the storm sewers in an attempt to prevent future flooding incidents. 

Throughout Mayor Weppler’s time in office, he has been able to participate in township events and gain many experiences with the community. One of his favorite memories includes annually visiting schools in Libertyville and talking with students. However, with the Covid-19 pandemic, Weppler was not able to have his usual school event this year. 

“When I go in, I’ll run an actual Village Board [meeting] and appoint students as trustees and mayor and have them discuss things that we discuss as a board,” he said. “I’m very impressed with the ideas that students come up with and the amazing input I get.”

A few years ago, Weppler also visited the Libertyville High School AP Environmental Science classes that came up with a number of ideas on how to help the environmental problems surrounding Butler Lake.

Richard Moras is a trustee of the Village Board and deals with the village’s finances. He explained that the board represents all of the citizens in Libertyville, so when the board comes together and votes on a local issue, they get to act as a legislative power while Weppler acts as an executive power. 

Moras has known and worked with Weppler for the past 12 years and explained that he is proud of Weppler because he encompasses great leadership and fiscal responsibility.

When Moras and Weppler both came into office, they created a capital spending plan to expand the town budget and allow for the reconstruction of many of the village’s roads, Moras said. In order to get the plan passed, Weppler had to convince the township to vote on the referendum. 

“The referendum passed successfully [because of the] way [Mayor Weppler] handled the general public and getting people to understand the issue of getting 40% of the roads replaced,” said Moras.  

Moras also explained that he is proud that Weppler and the board were able to pass a 1% sales tax in order to gain money for future infrastructure projects. 

Although Weppler and the Village Board had many accomplishments, one shortcoming Weppler regrets was not being able to save the Brainerd building. He and the board had hoped to transform the building into a new community center.

“Unfortunately, we worked hard on that and I would like to have seen that move forward”, said Weppler. “It ended up becoming too expensive to do, so it fell through.” 

Two things that Mayor Weppler said he will miss about his job are the community and the people with whom he works. He explained that he works with a lot of enjoyable and hard-working people and has a great staff.

During MainStreet events such as Libertyville Days, the head committee runs many events and “there’s just a lot of people who are involved, and I’m going to miss working with them in the capacity as mayor,” explained Weppler. “People in this community really want to see the community grow and be a great place.”

Once he retires, he still plans to be involved with the village and volunteer around the community, but he hasn’t decided exactly what he wants to do yet. 

Mr. Moras feels bittersweet about Mayor Weppler retiring. “If there was ever a human being that was destined to be mayor of Libertyville, it was Terry Weppler,” he said. “Terry was super qualified, he was knowledgeable, and most importantly, he just really cares.”