Mel Fifer, proprietor of Mel`s Klip & Kurl-it`s next to the Splash `n`
Dash Laundromat on North Cedar Road, in New Lenox-admits she was reluctant at first to move to the far southwest suburbs.
”I had this fear of owning this shop and living in the same town and someone`s hair not turning out and them turning up on my doorstep and saying
`Fix this mess!` ” Fifer said with a laugh.
So far, no one has ambushed Mel, short for Melody. In fact, Fifer has found the local people, and the Will County environs, to be most agreeable.
”It`s very homey; the people are very down-to-earth,” said Fifer, whose 2-year-old tress-taming establishment is presided over by a poster of dirty dancer Patrick Swayze and where appointments are scheduled according to the movement of hair scissors-turned-clock hands.
A herd of elephant figurines parades across the salon`s shelves, their uplifted trunks pointed east, and Fifer explained that the animals are good luck charms presented by customers. But the assemblage just as well could signify the political preference of the area: It`s the hometown of Jack Davis, a former congressman and also former party chairman of the Republican-steeped county.
In municipal matters, though, partisan politics isn`t a factor. And political disagreement is likely to be polite.
”There`s no mud-slinging,” said stylist Patty Lindber. ”It`s a laid-back place. A nice little town.”
Her coif completed, a customer eases into a shampoo basin chair to toss in a comment.
”Well, it`s enough that you can make a good living,” said Shirley Price, whose husband is an asphalt contractor, ”but you don`t have the big-city bustle.”
That theme reverberates throughout the community. Ringed by farmland vistas and tangles of hickory, oak and black walnut, the village indeed retains an agrarian flavor and a congenial, small-town disposition.
Settled in 1829, the village has had multiple identities. It began as the Hickory Creek settlement, became Van Horne`s Point, after a prominent resident, then was called Tracy, after a revered Rock Island Line official.
Tracy, according to Will County Historical records, demurred on the honor, and in 1858, New Lenox finally was was agreed upon as the permanent name; it is taken from Lenox, N.Y., the birthplace of some of the area`s early settlers.
It remains a bastion of small-town, family neighborliness. If folks haven`t chatted after mowing the lawn, at a Haven Elementary School PTO meeting or at a Lions Community Center gathering, they certainly will get the opportunity at VFW Post No. 9545`s Friday night fish fry.
The sense of community camaraderie and friendliness is so pervasive that no one seems rankled when the village mayor, whose parents, sister and brother-in-law operate a home-building firm, makes development proposals to the village board on the company`s behalf. He passes the gavel to a trustee and abstains from voting.
There is little industry; most residents work outside the town. And although Ill. Hwy. 30, which bisects the village, has a growing complement of franchise outlets, many businesses retain family ties.
”People know that when they walk into a store here, you can see the owner working there and that they`ll treat you right,” said Delores Paulsen, owner and head cook at the Bruns Restaurant. The eatery has been a New Lenox fixture since 1941 when Paulsen`s parents, Alma and Herbert Bruns, opened the business at Cedar Road and the highway, then the center of town.
A strong current of community spirit and patriotism also is evident. When reviling returning Vietnam veterans was popular in the late 1960s, New Lenox instead rallied behind them, adopting as the village`s official motto ”Home of Proud Americans.”
Veterans get additional attention at the community`s annual Loyalty Day, this year on May 7, with a parade along a flag-festooned Ill. Hwy. 30.
Local churches also serve up considerable regular social fare.
”This is a very conservative town,” said Village Administrator Russ Loebe, a New Lenox native. ”The values that are here run very deep.”
Preserving the village`s traditional, family-oriented character will be a major challenge for the community because the region is poised for significant growth.
Urban and suburban, primarly white-collar emigrants are flooding the area. Commodities traders, young executives and other upscalers are moving into the community, which formerly had a predominantly technical and skilled- laborer work force.
Affluent newcomers are buying expensive homes in subdivisions that are sprouting on every edge of the community. Some of the most costly-upwards of $250,000-are being built in small cul-de-sac enclaves on heavily wooded lots carved from former farmland. One posh home recently up for sale included among its amenities a basement bowling alley, seven fireplaces and luxury poolside cabanas. The price tag: $1.3 million.
There are other more modest choices. Condominiums, some priced as low as $65,000 but most starting around $89,000, and owner-completion houses starting at $90,000 are selling well, according to area real estate representatives.
Bargains can be found among existing in-town housing stock of Cape Cod, ranchstyle and two-story frame homes, which range in age from 30 to more than 100 years and in cost from $75,000 to about $135,000.
The surge in residential building permits reflects the population infusion. More than 330 were issued in 1988; in 1982 there were 42. Population has climbed from 5,792 in 1980 to 7,262, according to a special census in 1987, and the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission predicts that New Lenox Township population will be more than 23,000 by the year 2000.
”New Lenox is going gangbusters,” confirmed Joseph Duffy, senior planner with the Will County Land Use Department.
Several factors are responsible for the influx, not the least of which is the bucolic environs.
”You know how during the Gold Rush they`d say `Go west`? Well, here they`re saying go southwest,” observed Pat Joniak, manager and relocation director of Century 21 Tri-Star Realty. ”They`re buying atmosphere. . . . They want to have their own piece of land.”
The firm has an office along the eastern end of the highway where, to meet the buying demand, so many real estate shingles have appeared that some are dubbing the stretch ”real estate row.”
One realtor, Anthony Kroll, of Century 21 Pride Realty Inc., said his employees have been forced to work from 7 a.m. until well into the evening to accommodate potential buyers.
”It`s growing with a vengeance,” Kroll said of the area.
Will County`s low cost of living-New Lenox boasts the third lowest property tax rate in the county-is another factor fueling the buying appetite. So are schools. Many young parents are attracted to the solid, disciplined approach to academics in Elementary School District 122 and Lincoln-Way High School District 210, which boasts an award-winning marching band. Also, Providence High School earns particular accolades for wrestling.
Transportation is another amenity. A proposed extension to the North-South Tollway in Du Page County, which would provide a direct link to northern and western suburbs, is expected to bring a surge of commercial development as well as improved commuting ease, supplementing the road access provided by Int. Hwy. 80. The Rock Island Line affords train transportation.
Dave Fenn, owner of the White Hen Pantry across the street from the Rock Island station, has a ringside seat to the growing commuting ranks.
”We`re pretty well mobbed,” he said of the expanding wave of the downtown bound, some of whom come on foot from nearby subdivisions to grab a cup of coffee and a paper before boarding the train.
Village leaders are taking a progressive posture in managing the development.
”We`re in the center of a growth corridor,” said Mayor Dennis Valy.
”We`re not going to stay the same sleepy town that some of us remember as kids.”
Accordingly, the village is rewriting its comprehensive plan with the intent of targeting areas for commercial and light industrial use. A second special census is underway to gain the early benefit of population-keyed federal and state monies, in advance of the nationwide effort in 1990. The chamber of commerce is polling residents` views on the community`s long-range growth.
New Lenox has an advantage in attempting to lure desirable commercial and ”nonsmokestack” industrial development, said Edward Duffy, Will County planner: It does not have the hindrance of an heavy industry legacy.
”They don`t have to work against that,” Duffy said. ”It`s almost a clean slate appearance.”
Although the village may have displayed an early progressive bent by becoming in 1899 the nation`s first rural telephone collective, there is some discord on merits of growth.
Recently petitions were circulated in hopes of thwarting plans for a Jewel-Osco complex proposed for a site on Ill. Hwy. 30, adjacent to the village hall. The existing Eagle and Dave`s Supermarket are enough food stores, the petitioners argued. Village officials, however, have given preliminary approval to the project.
And while few forecast the evolution of office high-rise forests a la Naperville or Schaumburg, some view any expansion as a calamity, fearing the degeneration of their prized country charm into traffic snarls.
Some also are worried about escalating muncipal service costs. Though the community recently received a $3.2 million state grant to help in upgrading its sewage treatment system, more revenue is needed to fund needed expansion. ”I think everybody`s just kind of spinning,” said Marcia Englert, an administrative assistant and community native. ”It (the growth) is exciting. But there`s mixed emotions.”
”The days when you used to know everybody`s face are long gone,” Loebe conceded. ”But we have to meet the growth head-on, try to shape it, pattern it after what we`ve had in the past.”
At the Tuesday night leagues at the Country Lanes Bowling Center, Mary Davilo said she and her family-her father is a retired police officer, her mother is an assistant states attorney who commutes to the Loop-would prefer development curbs. They deliberately traded urban surroundings for pastoral.
”You don`t even have to lock your doors here,” said Davilo, a grocery cashier. ”But you do have to get used to the corn fields.”
”I wouldn`t go back,” said Waukegan transplant Marilyn Kurtz, a team member and sponsor of Kurtz Memorial Chapel`s team.
”This is a quiet, clean, nice community.”
Down a couple of lanes, bowler Jack Reichardt was even discouraging an inquirer.
”Don`t say anything too nice about this town,” he warned. ”We`ve already got enough people coming here.”
