More From Your Mayor

Why I’m Running for Mayor of Danville

Danville is my Hometown, and I say that proudly! Growing up on East Williams St. near Chuckle’s and Garfield Park was a fun and active place to be. The neighborhood was filled with families and well-maintained properties. Looking back, it seemed like all of Danville’s neighborhoods offered a similar quality of life.

As decades have passed, our community has battled the challenges of a changing economy. With the loss of major employer’s came the resulting decrease in population. Many neighborhoods have transitioned to a higher percentage of investor-owned properties with fewer long-term residents. Danville now finds itself as a community built with enough infrastructure and land area to support 75,000 people. Our problem is we have less than 30,000 residents to support it, and there is no community-based plan in place for addressing that imbalance.

I am respectfully asking for your vote for Mayor to offer Danville voters an alternative type of leadership, whereby citizens are encouraged and empowered to actively participate in major decisions regarding the future plans and priorities of Danville. There are a variety of other goals, but a primary goal as Mayor is to demonstrate what accountable public leadership can achieve through collaboration and partnership with the entire community. An immediate focus will be on developing a community-based Strategic Plan that addresses Danville’s overbuilt infrastructure, and oversized City Government.

I believe a re-organization and reduction of City government is critical to provide the financial resources for community support programs, including gun violence, to accelerate the demolition program to improve neighborhoods, and to provide financing for other economic development needs that are key to future job-creation opportunities.

Having worked for the citizens of Danville for more than 3 decades, you may already be aware of my capabilities and performance. The operational teams I have assembled on behalf of Danville’s taxpayers have delivered consistent and beneficial results for Danville. Utilizing a culture of innovation and creativity to improve public service delivery, we implemented changes like fully-automated waste collection, in-house demolition program, and other construction programs creating improvements that last 50 years or more. My leadership in Contract negotiations with City bargaining units resulted in unprecedented changes benefitting the taxpayers of Danville.

I am very aware how important it is to have credibility for delivering results and also be open to leadership from others. During my tenure, our City parks were created and improved through collaborations and partnerships with Ambuc’s, Danville Soccer Association, Winterview Youth Sports, Garfield Youth Basketball, Elmwood Park Neighborhood Committee, the Espenscheid family, and many others. The majority of project funding for these gems was created through donations and contributions from throughout our community. I was proud to be able to play a role in support of these community leaders offering their time and treasure.

Our neighborhoods and youth must be a higher priority of the next administration. Continued blight and decay provide places for fear and unsafe/undesirable activities. A depressing neighborhood environment has a negative impact on all of us whether we perceive it or not, and it is worse for youth. The City should also be assisting other youth sports and other programs that relieve the City of providing youth recreation facilities and activities.

While this is only the beginning of the conversation, I look forward to sharing more of my thoughts, priorities, and plans for Danville in the months ahead. I encourage you to stay connected and sign up for campaign updates as we continue building a stronger vision for our community’s future together.

I sincerely appreciate your interest and request your consideration and vote for Doug Ahrens for Mayor of Danville.

Doug Ahrens