World-renowned businesses, upcoming developments, improved infrastructure and sustainability were top of mind during Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen’s annual State of the Village address, delivered April 21 to the Skokie Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

In between praises of Skokie Village staff and stories of interacting with constituents, Van Dusen touched on coming developments at the Illinois Science and Technology Park, renovations at Westfield Old Orchard Shopping Center and recent changes to the village’s garbage and recycling services.

The speech doubled as an acceptance speech for an award he received from the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning related to his work with bringing sustainable resources and transportation to Skokie.

One company that has put Skokie on the map for sustainability is recent Earthshot Prize finalist LanzaTech, located in the Illinois Science and Technology Park. The company, which has been based in Skokie since 2014, got pride of place in Van Dusen’s speech.

“I was blown away that a company from New Zealand makes its headquarters in Skokie, Illinois and is doing work around the world, repurposing carbon they produce into jet fuel,” he said.

Van Dusen also looked ahead to the village’s developing affordable housing policy, which he’s named as the next step for sustainable development, and highlighted Skokie’s recent move to send social workers out with police officers when responding to some 911 calls.

There are major infrastructure repair and replacement projects coming down the pike in Skokie, he said. These include updates to the village’s stormwater retention system, upgrades to Crawford Avenue and state-mandated lead service line replacement.

“We have some challenges ahead of us,” Van Dusen said. “We have a mandate from the State of Illinois to replace the lead lines in the village. We estimate somewhere around 11,000 to 12,000 of them. The cost will probably be, conservatively speaking, around $80 million.”

However, he said, those projects “are the kinds of things you can kind of plan for.”

The only concern the mayor named during his speech were worries of a recession in the second half of this year. “I was listening to (Federal Reserve Chairman)Jerome Powell last night — you can see what my life is like,” Van Dusen said, to a light chuckle around the room.

He said he has been told an economic downturn would begin in earnest in the retail and office sectors rather than in the residential sector.

“We have to be thinking about this kind of possibility,” he said.

One audience member asked Van Dusen if the village would delay, make temporary or otherwise adjust the implementation for a trio of government-reform referendums that passed in November 2022. Van Dusen said no.

“The residents of the village spoke,” Van Dusen, who opposed the reforms, said. “They all passed; they will all be implemented. It will take some time.”

Implementing the referendums falls to Village Manager John Lockerby, Van Dusen said.

“One of the great things about being a legislator is you get to debate and argue and formulate policy in your boardroom,” he said. “And then you say to your village manager or your director of community development, ‘execute it— I get to move on to something else now.’”