Fairview at 40: City founders honor community's history

FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS -- Mayor Gail Mitchell said at the city's 40th birthday celebration Saturday that he was honored to be among so many of the city's founders.

A former mayor, all of the past police chiefs, and other former and current city leaders gathered with a small crowd at the celebration at Everett Moody Park at Longacre.

"I don't think anybody really dreamed it'd be what it is today," he said.

George Lanxon, the city's second mayor and a longtime salesman and sales manager for a nationwide steel supplier before opening his own company, George Lanxon Piling Sales, said his professional background helped him be a successful mayor. Salesmen, he said, are "always proposing something."

"Salesmen are aware of ups and downs," he said. "You're able to adapt, accept the low points. The sun comes up tomorrow."

He's proud of what he contributed during his tenure, 1979 to 1995. Everett Moody Park at Longacre, already established by the first mayor, Everett Moody, who has since died, was further developed. The city began infrastructure improvements. City leaders took on goals: install a mile of sidewalk each year and 10 streetlights and fire hydrants per year. He's also proud that the Illinois State Police Forensics lab moved into the city in 1985. He thinks that, because it draws law enforcement vehicles in from so many other communities, it keeps crime at bay. When potential perpetrators see the cars, he thinks, they go somewhere else.

"I can't tell you how much I enjoyed being mayor of this city," Lanxon said.

Roger Richards, the city's third and longest-serving police chief, said he has seen other communities try to emulate what Fairview Heights has done and how it has grown. He sees the city as a leader in the area.

"We've gone from a bedroom community to an urban area," he said of the city, which now has a population of more than 16,000 people and is the commercial center of the metro-east.

During a speech to the crowd at the party, Police Chief Ed Delmore honored those that came before him.

He presented two men with Purple Hearts for injuries suffered in the line of duty. The two men survived their injuries and were present to receive their awards:

* Ralph "Bud" Brumley in 1973 was taken hostage and shot by the suspect with his own sidearm but later recovered, returned to work and became police chief before joining the FBI, from which he is now retired.

* Robert Barth was shot by a suspect while responding to an alarm sounding at a business. He is now a criminal investigator for the St. Clair County State's Attorney's Office.

He also recognized Bob Simons, who retired this year from his 38-year volunteer position with the city's Board of Police and Fire Commissioners.

"What you did in the first 35 years makes my job so much easier," he said to the former police officials. "You kept the bar very high, and I know every day I stand on your shoulders."