Voters approved the creation of a new town in southwestern Illinois. Now what happens?

Next steps for the Cahokia Heights consolidation plan include preparing for a new city government and making additional plans to inform residents about details of the merger, according to local leaders.

On Tuesday night, voters in Cahokia, Centreville and Alorton approved a referendum to merge the three cities into a single town called Cahokia Heights. About 61% voted in favor of the merger, and nearly 37% voted against it, according to unofficial election results.

“The residents voted for a change and a new day and hopefully something that would bring some life back into these communities,” Cahokia Mayor Curtis McCall Jr., said.

Focus on April’s election

The three cities will merge after the April election, when voters get to decide on new officials that will form the government of Cahokia Heights. The referendum approved Tuesday calls for an aldermanic form of government, with board members elected at large.

McCall said he plans to have multiple informational meetings for residents ahead of the election as he prepares to wind down the current Cahokia town government.

Although he doesn’t know when those meetings will take place as of now, he said they will likely be virtual because of the pandemic.

“The biggest thing is to make sure residents know that they’re going to have to vote again in April so that they can make an informed decision on who they’ll be voting for,” McCall said. “I think right now it’s time to just have meetings with the residents about how this is going to shape up.”

“I know some information was provided during those town hall meetings that we had a couple of months ago. I’m sure that we’re going to lay everything out from everything for the people who didn’t attend those meetings. We’ll talk about everything from the financial details to what it looks like to form a new city.”

The referendum voters approved Tuesday is the second part of the “Better Together” campaign, a four-phase plan. The first was in March, when voters in Centreville and Alorton overwhelmingly approved a referendum to merge their two towns.

Local leaders believe creating one large community by combining the three towns will help attract more federal funding for fixing failed infrastructure and making other improvements. Within the past 10 years, Cahokia has lost about 9% of its residents, which is the steepest population decline among cities in St. Clair County.

Public meetings for the Cahokia Heights consolidation were held in August and September so that residents could learn more about the proposal and voice any concerns to government officials. Similar meetings were held earlier this year for the merger of Centreville and Alorton.

But residents have yet to receive a detailed financial plan of the consolidation, which has created doubts among some voters about the viability of the plan.

McCall said he encourages residents who had those concerns to reach out to him and other leaders involved in the plan.

“For anyone who feels that they don’t have the appropriate information regarding this merger, I would encourage them to please contact myself or anyone else so we can explain in detail what’s going on.”

“I believe that we provided adequate information from my stance, but people’s interpretation of that information may be different, which is why I encourage people to reach out to us.”

A consultant did tell voters before the election that residents would save about $430 in their annual property taxes each year when Centreville Township is eliminated as part of the longer term plan. However, that was the only financial detail residents received about how the merger would affect them.

McCall doesn’t know when the detailed financial assessment - which officials said voters would see before the merger vote - will be available to the public, but he said he plans on having that information included in upcoming meetings with residents.

‘I believe this is going to be a template.’

Once the merger of the three towns is complete, the third and fourth phases of the plan include future referenda and legislation on proposals to dissolve Centreville Township and add Commonfields of Cahokia to Cahokia Heights.

Centreville Township Supervisor Curtis McCall Sr., Mayor McCall’s father, said he plans to use the elimination of Belleville Township as an example for dissolving Centreville’s.

In 2017, Belleville took over the duties of Belleville Township, founded in 1885, through state and local legislation.

“This is the time now to bring everyone together and set aside their differences and work together,” McCall Sr., said. “I will be a part of the team that will reach out through social media, through phones, my network, through people that I know who didn’t support the merger to get involved in this new city to throw their names in the hat to run for the elected offices.”

“All of these political positions will be open in the new city, and I think we have to reach across the aisle and get a very diverse group of individuals to become a part of it.”

Centreville Mayor Marius “Mark” Jackson said he’s “extremely happy” about the merger being approved and is working on the appropriate steps it would take to form Cahokia Heights.

“Right now I’m pretty much just focusing on the shape of the new city,” Jackson said. “Getting rid of a lot of overhead, you know the duplication of services, having one public works department, pretty much where we want to put what buildings where, just pretty much laying the groundwork for the new city. It’s a lot of work to be done, but that’s where the cost savings come because we’ll stop duplicating services.”

“Everything’s going to be centrally located, so there’s a lot of discussions to be had, but residents will be informed every step of the way.”

Alorton Mayor JoAnn Reed said she’s working on plans to inform her constituents about how the merger will affect them. She said she’s hoping to have timeline for those plans the week of Nov. 8.

“We actually didn’t have a date set for that because we needed to get past the election,” Reed said Thursday. “I’m certain that by next week, we’ll be putting a plan together and a timetable and I have to try to do that with every city. It’s going to be a little easier for Cahokia because they just have to add “Heights” [to the end of its name].

“We have to change. Our zip codes will probably not change, but we have post offices and things like that that have to change. And we have businesses that rely on location and they’ll have to change, so it’s everything.”

“You have to change all of that, eventually. I don’t see it happening overnight, so there has to be a plan to continue to speak with people and help them lead and answer their questions and relieve their fears. I look forward to that.”

McCall Sr. said he hopes the consolidation plan can eventually become an example for other communities in the state that are suffering financially and losing population.

“I believe that this is going to be a template for economically depressed communities all across the state of Illinois to consolidate their resources, to eliminate the overhead costs of running municipal buildings and paying for different police departments for cities that are contiguous with each other.”

DeAsia Paige

Belleville News-Democrat

DeAsia Paige joined the Belleville News-Democrat as a Report for America corps member in 2020. She’s a community reporter covering East St. Louis and surrounding areas. DeAsia previously interned with VICE and The Detroit Free Press. She graduated from The University of Kansas in 2020.