Gregory reflects on four years as Belleville’s first female mayor
Patty Gregory remembers the moment she knew she would be Belleville’s first female mayor.
It was following a phone call in 2020 from an elected official after she announced her candidacy for mayor. Gregory says the official told her that she had “never done anything for Belleville” and “couldn’t be a mayor.”
“That just made me think, ‘I’m going to be a mayor,’” Gregory said with a laugh during an interview as she prepared to leave the city’s top office.
Her four-year term ends Wednesday.
Gregory won the office in 2021 by defeating former Mayor Mark Eckert, but lost her reelection bid on April 1 to City Clerk Jenny Gain Meyer, who takes office as the city’s second female mayor on Thursday.
Gregory, 71, said she doesn’t have any intentions to run for elected office again.
Gregory, a retired teacher who founded Art on the Square in 2001 in Belleville and served as executive director for two decades, said she may draw on that experience and work as a consultant for art shows around the country.
While she is not part of the current Art on the Square leadership and was criticized by two former co-directors last year, Gregory said she supports the show’s new directors as they are set to host the city’s largest street festival May 16-18 on the Public Square.
“I would like to see it continue and I think it will,” she said. “I never gave up on Art on the Square and I wouldn’t because, you know, I started it.
“It was born and raised in Belleville and that’s where it needs to stay.”
Accomplishments as Belleville mayor
Gregory said she was “devastated” over the closure of St. Elizabeth’s Hospital and Lindenwood University’s Belleville campus. The loss of those two institutions were a couple of the reasons why she ran for mayor in 2021.
“Those were all major concerns that I had,” she said.
St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, like so many car dealers previously, moved from Belleville to a new location along Interstate 64 in O’Fallon in 2017. Gregory was a founding member of the group called Oppose the Move, which tried to keep St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in downtown Belleville.
Lindenwood University, which is based in St. Charles, Missouri, announced in May 2019 that it was losing $2.5 million to $3 million annually at its Belleville campus and would close classes for full-time students.
But Gregory said in the first few months of her mayoral term that the city would use a $3 million state grant to buy back the Lindenwood campus, which was the former site of Belleville West High School at 2300 W. Main St. and has since been occupied by multiple public agencies.
In March, near the end of her term as mayor, Gregory noted that SIHF Healthcare, formerly known as Southern Illinois Healthcare Foundation, announced that it had purchased a 69,000-square-foot, four-story medical building at 180 S. Third St. in Belleville that formerly was owned by St. Elizabeth’s Hospital.
SIHF Healthcare will continue with its existing services in the building (cardiology and primary care and imaging and laboratory testing) and add the following: An InstaCare (urgent) clinic; orthopedic care; behavioral health services; an on-site pharmacy; women’s health services; ear, nose and throat care; plastic surgery; gastroenterology; outpatient general surgery; and podiatry.
Gregory added that SIHF Healthcare also purchased the vacant land where the St. Elizabeth’s Hospital complex stood before it was demolished by Springfield-based Hospital Sisters Health System.
The SIHF Healthcare center will “be bringing in a lot of people downtown with all the services that they will be providing,” Gregory said.
“It’s going to be a nice medical center for downtown,” she said. “And I was really happy since that was one of my major things that I had worked on for many, many years. I can’t imagine not having that hospital area filled. I can’t imagine not having something done with Lindenwood.”
Former Lindenwood/Belleville West site
The former Lindenwood and Belleville site was renamed the Southwestern Illinois Justice and Workforce Development Campus — or The Campus for short.
Organizations at The Campus include:
- Southwestern Illinois Colleges operates a police academy to provide entry level law enforcement training. Participants live in dorms while taking classes.
- Southern Illinois Law Enforcement Commission, which provides training for about 90 law enforcement agencies throughout the metro-east.
- Southern Illinois University Carbondale Law School offers classes for third-year students from the Simmons School of Law.
- Southern Illinois University Edwardsville offers a master’s degree in forensic sciences in conjunction with the Illinois State Police Forensic Science Institute.
- Belleville has offices for three departments: Economic Development, Planning & Zoning; Engineering; and Health, Housing & Building.
Gregory said over 6,300 police officers and cadets have received training at The Campus since June 2022.
“So it’s been a great win-win situation for everybody,” Gregory said. “We’re very grateful for everybody that helped make that happen.”
Belleville developments
Along with the redevelopment of the former Lindenwood and St. Elizabeth’s sites, Gregory said highlights of her term include the granting of about 400 commercial occupancy permits and economic development worth tens of millions of dollars.
“I have to say I’m pretty proud of all the people that have worked in this administration and all our department heads for doing a great job for the city for the last four years,” Gregory said.
Gregory also said she was happy her administration was able to get the extension of the property taxing district known as TIF 3 because of its impact on the Belleville economy.
“I could not imagine the city going forward without that happening,” she said.
The TIF, or tax increment financing, district covers most of the city and in 2021 it was extended to 2033. It was established in 1986.
In a TIF district, property values are frozen at the level when the district is created. Any additional revenue generated by a rise in property values is channeled into a special fund earmarked for infrastructure improvements and economic incentives in the district. The tax “increment” is the “difference between the amount of property tax revenue generated before TIF district designation and the amount of property tax revenue generated after TIF designation,” according to the Illinois Municipal League.
Gregory said five TIF districts were canceled during her term but she was pleased with the addition of one for the Bellevue Park Plaza shopping center, which was not included in TIF 3.
Gregory said other highlights that occurred in Belleville during her administration include:
▪ A new contract for police officers who had been working without a contract.
▪ “Re-energized” the city’s commitment to work with St. Clair County, which is spending about $33 million to redevelop the Belle-Clair Fairgrounds and racetrack and build a new animal services building on the west side of Belleville.
▪ Promoting the city’s Infill Redevelopment Program as new homes have been built on vacant lots.
▪ Aldi and DG Market grocery stores recently opened new stores. Aldi is at 1805 Carlyle Ave. on the east side of Belleville and the DG Market is at 2100 W. Main St. by The Campus.
▪ Rent from a solar farm being developed at Mount Hope Cemetery off West Main Street will be used to help offset costs of running the cemetery, which the city bought last year for $1.
▪ The demolition of the former Executive Inn. Belleville used federal COVID relief money to pay for this demolition.
▪ Several park projects were completed, including a $1 million renovation at Bellevue Park, which now has pickleball courts. Gregory described Bellevue Park as the “crown jewel” of the city’s park system.
▪ A 2024 study commissioned by the Illinois Realtors and Southwestern Board of Realtors listed Belleville as a “potential future hot spot” due to recent economic planning and efforts to address challenges such as an older housing stock, decreasing population and lower income and home values.
▪ The Leadership Council of Southwestern Illinois in 2023 gave the city an economic development award that Gregory said was for “retention and expansion in economic development.”
▪ Work has begun on a new retail center behind Green Mount Commons.
▪ Work on an Ollie’s Bargain Outlet at 104 Carlyle Plaza Drive has finished and the opening is planned for May 7.
▪ The Villas of Holly Brook at 4350 Frank Scott Parkway West has expanded its units for senior care and a new federally-subsidized complex with “affordable” apartments for senior citizens is being built off Illinois 15 in Belleville.The development is known as Trolley Circle, at 1110 Comwest Parkway, which is near the county animal service center under construction.
▪ The city worked to maintain ties with Scott Air Force Base and Gregory said she was named an “honorary commander” with the 932nd Airlift Wing at base.
▪ A cannabis dispensary opened last year at 360 S. Green Mount Road. Gregory also said work is under way for another dispensary to open off Illinois 15 near South 74th Street. This site will also grow marijuana plants and is expected to create 100 jobs with the craft growing business, Gregory said.
Belleville mayoral term review
Mark Eckert, who died in 2023 after a battle with cancer, had been mayor for over 16 years before Gregory took office in 2021.
Gregory said she has learned that some area cities have term limits for mayor.
“In a way, that is good, because it brings in new ideas,” she said. “And then people don’t get set in their ways. I think that was part of me coming in after someone who has been here for 16 years. It was hard for some people to accept me because you get used to working with somebody and the ways of that person.
“But all in all, it’s been a good experience.”
As she reflected on her term as mayor, Gregory recalled her first impressions of Belleville when her family would drive through the city to visit her grandmother in Prairie du Rocher for fried chicken dinner on Sundays:
“I’ve loved Belleville since I was a little girl and driving around the fountain with my Dad and Mom.”
