Ted Shekell has served O’Fallon for 23 years. Now, the city has big shoes to fill

After 23 years as the Community Development Director, Ted Shekell is retiring.

City staff and aldermen honored Shekell during Monday’s O’Fallon City Council meeting.

During his tenure, the Community Development Department, formerly known as Planning and Zoning, coordinated the growth of over 3,000 new homes, 200 new office/commercial buildings, 14,000 new residents and over $2 billion in private construction.

Mayor Herb Roach said Shekell directed the Community Development Department through some of its most important and fastest growing years in history.

“There is not a building in town that was built after 1997 that Ted was not involved in,” Mayor Herb Roach said. “He has served with professionalism, expertise, and bravery. We owe him a debt of gratitude. The entire community will miss his leadership.”

Justin Randall, assistant community development director, said working with Shekell the last eight years has been a privilege and an honor. He is being promoted to the vacant position.

“There isn’t a day that goes by where he doesn’t provide wisdom, encouragement, and Ted and I have blurred the line between boss and employee. He has truly become a mentor to me. He guided me to bigger and better things that I never thought possible. He helped me through difficult life situations, always putting God first and in what we do as an organization,” Randall said. “He has been an absolute inspiration and truly someone you want to grow up to be.”

City Administrator Walter Denton spoke about working with Shekell for 18 years.

“He says I turned his hair white but mine fell out,” Denton said. “As a city administrator, we’re only as good as the people who work in the city ... I’ve always been grateful for his candor, and his counsel and his humor.”

“Most of all, his passion for the community and for serving the city is unparalleled. O’Fallon is better because of his contributions here,” Denton said.

Mayor Herb Roach talked about Shekell’s Southern sayings, and how he used humor to maintain relationships in the city.

Roach presented Shekell with a plaque citing his dedication and commitment. “Your accomplishments will forever leave an impact on O’Fallon,” the plaque read.

Shekell said working with the city’s leadership team has been a blessing.

“This is not an easy job,” he said.

More on Shekell

When Gary Graham hired him in 1997, he said he appreciated the mayor taking a chance on him.

“Now I stand here on the threshold of being an old man,” Shekell said.

“It has been one of the highest honors of my life to serve the city of O’Fallon. It’s a wonderful place to live and work, and to serve,” he said.

“The department is in good hands with Justin,” he said. “He has proven himself, and I have all the confidence in him, as I know you do too.”

Later in public comments, resident Charlie Pitts said he appreciated Shekell’s efforts, saying he has been a true public servant putting the interests of the people before anything else and that he did not have an agenda.

Additional council action

The council approved a minor subdivision, Huq’s Garden Estates, which will be located at 317 Donna Drive. Applicants are M.A. and Farida Huq, who want to subdivide the parcel into three lots.

The property is 1.15 acres in size, zoned single-family residence, with an existing house. The home will be on a 26,954 square foot Lot 1 while the other two will be on lots 13,142 square foot and 10,350 square foot in size. Colleen Drive is to the south, Walnut Street to the west and Donna Drive to the north.

The new lots can be served by O’Fallon water and sanitary sewer. The minor subdivision meets all the platting and subdivision regulations.

Due to the new restrictions in place in Illinois, meetings — council, committee and the town hall Wednesday, Nov. 18 — will be virtual. Residents can sign up for the meetings as a Zoom webinar.

“We have to keep our staff as healthy as we can,” Roach said.

With the region’s positivity rate of 16 percent for COVID-19 as of Monday, Nov. 16, O’Fallon City Hall will be closed to the public. However, residents can set up an appointment through email or calling first, Roach said.

“We’re trying to safeguard our staff and everybody involved,” Roach said.

Roach said Christmas lights will be on at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 21. In previous years, the city lights went on for the holiday parade after Thanksgiving, but that has been canceled and re-imagined as a different event.

The mayor will have Saturday hours from 10 a.m. to noon Nov. 28 with sign-up necessary by Wednesday, Nov. 25.

National Citizen Survey

Roach said the National Citizen Survey is complete. Details are available at: https://www.ofallon.org/administration/pages/the-national-citizen-survey

He thanked those who participated and said this was the seventh one, mentioning a couple points that were above the norm.

“Overall direction the city is taking, generally acting in the best interest of the residents, being honest, treating all residents fairly, and overall economic health,” Roach said.

Crime prevention, safe city, commander program

Crime prevention was above the national norm, with 87 percent participants ranking it excellent and good, he said.

Highest rating ever received was for overall confidence of city government.

“It takes all of us working together. That’s the feedback of our customers.”

Another honor for O’Fallon is that the city ranked No. 1 for Most Courageous City in the state by National Rating. This factored in police and military.

In this regard, the Team Scott Commander Program helps make citizens and local governments aware of what’s going on at Scott Air Force Base. Denton and Alderman Todd Roach have been selected to help keep those lines of communication open as the city’s representatives.

Other council agenda items

In other action, the council approved donating 10 Motorola XTS-2500 portable radios, one Motorola XTL-2500 radio and 20 corded external microphones that have not been maintained or utilized, and are determined surplus property from the city’s Department of Public Safety to the Madison Fire Department.

The council also approved donating three Motorola XTL-2500 mobile radios to the Madison County Emergency Management Agency.

The council advance an ordinance identifying vehicles that have been identified as surplus and ready for sale or disposal. All items will be listed on the internet at https://www.govdeals.com/ and sold to highest bidder or failing that disposed of properly.

O’Fallon Town Hall Meeting Wednesday, Nov. 18

A virtual town hall meeting will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 18, beginning at 6:30 p.m. The meeting will be held virtually to comply with the governor’s order on groupings and reduce the spread of COVID-19.

The purpose of the town hall meeting is to provide updates on city business and answer questions from the community. All are invited to attend and participate at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_tCUwuPVnRbOH5K3eJG_uEg.

“One of my campaign promises was to be more available to the residents of O’Fallon,” said Mayor Roach. “Even during a pandemic, we continue to hold these town hall meetings quarterly to present updates about the city of O’Fallon and answer any questions that our residents might have.”

In addition to questions from the community, other topics that will be covered at the town hall include the annual financial audit, budget process, and accomplishments of 2020.

The meeting will be held virtually on Zoom, aired live, and will be available following the meeting “on demand” at the city’s website: https://www.ofallon.org/public-access-television/pages/video-on-demand.

This story was originally published November 17, 2020 at 10:58 AM.