One more old brick, first set in 1909, is passed from Jim Kerr (right) to Royce Baier and reset to preserve the character of the small town of Rushville. Kerr, a city council member and employee of Adams Electrical Co-Operative, believes preserving some of the past makes sense for the future prosperity of his hometown.

The town of Rushville's name does not exactly fit its character. Rushville is really the kind of small, rural town where life slows down to a gentle pace. It is the kind of town a lot of people from the fast paced large cities would like to move back to. Rushville is a town where people know their neighbors and people feel connected. They get involved.

With the blessings and encouragement of his employer, Adams Electrical Co-Operative, Jim Kerr did just that, he got involved in his home town. He ran for and won a seat on the Rushville City Council in 1993.

Kerr said, "The cooperative's management and board encourage us to get involved. It sometimes takes a little more time away from home, but I think it helps to get the employees out and involved in the communities and doing more than just keeping the lights on. I just enjoy contributing my little part."

Kerr, design and construction supervisor for Adams Electrical Co-Operative, understands the desire for a slower paced life. He sees it every day when new members build homes out in the country. He said, "We are about 60 miles from Quincy, 60 miles from Springfield, 75 miles from Peoria and we have people commuting back and forth to these cities for work." Kerr commutes 40 minutes to work too, so he understands people sometimes have to travel far from their hometown for work.

Rushville, like a lot of small towns, is working hard to change that, to bring people back home to work. The town of just over 3,000 has a very active economic development team. Rushville also has an active board of directors in the Main Street program. Main Street is a program that helps small rural towns improve and preserve downtown business districts. You can find out more about Illinois Main Street by calling 217-782-7514 or by going to the web site at http://www.state.il.us/ltgov.mainst.html.

Bringing investment back to a small town's main street is often a difficult task. Investment in infrastructure often goes to the new part of town. Old buildings and streets at the heart of a town wither and sometimes die. But the downward spiral can be stopped.

24 ILLINOIS COUNTRY LIVING DECEMBER 1997

Rushville is trying to preserve the unique character of its downtown and reverse the trend. A business district, with storefronts that are being restored, wraps around a beautiful town square, complete with bandstand and plenty of shade trees. Connecting it all on three sides is a brick street installed way back in 1909.

Brick streets need very little if any maintenance and this one hasn't been touched. But over the years water drainage from the asphalt state highway has caused problems with ice and slush in front of stores. Something had to be done.

Most towns faced with this problem might elect to just asphalt over the old bricks. That would be cheaper in the short run. But voters in Rushville by better than two to one voted to preserve the old brick street.

Royce Restoration, a company out of Paxton, was hired to help restore the street. Royce Baier, owner of the company, said many communities are electing to restore old brick streets. "There are aesthetic and historical reasons, but the biggest reason a lot of big and small towns are saving brick streets is economics," said Baier. "You have to realize there was not a dime in maintenance spent on this brick street in 88 years. This is a good value for taxpayers. You could overlay it with blacktop and if you're lucky you might have ten years before you have to repair it.

Baier had a lot of volunteer help cleaning the old bricks in Rushville. "Volunteers really have been a lifesaver." he said.

Kerr said, "Our economic development effort has always been exceptional at getting volunteers. There were people I didn't even know cleaning bricks. People were visiting and cleaning the bricks, sometimes until late at night. It kind of got to be a gathering point. One lady even came back from Ohio so she could get involved."

Kerr couldn't help but brag on other features of his hometown like the Phoenix Opera House, an old time movie house that volunteers have restored, and the golf course, swimming pool and a set of ball diamonds where state tournaments have been held. "We are fortunate to have the things we do for a community this size," he said. Rushville is also fortunate to have volunteers like Kerr.

Story and photos by John Lowrey

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