Christopher W. Curtis sworn in as Kankakee mayor; lays out public-safety, housing and infrastructure priorities

Mayor Christopher W. Curtis was sworn into office at the Kankakee City Council meeting on May 5, 2025, and addressed residents and council members with a multi-point agenda emphasizing public safety, housing and continued fiscal tightening.

Curtis said public safety would remain the administration’s top priority. "Public safety will remain the number one priority for this administration," he told the council after being sworn in by Judge Thomas W. Cunnington.

Why this matters: Curtis credited recent declines in violent crime and investments in police, fire and prevention programs as the foundation for longer-term economic and neighborhood work. He also outlined specific financial and housing goals city officials plan to pursue in the next term.

Curtis highlighted recent public-safety and staffing figures presented during council meetings: he said homicides are down 74 percent, shootings have fallen substantially, the city removes about 75 illegal guns annually, and the city has increased hiring in police (about 15 percent) and fire (about 8 percent). He noted investments in surveillance and investigative technology and described the Office of Violence Prevention — started with ARPA funds and now a budgeted city department — as poised to expand from two to four staff in 2025.

On finances, Curtis said the city’s cash position rose from about $7.3 million to nearly $19 million and said general savings have more than doubled in recent years. He said the council reduced the levy last year by $512,000 compared with the prior year, and described a pension-funding action that he said funds police and fire pensions to the state-required 90 percent by 2040.

Housing and neighborhood programs were central to Curtis’s remarks. He set a municipal goal of 500 new residential units in Kankakee by 2030, proposed a neighborhood-stabilization line item of $100,000 annually, and outlined a $25,000 program that would provide up to $500 per owner-occupied home for exterior improvements (50 homes per year under the proposal). He also announced a small local grant/gift-card program to reward exterior improvements and said he would provide initial personal donations to kick-start it.

Curtis described the Eastern Riverwalk as a $5.1 million project now under way and said it will be paid with grants, philanthropy, TIF and cash so no debt is required. He listed additional infrastructure priorities, including completion of Hobby Avenue, engineering work for Curtis Avenue and work on the KBS rail crossing on Schuyler Avenue funded by a $600,000 grant.

Curtis concluded by asking the ordinance committee to consider making the 900 block of South Greenwood an honorary street name for former Gov. George H. Ryan and thanked city staff, department heads and council members for their work.

Provenance: The oath and mayoral remarks begin where the mayor is sworn in ("I, Christopher w Curtis...Having been elected to the office of mayor") and continue through his policy remarks about public safety, housing and infrastructure at the subsequent civic address.