Wojcik wants a chance to serve
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By KATHY LEIGH BERKOWITZ
Managing Editor
Those who know Betty Wojcik know she is a woman who is not content to simply sit and watch her community develop without her touch.According to Jon Fey, Wojcik’s former colleague and president of Berwyn Development Corporation in Berwyn, Illinois, she is a “very dynamic and very professional woman, and quite a leader.”
Fey said he wasn’t a bit surprised to hear that Wojcik has stayed active in community affairs.
Wojcik is running for City Commission seat 4 against incumbent Jack Van Sickle, who is the city’s current mayor.
She was one of the original directors in Berwyn Development.
Berwyn was a 501C3 organization that was tasked with the job of overseeing tax incremental projects.
Back in 2004, Fey and Wojcik worked closely together to create new development in the community that sported a rough population of some 50,000 people in a 2 mile by 2 mile plot of land.
The town faced many things akin to what Lake Wales is facing today.
He said there was a lot of commercial property built in the 1920s and 1930s that was under utilized and needed redevelopment.
The corporation sought to engage new businesses to set up house, while also nurturing the businesses already present in the community.
This was Wojcik’s forte, he noted. “She’s very experienced, she’s very knowledgeable, she’s savvy,” he said.
Fey said Wojcik new “how to keep and how to attract” businesses.
“Point in fact, after Betty left, Berwyn had four or five car dealers who all left,” he said.
“She put a lot of energy into making sure we kept business in the community,” he said, noting she was quite skilled at “taking unnecessary roadblocks out of setting up business in the community.”
Fey considers Wojcik’s greatest strengths her “leadership, her ability to show people the way to recognize what we want to do and move forward,” adding she “keeps the focus and energy” going. “She was constantly pushing to make things happen, he said, noting city officials didn’t necessarily embrace her because she was so persistent with “getting things done.”
But Wojcik had one rock in the road, Fey noted; rather, it was a rock that Berywn faced collectively.
The organization managed projects for the city and would make recommendations to the city as to whether to approve or deny a project.
Very strict guidelines that were state mandates were followed, he noted.
There was a Dodge dealership in Berwyn who wanted to update their store fascade and modernize their lobby and storeroom.
Fey said the scope of the project went beyond Berwyn’s established guidelines, and Berywn advised the city they did not feel comfortable working on the project.
The city overruled their decision, and immediately appointed Berywn as the project manager.
Fey said the only other option would have been for Berwyn to no longer serve the city’s interests.
“I imagine in hindsight we could have said I quit,” he said.
But they didn’t quit, and Wojcik signed off, he said, on the projects.
The dealership was to receive tax incremental funds to pay for the fascade.
Involved in the funding was a grant, and a loan, some of which was not repaid, he noted.
In the end, Fey noted her name was involved with the dispute when the dealership went bankrupt.
Another coworker, Ken Cechura, co-owner of Berwyn Ace Hardware, noted Wojcik’s work with Berwyn built up “confidence” between the city officials and Berwyn.
Berwyn was responsible for administering the Tax Increment Funding program and have since branched out to become a more active Chamber of Commerce.
Now they promote business to business activities, offer training programs to the business community.
Cechura said at the time Wojcik came to Berwyn, she was running the office as a “one person office,” a Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development.
Wojcik actually worked for the corporation twice, from 1988 to 1994 and again from 2000 to 2005.
She left for a more lucrative job opportunity, and when that opportunity ceased, came back to Berwyn.
“When we found out that she was available, we were thrilled to get her back,” Cechura said.
“It was my good fortune.” And Wojcik is all about good fortune.
She’s also about community and letting people have input in the community in which they live.
“I have some very real beliefs,” she said.
“Very strong beliefs that commissioners should represent the community, they should represent those who elect them to that position.
“I think a representative, especially at the lowest level of government, should listen to what the residents have to say, and should take what they have to say in account as they are making decisions.”
She says there is a wealth of information in the people who live in the community.
They are, she notes, “people who we can go to and ask opinions and get involved, and it can really benefit Lake Wales. And I’m not one of those who thinks that when you get elected and it’s up to me to make all the decisions, it is not.
I also think that we really need to show the citizens that this is a position that the normal citizens, that people who care about what happens in their community should get involved and should maybe if they want to start out on one of the committees, or boards, or commissions of the city and decide to run, that they could run and should make themselves available for those positions.”
As for whether the Community Redevelopment Agency is spending the money wisely and whether it is working as it should, Wojcik said she believes the CRA spending in Lake Wales is within the law.
But she adds that the Lake Wales CRA is an area “so huge” that one has to be careful how to spend the money. “The CRA is designed to improve the community. It’s designed to be spent,” she said.
“That money should be spent in such a way to encourage business development. And if you can make the case that the money needs to go for new water lines, hook up to business property.
Wojcik notes CRA funds should be spent to increase property values, to attract business and improve the economic vitality of Lake Wales.
She supports assisting Main Street.
“Main Street is there to help improve the downtown and make that an area that can draw business in, bring people downtown to spend money,” she said.
She notes it would be a mistake to take the $900,000 set aside for improvements to landscaping and so forth around the Grand Hotel and use it for funding the C Street sewer project.
Wojcik said the city would be better served to fund the sewer project through a low interest loan. “All debt is not bad, especially that debt which is tied to long term capital improvements,” she said.
Wojcik looks forward to the opportunity to serve the community as commissioner and believes her experience in community development is an asset.
She has served the last several years as the executive director of the Lake Wales Area Chamber of Commerce.
Prior to working at Berwyn the second time as principal planning consultant and executive director, she was the president of the West Suburban Chamber of Commerce and Industry in La Grange, Illinois. Before that, she was the executive director over the Worth County-Sylvester Chamber of Commerce, Inc. and the Worth County Industrial Development Authority in Sylvester, Ga. From 1983-1987, she served as the executive director of the Dahlonega-Lumpkin County Chamber of Commerce, Inc. and the Lumpkin County Industrial Development Authority, Dahlonega, Ga.
She has a bachelor’s degree in economic development management from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois and is a Certified Economic Developer through the International Economic Development Council in Washington, D.C. and holds certifications in economic development finance a
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