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foreign
Lexington Illinois a destination city

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welded together by iconic Route 66 a
location with an unprecedented amount of

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new businesses community support and
overall success

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to charismatic small town with big city
amenities just a short drive away some

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say it's a Goldilocks Town living in
precisely the right proximity to the

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Roaring Twin Cities of Bloomington in
Normal Illinois while still boasting a

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cozy small town feel
lexingtonians are proud to call this

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home and for good reasons I am
originally from Lexington I grew up here

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I worked in Chicago for a couple years
came down for a five-year plan we are

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now on year 19. obviously fell in love
and fell in love with what was going on

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and saw the progression that was
happening on Main Street and we stayed

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Lexington is so centrally located we are
close to Bloomington Pontiac champagne

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you know Peoria Eye draw customers even
down from Chicago

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just because we are so centrally located
so easy access to so many little towns

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and it's just a small town it's great
the most special thing about the town of

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Lexington is the people they are the
reason I open my doors every day they

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love their small businesses and they
love their small business owners and I

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have appreciated so much getting to know
each and every one of them what attracts

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business owners to Lexington is we're
very close to many other towns for

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example Bloomington Pontiac Towanda and
people come from like all over and the

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community of course is very strong
I wound up in Lexington because I had a

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traveling coffee trailer in Iowa and
made my way to Lexington and just fell

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in love here there is so much in a small
town in walking distance such as camps

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my neighbor
I'd say the most special thing is a

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number of things one is Main Street all
the business coming up on Main Street

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one is definitely the school district
the young families coming in it's you

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just spilled electricity on weeknights
and weekdays when you're driving down

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Main Street I don't think there's a lot
of places like it I think it's very

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unique and as a business owner it's fun
to see and it's nice to see the energy

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on Main Street you just feed off of it
it's fantastic Lexington's a wonderful

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community that that really supports the
local businesses the small businesses in

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the community are really good about
helping one another out I'll tell you

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what makes Lexington special is the
people I've been around small towns all

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my life they're all good in their own
unique way but Lexington has the people

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and and the people take pride in their
town they take pride in their property

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right they keep their homes nice they
keep their businesses nice they care

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about their neighbors they care about
their kids in in a way that that we just

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haven't experienced before it's the
people so it made me feel like welcomed

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and made me feel part of this community
like it's second home to me oh there's

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so many things to love about Lexington I
mean small town everybody knows

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everybody and just the pride that this
town has like that's the best part about

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it we definitely have the small town
atmosphere like we have a very small

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school but we also have big city
amenities you know we have a lot of

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places to eat at we just have a lot of
different things that you could do here

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that you don't necessarily need to go to
Bloomington for but you get at that

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small town call me feel I've lived here
in Lexington for almost 85 years and I

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loved every bit of it because we got
everything here that anybody would ever

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need we got our mayor you can see what
he's done in the town and we got a great

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school system greater administrators and
dedicated teachers when I left work I'd

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tell them I'm leaving where are you
going I said I'm going to Paradise

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Lexington why did I choose to put my
store in Lexington Illinois for many

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reasons I had a good friend who has a
business here who recommended that I

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start my business here we had been in
normal for quite some time and we were

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looking for another location I came and
talked to the mayor I got excited about

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the enthusiasm of this community and
anyone could tell that there was a lot

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of momentum happening here so I felt
this was a great place for us to truly

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make our business successful
what is the most special thing about

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Lexington the first thing that comes to
mind is just how it looks we have a

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beautiful town our streets are
maintained our sidewalks are beautiful

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there's flowers out along Main Street
and those things don't just happen

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well we have our own grocery store which
is important the excellent schools

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several excellent places to eat just a
small town feel when you come here you

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feel like you've left the big city and
you come to a small town where people

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care about each other people say hello
as you walk down the streets people know

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each other it's a great feeling when
you're here you have a city council

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that's very motivated to help support
businesses a mayor who tirelessly Works

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to try and promote the town so you have
this environment here that is just

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really embracing to try and support your
idea get you off the ground I was always

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trying to own my own place and so the
barrier to entry in Bloomington would

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have been more than what I could have
afforded Lexington is the perfect

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ecosystem for a small business like this
what is my personal favorite thing about

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Lexington the people are so nice and the
food is amazing my personal favorite

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thing about this town is the uh the ham
po boy at Kim's is pretty dang good back

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in March 2020 milled a pandemic I was
looking for a place to open an

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outpatient clinic called city hall and
then the next day Spencer was showing me

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different locations on Main Street and I
could tell even during the middle of a

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pandemic that Lexington was a happening
place a lot of stuff was going on I

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think what I've noticed with Lexington
is that a lot of the businesses are very

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complementary of each other I may have
patients that come from Bloomington

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normal and they come here for therapy
but then if it's around lunchtime

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they're going to go to Kim's for lunch
they come on a Friday night they might

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be going to Lexington Social for dinner
they come here for therapy but they end

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up finding some other reason to stay in
Lexington it's just a really business

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friendly environment and a a local
community that's just extremely

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supportive of their area businesses
it's a beautiful Community I mean it's

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so welcoming and like I mean you just
drive down here it all looks the flowers

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I mean you just I've never been to a
town that keeps such beautiful flowers

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or streetscape is gorgeous they always
have events it feels so welcoming here

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and I look forward to Growing with this
community

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I have lived a lot of places and these
are some of the most genuine people I've

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ever met anybody would give a shirt off
the back for you and everybody's always

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willing to help and support local
businesses I've been brought up in a

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community that's kind and loving and
accepting there's so much we have to

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offer Lexington has their own school we
have our own fire department we have our

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own ambulance I'm grateful I'm grateful
that this is my home and that all these

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new ones are coming in and we're growing
and getting new businesses and it's just

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amazing as being here my whole life to
see the changes that we're making every

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year I remember as a kid growing up in
Lexington the main street was filled

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with businesses the malls took that away
from us closing of Route 66 took that

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away from us and our goal has been to
bring that passion back and we've done

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it people are proud to be a part of
election they're proud to be look at our

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main street they're proud to be involved
in the activities we have going on in

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town we work so hard to bring business
to town and that that week the governor

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shut everything down I went home for
lunch and I walked out that door and

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Main Street was empty and I'm telling
you I I teared up it was a sad time and

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I thought oh my God how are we going to
bring this back I got to think you know

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we're not going to just sit back and let
covert take over I started making phone

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calls and we negotiated two businesses
during covert brought two new businesses

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down during code so I just I think that
attitude that you know we're not going

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to give up the passion that we have at
City Hall is spread out on the streets

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and that passion is what's going to lead
us into tomorrow we've got the passion

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of the young people we've got the
passion of the older people older

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residents in town they love Lexington as
as I said so many times I do but that is

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not just myself it's my family the
people around me the co-workers at City

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Hall were very fortunate to have that I
am excited about the future I started

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with Lexington Back In 1989 and I
watched it grow and progress every year

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and I and I can say I'm just as excited
now as the first day I started back in

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1989. we have a bright future of course
and with the help of the the citizens

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and the new businesses come in town we
are going to be very very successful in

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the near future
from the schools to the businesses

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which goes into making Lexington what it
is today a thriving Town unlike any

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other and so from the heartland of the
Midwest I'm Spencer Johansen I'm Pam I

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am Chandra and I love love love love
love love love Lexington Lexington

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Illinois cheers
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