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Lexington Illinois a destination city
[0:10] welded together by iconic Route 66 a
location with an unprecedented amount of
[0:16] new businesses community support and
overall success
[0:21] to charismatic small town with big city
amenities just a short drive away some
[0:26] say it's a Goldilocks Town living in
precisely the right proximity to the
[0:30] Roaring Twin Cities of Bloomington in
Normal Illinois while still boasting a
[0:35] cozy small town feel
lexingtonians are proud to call this
[0:39] home and for good reasons I am
originally from Lexington I grew up here
[0:44] I worked in Chicago for a couple years
came down for a five-year plan we are
[0:48] now on year 19. obviously fell in love
and fell in love with what was going on
[0:52] and saw the progression that was
happening on Main Street and we stayed
[0:56] Lexington is so centrally located we are
close to Bloomington Pontiac champagne
[1:02] you know Peoria Eye draw customers even
down from Chicago
[1:06] just because we are so centrally located
so easy access to so many little towns
[1:12] and it's just a small town it's great
the most special thing about the town of
[1:16] Lexington is the people they are the
reason I open my doors every day they
[1:22] love their small businesses and they
love their small business owners and I
[1:26] have appreciated so much getting to know
each and every one of them what attracts
[1:30] business owners to Lexington is we're
very close to many other towns for
[1:34] example Bloomington Pontiac Towanda and
people come from like all over and the
[1:39] community of course is very strong
I wound up in Lexington because I had a
[1:45] traveling coffee trailer in Iowa and
made my way to Lexington and just fell
[1:50] in love here there is so much in a small
town in walking distance such as camps
[1:55] my neighbor
I'd say the most special thing is a
[1:59] number of things one is Main Street all
the business coming up on Main Street
[2:03] one is definitely the school district
the young families coming in it's you
[2:07] just spilled electricity on weeknights
and weekdays when you're driving down
[2:11] Main Street I don't think there's a lot
of places like it I think it's very
[2:13] unique and as a business owner it's fun
to see and it's nice to see the energy
[2:17] on Main Street you just feed off of it
it's fantastic Lexington's a wonderful
[2:21] community that that really supports the
local businesses the small businesses in
[2:26] the community are really good about
helping one another out I'll tell you
[2:31] what makes Lexington special is the
people I've been around small towns all
[2:34] my life they're all good in their own
unique way but Lexington has the people
[2:39] and and the people take pride in their
town they take pride in their property
[2:43] right they keep their homes nice they
keep their businesses nice they care
[2:47] about their neighbors they care about
their kids in in a way that that we just
[2:51] haven't experienced before it's the
people so it made me feel like welcomed
[2:56] and made me feel part of this community
like it's second home to me oh there's
[3:03] so many things to love about Lexington I
mean small town everybody knows
[3:06] everybody and just the pride that this
town has like that's the best part about
[3:10] it we definitely have the small town
atmosphere like we have a very small
[3:14] school but we also have big city
amenities you know we have a lot of
[3:18] places to eat at we just have a lot of
different things that you could do here
[3:22] that you don't necessarily need to go to
Bloomington for but you get at that
[3:25] small town call me feel I've lived here
in Lexington for almost 85 years and I
[3:32] loved every bit of it because we got
everything here that anybody would ever
[3:37] need we got our mayor you can see what
he's done in the town and we got a great
[3:43] school system greater administrators and
dedicated teachers when I left work I'd
[3:49] tell them I'm leaving where are you
going I said I'm going to Paradise
[3:52] Lexington why did I choose to put my
store in Lexington Illinois for many
[3:58] reasons I had a good friend who has a
business here who recommended that I
[4:02] start my business here we had been in
normal for quite some time and we were
[4:07] looking for another location I came and
talked to the mayor I got excited about
[4:12] the enthusiasm of this community and
anyone could tell that there was a lot
[4:17] of momentum happening here so I felt
this was a great place for us to truly
[4:22] make our business successful
what is the most special thing about
[4:26] Lexington the first thing that comes to
mind is just how it looks we have a
[4:30] beautiful town our streets are
maintained our sidewalks are beautiful
[4:33] there's flowers out along Main Street
and those things don't just happen
[4:38] well we have our own grocery store which
is important the excellent schools
[4:42] several excellent places to eat just a
small town feel when you come here you
[4:48] feel like you've left the big city and
you come to a small town where people
[4:51] care about each other people say hello
as you walk down the streets people know
[4:56] each other it's a great feeling when
you're here you have a city council
[5:00] that's very motivated to help support
businesses a mayor who tirelessly Works
[5:06] to try and promote the town so you have
this environment here that is just
[5:12] really embracing to try and support your
idea get you off the ground I was always
[5:18] trying to own my own place and so the
barrier to entry in Bloomington would
[5:23] have been more than what I could have
afforded Lexington is the perfect
[5:27] ecosystem for a small business like this
what is my personal favorite thing about
[5:32] Lexington the people are so nice and the
food is amazing my personal favorite
[5:37] thing about this town is the uh the ham
po boy at Kim's is pretty dang good back
[5:41] in March 2020 milled a pandemic I was
looking for a place to open an
[5:46] outpatient clinic called city hall and
then the next day Spencer was showing me
[5:51] different locations on Main Street and I
could tell even during the middle of a
[5:55] pandemic that Lexington was a happening
place a lot of stuff was going on I
[6:00] think what I've noticed with Lexington
is that a lot of the businesses are very
[6:03] complementary of each other I may have
patients that come from Bloomington
[6:07] normal and they come here for therapy
but then if it's around lunchtime
[6:11] they're going to go to Kim's for lunch
they come on a Friday night they might
[6:14] be going to Lexington Social for dinner
they come here for therapy but they end
[6:18] up finding some other reason to stay in
Lexington it's just a really business
[6:22] friendly environment and a a local
community that's just extremely
[6:28] supportive of their area businesses
it's a beautiful Community I mean it's
[6:35] so welcoming and like I mean you just
drive down here it all looks the flowers
[6:40] I mean you just I've never been to a
town that keeps such beautiful flowers
[6:45] or streetscape is gorgeous they always
have events it feels so welcoming here
[6:49] and I look forward to Growing with this
community
[6:53] I have lived a lot of places and these
are some of the most genuine people I've
[6:57] ever met anybody would give a shirt off
the back for you and everybody's always
[7:02] willing to help and support local
businesses I've been brought up in a
[7:07] community that's kind and loving and
accepting there's so much we have to
[7:12] offer Lexington has their own school we
have our own fire department we have our
[7:15] own ambulance I'm grateful I'm grateful
that this is my home and that all these
[7:22] new ones are coming in and we're growing
and getting new businesses and it's just
[7:26] amazing as being here my whole life to
see the changes that we're making every
[7:30] year I remember as a kid growing up in
Lexington the main street was filled
[7:34] with businesses the malls took that away
from us closing of Route 66 took that
[7:39] away from us and our goal has been to
bring that passion back and we've done
[7:42] it people are proud to be a part of
election they're proud to be look at our
[7:45] main street they're proud to be involved
in the activities we have going on in
[7:49] town we work so hard to bring business
to town and that that week the governor
[7:54] shut everything down I went home for
lunch and I walked out that door and
[7:57] Main Street was empty and I'm telling
you I I teared up it was a sad time and
[8:02] I thought oh my God how are we going to
bring this back I got to think you know
[8:06] we're not going to just sit back and let
covert take over I started making phone
[8:09] calls and we negotiated two businesses
during covert brought two new businesses
[8:13] down during code so I just I think that
attitude that you know we're not going
[8:17] to give up the passion that we have at
City Hall is spread out on the streets
[8:21] and that passion is what's going to lead
us into tomorrow we've got the passion
[8:24] of the young people we've got the
passion of the older people older
[8:27] residents in town they love Lexington as
as I said so many times I do but that is
[8:32] not just myself it's my family the
people around me the co-workers at City
[8:37] Hall were very fortunate to have that I
am excited about the future I started
[8:41] with Lexington Back In 1989 and I
watched it grow and progress every year
[8:45] and I and I can say I'm just as excited
now as the first day I started back in
[8:49] 1989. we have a bright future of course
and with the help of the the citizens
[8:53] and the new businesses come in town we
are going to be very very successful in
[8:58] the near future
from the schools to the businesses
[9:04] which goes into making Lexington what it
is today a thriving Town unlike any
[9:08] other and so from the heartland of the
Midwest I'm Spencer Johansen I'm Pam I
[9:14] am Chandra and I love love love love
love love love Lexington Lexington
[9:19] Illinois cheers
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