ALTON - Ray Strebel believes he is the best choice for Alton.
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Strebel, the current Third Ward alderman, has challenged incumbent David Goins and former mayor Brant Walker for the mayor’s seat, creating a three-way race. He explained that he has accomplished a lot as an alderman, and he shared his plans if elected on April 1, 2025.
“When I’m a mayor, I can help everybody in our community,” Strebel said. “I’m very excited about that.”
Strebel is an environmental chemist by trade. Born in Alton, he previously worked in waste management and consulted for municipalities.
While living in Kankakee, Strebel and his wife, Elyse, bought a fixer-upper. Using carpentry skills he learned from Elyse’s grandfather, Strebel renovated the house himself, which introduced him to a new passion for restoring old homes. When the family returned to Alton, they restored their own Queen Anne Victorian, and Strebel began restoring old homes throughout the city.
“When I say restore, I’m not talking about flipping houses. I’m talking about preserving them, and I’m specific with historic structures within the City of Alton,” he said. “Neighbors noticed it. People in the community noticed it, and they started pushing more towards the elected position and doing more for the community as an alderman. And that’s kind of how I got into the political side of things.”
Since Strebel took office four years ago, he has played a big role on the City Council. He shared that he “championed” the camping ban, redecked the Alton Marina, oversaw the Clark Bridge lighting, pushed for renovations of Haskell House, and “saved 150 jobs” by making an agreement with American Water to keep the company in Alton.
But Strebel is proudest of the comprehensive road management plan, which he spearheaded, and he said it will “touch everybody in the city.” He explained that the plan started when a dispensary wanted to come to Alton. According to Strebel, dispensaries previously had to file a special use permit and could be approved as long as codes allowed it.
“I immediately was like, no, no, no, that means that it could be a dispensary on every block if it’s within state rule and it qualifies under a special use permit,” Strebel remembered. “And I was not comfortable with that, so I worked with legal, and we created an ordinance.”
The ordinance allows for two dispensaries in the City of Alton. Strebel was interested in the revenue that dispensaries could generate. He wanted to fix Alton’s roads with the revenue.
He worked with Sheppard, Morgan & Schwaab, Inc. to create a proposal that will allow the company to interpret road data and submit a maintenance plan. The goal, Strebel said, is to “manage the Motor Fuel Tax money to stretch our dollars so we’ll get more roadway done with the same amount of money that we have.” The comprehensive road management plan recently passed in City Council.
“I’ve done all these things in an aldermanic role. That’s way outside of my authority,” Strebel said. “I think I’ve gone above and beyond anyone that would sit in an aldermanic role to do this. And I’m incredibly excited to be a mayor, and I can do much more.”
Strebel has been vocal about his concerns for Alton’s declining population. If elected, he wants to create a comprehensive housing policy. He said Walker’s crime-free housing policy is “a reactive measure.”
Strebel also wants to reappropriate the funds from the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), which provides grants for community development. He added that the City of Alton currently pays $200,000 to Madison County to handle these funds, but he believes the City can manage CDBG money on its own.
“We need to manage that money so that we’re investing correctly in our city,” he explained. “The other thing is, we have so many houses on a demo list, and they’re not all compromised structurally. I know this because of my experience with rebuilding homes. I would like to direct money from the Community Development Block Grant, with the assistance from the Greater Alton Community, a nonprofit organization that builds homes, and I would like to partner with them. Put these homes back on their feet, and then get them into first-time homebuyers and get them off the city’s books. And I want that to be a policy. I want us to be aggressive in this. We need to repopulate our neighborhood, and when we start repopulating our neighborhood, crime will naturally suppress.”
Strebel feels it’s time for a fresh voice in City Hall. At a recent candidate forum, he said there have been “major setbacks” under the Walker and Goins administrations. He hopes to win the vote on April 1.
“It’s on my sign, ‘no more business as usual,’ but it’s the honest-to-God truth,” he added. “We cannot get up every day, do the same thing, and expect a different result. We have to take a fresh perspective. We have to slow down. I know from my experience that City Hall needs structure that will create process, and then from process, we’ll be able to develop long-term sustainable policies. And that simply is just not the case right now.”
For more information about Ray Strebel, visit his official website at RayStrebel.com or his official campaign Facebook page.
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