Huntley Public Works Director Marks Anniversary

Jim Schwartz thinks Huntley has the best water in the state.

So what if he’s a little bias.

Huntley’s Director of Public Works remembers a time when the water was literally orange. The village used water from five deep wells that had a lot of iron in it.

“We would get a lot of complaints,” said Schwartz, recalling people would bring in their stained clothing to him.

Today, the village’s water system is state-of-the art.

Schwartz helped usher in the change as the head of the department. He is celebrating 20 years on the job this week. Thursday, the village board recognized his contributions to Huntley.

Schwartz has been “instrumental in overseeing the infrastructure of the water and sewer system throughout the village,” the framed declaration reads.

When he started in April 1992, the population was 2,453. Today, it’s 24,291. Twenty-years ago, Huntley had 22 miles of roads. Today, it has 125 miles. Back then, the village treated 1.2 million gallons of drinking water. Today, it has a capacity to treat 6.4 million gallons, village officials said.

“It has been exciting to be part of all that,” said Schwartz Thursday night as he held the frame.  He always knew Huntley would grow, but he didn’t think the growth would happen so fast, he said.

The water and road improvements were done with developer’s impact fees, which were plenty in Huntley’s building boom.

The challenge today is maintain it all, he said. There was a grace period where the water towers, roads and sewers were all new. It will all start deteriorating at the same time and the village needs to maintain it, at taxpayer’s dollars_ not developers’ dollars, he said.

Village Manager Dave Johnson recalled riding with Schwartz during a blizzard to get an idea of what public works employees do. But they got stuck in a ditch, he said, laughing.

Through the years, Johnson said he has learned a lot from Schwartz and called him loyal and dedicated.