Generating Community Change 353Then BMDC began working on filling a void in the community. The residents wanted
a dentist; they had had a physician in town for more than 30 years but no dentist.
The board already had a connection with the University of Illinois, which made the
search for a dentist a bit easier. The board knew they had to make the town look
attractive and inviting to a newly graduated dentist. A young dentist who expressed
interest in the town was invited to Blue Mound; the BMDC sponsored a potluck din-
ner, and members of the school district, local business owners, church representa-
tives and local residents met him and invited him to come to their community. The
dentist responded well to the invitation and decided to move to Blue Mound. The
community wanted to help him set up his practice, and since the BMDC did not offer
financial assistance, people volunteered to help. A local carpenter, plumber, electri-
cian and other residents donated their time and skill instead of money. The dentist
had a new practice in a refurbished building, and Blue Mound had completed
another successful project.
Soon after the dentist moved into town, Blue Mound received a devastating blow.
The local grocery store burned down, and the grocer decided to retire and not
rebuild. The BMDC had to find a replacement, but none of the big grocery chains
wanted to move into the small town. It became evident to the board that they would
have to build the grocery store themselves, and after selling shares to local residents
and leveraging those funds with a loan from a local lender, they opened the Blue
Mound Store Corporation (BMSC) and hired an experienced grocer to run the busi-
ness. The BMSC did so well that by the late 1990s, it had begun paying dividends to
its community stockholders.
The community had several other accomplishments throughout the 1990s, includ-
ing a plan for constructing senior housing, upgrading the village’s water delivery
system and forming a police department, which now employs a full-time police chief,
two part-time officers and five auxiliary policemen. The Blue Mound police depart-
ment, even though it is in a rural community, has become a state-of-the-art depart-
ment and was featured in a 1992 issue of Law and Order magazine as a model for
developing a programme entitled Dial-a-Cop. This system allows people to reach a
police officer even when no one is at the station. Most of the improvement and devel-
opment in the police department came from grants and resident volunteers. Because
of the successful new police department, the town is now able to promote their com-
munity as being a ‘safe and secure’ environment, which helps attract new resi-
dents.
Blue Mound’s success by the year 1998 was astounding, and it had come from a
holistic effort to improve the community’s economy. The key ingredients for success
in Blue Mound were leadership, community support and involvement, sound plan-
ning, organization and a sense of accomplishment. Forming connections among
many diverse groups of people, working toward common goals and seeing tangible
results from planning efforts were all key components for successful community and
economic development in Blue Mound.
Source: Steven Kline. 2000. Community Leadership and Vision Pay Off for Blue Mound, Illinois.
In Small Town and Rural Economic Development: A Case Studies Approach, ed. Peter V. Shaef-
fer and Scott Loveridge, pp88–98. Praeger: Westport, CT.