GENOA – Mayor Mark Vicary calls it either divine intervention or Joe intervention. Take your pick.
Weeks after the city’s administrator, Joe Misurelli, died Christmas day, on Tuesday, City Council approved the hire of Bill Ganek, the man Misurelli mentored in McHenry County, Vicary said.
“We’d like to call him the successor,” Vicary said Wednesday evening. “No one will ever replace Joe.”
Ganek retired from his post as Algonquin village manager in early 2013 after serving in that role for 21 years, but he and Misurelli, a former Crystal Lake city administrator, collaborated on many projects.
“I think between them, they developed Randall Road,” Vicary said.
Ganek was also director of planning for Crystal Lake for nine years, after spending five years with the McHenry County Planning Department.
Ganek interviewed last week, and his contract is for 6 months, during which the search for a permanent replacement will continue. Ganek will work 20 hours over two days a week.
Vicary said Rivers Mexican Cantina opened in the former home of Rosati’s in the Ridge Point Shopping Center the week Misurelli died, and the plan for Dunkin Donuts to move into a two-unit commercial building at Prairie Street and state Route 72 is on track.
Ganek has immediately taken the reins on the developing projects, but has also provided an emotional salve, Vicary said.
“It’s comforting hearing Joe stories,” he said.