Our village leadership and Barrington Forward team have built a community that celebrates its small-town charm while still evolving to embrace suburban excitement. People want to live here because exciting things are happening in our village.

From improving the heart of our downtown, to having a central place like Park on Park for our residents to enjoy, to expanding what we offer to make our community more connected like the concerts at the Metro Station or improved Farmer’s Market, Barrington is the place to be. This puts us in an excellent position to continue to move Barrington forward and build on our positive momentum.

Our community utilizes our revitalized downtown and the Barrington Forward team is planning on increasing walkways and further making our downtown more vibrant and a place where everyone from children, families, and seniors can enjoy. They are also bringing more restaurants with outdoor seating and storefronts to our downtown to offer more to our residents. They are engaging and listening to the community and businesses on their ideas to make the downtown more vibrant and a place where people want to spend their evenings and weekends.

They are also making tangible progress investing in our infrastructure and making Barrington even more interconnected. They completed the Hart Road renovation, added a stop light at Dundee and Grove Road, and have made visible progress on the Route 14 underpass. They will be adding a new park to the downtown, adding paths and sidewalks to make our community more connected, especially around schools, and making our community more desirable while maintaining our heritage. 

Barrington has a rich history of remaining fiscally responsible and they’ve maintained that standard even during the pandemic. As a community with a small budget, they tightened our village’s spending and tracked where every penny went. They found ways to scale back without impacting quality service, didn’t refill positions that weren’t necessary, and found ways to be creative with what we had so they didn’t have to impact taxpayers.

They also leveraged every possible state and federal grant, securing more than $100 million in grants for projects they’ve accomplished or are completing. The Hillside sidewalk project, Hart Road renovation, new light at Ela Road, lead line replacement, the Canadian Railways underpass, and every other major project were funded through grants. 

Each of the members of the Barrington Forward team is honored to serve their hometown. They are longtime residents and homeowners. They are raising their families here and have been actively engaged in local sports, school boards, and other ways to give back to our special community. They work together respectfully to do what’s best for Barrington without personal agendas. And they bring a unique mix of experience and fresh ideas to ensure we’re always moving Barrington Forward.

As we continue to strive for Barrington to be more connected and build on our momentum, we need steady leadership who has proven they can make our village more vibrant and successful while remaining fiscally responsible and maintaining our village’s cherished heritage.

Vote for the Barrington Forward team—Mike Moran for Village President, James Dillon for Village Clerk, and Lauren Klauer, Jenn Wondrasek, and Todd Sholeen for Village Trustee—to elect public servants focused on progress and steady leadership!

Continue Barrington’s Positive Momentum

Together, we’ve built a community that celebrates its small-town charm while still evolving to embrace suburban excitement. It’s no wonder why Barrington continues to be one of the hottest housing markets in all of Illinois. People want to live here because exciting things are happening in our village.

From improving the heart of our downtown, to having a central place like Park on Park for our residents to enjoy, to expanding what we offer to make our community more connected like the concerts at the Metro Station or improved Farmer’s Market, Barrington is the place to be. This puts us in an excellent position to continue to move Barrington forward.

Our community utilizes our revitalized downtown and we are planning on increasing walkways and further making our downtown more vibrant and a place where everyone from children, families, and seniors can enjoy. We are also bringing more restaurants with outdoor seating and storefronts to our downtown to offer more to our residents. We hired an economic development member to improve opportunities to welcome more businesses. And we are engaging and listening to our community and businesses on their ideas to make the downtown more vibrant and a place where people want to spend their evenings and weekends. It’s exciting to see families pushing strollers through downtown or people walking their dogs before getting a bite to eat, and we want to expand what people can do in our village.

The Barrington Forward team, along with the rest of the village board, implemented a five-year strategic plan to position the village to continue to responsibly grow businesses, jobs, and activity in our thriving community, and we’re proud of the progress we’ve made. Over the next 4 years, our goal is to see the strategic plan through and finish the projects started that the community requested. We’ve completed the Hart Road renovation, added a stop light at Dundee and Grove Road, and have made progress on the Route 14 underpass. We will be adding a new park to the downtown, adding paths and sidewalks to make our community more connected, especially around schools, and making our community more desirable while maintaining our heritage.

Continue Investing in Our Infrastructure and Environment

As we look to the future, we must continue to invest in our infrastructure while working to protect our environment.

We’ve made excellent progress over the past few years in improving our infrastructure to increase safety and reduce traffic congestion. The biggest project we are in process of completing is the Route 14 underpass, which needs to be completed to ensure there is an unimpeded route to Good Shepherd Hospital, improve public safety response times, and reduce traffic delays. Our team has secured nearly 100% of the cost of the project in state and federal funding and is pursuing additional funding so Barrington taxpayers will only have to handle minimal costs for this project of regional importance.

We’re also working on expanding our sidewalks to make it safer for children and families to traverse through town. We’re repaving Hillside and Highland Roads and connecting it to one sidewalk which will increase safety. We need more connectivity around our schools like Grove where many students walk to and from school but don’t have proper sidewalks or paths. We have children who live in the community and want to be outside with their friends so we should do what we can to make it safer for them to feel a part of the community as well.

These infrastructure projects take years to plan and fund, and thanks to the experience and leadership of our Barrington Forward team, we will work effectively to complete these important projects and ensure our village is well situated as we move into the future.

We are also working to protect our environment. Working with the Barrington Park District and school districts, we completed a major rehabilitation of Flint Creek, bringing back our native prairie environment, preventing erosion, and keeping the creek clean. This improves our environment and has allowed us to enhance walking paths as part of the Dreamway Project. We created an environmental advisory committee comprised of local leaders involved in water programs, conservation, and local civic organizations. We secured a renewable energy contract for residents that matched the lowest rate available. We have implemented environmentally sustainable practices.

Continue Our Commitment to Fiscal Responsibility

Barrington has a rich history of remaining fiscally responsible and we’ve maintained that standard even during the pandemic. As a community with a small budget, we tightened our spending and tracked where every penny went. We found ways to scale back without impacting quality service, didn’t refill positions that weren’t necessary, and found ways to be creative with what we had so we didn’t have to impact our taxpayers. 

Because of our dedication to fiscal responsibility over the years, our village was in a better position than most to absorb the fiscal impact of the pandemic. We had established a responsible reserve fund by cutting spending where possible and growing the village to produce needed revenues. We maintained a balanced budget while holding the line on taxes. We paid off bonds and passed the property tax savings back to our residents and businesses. As a result, our village’s bond rating was increased to the highest level possible for a non-home rule community of our size.

Attaining this strong fiscal position did not come easily, especially with Springfield politicians continuously creating new difficulties for municipalities. We had to make tough decisions to weather the last economic downturn, reducing our budget by over 12% since 2009 and our full-time workforce by over 27% since 2008. But it’s that experience that has prepared the Barrington Forward team to maintain our financial stability to recover from the pandemic and move us forward.

Our team has also leveraged every possible state and federal grant, securing more than $100 million in grants for projects we’ve accomplished or are completing. Before we proceed with a project, we go through the grant process because we want to put as little strain on our community as possible and our team has come through. The Hillside sidewalk project, Hart Road renovation, new light at Ela Road, lead line replacement, the Canadian Railways underpass, and every other major project were funded through grants.