Private funeral arrangements are being made through the Solon-Telford Funeral Home for Jimmie Lansford. The former Streator mayor died at age 82 Saturday. He was mayor from March 2010 to December 2021. During that time, the city’s former hospital became just an emergency room without a full fledged hospital, City Hall underwent remodeling, and the city marked its 150th anniversary.
In 2017, a lot of people didn’t like the change that was coming to what was then St. Mary’s Hospital. But a building that worked well as an inpatient hospital in the 1980’s and earlier was too costly for Hospital Sisters Health System to keep running in an era of outpatient care. Lansford had been the CEO for some of the more than 30 years he worked for St. Mary’s. He said the change would keep the community served.
One of the top stewards of the citizens’ money, Lansford said remodeling City Hall for $3 million in 2017 was the right move. It reorganized the way the police department and the city administration used the building. Lansford said a new building would have cost twice as much without providing as much space.
During the city’s sequicentennial in 2018, there were many celebrations. Murals went up to honor the city’s history. Lansford wanted to keep the good feeling going.
When he ran for reelection in 2019, Lansford talked about many great things that were happening in the city. But he warned that Streator shouldn’t rest on its laurels. He said the city must always look to the future.
Lansford was elected to the Streator City Council in 2005 and was appointed mayor in 2010 after Mayor Ray Schmitt died. Lansford’s career included time in the Marine Corps and the Army, the aforementioned 32 years at St. Mary’s Hospital, and work for Union Bank and the American Red Cross.
This story has been edited to correct Mayor Schmitt’s name.