People’s Trustee is now the People’s Mayor
BY TIA CAROL JONES
When Tiffany Henyard was a Village of Dolton Trustee, she was known as the People’s trustee. Now, as Mayor, Henyard is known as the People’s Mayor, listening to residents’ concerns, and working with departments within the Village and Township to make sure the residents are taken care of.
Henyard was sworn-in on May 8th and hit the ground running. Right now, she is cleaning house and working on a comprehensive plan, with the Police Department, Fire Department, Water Department, Public Works and Housing.
Henyard started a Block By Block program when she was Trustee two years ago, and brought the initiative back as Mayor. The program puts vacant property back on the tax rolls and lets people buy houses for $5,000.
With the help of Dolton Police Chief Robert Collins, foot patrols and door knocking on residents’ homes are taking place to combat increase crime. When Henyard took office, she re-hired Chief Collins after he was fired by the previous administration. Henyard has hired Two police commanders and two patrolmen
since taking office. The plan is to hire five more police officers.
There is a search for a housing director, but the Water Department and Public Works heads have been hired. Stacey
Carrel, superintendent of Public Works, has been answering all complaints, handling customer service. Residents’ concerns are being responded to in a timely manner.
Two businesses have come into the Village. H2S Nutrition, located at 15025 S. Woodlawn Ave., and Nyree Soul Kitchen,
located at 118 Sibley Blvd., hosted grand openings in the last two months. Henyard, whose background in food and restaurants, loves those two new places have come into the village and opened up. Henyard is in talks to get an Amazon Fulfillment Center in the Village near 142nd.
Residents are excited to have Henyard as their Mayor. Mayor Henyard is genuinely concerned when she is stopped by
constituents and most times find herself press for time to arrive at a schedule meeting.
Henyard also listens to residents when it comes to matters that are holdovers from the previous administration, one example is the water bills. There is a new Water Department head, William Moore. Instead of residents receiving estimates, they are now receiving actual water readings.
Henyard also is working to fix the Village’s infrastructure. The Village of Dolton will put $765,000 towards repairing sewer main breaks and repaving the streets. The Village also is set to receive $1.4 million in COVID-19 relief money.
Henyard wants to take some of that money and use it as grants to help residents with infrastructure woes, as well as give grant money to small business owners to alleviate their pain due to the pandemic.
Henyard has a partnership with Thornton Township to supplement cutting grass through the Zuccarelli Assistance
Program. The program, which runs from May to October in the Township, employs high school students. Henyard said Stan Brown, manager of ZAP, used their resources to assist the Village. Those kinds of partnerships have been essential
for Henyard to move forward given some of the lack of resources. “You have to use local, federal and state resources to make things work,” she said.
Henyard hosted a Unity in Community Event in July to show how important Village, County, Township, State and Federal agencies are to making things work. It was also a way to jumpstart relationships that had been fractured in the past and reintroduce intergovernmental agreements.
Henyard has continued to give back to the community. School supply giveaways are planned for August, as well as National
Night Out.
Henyard is truly hands-on and planning next her moves. As a Black woman as Village President, Henyard has been challenged in ways a man might not. When those challenges happen, she leans on her circle. Henyard inner circle includes Dorothy Brown, Village Administrator, Stan Brown, Chief Collins and a Clergyman.
“These guys keep me grounded. You must have a team around you. They do say it’s lonely at the top and that’s true,” she said. “My circle could’ve been 10 people, now it’s three. There are three people I talk to everyday, Stan Brown, Sean (Howard) and Dorothy. They’re my three go-to people, my mentors.”
