The State of the Southland: Village of Lynwood

Jada Curry has been Mayor of the Village of Lynwood since 2021. Her second term began in 2025. Photo provided by STH Media.
Jada Curry has been Mayor of the Village of Lynwood since 2021. Her second term began in 2025. Photo provided by STH Media.

The State of the Southland: Village of Lynwood

By Tia Carol Jones

Jada Curry has been the Mayor of the Village of Lynwood since 2021. Well into her second term, Curry is looking towards the future of the Village of Lynwood and celebrating the ways the Village has progressed since her first term.

Curry served as a member of the school board for six years. That role enabled her to really look at what was going on in the community.  When she decided not to run for the school board for another term, she knew that she wanted to become more involved in the community. So, she ran for Trustee of the Village of Lynwood.

“Once I became a Trustee, I had a chance to go behind the curtain to really see what was and wasn’t happening. That’s when I knew that if we didn’t do something about the leadership and the trajectory of the Village, we were going to be in trouble,” Curry said.

Curry’s biggest challenge in beginning her first term was not being afforded a proper transition. She said she was not given a state of the Village. She had to figure out how to run a community, it meant doing a lot of dissecting and putting systems in place in order to govern a community that was challenged in its finances and economic development.

Curry said that while Lynwood is a community that looked like it was fiscally thriving, when she took office that was not the case. Because it is more rural, there was not a commercial retail base. She had to come in and tackle inherited debt and figure out how to grow the Village’s revenue.

Curry said that her and her team have been taking it one day at a time, sitting down and taking a look at the finances, figuring out what was a priority, and balancing the paying off of debt – inherited and current – and planning for the future. It resulted in having to put a heavy focus on economic development.

Curry describes her first term as building the plane while it was in the sky and keeping it up. She said there was an intentional effort to bring in major retail chains. Dunkin Donuts, Dollar General, a dispensary, a shared kitchen space and an ethnic grocery store have all opened since Curry took office.

“All of these things are helping to strengthen our revenue to get us headed in the right direction,” she said.

Curry added that there are three major developments set to break ground in Spring 2026. She said the developments will change the face of the Village of Lynwood and will help improve the Village’s financial outlook. Curry said her vision for the Village of Lynwood includes it becoming debt free and for it to be a beacon of light in the Southland.

She said that she wants her residents to leave the Village’s borders because they want to, not because they have to. That means having dine-in restaurants, entertainment venues, shopping and more family gathering spaces. Curry said she and her team have continued to put a focus on ensuring there are opportunities to bring in businesses that can satisfy that need.

The Village of Lynwood has evolved its public safety departments. Gregory Thomas is the Chief of Police for the Village and LaShaun Alston is the Chief Public Safety Fire Administrator for the Village. Both leaders are African American and have been able to re-establish the vision for both departments.

For the first time in the Village of Lynwood, there is a 24-hour staffing model for the Fire Department and there are two ambulances that can serve the residents, as well as the neighboring community. With the Police Department, there is a full detective division, a plain-clothes division, and a community resources officer.

Curry said that her first term was about learning and growing, putting systems in place and casting vision. With the second term, she is still learning and growing, and she is more excited about the foundation that is being laid, with the three new commercial developments, which Curry said will account for more than 200 acres of commercial development in the village.

“Eventually we’re going to get to the point where we become a destination community,” she said.

For more information about the Village of Lynwood, visit Lynwood.il.us. There is also a Village of Lynwood Facebook page, the official page bears the Village’s seal.


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