TILTON — Longtime County Market employee Maria Collins of Georgetown said what’s nice about Illinois 1 is how many businesses along the road work hand in hand.

For example, Mike’s Grill buys its meat at the Tilton County Market, and that’s also where Paw-A-Day Inn K9 Suites gets its dog snacks.

“They like to try to keep it in their own community,” Collins said. “Each business supporting the other business, so it’s nice.”

“What’s Route 1 mean to us? That’s our business district,” Mayor Billy Wear said. “We don’t assess a real-estate tax, so all the sales tax comes to the village.”

The traffic count along the road also is important. It’s how the village attracts businesses.

The latest traffic count along Illinois 1 through Tilton totaled 24,700 average daily vehicles. It’s one of the busiest locally.

With one of the latest developments, Horizon Health, truckers and others in town will have a health clinic to go to for medical attention. That will hopefully boost business at the truck stop/gas station and boost traffic along the Illiana Drive side road, Wear said.

“We’re all excited about Culver’s,” he also said.

“I’ve been talking to a couple other businesses, not just restaurants, to try to get some other stuff out here,” Wear said. “If you look at the way this area is set up, nobody has the area directly off the interstate to develop like what we have.”

The village has also has a marketing campaign going on through a local television station at a rate of about $3,500 per month to boost interest along Illinois 1 off Interstate 74.

“That’s our bread and butter,” Wear said. “Otherwise, if we didn’t have that, people would have to pay real-estate taxes.”

The village has ended up with great partnerships along the road too, he added, including Longview Bank, County Market, Vermilion Chevrolet and others.

Wear said senior apartment developer Ryan Quick also has four people on a waiting list for more apartments. Quick also has plans to expand the senior housing behind Rich’s restaurant.

So, what’s still missing along Illinois 1 in Tilton?

Wear said he’d like to see a dentist, a big-box store like Sam’s Club or Costco, and more restaurants, like a chicken place.

The former Better Days bar on Hodge Street has been acquired by Big Thorn Farm and Brewery’s Aaron Young and Anna Schweig, who will open Salty’s Pub there in January. It will operate like an English pub and serve seafood, according to Wear.

Another restaurant that could open in the spring by Longview Bank would serve steaks and other foods, and not just be more of a breakfast/hometown restaurant, he added.

“I don’t think a steakhouse would make it here,” Wear said, but he’d like to see an upper-middle-class restaurant with mood lighting and a place for dinners.

Wear is proud of his hometown, and he should be: He and city Administrator Tiffany (Jones) McClellan’s families helped found it. Wear’s great-great-uncle served as its first treasurer.

Wear retired from the city of Danville’s Public Works Department in 2019 after 40 years. He’s been mayor in Tilton for about two and a half years. He was appointed to the position when former Mayor Dave Phillips retired, then elected this past spring.

Wear said the job has been great, outside of the controversial solar-farm issue, which involved some residents not wanting to see more farmland being used for solar panels.

— JENNIFER BAILEY