North Egypt News

Try as he might to forget, Mayor Mike Bullard can remember a time when Bluford was a completely different place.

“I’ve served on the village board for over 40 years now, and I can remember when we didn’t have money to put rocks on the roads and had to beg for everything we got,” Bullard told North Egypt News. “All we had was our commitment and our vow to one another to work to make things better.”

Fast-forward some four decades, and Bluford is one of the few debt-free municipalities in all of Illinois, X95 Radio reports, adding that the village now actually has cash reserves on hand.

Bullard said the lessons he and other village leaders learned back then are what makes the municipality with a population of fewer than 1,000 residents what it is today.

“We learned you have to watch how you spend your money, no matter how small the amount is we’re talking about,” he said. “There’s something not right about asking people for more money when you’re being wasteful with what you already have.”

Bullard said that philosophy has gone a long way toward the village not having to raise tax rates for the last 40 years.

“It may not be easy, but it can be done,” he said. “The easiest thing for any elected official to do is to increase taxes, and one of the hardest is to properly manage what you have.”

Even with all the commitment and sacrifice that has gone into accomplishing what they have, Bullard admits it could not have happened without a little luck for the village.

“I have to admit we’ve been very fortunate (to have) good board members, treasurers, clerks and employees,” he said. “All these things factor in if you’re really trying to keep order over things.”