Jesse Smart, who presided over a period of unprecedented growth during his three terms as mayor of Bloomington, has died.
An obituary from Calvert & Metzler Funeral Home in Bloomington indicates Smart, 84, died early Friday morning. He had most recently lived in Glendale, Arizona.
Smart served three terms as mayor, from 1985 to 1997. Prior to that, he served nearly eight years on the city council.
“He was a dynamic force in Bloomington,” said Paul Harmon, who was Normal’s mayor during Smart’s first two terms as mayor. “He had the ability to get the council to go in the direction he wanted it to go and to approve the projects he wanted to get done. I recall him being almost 100% on that stuff.”
Harmon noted he and Smart didn’t always agree, but shared a key common interest that enabled them to work together.
“Jesse and I had different approaches to things and so we often were divergent in how we thought things should be handled, but when it came to the big issues, we put McLean County first,” said Harmon, referring to their efforts to land Diamond-Star Motors (later renamed Mitsubishi Motors), to establish an enterprise zone to attract economic development, and to approve a border agreement between the two municipalities.
Harmon said Bloomington-Normal’s water infrastructure improved significantly during Smart’s tenure when the community was growing significantly due to the new Mitsubishi plant and major expansions at State Farm. That led to significant development on the community’s east side, though Harmon said they did not get as far as he had hoped in planning for the Twin Cities’ long-term water needs.
Tari Renner, also a former Bloomington mayor, recalled Smart took a hands-on approach as the city's leader.
“The story was he would keep a bucket and a shovel in the back of his car, so if something had happened and there was a dead animal, he would himself go out and pick up the dead animal and take it away,” Renner said.
Renner said he took advice from Smart when he ran for Bloomington mayor in 2013 and again in 2017, recalling a time when Smart spoke during public comment period at a city council meeting in 2015. The city was struggling financially, and some in City Hall had suggested gutting the parks and recreation department to save money.
Renner said Smart argued that parks and other amenities were necessary to attract people and businesses to the community and were crucial in landing Mitsubishi, which has since been replaced by Rivian.
“He made these arguments very, very forcefully, and that ... helped getting city council members to not push to gut many of the quality-of-life amenities that we currently enjoy in our community,” Renner said.
Smart also volunteered with various organizations in the community and had a long career in the seed business before starting his own operation, Smart Seeds.
The McLean County Museum of History recognized Smart as a McLean County History Maker in 2017.
No funeral information was available on Saturday.
