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Business and Industry

With rapid growth bringing in an influx of new residents, Joliet clearly necessitates a robust economic outlook to support those new residents. Specifically, in times when energy comes at a premium price and in an area where demand will only increase, business devoted to providing that energy to Joliet and beyond plays a major role in supplying the area, but also to keep it safe while catering to Joliet’s needs.

One organization that has done a great deal toward stimulating the generating power for Joliet and much further is Exxon. Having opened the refinery in 1972, Exxon recently celebrated the 35th anniversary for the site, the second-to-last refinery built in the United States. Mobil originally opened the site all those years ago. Then as now, there were a scant number of refineries in the Midwest, so the opportunity to build somewhere in the area seemed clear. As to why Mobil chose Joliet in particular, “It was an attractive community to build in,” says Tricia Simpson of Mobil, with “access to water transportation for bringing in large components for the refinery [and a] skilled workforce for both constructing and running the refinery over time.”

Currently, that workforce includes 550 full-time employees, but with a tremendous capacity to expand employment. “We’ll be up to over 2,000 this fall because we have a turnaround demand,” relates Simpson. “We’re working on a major environmental project here at the refinery, so we can more than double, and sometimes triple, our employee base with contractors as our demand requires or as work demands it.” In addition, Exxon’s immediate ranks continue to expand as it currently looks to hire career-oriented people, some with two-year degrees, some with very advanced degrees, all fleshing out different aspects of the company. Despite economic woes in many other communities, “We’re on an incline,” states Simpson, “not a decline.”

Exxon has also taken a strong interest in improving the community. For example, Exxon has already planned to invest hundreds of millions of dollars toward an environmental project that will remove more than 90 percent of the sulfur dioxide from plant emissions when the project completes in October. Further along those lines, Exxon has helped support a local junior high school begin an environmental club, one that allows students to do soil and water testing to ensure healthy levels of substances in both. Exxon is also a founding sponsor of Shoot for A’s, a campaign that netted $30,000 last year for different middle schools so that teachers can purchase high-tech equipment for the classroom which would otherwise be unavailable to them.

Besides Exxon, Midwest Generation manages to power Joliet both literally and figuratively, as well. Located on over 450 acres of land on both sides of the Des Plaines River, the original plant had generated energy for the area since 1917. Contemporary stations at the plant opened more recently in 1959 and 1966. Nonetheless, Midwest Generation remains a staple of the immediate and constantly expanding community. In fact, at full capacity, Midwest Generation can power as many as 1.6 million households. Besides contributing $27 million to the community through payroll and benefits, Midwest Generation has invested $23 million toward equipment reducing nitrogen oxide emissions into the air by more than 50 percent. Similar to Exxon’s community involvement, Midwest Generation has also sponsored or contributed to the Hill-Memorial Center after-school program, Joliet Township High School and Joliet Junior Honors Program Scholarships. Once again, besides powering the community of the present, Midwest Generation seeks to empower the people of the future to ensure more of the same.

Caterpilllar in Joliet also works toward not only providing the equipment for international construction, but developing the community, as well. A part of the community since 1951, Caterpillar of Joliet currently employs over 1,400 people within the city. Dixie Wiley relates how the organization has worked toward improving the local environment. “We just won the governor’s award for pollution control,” she says, “because we changed processes from chrome plating to another kind of process that saved a lot of waste water that we were putting out behind here into the river, and it saved a lot of solid waste that we had from the cleaning process.” Steps like those ensure Joliet’s environmental future. Working with United Way for events like Make a Difference Day and going out to the 45 agencies in Will County for repairs and repainting contribute to the community, as well.

One of Caterpillar’s largest investments in the community comes in the form of investing in its employees specifically. In June, “we have Caterpillar Days at the Jackhammer Stadium in Joliet,” says Wiley, where employees have the opportunity to watch the Jackhammers for free and receive free gifts like baseballs with Caterpillar and Jackhammer insignia. Employee care continues beyond the summer months, too.

“We usually go to some pumpkin farm in October for a fall activity, and we usually have a winter dance in January,” says Wiley. Caterpillar even goes to far as to invest in the families of employees.

“It’s one of the few companies that promotes hiring family members,” relates Wiley. “I was going to college to be a high school history teacher and I quit halfway through because I just realized it wasn’t what I wanted to do, and he said to come work here for a year until you figure out what else you want to do. Thirty years later, here I am.”

In a time where corporations seem more intimidating every day, Caterpillar shows how it can offer a consistent space for employees and their families for years to come.

Any community requires attention to its economic situation to thrive, and Joliet has clearly developed businesses that can weather temporary economic woes and thereby continue to help the community as a whole. Investing in energy that people will always need to power their homes and transportation, Exxon and Midwest Generation supply the community with not only its basic needs, but also a refuge from concerns that other areas may not have adequately planned for yet.

Caterpillar, too, has helped Joliet citizens to remain there with long-term employment opportunities for the entire family. No matter what obstacles Joliet may face in the near future, businesses like Exxon, Midwest Generation, and Caterpillar will assuredly continue to help Joliet press on.