Orland Park Mayor Jim Dodge: Witness to History

by Owens Media, Inc. for NEIGHBORS MAGAZINE

              Orland Park Mayor Jim Dodge will forever hold a place in village history. Dodge was first elected to the Village of Orland Park Board of Trustees in 1989, elected village clerk at the age of 26, being the youngest official in village history.

              The mayor is now the first in Orland Park history to serve in all three elected positions, as village clerk from 1989 until 1996, as a village trustee from 1996 until 2021, and as mayor (village president), elected in 2025.

              “When I ran for village clerk in 1989, I was a newcomer,” Dodge recalled. “The population of the village was around 23,000 and I rang every voter doorbell in town.”