By William Smith
Incumbent city council candidate Matt Rinker has spent most of his life, save for a few years, in Burlington.
He was 19 years old when he joined the U.S. Navy in 2004, just three years after 9/11.
“After 9/11, I was really driven to go into service,” he said.
That took him all the way to Greece. When Rinker came back, he attended Western Illinois University, where he obtained a degree in political science.
Rinker, who is now married with five kids, came back to Burlington and started work as a State Farm insurance agent. It wasn’t long before he was developing real estate on the side and dipping his hand into charity work. He even helped the Burlington Police Department restart the Shop With A Cop program.
“They do all the work for that. I’m just a cheerleader,” he said.
Four years ago, Rinker took his first run at city council and won. Now he’s fighting to stay there, and believes his tenure makes a good argument for Burlingtonians to vote for him again.
“In 2017, there were a lot of things we felt we needed to do, one of the more aggressive being on the housing side of things,” he said. “At the end of the day, the city of Burlington is going to be as good as the housing stock.”
Rinker said the current council has taken notable strides in that direction, but there is still much he would like to do.
“We’ve focused on a lot of nuisance abatement and a lot on beautification,” he said.
Rinker said progress was made by the previous council, which was responsible for securing the federal TIGER grant that is being used to redevelop Jefferson Street, Main Street, and the riverfront area.
It’s not a perfect project, Rinker admitted. He’s been frustrated by the delays, and isn’t happy that businesses along Jefferson Street will lose a good portion of their annual sales due to roadblocks and construction.
But he does believe in the project. He hopes business owners afflicted by construction will, too.
“I’m excited about the downtown that business owners will have,” Rinker said. “If you go back 15 years, and you look at the empty storefronts and empty living spaces that used to be above the buildings, and if you look at the infrastructure now, it’s a complete 180.”
Despite delays to construction, Rinker said the second Tama building will be a big part of downtown development. The timeline of that construction falls on the developer.
“I know a lot of people are frustrated with the time it’s taking,” he conceded.
The city council put the Cascade Bridge project on the five- year plan, and Rinker believes there’s a solution there as well – though it’s going to take more time. Since the bridge is registered as a historic landmark, simply tearing it down and replacing it wasn’t an option.
One day, the passage will reopen, Rinker said.
“I believe in the last four years, we have made a lot of progress, and it’s been taking place at historic preservation meetings and city council work sessions,” Rinker said.
The city council recently tabled a project that would bring solar power to much of Burlington, but plans on reintroducing it after further details are hashed out and the project is rebid.
“Over the next couple of years, you're going to see us move toward more solar. You are going to see us become more effective at ways of cutting costs,” he said.
Along with a neighborhood improvement program that would focus on improving housing nine to 12 blocks at a time, Rinker believes he can keep the city’s momentum rolling.
“Over the next ten to 15 years, you could see massive improvements in a lot of neighborhoods that are more blighted today,” Rinker said.