Gemini Giant UNMASKED: Wilmington Mayor Talks About New Location
WILMINGTON — Several hundred people visited Wilmington's off-the-beaten path public works facility at 745 Widows Road on Saturday to witness something magical. Here, the 30-foot-tall Gemini Giant, the world-famous Gemini Giant, was laying on his back, without his astronaut helmet covering his face.This weekend marked the 17th annual Illinois Route 66 Red Carpet Corridor Festival, two days of family fun along the most famous two-lane highway in America's history: Route 66. Fourteen Illinois communities from Joliet to Bloomington participated in the event, and Wilmington's showcasing of the Gemini Giant was the most-talked-about attraction.Since March 20, Gemni Giant has been kept inside the Wilmington public works building after the Joliet Area Historical Museum purchased him from Holly Barker, the owner of the vacant Launching Pad restaurant.Joliet Patch was the only major news outlet on hand March 20 when Gemini Giant was taken down from the Launching Pad and brought to the public works building, about 1.5 miles away.On Saturday, Joliet Patch interviewed Wilmington Mayor Ben Dietz at his public works facility. Dietz was instrumental in saving the Gemini Giant, and he's spearheading the efforts to move the Giant to his new home of prominence in the later part of this summer.By 12:30 p.m. Saturday, hundreds of people showed up at the public works garage to see the Gemini Giant during the nostalgic Red Carpet Corridor Festival."I would say we're easily at 250, which is awesome," Mayor Dietz remarked. "The Giant's been a thing that we've always had in Wilmington, it seems like for 60 years-ish. And for the locals, we kind of take it for granted. The recent events unfolding with the Giant, it's great to see the broader support, not just people in Will County, or even Illinois, but it's the entirety of the Route 66 family, come together to support the Giant and on top of that, the larger international, which was mind-blowing to me. The amount of support, emails, phone calls, voicemails that I've gotten, nice to see so many people are still very enthusiastic about Route 66."Patch asked Dietz why Wilmington opened up the public works garage on Saturday to showcase the Gemini Giant, as he remains on his back, waiting for his restoration to occur."Constantly getting requests like, 'When's it going to go up? Where's it going to go? Can I see it? Miss him," Dietz explained. "This is a great event, promoting Route 66 and what a better opportunity to get the locals and the bigger Route 66 community a chance to see the Giant with his helmet off, once in a lifetime. It's super cool."Patch asked Wilmington's mayor to explain the time frame Wilmington has in mind for bringing the Gemini Giant, who stands 30 feet tall, to his new permanent location.Wilmington Mayor Ben Dietz said. "What a better opportunity to get the locals and the bigger Route 66 community a chance to see the Giant with his helmet off, once in a lifetime. It's super cool." John Ferak/Patch"We're definitely targeting summer," Dietz assured Joliet Patch. "Sometime this summer. It's a lot of scheduling about getting him down to the facility that's going to renovate him. It's them making time in their schedule of other projects that they're doing to get the Giant done. We're going to take it back down to Atlanta (Illinois) and get it done in their facility where they have the time, effort and tools to get it done the right way. He needs some pretty extensive work, fiberglass repair, obviously paint ... the support structure itself is going to have to get all new completely."It's one of those things where we get him down, we got him safe, I don't want to rush. None of us want to rush getting him tomorrow. We'd rather take time and do it the right way with the right people. Everyone wants to get him back on display. That's absolute. Everyone wants to get him up as quickly as we can, but we want to make sure that the restoration job is done the right way. I think May's not going to happen for sure and June's probably not likely."Last, Joliet Patch asked the mayor where Wilmington will display the Gemini Giant. There are photos of the new location at the South Island Park at the bottom of this story.Image via John Ferak/Patch"Wilmington, obviously, Baltimore Street is Route 66 through town and there's kind of two halves to the town, the east half where the Launching Pad and the Giant used to sit and the west half, and in between that, we have an Island Park," Mayor Dietz explained. "We have a north island and a south island. And that's situated right along the Kankakee River, which is a national water trail, so what better location."Wilmington's known for our parks and our green spaces. We have a lot of nature around us. So what a better location to put the Gemini Giant, right along Route 66, right on our island parks, right next to the Kankakee National Water Trail, so we're going to build a brand-new kind of little park for him, do on-site parking, walking trails around it, more amenities than what's currently there, which is nice. It'll be its own destination, absolutely. "Be able to go and take pictures. We'll have a Route 66 photo monument, very similar to what they have right now in downtown Joliet. It'll be a really nice area when it's set and done."Image via John Ferak/PatchWilmington Mayor Ben Dietz stands next to the Gemini Giant on Saturday. John Ferak/PatchImage via John Ferak/PatchImage via John Ferak/PatchImage via John Ferak/PatchIn July or August, Wilmington hopes to have Gemini Giant ready for his new permanent display near the entrance for South Island Park. John Ferak/PatchIn July or August, Wilmington hopes to have Gemini Giant ready for his new permanent display near the entrance for South Island Park. John Ferak/PatchThe article Gemini Giant UNMASKED: Wilmington Mayor Talks About New Location appeared first on Joliet, IL Patch.
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