Larry Simotes named Minooka’s Citizen of the Year

Larry Simotes, a Minooka resident most recently responsible for organizing and creating the Veterans Dog Park in Downtown Minooka, has been named the village’s Citizen of the Year.

Simotes couldn’t be at the Minooka State of the Village address Thursday to accept the award, but Minooka Mayor Ric Offerman presented it to his sons, Grant and Mac.

“He was known, probably, years ago because he was a very successful junior high baseball coach,” Offerman said. “If you go over to the fields where they play, it says state champion.”

Offerman said Simotes has been helpful with other things since then, helping out with things around town and things like team charities.

“He’s now most famous for the Veterans Dog Park,” Offerman said. “He has said, and I believe him, that it’s the only dog partk in America that we also look at as a place to honor our veterans.”

The Veterans Dog Park at the corner of Wabena Ave. and Wapella St. in Minooka opened in May 2024. Offerman said Simotes spent a long time organizing and going door to door collecting money for the park while offering up some of his own money and labor to make it happen.

Simotes told the crowd that day that his journey started with talking to Pete Fleming and Brandon Tonarelli to buy the land. Fleming wouldn’t take commission on the purchase. Then he tried to hire a digger, who said he’d handle it for free. Then he tried to hire Narvick Bros. to put in concrete sidewalks, and they did the sidewalks without accepting payment, and Vogt Masonry did the same for the brick columns in the entranceway.

“He did tell us a couple of things he wanted to say,” Grant said. “Thank you to all the businesses that helped. It wasn’t just him that built the dog park. And thank you to everyone who nominated him for Citizen of the Year, and everyone at the village.”