Now, Huntley is expanding and changing everywhere, and the long-vacant 17-acre site near the village’s town square may get in on the action.

According to Bonnie Spasojevich, it’s “an event to showcase volunteer opportunities and charter clubs” as advertised by the Sun City Activity Committee.

It sits starkly above an editorial in the March issue of “The Voice,” a student-produced publication at Huntley High School. The editorial is not about an upcoming athletic contest, or next week’s science fair.

About 18 years ago, Del Webb built a very nice solarium (literally translated as sun room) in Sun City’s Prairie Lodge. It had a glass ceiling, and large glass windows on three sides. It was designed as a social, eating, and meeting space for community groups and family parties and events. It also was frequently used as a small staging area for entertainment events in Drendel Ballroom.

The years 2016 and 2017 brought controversies about the handling of nominating petitions and an attempt to knock a long-time incumbent leader off the ballot in last year’s election. Last week, another dustup erupted, involving an alleged failure to process property tax assessments in a timely fashion and/or according to state law.

Some of the most exciting and entertaining sporting moments in Sun City take place on its lush acres: 12-inch and 16-inch Chicago-style softball games, special events honoring veterans, all-star games, the National Night Out celebration, skill competition, and the annual softball league playoffs in August.

In big cities, small towns, farming communities, neighborhoods and organizations, there are frequent criticisms and complaints by the governed that the governors and leaders aren’t transparent enough, available enough, or responsive enough.

On March 16, Huntley village officials issued the owners of the defunct mall a demolition permit to take down the buildings, most of the infrastructure, and advertising signs. All evidence of the once vibrant factory shops center will be gone no later than June 15, according to a court order.

By early fall, the Tall Oaks Tennis Center will technically be the Sun City Tennis-Pickleball Center.

The village has about the same water infrastructure that it had back in 1999. In the past 18-plus years, Huntley’s rates have increased very little. When Sun City opened in 1999, the village’s population was less than 3,000. Today, it is about 26,700.

On February 22, more than 10 months after the mall became vacant in 2017, Huntley officials approved three actions that will allow General RV to occupy eight additional acres of the former mall property next to the I-90 tollway.