Urbana City Mayor Diane Marlin
URBANA, Ill. (WCIA) – In this week's Meet the Mayor, WCIA's Mitchell Rife sat down with Diane Marlin to talk about her final months as Urbana's Mayor.
Mayor Marlin has been at the helm since 2017, but says her service to the Urbana and Central Illinois community has more history than just being on city council.
'As long as long as I've lived here, I've been a volunteer in the community in some capacity or another,' Marlin said. 'And as far as serving as an elected official, I served for eight years on the Urbana City Council and finishing up eight years as Mayor of Urbana.'
The food hall purchase has been a big discussion point as well, with many restaurants like Smith Burger.
READ MORE: Urbana's Broadway Food Hall to reopen as The Yard on Broadway with more restaurants
Urbana city leaders have also focused a lot of time on rebuilding the financial foundation.
'We've eliminated our structural deficit, we rebuilt our city emergency reserves, we have restored pension funding,' Marlin said. 'We're on track for, you know, proper pension funding. And we have gone to things like a cloud-based financial system, launched a new website.'
Marlin reflected on her final months in the role.
'It's the best job I have ever had, being Mayor of Urbana; and it's also by far the hardest job I ever had,' she said. 'But taken as a whole, there is no better way to impact people's lives and to help people than to serve in local government. This is where the decisions, all of the decisions you make, have a direct impact on on the folks you live with in and see every day.'
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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