WATAGA, Ill. — The walls are coming down in Wataga. At least, for one building, that is.
On Tuesday morning, demolition crews were busy ripping apart an old, condemned building in the center of the village. Eventually, a new one-story restaurant and bar will go up in its place, bringing the number of eateries in Wataga up to one.
Located a few minutes away from Galesburg, roughly 800 people reside in the small village.
For years, Jimmy's Pizza in downtown Wataga was the only restaurant around. But in 2017, a fire burned Jimmy's to the ground. The owners eventually chose to rebuild somewhere else, leaving behind an empty lot and a dwindling town.
Since then, the only place for Wataga residents to get food was from the local Casey's. Now, the addition of another restaurant will be a welcome one.
"I think that Wataga needs it," said William 'Bill' Motz, the owner of the destroyed building and future restaurant.
A Wataga native, Motz also owns Motzee's, a bar right next to where Jimmy's once stood, as well as the empty lot that Jimmy's left behind. Next to that is where his eatery will be built, featuring a full bar and restaurant, a gambling parlor and a corner ice-cream parlor for neighborhood kids.
Once that happens, he's going to transform the space in between — where the pizza place used to be — into a common area for dining, live music, receptions and more. It'll be called 'Jimmy's Land.'
"It's been a long time coming," Motz said. "It's gonna be neat."
Motz has been trying to make this restaurant become a reality for the past two years but says COVID-19 related supply chain issues and labor shortages have made it difficult to make any headway.
Still, he explained the community never lost hope.
"They love it, they've been pestering me for several years now to get it done," Motz laughed. "They're tired of going to town or leaving the area to go get a sandwich."
But it's more than just a sandwich. It's a hope that a new establishment could breath some new life into Wataga.
"They're not rebuilding back small towns once they leave," Motz said. "I think it'd be a good opportunity for just the area. People get out of big cities and come to a little town and have a sandwich."
An exact timeline hasn't been figured out just yet, but Motz is hopeful to have his new business up and running by this fall.