McDonald’s rebuild set

Those in Morris wanting to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a McDonald’s Shamrock Shake will have to celebrate the day before the Irish holiday because, on St. Patrick’s Day, the local restaurant will be closed.

Wednesday, March 16, will be the last day the Morris McDonald’s on Illinois 47 and George Street will be open until June. The store is closing for demolition and will be replaced with a whole new restaurant.

Demolition is scheduled to begin Sunday, March 20, said Nathan Pappas, owner of the Morris restaurant and four other McDonald’s.

“We will reopen in June. It’ll take 60 to 90 days; obviously it all depends on the weather,” Pappas said.

The project plans started about a year and a half ago, and the timing is finally right to get started, he said.

Pappas purchased and cleared the property behind McDonald’s in order to make the new building larger. It will have a two-lane drive-through, larger lobby with a big screen television, and it will be more efficient, with such things as LED lighting and new kitchen equipment. The outside of the building will have a masonry facade.

“It will be a lot friendlier looking,” Pappas said.

At the request of the city, It also will have decorative lighting along Illinois 47 and George Street, which will be like the lighting at the recently constructed Mobil gas station.

“This is something we’re trying to do in bits and pieces and as much as we can as we get redevelopment,” said Bill Cheshareck, building and zoning officer for the city.

The restaurant’s entrances will change. It currently has a separate entrance and exit off of Illinois 47, as well as an access point from George Street. With the new construction, there will be one entrance/exit on Illinois 47 and one on George Street, with easier access to the street.

“The overall goal in setting up the restaurant was to tremendously increase the efficiency of the drive-through,” Pappas said. The plan is to increase drive-through business by 10 percent. According to a previous Morris Daily Herald article from last year, about 70 percent of the restaurant’s business is drive-through business.

The Morris McDonald’s has been open for about 36 years. For 26 of those years, Joe Slattery has been spending his mornings there almost daily during the week.

Slattery and about eight of his friends who regularly join the morning coffee group spent one of their last mornings at the current McDonald’s Friday. Most of the group drinks coffee, but not Slattery.

“I have water and pancakes,” said the retired farmer, who is almost 90-years-old.

“They have the fluffiest pancakes,” added group member Gayle Green of Morris. “I normally don’t like pancakes.”

Some of the group starts gathering at 6 a.m., but all of them clear out by 9 a.m. For the three months or so their regular place will be closed, they intend to go to the Morris Burger King.

But the minute the McDonald’s is back open, they’ll be in the new chairs discussing local news, telling jokes and even breaking into song on occasion.

“I like to see us get something new and bigger. We usually have about 14 people and there is not enough room,” said Bill Button, retired law enforcement officer and former Grundy County Sheriff.

Many of the regular customers come for the coffee, camaraderie and to visit with their favorite McDonald’s employees. About 65 people work there now and, when it reopens, it will employee 75 to 95, depending on the season, Pappas said.

While it’s closed, the current employees were all given the option to work at other McDonald’s Pappas owns, or other locations he was able to work with to give his employees hours, such as in Channahon and Minooka.

McClain Surber, a floor supervisor who has worked at the Morris restaurant for three years, will be heading to one of the Peru stores to work.

“I’m glad to be getting a job elsewhere, but I’m nervous about moving to a new store for so long,” he said. “It’ll be weird to be at a new store and doing things their way.”

Working with the other McDonald’s, they were able to group the Morris employees so they could be at the same locations together and able to carpool, since some of the locations are quite a distance.

“We let them decide where they wanted to go,” said Manager Rick Komperda, who will be at the Peru location. “They tried to group us together so we can save on gas.”

Many of the regular customers are worried about where they are going to go, Komperda said.
"Just wait it out. We'll be back soon," he said.