Mike Watson freely admits not everything he’s done has been perfect.

He notes there have been plenty of missteps along the path of his 63 years of life.

He has sought political offices and lost. He gained service contracts and lost service contracts.

Though, despite any bumps along his journey as a private business operator, political novice, and now the 6-year mayor of Bradley, one thing is clear: Watson is willing to tackle almost anything.

Watson, the man who took on business giant Waste Management and beat them as they sought to significantly expand the Kankakee County landfill in the early 2000s, is now turning heads in his hometown, in northern Illinois and the Midwest.

The driving force behind the $50-million development of the Bradley 315 Sports Park and the soon-to-be-under-construction $90-million Mattel Wonder Indoor Waterpark has no plans of slowing anytime soon.

As a result of the change he and the Bradley Village Board have brought and plan to bring here, Watson has been selected as the 2025 Daily Journal’s Male Citizen of the Year.

When asked about the possibility of plans not working out as anticipated, the man who started his own waste hauling company, United Disposal, at the age of 19, Watson simply shrugs.

“I’m not afraid of failure. It’s a unique trait. You have to get over that hurdle,” he explained. “I was tested by society, government and major corporations. I evaluate multiple outcomes on everything.”

He leaned back in his village board chair. He gather his thoughts and put it this way: “I’ve built confidence in myself.”

He admits there are times when things can get nerve-wracking.

“But each step you take along the way, you gain confidence. Nothing is ever a ‘for sure.’ You do your best.”

His best and that of the six-member Bradley Village Board, finance director Rob Romo, attorneys, and staffers are transforming not only Bradley but ultimately all of Kankakee County.

From the garbage truck seat

He is working to not only grow development within the village limits but also have all neighboring communities benefit from its economic might.

And for a man who started his climb from the driver’s seat of a garbage truck hustling day in and day out through Bradley alleyways and streets, it is something of an amazing feat.

Having gained his first waste hauling contract in July 1981—one year after his 1980 graduation from Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School—under legendary Bradley Mayor Ken Hayes, Watson has left his mark.

“The village gave me a one-year contract. They wanted to see what I could do,” he said.

At the time he was developing his garbage collection business, he worked as a bagger and in the butcher department at the Kroger grocery store in Bourbonnais.

The one-year deal ultimately lasted until 2012, when the village shifted to Republic Services.

That shift altered Watson’s company, but he has remained in business. It also helped spur him to enter the political arena.

“I would not be here in this post if I was still the village garbage hauler.”

But Watson certainly had more than a nibble at politics before seeking Bradley elected office.

He not only became mayor of tiny Sammons Point in south-central Kankakee County; he was a driving force in the creation of the village as a way to fight a planned large expansion of the county’s landfill by Waste Management in the early 2000s.

The landfill happened to be a neighbor of Sammons Point, meaning the village—and Watson—had a large voice. Watson said he personally invested upwards of $1 million in legal fees in this fight.

Three Waste Management siting hearings ultimately came up short.

Watson had made his mark.

“I put my heart, my soul and my wallet into it,” he said. “It took me many years to pay off that expense.”

He served as Sammons Point mayor from May 2006 through April 2012.

Looking back, he said, it was not his intention to leave Sammons Point.

“I wasn’t planning on being elected in Bradley,” he said before adding. “But Bradley is where my heart is.”

Having made a previous unsuccessful run as a west Kankakee County Board member, Watson shifted his focus to Bradley, his hometown.

An unsuccessful mayoral run against Bruce Adams in April 2013 did not quell his political desire. He successfully sought a village trustee seat in 2015.

Watson gained a seat at the table. He lost a second mayoral run in 2017, but when Adams resigned in 2019, Watson became the mayor pro-tem and has since won re-election in 2021 and 2025.

Former fellow village trustee Bob Redmond has watched Watson up close. They served together as trustees. He served when Watson became mayor.

“He’s not a guy who sits back and waits for things to happen,” Redmond explained. “He goes out and does it.”

Bradley growth

While perhaps not consciously doing it, Watson has become almost as iconic as Mayor Hayes, who was often referred to as “the deal maker.”

It was Hayes who ushered the development of the Northfield Square mall. It was the mall that pushed Bradley to overtake Kankakee as the county’s retail hub.

Fittingly, it was Watson who led the village into acquiring the struggling mall for $6.5 million, after having previously acquired the JCPenney and Carson’s men’s store location.

Watson, nor the village board, was not interested in running a retail outlet. What they were interested in was securing the property so they had ultimate control over what the site would eventually become.

Watson has often made it clear: Bradley comes first. He wants all of Kankakee County to prosper, but Bradley is Job 1.

He set out a course to get village finances in order. He sought and eventually gained a 1-percentage-point increase in the village’s sales tax rate in July 2020.

The increase pumps approximately $5.5 million into the village’s budget.

He followed that up with a binding resolution in September 2021, which took effect Jan. 1, 2022, for a 1% business district tax.

This tax collects another $4.5 million into the village coffers.

This money is all about creating business—and taxes—to fuel more and more development.

The engine is pumping. In late spring, the 12-diamond, 126-acre, 315 Sports Park opened. It hosted hundreds of youth baseball and softball teams.

Local sports leagues are now signing on to play on its turf fields.

Before the complex had even opened, Watson and Bradley had set sights on another out-of-the-box development—a 2-plus-acre indoor waterpark.

The pending development and its proximity to the Chicagoland market so impressed the Mattel Company that it joined the project only recently.

If all goes as hoped, this complex could open in late 2027 or early 2028.

“We are only setting the stage for the next big thing,” he said.

Watson’s longtime partner, Jana Knight, who did not know Watson until she became the United Disposal office manager 25 years ago, has a unique perspective.

When he proclaimed he would start Sammons Point, she took the statement with a grain of salt. He did it.

When he set out to become Bradley mayor, she wasn’t sure.

“He was just a garbage man for Bradley. I’ve come to realize when he puts his mind to something, he gets it accomplished,” she said.

As much as he doesn’t want to admit it, Watson said part of what drives him is the fact so many people said he couldn’t.

He said a long ago former neighbor approached him recently. As he shared the exchange, his voice cracked as emotions began to overwhelm him.

“He told me he was very proud of me. That means so much. I have a lot of ideas.”