Citizen of the Year: Steve McCarville
Thu, 04/11/2024 - 8:59am
admin
By:
Paige Lucas TPD Editor
CRESCO - The late Steve McCarville of Cresco has been named the 2024 Citizen of the Year by The Times Plain Dealer!
McCarville was born and raised in Cresco and dedicated his life to the town. He graduated from Notre Dame High School in 1974, where he participated competitively in cross country, baseball, and basketball.
In 1979 he married Kathryn Mracek after they met at a dance hall, where he “swept her off her feet”. Mracek described how there was never a dull moment with McCarville, explaining how “conversation was never hard”, and that he “fit right in” with her family.
They eventually found themselves moving to Waterloo, with McCarville pursuing a career with John Deere. He soon realized his passion and drive for entrepreneurship and decided to venture into creating a new business as a partial owner of Chuck, Steve’s, and Tom’s. As the business changed to Steve’s and Tom’s (Tom Kubik, brother-in-law of McCarville), and continued to grow, in 1992, Camp-Site RV Inc. was established.
The business worked out of an old gas station site in Cresco before expanding and moving to its current location off of Highway 9. Several of McCarville’s children returned from college at this time to help support the business. The facility has been expanded on twice since 2008, and the lot for RV’s has been expanded numerous times as well.
Steve McCarville served on several boards and committees in Cresco including, the Howard County Regional Health Services Board, the Cresco City Council, the Notre Dame Parish Council, the CIDC Board, the Cresco Bank and Trust Board, the Cresco Park and Recreation Board, and the Crestwood Booster Club. He also maintained all three of Cresco’s “Welcome” signs, heavily pushing for their existence in the first place. Up until his final weeks, McCarville would go out and mow the lawn area around the signs and pull weeds. He always wanted to make sure Cresco was looking its best during any big event, and would be gone from dawn until dusk organizing and volunteering in the community.
