UPDATE: Village Administrators: Facebook Page 'Not Authorized'

An official-looking, sophisticated Facebook page for the Village of Mokena  was set up recently. Though it has garnered only about a dozen followers so far, the page already contains historical photos of Mokena, recent photos of Mokena events, links to village e-newsletters and upcoming event information. It's so good, it even fooled your Mokena Patch editor, who "tagged" the page in one of her posts.

The only problem? Village officials knew nothing about the page when Mokena Patch called Kirk Zoellner, assistant village administrator, to ask him about it Tuesday.

“The village hasn’t set up an official Facebook page,” Zoellner said. “We are not sponsoring it and have not authorized it.”

After a day of looking over the Facebook page and following up with some leads, Zoellner said the village still isn’t sure who created it. Even more confounding, the page disappeared by Thursday afternoon.

He added that the content on the page looks somewhat sophisticated and the content isn’t negative, but it’s not official, which is a concern.

“We’d like to know who it is,” Zoellner said. “If the person or organization wants to come forward, we’d be happy to talk to them about it.”

One of the main concerns about the page is that it has “liked” a slew of local businesses, meaning it follows the Facebook pages of those businesses. Zoellner said this looks like an endorsement by the village.

"The village doesn’t play favorites,” he said.

Zoellner said village officials have discussed whether Mokena should get involved in social media sites or not, and the debate is ongoing.

“We’re always looking at the best and most cost-effective ways to communicate with our constituents,” Zoellner said.

For now, the village conducts that kind of communication through an e-newsletter that people can sign up for or view on the village website, and through a quarterly “Mokena Update,” which can be downloaded off the website.

Zoellner said the best form of communication from the village is the e-newsletter. Coincidentally, that first post on the Facebook page was a link to the e-newsletter, telling people to sign up.