ROCHELLE — The City of Rochelle’s work in 2024 will include the completion of renovations at its new 1030 S. 7th St. building for Rochelle Municipal Utilities and city staff, preliminary work on a new electrical substation on the west side of town, water/wastewater department projects, hiring for multiple departments, and community outreach, City Manager Jeff Fiegenschuh said. 

RMU will be working on design work and bidding for its iron removal plant at Well 8 to bring a closed well back online to service industrial customers. Construction on phase two of the wastewater treatment plant’s improvements will take place as well. 

Following staff expansion and the hiring of three new Rochelle Fire Department firefighter/paramedics in 2023, Fiegenschuh said the city hopes to hire three more in 2024 if it receives a grant towards it. Staffing work will also be done in the city’s IT department, along with work on marketing RMU’s fiber and internet services. 

Community outreach will be another priority for the city in 2024, Fiegenschuh said. 

“We're going to do another developers summit this winter,” Fiegenschuh said. “We're going to do another small business presentation with our Spanish-speaking community members in January. We'd like to do a new version of the citizens academy for the community to see what we do. Outside of community outreach, we're going to work on a capital plan and a new, hopefully longer-term contract with the park district for the golf course's operation. We'll see more staff development and continuing education. And as our property values grow, we want to continue to maintain and hopefully lower our tax levy again.”

Longer-term processes the city hopes to start in 2024 include the design phase of the Illinois Department of Transportation’s reconstruction of Illinois Route 251 North through Rochelle in the coming years. The city also plans to prioritize the need for housing.  

“Housing is a huge issue,” Fiegenschuh said. “We recently saw a groundbreaking on the Willis Senior Lofts development. And there's a need for all types of housing. We want to meet with the other taxing districts locally to try to find ways to incentivize more single-family housing. I do think in the next several years we'll see more discussion, proposals and ideas about housing.”

Fiegenschuh also said that 2024 will see continuing work on trying to attract an additional grocery store to town by incentivizing companies and marketing Rochelle to another grocer. 

“I don't think something is going to happen in one year, but that's more of a long-term strategy,” Fiegenschuh said. “We'd like to see more growth where Sullivan's used to be, and I think that's more of a long-term process. We've had some inquiries out there.”

The city would also like to see more growth downtown and in all of its corridors in coming years. 

The year 2023 saw lasting impacts from COVID-19 including supply chain issues, high lead times and price inflation. Fiegenschuh said the city has started to see prices, along with interest rates, come down and hopes to see interest rates come down further in 2024. 

The city manager also estimated that workforce issues will affect the city in 2024 and beyond. 

“We'll need to find police officers, firefighters, street department operators and linemen,” Fiegenschuh said. “As we look at replacing positions, the workforce shortage will come into play and I think it's going to become more difficult to find good, qualified people. That will affect us and other organizations long term. We pray for the best and prepare for the worst. Our goal is always to make the community a better place. We have great people in great positions, both working at the city and in this community. We're looking forward to 2024. 2023 was great and we're looking to make 2024 better.”