2024 is off to a great start in Rochelle. Our team at the City of Rochelle is looking forward to a productive and eventful year. Mayor Bearrows will host our annual state of the community address on March 19 at City Hall. 2023 was a successful year for our organization, and we feel it is appropriate to highlight our accomplishments and promote projects set for 2024.  

We have numerous projects slated for this coming year, honestly there are too many to list in this article. However, I do want to highlight several due to their size, scope and policy significance. First are the downtown improvements we plan to make that are being funded in part through a State of Illinois downtown improvement grant. The project includes a new downtown restroom facility along with an open area for gathering and events, resurfacing of parking lots, redevelopment of blighted properties, new sidewalks and undergrounding of utilities. A committee of staff and council members has been working on the restroom and open space plan and will be ready to present a recommendation to the full city council in the coming month.

Our Community Development department created an arts committee made up of residents and business owners to help create more public art in our downtown and other public spaces.  This group of dedicated individuals has brought a lot of great ideas to our attention, and I am very excited for the community to see their work in action.

Our utility departments continue making major investments in infrastructure. The planned improvements include the design work for a new substation on the west end of Rochelle on Illinois Route 38, the construction of a new 138Kv line that will tie all RMU substations together to reduce outages, the design and beginning construction of a new iron removal water treatment plant at Caron Road, continued updates to the wastewater treatment plant and cleaning and repainting of the water tower located on Illinois Route 251 at the overpass.

Our public works and engineering departments have numerous storm sewer and street improvement projects planned this year including the reconstruction and signalization of the 20^th Street and Flagg Road intersection, bridge improvements at 7^th Avenue and Kyte Creek, rebuilding numerous alleys throughout the town and the cap and closure of Unit 1 at the Rochelle Landfill. 

Finally, with pending retirements in 2024, our team is implementing several departmental consolidations. These changes will improve our core service delivery model and save your taxpayer money. We continue filling critical open positions in the fire and police departments as well. I want to thank our entire staff in the city and utilities. Rochelle is served by a group of dedicated people who work to put the community first and deliver services impartially to all our residents and customers.

Feel free to call or email me with any questions or suggestions. Let’s all work together to continue moving our community in a positive direction. 

“I am ready to face any challenges that might be foolish enough to face me.” -Dwight Schrute

“Nothing is impossible. The word itself says I’M POSSIBLE.” -Audrey Hepburn

Jeffrey A. Fiegenschuh, ICMA-CM, MPA, is the city manager of the City of Rochelle.