ROCHELLE — The City of Rochelle’s work in 2023 included the construction and completion of a new joint fire training facility with the Ogle-Lee fire Protection District, reinvesting in infrastructure, staffing changes, and updates to the Rochelle Municipal Utilities billing department.  

The first training exercises at the new fire training facility were conducted in early December. The land off South Main Street was donated to the city and there are plans for additional construction phases and the facility being used by other entities and city departments for training in the future. 

In other work with its first responders in 2023, the city approved a new agreement with the Rochelle Fire Department’s union to add six additional firefighter/paramedics amid elevated call volumes. Three have been hired already. The fire department is also slated to see renovations to its dorm area. 

The Rochelle Police Department saw a new chief appointed in Pete Pavia, who replaced the retiring Eric Higby. The department saw a number of new officers as well amid other retirements, and the addition of new squad cars and body cameras. 

“Chief Pavia has stepped into the role and taken the department to a new level,” City Manager Jeff Fiegenschuh said.  “He's assertive with moving the department forward and he cares about his officers. He wanted to move the department in a different direction and myself and the mayor and council supported that. There's been a lot of change with our first responders. None of that change would have happened without great leadership by our chiefs, relations with the OLFPD, our mayor and city council, our Police & Fire Commission, and our staff.”

On the RMU side, in 2023 the city started the process of an iron removal plant at Well 8 to service industrial customers, started the process of a new electrical substation on the west side of town, started renovations at its RMU building on South 7th Street, and fully implemented its new utility billing software. 

“We completed the construction of the new Ritchie Road substation in recent years and now we're making significant improvements to the RMU power plant infrastructure,” Fiegenschuh said. “Electric lines are being moved underground to safer places. We have plans for phase two of improvements at the wastewater treatment plant. We have a GIS department working on mapping all of our infrastructure and a system that all of our departments can use. RMU billing has seen security improvements at its 333 Lincoln Highway building. We've made a lot of infrastructure investments on the utility side and we'll continue that into 2024 to increase reliability and reduce outages.”

Along with a partnership with the OLFPD on the fire training facility, the city also partnered with the Flagg-Rochelle Community Park District on a new agreement for joint ownership of Fairways Golf Course for 2024. Fiegenschuh said he’s proud of the relationships the city has built with other taxing bodies and local organizations. 

“I'm so proud of where we're at as a community,” Fiegenschuh said. “We have positive relationships with other area taxing bodies. We've contributed to the county's new economic development corporation. We have school resource officer agreements with our school districts. We have open communication with Flagg Township. I'm proud of our work with those organizations. We work closely with the Rochelle Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Rochelle Association.”

During 2023, the city hired a company to do a staff organizational analysis, Fiegenschuh said, which provided feedback on areas improvement including employee engagement, which will be a priority going forward. The analysis also yielded survey feedback from employees. 

“We're implementing some of the things that came from that and some of the suggestions our employees had,” Fiegenschuh said. “That's probably one of the things I'm proudest of and we need to work more on employee engagement and reinvesting in our employees. On the budget this year, we all came together as a team to prioritize projects city-wide. I appreciated everyone's cooperation and how smoothly it went. I'm proud of all the things we've accomplished and I look forward to 2024.”