DeKALB – Mayor Cohen Barnes said there could be a lot in store for the city of DeKalb in 2024.
Barnes pointed to growth of city’s ChicagoWest Business Center, which is now home to Kraft Heinz, Amazon, Meta, Ferrara Candy Co. and more.
“Everything going on on the south side of DeKalb right now, we are highly focused on that,” Barnes said. “We are in multiple conversations about potential new growth that could happen on the south side. So, we will definitely focus on economic development there. The reason that’s important is it creates more jobs and it creates more tax revenue for all of our taxing bodies.”
Kraft Heinz announced in July a 775,000-square-foot distribution center promising more than 150 jobs would open in DeKalb by 2025. And Meta, social media parent company to Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to name a few, took its DeKalb Data Center online in November.
Barnes said the city looks forward to doing its part to retain and attract businesses to town.
“I want to make sure that we continue investing in our business community from the small mom-and-pop businesses all the way to the large Fortune 500 companies,” Barnes said. “That’s what we’re going to do in 2024.”
Roads are also on the mayor’s mind in 2024.
Barnes said the city is committed to doing its fair share of infrastructure improvements.
“Before I took office, we spent about $750,000 on roads,” Barnes said. “Since I’ve been in office, we’ve spent $2 million resurfacing our streets throughout the city of DeKalb.”
Another major infrastructure project, the replacement of the bridge on Lucinda Avenue over the Kishwaukee River is expected to be completed by the summer after repeated 2023 delays. The city of DeKalb this week announced a six-month detour will restart the week of Jan. 15 to accommodate bridge work.
The First Street bridge was successfully replaced over an amended timeline in 2023.
Both bridge replacements came with a $5.6 million price tag, which was funded largely by federal money, city documents show. About $4.5 million came from federal funds, and $1.1 million was earmarked from local state motor fuel tax revenue collected in recent years.
“We have ignored investing in our infrastructure for too long,” Barnes said. “What we’re doing right now is doubling or tripling our investment on our roads and bridges and things like that to get caught up. But it’s going to take us a long time to be able to get caught up. But that’s why we did the Lucinda [Avenue] Bridge. That’s why we did the First Street bridge. In 2024, we have more of our roads getting resurfaced and more of our infrastructure getting invested in, which is absolutely fantastic.”
City improvements aren’t always roads or jobs either, Barnes said, as public art has become a larger priority. The city has over the past few years tasked its Citizens Community Enhancement Commission with overseeing projects to help spruce up the town.
The city unveiled a new mural by artist Danielle Casali on City Hall in October. A Northern Illinois University Huskie mural was completed in August on the Annie Glidden Road’s railroad underpass.
DeKalb also has a “Paint-A-Plug” program where groups can sign up to paint a fire hydrant.
It’s part of an effort, Barnes said, to help residents show community pride.
“We’ve been wrapping utility boxes with works of art,” Barnes said. “We did the underpass on Annie Glidden [Road,] and we did the mural on the back of city hall. Our Citizens Community Enhancement Commission is going to continue to come up with new things, and I charge them with coming up here. I want to wrap 20 more utility boxes throughout the downtown and the surrounding area, so people can walk down the street and see more beautiful works of art on something that was ugly, a square steel box. But also look at statues, look at what other murals can we do in the city of DeKalb. We’re going to see a lot more of that.”
Barnes said public safety remains top of mind for the city as it looks ahead into 2024.
The DeKalb City Council in December approved an $118.4 million spending budget for fiscal 2024, which includes funding for a fourth fire station on the city’s south side and more first responder hires.
“We’re going to continue to invest in our police department,” Barnes said. “By the end of 2024, we’ll have 73 sworn officers, which means we’ll be at full staff in our DeKalb Police Department.”
In 2024, the city is expected to break ground on a fourth fire station, which Barnes said is a cause worth championing.
“Having a fire station there and having EMTs there is going to bring equity to all the people on the southwest side when they dial 911,” Barnes said. “They’re going to have a response time similar to the rest of our community, which is something that we’re incredibly proud of.”
