Last night DeKalb’s Financial Advisory Committee began the work of figuring out how to pay for the claimed need of an additional $6.6 million per year for street repairs. Unfortunately, they are still using the same faulty numbers — faulty in the ways I explained here. If the FAC is working with bad numbers, so…
DeKalb Taxpayers: Ready to Pony Up for a New Convention Center?
In July 2013, the city council of DeKalb approved the DeKalb City Center plan, an update of the 2007 Downtown Revitalization Plan. One of the key components of the plan is: Leverage TIF to study the feasibility of and potentially promote the development of additional City Center traffic generators, such as a hotel/conference center, children’s…
So DeKalb Has a Streets Problem — Is TIF or a Sales Tax Hike the Answer?
This week’s number: $33 million The city’s streets could need $33 million in repairs over the next five years, but a key funding source for the work will dry up by the end of the decade. That has city leaders considering options including increasing the sales tax to generate more revenue. Of the $1.5 million…
Latest on the College Town Partners FOIA Matter
Let’s start with a summary of events. — The group now known as Preserve Our Neighborhoods (PON) was formed last spring in response to concerns that residents were not being included in DeKalb-NIU redevelopment plans that would directly affect them. — Misty Haji-Sheikh of PON received unsigned documents from an anonymous sender regarding a corporation…
AG is Reviewing DeKalb’s Denial of Information to Neighborhood Rep
The Illinois Attorney General’s Public Access Counselor (PAC) has agreed to examine a City of DeKalb denial of information to a representative of a neighborhood group. Here’s the usual drill. Upon the PAC accepting a Request for Review it invites the public body to respond with the legal basis for denial. The response is shared…
A Closer Look at DeKalb’s Hotel/Motel Inspection Ordinance
As indicated a few days ago, I have concerns about DeKalb’s hotel/motel inspection and licensing ordinance. The good news is, the city does recognize that some people are permanent residents of hotels and motels. “Permanent resident” means any person who occupied or has the right to occupy any room or rooms in a hotel or…
An Email Conversation with Mayor Rey about Hope Haven and the Travel Inn Closure
Originally, I had no plans to publish this email exchange. It was just me as Joan Q. Public, sending an opinion on a budget allocation to His Honor and to other DeKalb city council members I thought might be receptive. I expected a generic “thanks for the input” response, which would have been fine. But…
South 4th Water Main Project Got Weird before It Died
This is an item from the May 27 council meeting agenda that I’ve been meaning to address. It’s about a water main project on South 4th Street. This project would have abandoned a 6” water main on the west side of Route 23 (South Fourth Street) from Lacas Street south to approximately 110 feet south…
We Don’t Know if Dogs are Biting People in Forest Preserves or Not
The key word must be “verified,” though nothing in the story actually is. “Over the years, the amount of dog-walking has increased, so we’ve been getting more complaints and more problems,” said Terry Hannan, DeKalb County Forest Preserve superintendent. Although Hannan said more people have been bitten in DeKalb County’s forest preserves during the past…
College Town Partners Agreements are Kind of Cray, but Still Important
I’ve read the College Town Partners documents that were leaked to the Preserve Our Neighborhoods (PON) group. (Want copies? Send an email to preserveourneighborhoods@gmail.com.) The agreements, which were never signed, lay out a corporate partnership between City of DeKalb, NIU, a local developer and two banks. They strike me as kind of nuts, actually, being…