2016 in Review: 84 New Businesses Open in St. Charles, Road Projects Completed

The past year has seen many positive developments for the city of St. Charles.

As 2016 comes to a close, city officials took the time this past week to highlight many of those development, which included updates to infrastructure, new business and the inner workings of local government.

Business News

• Work on the 1st Street development kicked into high gear as the ALE headquarters at the northeast corner of Illinois & 1st St. was nearly completed. A new 110-space parking deck was constructed and work has begun on the Sterling bank building.
• 84 new businesses opened from East Main Street to Randall Road and everywhere in between.
• Work began on the new CoopersHawk Winery & Restaurant at The Quad.

Taxes and City Finances

• For the eighth straight year, the city froze its operating levy, keeping the city’s portion of property taxes constant at 10 percent of the total tax bill.
• Our Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the year ended April 30, 2015, received its 30th consecutive Certificate of Achievement from the Government Finance Officers Association.
• Director of Finance Chris Minick was elected Vice President of the Illinois Government Finance Officers Association.

Working Smarter

• Finance and Information Systems departments worked together to implement a computerized document management system. The new system streamlines invoice processing to save both paper and staff time.

Employee Impact

• The city’s Giving Fridays initiative, in which employees pay to dress down on Fridays, contributed more than $3,500 to local charities.
• Human Resources Generalist Denice Brogan earned her Certified Labor Relations Professional designation after completing the three-year process.
• Human Resources was busy filling 38 positions—mainly due to retiring workers, along with facilitating 16 promotions and five lateral moves.

Infrastructure Improvements

• 3.5 miles of city streets were resurfaced with about 7,800 tons of asphalt and South Tyler Road was reconstructed.
• 7th Avenue Creek long-term master plan concepts were developed to address flood mitigation along the 7th Avenue Creek watershed.
• Illinois Street Bridge received structural maintenance and a new surface.

Public Safety

Police

• In May, the Department contracted to retain a social worker on site.
• The first “Coffee with a Cop” was held at the 1915 W. Main St McDonald’s.
• Sgt. Tom Shaw graduated from the School of Police Staff & Command at Northwestern University in Evanston.

Fire

• Fire Chief Joe Schelstreet was elected president of the Tri-Com Board.
• Lt. Tony Cavallo was a runner up for the American Legion Firefighter of the Year Award.
• The Fire Department Monument was dedicated in Volunteer Plaza.

Special Recognitions

• St. Charles received 5 out of 5 “Blooms” from America in Bloom, which promotes beautification, community involvement and environmentalism. Thanks to the hundreds of volunteers, St. Charles Park District, Pottawatomie Garden Club, Downtown St. Charles Partnership and City staff for their hard work.
• The city received a Community Service Award from the St. Charles Park Board for longstanding sponsorship of the July 4th Celebration and Sculpture in the Park exhibit.