Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk-Line: Dan Langloss Dixon City Manager

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Talk-Line: Dan Langloss Dixon City Manager · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

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Speaker 1: Order passed the hour. This is Thursday. It's May the
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Speaker 1: twenty ninth, the year is twenty twenty five, and it's
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Speaker 1: time for another informational edition of talk line. Here today,
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Speaker 1: I'm fourteen sixty and FM ninety five one Wixent. Good morning,
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Speaker 1: I'm Steve Marco. It is time for our look at
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Speaker 1: the City of Dixon through the eyes of our Dixon
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Speaker 1: City Manager.
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Speaker 2: We call it our.
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Speaker 1: State of the City report today that we get from
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Speaker 1: our Dixon City Manager, who is live in studio with us.
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Speaker 1: He's been busy for a lot of the first part
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Speaker 1: of twenty twenty five, but we were able to grab
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Speaker 1: hold of him and pull the bid for our Thursday
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Speaker 1: morning talk line for May the twenty ninth. Our good
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Speaker 1: friend Dan Langloss is live with us this morning here
0:35
Speaker 1: at Wixon.
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Speaker 2: Good morning, sir, Good morning, Steve. Thanks for having me.
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Speaker 1: It is nice to see you, sir. I am glad
0:40
Speaker 1: that you're on board with us. As I mentioned, this
0:43
Speaker 1: is our state of the City address. We usually catch
0:46
Speaker 1: the city manager shortly after our budget is approved, and
0:49
Speaker 1: that's when we like to catch our city manager and
0:52
Speaker 1: talk about the future of the city, the plans of
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Speaker 1: the city. You know, what lies ahead through the eyes
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Speaker 1: of our Dixon City manager. And I'll tell you what,
1:01
Speaker 1: our city manager has a lot of areas that he
1:03
Speaker 1: wants to talk about today, so let's not hold him back. Dan.
1:07
Speaker 1: We want to first start talking about that budget I
1:12
Speaker 1: mean in place good you know for the city this year.
1:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're really excited that process. We've dialed it in.
1:19
Speaker 3: It's the transparency of the process, the openness. People can
1:22
Speaker 3: watch that unfold through the special budget meetings on Facebook.
1:25
Speaker 3: The book we put together, you know, we've really written
1:28
Speaker 3: that book. It'll be released here within the next couple
1:31
Speaker 3: of weeks. And the narratives at a fifth grade level.
1:34
Speaker 3: Just break it down because you know a lot of
1:36
Speaker 3: times I need the finance team to break that down
1:39
Speaker 3: for me, right, they speak in a different language, absolutely,
1:42
Speaker 3: and just so people understand what goes into each department,
1:45
Speaker 3: what the funding sources are, what the expenses are, what
1:48
Speaker 3: the projects are. You know, we've got a great capital
1:51
Speaker 3: improvement plan that outline sinks.
1:53
Speaker 2: For five years. First two or three are really solid.
1:56
Speaker 3: There's a lot of adjustments that happen in four or
1:58
Speaker 3: five as we get there because things you got to
2:00
Speaker 3: be adaptable.
2:01
Speaker 2: But it's a great process.
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Speaker 3: The council spends a ton of time digs in and
2:08
Speaker 3: we're excited about where we're.
2:09
Speaker 1: At right well, and moving forward into twenty twenty five.
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Speaker 1: Budget is in place. You can actually view the budget.
2:15
Speaker 1: You can go online or go to city Hall or
2:18
Speaker 1: however you want to plan it. But the budget is
2:20
Speaker 1: accessible and awaiting your view after being approved earlier in
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Speaker 1: the year. So we move forward into twenty twenty five.
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Speaker 1: Lots of areas that we want to discuss. Let's start
2:31
Speaker 1: with the Gateway project. Let's start there, Dan and give
2:34
Speaker 1: us an update of the activity at our Southern Dixon
2:38
Speaker 1: Gateway area. We've seen a lot happen obviously already, but
2:44
Speaker 1: there are still things, you know, moving along. The Fairfield
2:47
Speaker 1: end is going up as we speak. That's the I
2:49
Speaker 1: believe the latest construction project, if I'm not mistaken, that
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Speaker 1: is taking place there. Don't know of anything else right
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Speaker 1: now in the world of construction or new areas in
3:01
Speaker 1: the Gateway project. But you wanted to give us the
3:02
Speaker 1: update there.
3:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, isn't an exciting to see the development. I mean
3:07
Speaker 3: at this time, with all the uncertainty in the world
3:09
Speaker 3: and all you know, at a time when a lot
3:11
Speaker 3: of places are just on pause, you know, worth thriving
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Speaker 3: building and you know there's so much more to come
3:17
Speaker 3: this summer. We expect another multi tenant to be built
3:20
Speaker 3: down at Keele Road in twenty six, so down kind
3:23
Speaker 3: of across from where Mercy Heals you know center is there, yes, okay,
3:27
Speaker 3: And so there's there's a restaurant, sports bar looking to
3:31
Speaker 3: go in there, another place that you can get drinks
3:36
Speaker 3: is what I can say, and then another business. So
3:40
Speaker 3: that's what I can say, but that's that should break
3:42
Speaker 3: ground in July end of July. Lots of good stuff
3:46
Speaker 3: going in there. That's exciting. And then we have another
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Speaker 3: quick service restaurant, a fast food style restaurant, can't talk
3:53
Speaker 3: about the name yet. That's going to go right across
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Speaker 3: the street from Chipotle, So there'll be one more lot
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Speaker 3: of availab there.
4:01
Speaker 2: And then we're.
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Speaker 3: Working on this really cool entertainment type venue. And that's
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Speaker 3: as much as I can say that we'll go in
4:08
Speaker 3: the gateway, but it's we can pull this thing off.
4:12
Speaker 3: It is absolutely phenomenal, and I think we will. I
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Speaker 3: think we will.
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Speaker 2: They're they're very excited.
4:18
Speaker 3: They've done work in Dixon before, and so I wish
4:21
Speaker 3: I could get more on that, but but that's what
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Speaker 3: I can give. And then you know, the true by
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Speaker 3: Hilton is rocking and rolling. Our fair filled in is
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Speaker 3: going to be open the end of they're talking about
4:32
Speaker 3: the end of July early August, moving right along our
4:35
Speaker 3: a little head of schedule there. And then I hear
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Speaker 3: there's going to be some updates to the quality in
4:40
Speaker 3: as well. That'll be coming, so lots of excitement. We're
4:43
Speaker 3: talking to the owner, the person who now owns Pizza
4:46
Speaker 3: Hut and some plans potentially for that. So there's you know,
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Speaker 3: there's a lot that's happened, there's a lot to come,
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Speaker 3: and you know we're we're on top of that.
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Speaker 1: And the addition of the land area Dan and you
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Speaker 1: know the donations and the giving of the land you
5:03
Speaker 1: know through that gateway area, that was nice to see obviously,
5:07
Speaker 1: you know that because that expands the project, right.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, Well the forty acres. It's cool because the forty
5:12
Speaker 3: acres between the radio station where we sit on South
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Speaker 3: College and Gateway, that the fall zone that donation is
5:19
Speaker 3: going to become Bloody Gulch Park and there'll be a
5:24
Speaker 3: huge retention pond stocked with Fish. The pathway will actually
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Speaker 3: connect from where the pathway ends on Seventh Street all
5:32
Speaker 3: the way it'll come across the railroad tracks all the
5:35
Speaker 3: way up through that area and tie into Gateway, eventually
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Speaker 3: tie into the industrial Park. So it's how amazing is
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Speaker 3: it to think you can start at Gateway and go
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Speaker 3: on our pathway all the way cross the river, you know,
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Speaker 3: all the way out basically to where a Route two
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Speaker 3: meets Palmyra and then there's visioning and planning and stuff
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Speaker 3: happening with the county and it's a little ways off
5:55
Speaker 3: to get that pathway to Sock and Sterling through you know,
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Speaker 3: the workipede is bringing the pathway to SoC So eventually
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Speaker 3: you'll be able to walk, run, bike on a pathway
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Speaker 3: from the industrial park to Sterling, yes, which will be
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Speaker 3: which would be pretty.
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Speaker 1: Cool, you know, And this has just got to make
6:14
Speaker 1: a grin from your yeah, because how long ago, maybe
6:18
Speaker 1: five six years ago, we were you know, looking at
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Speaker 1: farmland in that area, no development at all, and to
6:24
Speaker 1: just you know, under your guys, under your tenure, to
6:27
Speaker 1: see that you know, happen in that very short period
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Speaker 1: of time, it's got to make you proud.
6:32
Speaker 3: Well, very proud and The thing I tell people what
6:35
Speaker 3: I think I'm best at is creating great teams, right,
6:38
Speaker 3: and so there's no way Danny Langloss could have brought
6:40
Speaker 3: this to life alone. The team we've created, the partnerships,
6:45
Speaker 3: the focus on economic development, you know from back earlier
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Speaker 3: in the days with Mari Arlano and Jeremy England and
6:51
Speaker 3: Kevin Marx and our attorney Roblesage and I you know
6:54
Speaker 3: today that team is Amanda Wike from Dixon Chamber Main Street,
6:58
Speaker 3: Tom Demmer from LCI, now you know Mayor Hughes, Mary
7:03
Speaker 3: Oros and Rabbisage and then others is needed and that
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Speaker 3: team concept and look and bringing all those talents in
7:12
Speaker 3: is what's really been game changing, because the developer has
7:15
Speaker 3: told us there's no place to work like Dixon. The
7:19
Speaker 3: way we collaborate as a team, we have the expertise
7:22
Speaker 3: in the room. We're highly responsive, you know, sometimes to
7:26
Speaker 3: get a drive through variants or accommodation that can take
7:31
Speaker 3: six nine months in towns, Like they call into towns
7:34
Speaker 3: and want to do work, they don't even get calls back.
7:37
Speaker 3: And I was surprised that the secret sauce, you know
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Speaker 3: for these relationships is just caring and being responsive. I
7:44
Speaker 3: just thought that was the price of entry, you know,
7:48
Speaker 3: and so that's really exciting the team we built and
7:51
Speaker 3: it's just getting started. You know, we purchased the sixty
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Speaker 3: five acres at half price behind Walmart. Yes, we're working
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Speaker 3: with two different high housing developers. We've got to focus
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Speaker 3: on fifty five and older housing and workforce housing. And
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Speaker 3: so we've got another meeting, a second meeting with the
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Speaker 3: developer on Monday, and then we're continuing through the process
8:12
Speaker 3: with the other developer. Actually, our entire team went to
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Speaker 3: Des Moines and looked at several developments that have happened
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Speaker 3: in that area. And this person has a he's widely
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Speaker 3: respected across the country and his housing developments, but he's
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Speaker 3: got direct ties to Dixon and so seeing that that
8:30
Speaker 3: we need that, I mean, housing is a big issue.
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Speaker 2: See you know this, you see this, you know.
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Speaker 3: And then Ted Varr, I mean the work Ted Varr
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Speaker 3: is doing in our community is phenomenal. You know, he's
8:40
Speaker 3: building out out in Shadowwood out by the prison. He's
8:44
Speaker 3: you know, developed Washington Point, which was Washington Park, which
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Speaker 3: was just a great deal that was a win win
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Speaker 3: for everybody. We needed seventeen acres just south of where
8:54
Speaker 3: the forty was that we got like right by the
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Speaker 3: radio station.
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Speaker 1: Right.
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Speaker 3: The school district recognized the value because they're gonna take
9:02
Speaker 3: in probably seventy five thousand a year in new property tax.
9:05
Speaker 3: And that thing is built out, right, So we get
9:08
Speaker 3: that property from the school district for a dollar. We
9:11
Speaker 3: trade that property with Ted with conditions on development, and
9:15
Speaker 3: then Ted brings it to life. He invests the money
9:18
Speaker 3: and it's over half built out, and now the school
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Speaker 3: district has a revenue stream forever. We've got the seventeen
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Speaker 3: tied to the forty acres, so we can create what
9:27
Speaker 3: we need to do.
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Speaker 2: It's just it's exciting to be part of.
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Speaker 1: It is and it seems like, you know, the things
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Speaker 1: are you know, connecting as you mentioned, with teams working,
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Speaker 1: with organizers working, and with everything just coming together and
9:42
Speaker 1: continuing to connect. Oh, you know, it just connects that right.
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Speaker 3: That's the thing, you know, the partnership the park District
9:50
Speaker 3: Dixon is. One of Dixon's biggest problems was the silos
9:54
Speaker 3: the territory. This is my space. What are you doing
9:56
Speaker 3: making recommendations here? And we've all just recognized that, you
10:00
Speaker 3: know what we're part of we have a common shared purpose.
10:03
Speaker 3: We are shaping and creating the future of the community. Yeah,
10:06
Speaker 3: we're enhancing that quality of life, making Dixon a destination,
10:09
Speaker 3: being the focus and place where people want to live,
10:11
Speaker 3: improving quality of life, giving you know, and so all
10:15
Speaker 3: these things and tapping into that untapped eighty eight corridor
10:19
Speaker 3: and being first was important.
10:21
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, and things continue to roll along. Our city
10:25
Speaker 1: manager Dan Langlongs is with us today. We touched on housing.
10:28
Speaker 1: That was one of your areas that you really wanted
10:30
Speaker 1: to discuss, and I think you've got You've covered the
10:31
Speaker 1: bases there because housing is a is really a focal point.
10:35
Speaker 1: As you mentioned, with all of the new business and
10:37
Speaker 1: all of the new areas going up, that's going to
10:40
Speaker 1: be a you know, something that we're going to need
10:42
Speaker 1: in the future. And it sounds like the ball is
10:45
Speaker 1: rolling there. You've already mentioned, you know, the the South
10:48
Speaker 1: Dixon projects underway, and I know that you're looking at
10:51
Speaker 1: other areas, you know, to you know, to compensate obviously,
10:55
Speaker 1: you know, to get you know, people to move in.
10:57
Speaker 3: I think a big thing people we want people on
11:00
Speaker 3: understand is all the development we're doing. We created those
11:02
Speaker 3: tiff districts, the new property tax from the new businesses.
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Speaker 2: Pays for the projects.
11:09
Speaker 3: Yes, right, so we might loan ourselves money that we
11:12
Speaker 3: have in reserves. But at the end of the day,
11:14
Speaker 3: our street project that we're doing this year is not
11:17
Speaker 3: competing with our new development. Yes, they are separate funding sources,
11:21
Speaker 3: and in the tiff, the money that's generated in the tiff,
11:24
Speaker 3: it's very restricted. What it can be used on very restricted,
11:28
Speaker 3: and it has to be used within the tiff. So
11:31
Speaker 3: being able to create development that funds itself and all
11:35
Speaker 3: the infrastructure that goes into that without stopping us from
11:39
Speaker 3: doing the other things we need to do, that's.
11:43
Speaker 1: That's yeah, that's right on point when it comes to
11:46
Speaker 1: all of this development taking place, what we're talking about
11:49
Speaker 1: with housing, with Gateway, with the expansion, it looks like
11:54
Speaker 1: things are in the go mode there just about a
11:57
Speaker 1: minute before we have through a break for a tim
11:59
Speaker 1: Lee with News at the bottom of the hour. But
12:01
Speaker 1: I know that we have some other areas we wanted
12:03
Speaker 1: to talk about. There are some very important infrastructure information
12:07
Speaker 1: areas that our city manager wants to touch upon. Project Rock,
12:11
Speaker 1: of course, is a continuing a pace in the Rock
12:15
Speaker 1: River area of downtown Dixon, and we're going to talk
12:17
Speaker 1: about that. City Manager Dan Langloss joins us for eight
12:20
Speaker 1: fifteen talk line today. Still lots to discuss. He's going
12:22
Speaker 1: to hang around and talk to us in the next
12:24
Speaker 1: half hour after we take this five minute break for
12:27
Speaker 1: News First next on AM fourteen sixteen. Then we continue
12:29
Speaker 1: our conversation with our Dixon City Manager. It's our state
12:32
Speaker 1: of the City address this morning with our Dixon City
12:34
Speaker 1: Manager and we are happy to have him with us
12:36
Speaker 1: today to give us details of what's happening in and
12:39
Speaker 1: around our community. Our city Manager, Dan Langloss is live
12:42
Speaker 1: with us this morning. Thank you, sir for spending the
12:44
Speaker 1: extra time with us.
12:44
Speaker 2: Appreciate Thank you, Steve Well.
12:46
Speaker 1: We always appreciate a visit from our city manager to
12:48
Speaker 1: give us a low down on what's going on across
12:50
Speaker 1: our community. We've talked about gateway, We've talked about housing.
12:53
Speaker 1: Let's move our focus now to infrastructure and talk about
12:58
Speaker 1: that a little bit. Obviously, there are are are some
13:00
Speaker 1: construction projects underway already, not just to hear in the community,
13:04
Speaker 1: but across our northern Illinois area. But we wanted to
13:06
Speaker 1: focus on Dixon today. Obviously, we've got some work being
13:09
Speaker 1: done on Galena Avenue. You wanted to expand on that
13:12
Speaker 1: because I see that there are some new signs going.
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Speaker 3: Up there are so that work's being done by IDA. Yes,
13:17
Speaker 3: so that doesn't have anything to do with the city,
13:19
Speaker 3: but you know, our partners at IDAD have been amazing.
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Speaker 2: This wasn't on the list.
13:23
Speaker 3: I mean, we know South Carolina's needed it for a
13:25
Speaker 3: while and they made magic happen and push it up
13:29
Speaker 3: in priorities because you know, I Dot's got a lot
13:31
Speaker 3: to do, so starting I believe June second is when
13:35
Speaker 3: this project. So the work they're going to do is
13:38
Speaker 3: going to go all the way from River Street to
13:40
Speaker 3: the bridge, the railroad bridge kel Road out by Walmart
13:43
Speaker 3: where they're doing the work now. So they're like resurfacing,
13:48
Speaker 3: doing some maintenance work to that bridge. My understanding is
13:51
Speaker 3: it's going to look the same afterwards, but everything's going
13:53
Speaker 3: to be new, which is which is great. But then
13:56
Speaker 3: they're going to focus on the roadway between that bridge
13:59
Speaker 3: and River Street and they're going to focus on the
14:02
Speaker 3: Adya ramps. I don't think they're going to do a
14:04
Speaker 3: ton of sidewalk, but whenever you do a street with
14:08
Speaker 3: state or federal money. You've got to make the ramps
14:11
Speaker 3: and the entry points to the sidewalk ada compliance. So
14:14
Speaker 3: it'll start there.
14:15
Speaker 1: Now.
14:15
Speaker 3: This project is gonna extend until the end of October, okay,
14:19
Speaker 3: and so there's gonna be different timeframes that we have
14:22
Speaker 3: lane closures. We're going to try to stay in contact
14:24
Speaker 3: with them, push that out on our social media, make
14:27
Speaker 3: sure you.
14:27
Speaker 2: Guys are aware of that, to get that word out.
14:30
Speaker 3: And there's gonna be some work done in the evenings
14:32
Speaker 3: as well to alleviate some of the traffic congestion. But
14:35
Speaker 3: you know, it's amazing to have the work done. We're
14:37
Speaker 3: very grateful. It's going to be rough. Yes, people need
14:41
Speaker 3: to give.
14:41
Speaker 2: A little more time.
14:43
Speaker 1: And obviously, you know during the peak times of our
14:46
Speaker 1: you know, of our summertime season, let's face it, you know,
14:48
Speaker 1: we're going to have a lot of you know, activities
14:51
Speaker 1: going on in and around our community. Petunity Festival is
14:54
Speaker 1: going to highlight that, you know, span that you just
14:56
Speaker 1: talked about there. So obviously we're just going to have
14:59
Speaker 1: to you know, uh, and yield to patience and you know,
15:03
Speaker 1: uh and yield to the state too, you know, and
15:06
Speaker 1: uh and you know, just take in what.
15:09
Speaker 3: We have, and luckily we've got a great relationship with
15:11
Speaker 3: them and they have always and this is something we'll
15:14
Speaker 3: have conversations on, even Project Rock and some of that work,
15:18
Speaker 3: and you know, we try to coordinate around Petunia Fest.
15:21
Speaker 3: Generally some of those things kind of go dark and
15:24
Speaker 3: so we can maximize our traffic flows and and those
15:27
Speaker 3: types of things.
15:28
Speaker 2: So yeah, but but it's gonna be great, and we've
15:30
Speaker 2: been needing it. It's been terrible.
15:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh yeah, and not just the state but the
15:34
Speaker 1: city as well. And you wanted to talk about exactly.
15:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, So we actually open our bids today, so we're
15:40
Speaker 3: we're hoping, we're praying our fingers are crossed that the
15:42
Speaker 3: bids come in good. We've got a million and a
15:44
Speaker 3: half dollars street resurfacing project. We're looking at probably around
15:48
Speaker 3: thirty five blocks, and this year we've added and Mary
15:51
Speaker 3: Hughes spearheaded this initiative, we've added one hundred thousand.
15:55
Speaker 2: Sidewalks, Okay, and so we're good.
15:58
Speaker 3: So we're gonna try It's all going to depend on
16:01
Speaker 3: revenues and money and all that, but we're going to
16:02
Speaker 3: try to address some of the sidewalk situations on main
16:07
Speaker 3: throwways they'll be prioritized THE'B categories.
16:09
Speaker 2: You know, when we pick our streets.
16:11
Speaker 3: Just so people know, we've got a document that our
16:14
Speaker 3: team and our engineering firm have created that actually rates
16:17
Speaker 3: the streets. This isn't somebody calls in, you know, I'm okay,
16:20
Speaker 3: let's go there and get this done. This is all
16:23
Speaker 3: a system. It's an objective system based on ratings.
16:27
Speaker 2: And that is how.
16:28
Speaker 3: Every year, for the last several years, we picked what
16:31
Speaker 3: streets get done. And so we expect probably by next
16:36
Speaker 3: week to be able to release the streets. We've got
16:39
Speaker 3: an idea. Obviously we put in for the bids. But
16:42
Speaker 3: you hate, Steve. You think something's going to happen, and
16:44
Speaker 3: you hate to mention a street or you put it
16:47
Speaker 3: out and then people get excited and then something gets
16:50
Speaker 3: cut because it comes in wrong, you know, So you
16:52
Speaker 3: don't want to do that. But I think next week
16:55
Speaker 3: and the next week we'll have the list of streets
16:57
Speaker 3: for that project. Again, one hundred thousand towards sidewalks, and
17:02
Speaker 3: we're excited about it.
17:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, because this improves our community. Look, this improves
17:07
Speaker 1: the roadways, and again it's an annual project. This is
17:10
Speaker 1: an annual project. That happens every year at this time.
17:14
Speaker 1: So yeah, get set for some improvements in areas of Dixon.
17:19
Speaker 1: And as our city manager alluded to, Gallena Avenue is
17:23
Speaker 1: going to be one of the focal points this year.
17:25
Speaker 1: It sounds like a large stretch of Galena Avenue is
17:27
Speaker 1: going to be a focal point this year through the
17:29
Speaker 1: state of Illinois. So again, keeping us up to date
17:32
Speaker 1: on infrastructure is our Dixon City Manager Dan Langwans, who's
17:35
Speaker 1: liable with this this morning here at w Yxent Project Rock.
17:37
Speaker 1: You mentioned that again, boy, talk about talk about rito
17:43
Speaker 1: work underway and things get things happened in that Page
17:46
Speaker 1: Park area. Wow, it's really moving along.
17:50
Speaker 2: It's exciting.
17:51
Speaker 1: Yeah.
17:52
Speaker 3: You know, to have worked on this grant for ten years,
17:58
Speaker 3: ten plus years. You know, I was the interim city manager.
18:02
Speaker 3: It wasn't quite called that, you know back in the
18:04
Speaker 3: day we were working on that grant and to won
18:07
Speaker 3: that grant, to see it coming to life, and the
18:09
Speaker 3: focal point that'll be in the connection spot, I mean
18:12
Speaker 3: just the pathway just our river walk right down along
18:16
Speaker 3: the river there, you know, extended up onto the old viaducts.
18:19
Speaker 2: How busy that is.
18:20
Speaker 3: And you had the bridge in and the new pathways
18:22
Speaker 3: and enhancements to Page Park. Again, that project is on target,
18:27
Speaker 3: I know. Councilman Bishop has spearheaded a real ambitious project,
18:33
Speaker 3: a cool celebration. He's working with Chamber Main Street Amanda
18:36
Speaker 3: Wyke for a two hundred and fiftieth celebration of our country.
18:41
Speaker 3: So that event will happen on July fourth, twenty twenty six.
18:46
Speaker 3: We're hoping, we're hoping that bridge is open then, but
18:51
Speaker 3: he he is spearheading that event, such an important event.
18:54
Speaker 3: It'll actually happen on July the fourth to celebrate. It's
18:58
Speaker 3: going to be impressive. There's going to be a huge
19:01
Speaker 3: American flag hanging from that bridge during that time, and
19:05
Speaker 3: and we're really looking forward to it.
19:07
Speaker 1: Excellent, excellent, And it looks like the timetable I think
19:11
Speaker 1: is it? Is it out in front of where we
19:13
Speaker 1: sit right, It looks like they're moving ahead very nicely.
19:17
Speaker 2: We are on time, yes, with that project. And you
19:19
Speaker 2: knock on wood because things can happen.
19:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, yeah, so we know what to yeah,
19:23
Speaker 1: you know what you know what you know? Jinks the
19:25
Speaker 1: project so to speak. So again, uh well, we'll we'll
19:29
Speaker 1: keep tabs of it through the City of Dixon, and
19:31
Speaker 1: I obviously, you know, as as we continue our chats
19:34
Speaker 1: with our city manager and with the mayor and with
19:36
Speaker 1: the rest of our city council members here on w
19:38
Speaker 1: y Ex, Sam, I wanted to jump ahead to uh, well,
19:42
Speaker 1: something that's I know is near near to you that
19:44
Speaker 1: you just completed, and that's the Future Leaders Uh you know,
19:47
Speaker 1: uh seminar that you had the Midwest Leaders Yeah, yah, yeah, yeah,
19:52
Speaker 1: and you wanted to talk about future leaders today.
19:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, that that does tie into our succession plan leadership development.
19:58
Speaker 3: But you know, we just had the fourth annual Midwest
20:00
Speaker 3: Summit on Leadership. Over four hundred leaders from across the
20:04
Speaker 3: Midwest attendant. That's been about it. We've averaged between four
20:07
Speaker 3: and five hundred every year. We've got some new partnerships
20:10
Speaker 3: happening with with some communities you know, about an hour
20:15
Speaker 3: away in each direction, and so we expect out of
20:18
Speaker 3: tendance to grow. And the speakers we brought in were
20:21
Speaker 3: from you know, all out out of state experts in
20:25
Speaker 3: their fields. And then doctor Lori Cortes ran to luncheon
20:27
Speaker 3: on imposter syndrome, which was just phenomenal. You know, she's
20:31
Speaker 3: a vice president SAW and she's an incredible person. So
20:34
Speaker 3: but then that ties in as well, you know, leadership culture.
20:38
Speaker 3: You know, we think at the City of Dixon and
20:39
Speaker 3: culture is our competitive advantage. When we put jobs out,
20:43
Speaker 3: a lot of people want to work here. The ownership
20:46
Speaker 3: and the pride our people take and the work they're
20:48
Speaker 3: doing is really what translates into what we're seeing. Why
20:52
Speaker 3: the town is as vibrative as it is, the way
20:54
Speaker 3: we're moving forward. You know, our police chief just retired
20:58
Speaker 3: after a twenty five year career with us. We ran
21:01
Speaker 3: a process, a pretty expansive process, Steve. It was not
21:05
Speaker 3: an easy process. Sergeant Aaron Simonton Sergeant Ryan Bivins both
21:10
Speaker 3: competed for that. Doctor John Mandreu from Sock, who's a
21:14
Speaker 3: former police officer, got a master's degree in Law enforcement administration,
21:18
Speaker 3: a doctorate, started their program out there, created the police Academy.
21:22
Speaker 3: He led that process for us, and it was really
21:25
Speaker 3: tough on this eleven person committee because both of these
21:28
Speaker 3: men have earned the right to be the chief. We
21:31
Speaker 3: would be blessed to have either of these men be
21:35
Speaker 3: the police chief and lead us forward. At the end
21:37
Speaker 3: of the day, the committee had to make a decision.
21:40
Speaker 3: Sergeant Bivins, who is a phenomenal human being, was selected,
21:46
Speaker 3: and we're excited about his vision to continue to keep
21:49
Speaker 3: our community policing moving forward. This new focus on the
21:54
Speaker 3: youth and a youth mentorship program that he'll roll out
21:57
Speaker 3: and talk about his commitment to root cause crime strategies.
22:02
Speaker 3: You know, just arresting people does nothing, but his commitment
22:05
Speaker 3: to the drug court to save passage, to our crisis
22:09
Speaker 3: prevention team that helps people with mental health, yes, to
22:12
Speaker 3: the Veterans Court. You know, when we get to youth courts,
22:17
Speaker 3: to when we get to root cause issues, that's when
22:20
Speaker 3: you really reduce crime. And that's something our department has
22:23
Speaker 3: had to focus on and he's got a vision to
22:25
Speaker 3: take it to the next level and so we're really
22:28
Speaker 3: excited to have him take take the reins to take
22:32
Speaker 3: over and work with his team. And he's a big
22:36
Speaker 3: culture guy and one of the things he talked about
22:38
Speaker 3: that really hit the committee was his concept and philosophy
22:41
Speaker 3: of serving beyond the badge, serving beyond the badge and
22:47
Speaker 3: in his vision, So that's exciting. You know, our finance
22:50
Speaker 3: director retires in a year. We've selected her replacement from internally,
22:55
Speaker 3: heathern McCarter will become our Finance director next June. And
22:58
Speaker 3: then we've created this new position that's confused a lot
23:01
Speaker 3: of people called a Chief People Officer, and so people
23:04
Speaker 3: are like, what's a Chief People Officer? And simply put,
23:07
Speaker 3: it's an HR director with a strategic focus and culture.
23:11
Speaker 3: And let me explain why that's important, just really quick.
23:15
Speaker 3: So when people think of HR, a lot of times
23:18
Speaker 3: that's viewed the same way as the police think about
23:20
Speaker 3: internal affairs. Right, Okay, it's not a real positive thing.
23:24
Speaker 3: It's kind of black and white. It's compliance based, it's
23:27
Speaker 3: catching people doing things wrong.
23:29
Speaker 2: And make it a.
23:30
Speaker 3: Chief People Officer is future focused, it's people based. We
23:34
Speaker 3: got to have all the HR systems in place, but
23:38
Speaker 3: the focus and intent is development of people, of leadership,
23:43
Speaker 3: of culture. And when we look at the change that's
23:47
Speaker 3: going to happen in the next few years, you know,
23:48
Speaker 3: we've got a couple of years in our Public Works
23:50
Speaker 3: director will retire, so we've got a lot of key
23:53
Speaker 3: positions retiring our approach and retirement, sustaining our culture. Our
23:58
Speaker 3: competitive advantage is key and that was a big driver
24:01
Speaker 3: in the creation of this position and our new Chief
24:04
Speaker 3: People Officer Danelle Plymer just started. She actually started the
24:08
Speaker 3: day of the police chief process and set in through
24:10
Speaker 3: that and then picked back up. Her first day in
24:13
Speaker 3: the office was Tuesday, and so you know, our team
24:16
Speaker 3: has been spent a lot of time with her, getting
24:18
Speaker 3: her out meeting different departments, and she's taking it all in.
24:22
Speaker 3: She's going to do an assessment of how things.
24:25
Speaker 2: Are working, what's going well, what can we improve on.
24:27
Speaker 3: This is going well, but hey, we could do it
24:29
Speaker 3: better in this way and hopefully just continue to take
24:32
Speaker 3: us to the next level because the status quo with
24:35
Speaker 3: our team is never acceptable. We got to keep add
24:37
Speaker 3: and layers of greatness to every aspect. So we're real
24:40
Speaker 3: excited about what's happening here and what it means for
24:43
Speaker 3: the future of our community.
24:44
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and again great additions to the personnel area of
24:49
Speaker 1: the city. Addiction again, our chief again, our city manager
24:54
Speaker 1: reports on that this morning here at w Mikes and
24:56
Speaker 1: Dan I wish we had more time to spend, but
24:58
Speaker 1: unfortunately our time is limited and we had a couple
25:00
Speaker 1: of other areas that we wanted to talk about, but
25:02
Speaker 1: hopefully we can do that in a later broadcast with you.
25:05
Speaker 1: I know it's tough getting this guy on the air
25:07
Speaker 1: with us. He is so busy these days with all
25:10
Speaker 1: of this going on.
25:11
Speaker 2: There's a lot going on.
25:12
Speaker 1: But I'll tell you what this guy, you know, is
25:15
Speaker 1: right now our spark plug to the city right here,
25:17
Speaker 1: this guy right here is our spark plug to the city.
25:20
Speaker 1: He is, you know, just moving us forward with what
25:23
Speaker 1: we need in our community. And thank you so very much,
25:26
Speaker 1: thank you, Steve here at AM fourteen sixteen FM.
25:28
Speaker 2: Not well.
25:29
Speaker 1: We look forward to, of course, continuing our talks with
25:32
Speaker 1: our City of Dixon representatives right here on w ACCENT.
25:35
Speaker 1: But for now, sir, thank you so very much for
25:37
Speaker 1: giving us the insight into our community today here at
25:39
Speaker 1: WI Accent. Appreciate it.
25:40
Speaker 2: Great to see