APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Moved by Ms. Quiram, seconded by Mr. Noe, and it was carried unanimously to approve the agenda as presented.

WORKSHOP ON THE FUTURE FOCUS OF THE SUB-COMMITTEE

Chairman Van Buer said that he would like the committee to focus on what direction the committee feels they should go and how we should get there over the next several months. Mr. Bejbl asked what are we doing here? What is the
timeframe that we need to produce a report by? What direction does the County Board want to go in? He has no idea where people want to go. He said that there sounds like there has been so much ground work laid, with Vision
2000, that is, 50 concerned people. It’s not negative, it’s really a question of, does this committee really have a focus and a purpose. If it does, what is it, what is the timeframe and who does something. If it’s economic development
that’s one thing, but if it’s county infrastructure, it’s another thing.

Ms. Quiram said that upon reviewing the findings of the Vision 2000 Committee that there were a lot of infrastructure issues within the different committees. She was thinking about how much has been accomplished by the committees, what page are they on now? When she was thinking about a vision for the future, do we figure costs, can the county afford it? When she reads the issues of keeping the farmland, she wonders if that will happen. Mr. Bejbl said that he felt that the farmland will always be here, but on a different level. Ms. Quiram said then she started to think about county roads that are really used that no one is doing anything about. Baseline Road is one of the roads that she is talking about. It goes all the way through to Kirkland and beyond in both directions. It is used as a major highway and she feels that no one is doing anything about it. In the Vision 2000 findings it said to have good avenues for transportation and she wanted to bring this to our attention. She also wanted to know about whether or not Peace Road was constructed strong enough? Mr. Lundgren said that she is partly right. Peace Road from the Tollway to Barber Greene Road is constructed for heavier trucks. After that it is not and then Route 23 is for the heavier trucks. Mr. Bejbl said another road that needs to be considered is Fairview in DeKalb.

Mr. Andreasen said that he felt that by listening to Chairman Pritchard at the last two meetings he thought that he heard him say that he wanted this committee to be creative. That as we looked at what traditionally we would think infrastructure was, other committees were already working on that. Then he hears us talking about financing, and as he thought about what he has heard over the last two meetings and tonight so far, he feels that we need to define what infrastructure means to this committee. He doesn’t feel that it is the traditional meaning, but that we need to be creative.

Chairman Van Buer said that he decided when he was told that he would head up this committee that he could find a relatively small group of people that would commit themselves and say this is what has to be done; come up with a report that the committee would feel good about; and present it to the full county board. He further said that he feels that we should invite Mr. Bill Lorence, the DeKalb County Engineer, to the committee’s next meeting so that he can answer the committee’s questions. He said that there is the committee that is in the process of approving pea gravel for roads, blacktop, snow plows, snow trucks, everyday business and it doesn’t always have time to discuss these other important issues. Therefore, Chairman Pritchard is correct is thinking that we need a mechanism where people can spend more time delving into things. He feels that we can be the catalyst to get the main committee to think more about this and then finally go to the full county board and have them begin thinking about it, too.

Mr. Lundgren said that we need to have someone here to help us focus on an item for roads. Let’s say that we have the railroad coming in here and we need to know what road is going to be the best for people in Genoa or the people coming up from Shabbona to use.  Something cultural is another issue that was included in the findings of the Vision 200 report, Mr. Lundgren continued. He said that Northern Illinois University, he feels, is always going to be the center of culture because most things are already there. What are going to be the major thoroughfares that are going to be bringing people into Northern and their facilities? If it’s going to be because of development and homes then say that Genoa is going to develop and Kingston. Is the County going to make Baseline Road a major thoroughfare to have those people going to their jobs and traveling back and forth? Those are things that we need to know. He agreed that the committee needs to invite Mr. Lorence to the next meeting so that he could answer some of their questions.

Mr. Bejbl said that he has talked to three major administrators in the county and he came away from these discussions that there is no coordination in the county for anything, and if you don’t stand up for yourself that you are not going to get anywhere. So, it’s rather difficult to look at the overall picture of growth in DeKalb County when you have so many independent factions competing with one another for the same piece of pie. He’s not too sure that we shouldn’t be looking at the real strengths and weaknesses of the County and why they are there. We should then determine how we can improve on that. He feels that this will open a lot of doors as to how other things fall into place, as to what, why, when, where and how. The hardest thing that he found is to have people give him a straight answer. Mr. Lundgren also said that he felt that education is one of the reasons that people move out to a new location and that the new high school in Genoa is state of the art. You look at where they built the new high school and the land around it is very nice. As people are moving out here in DeKalb County, he is sure that they will be looking at Genoa. This is a real strength for northern DeKalb County, he felt. DeKalb has Northern Illinois University and Kishwaukee Community College. These are all pluses.

Chairman Van Buer said that he would like this committee focus on a few things and then branch off from there. Ms. Quiram asked about sewer and waters – is that the cities responsibilities? What role does the county really have in this?

Mr. Lundgen also said that he feels that the government is always reactive and not proactive, and therefore, therein lies the problem. He was surprised that when Mr. Hopkins mentioned that hardly any banks have venture capital. He feels that the county needs that to lure new businesses here. We need to develop a package to hand out to new businesses along with the Economic Development Brochure.

After further discussion it was agreed that the committee would like to focus on the county roadways/transportation issues, banking and financing for new businesses, and economic development. They talked about how industry is a large part of DeKalb County. How do we keep what we already have? What don’t we have in this area that is not attracting the types of businesses that we want? Do we have enough industrial parks to put them in? Where are all the industrial parks in the county? Can the county have an industrial park? Should Peace Road be the main arterial road from I-88 all the way up to Genoa?

It was also agreed that the committee would invite Mr. Bill Lorence, County Engineer and Mr. Paul Miller, DeKalb County Planning and Zoning Director to their next meeting in September to answer their questions.

NEXT MEETING

Chairman Van Buer asked to schedule the next meeting for September 18,
2003. It was agreed by the committee members that this would be fine.

ADJOURNMENT

Moved by Mr. Andreasen, seconded by Mr. Bejbl, and it was carried
unanimously to adjourn the meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

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Frank D. Van Buer, Chairman

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Mary C. Supple, Secretary