🏘️ Top priorities for Tri-Cities mayors as we embark on 2024

Batavia Mayor Jeff Schielke is excited about filling up high-priced homes. Geneva Mayor Kevin Burns looks forward to key redevelopment projects. St. Charles Mayor Lora Vitek is eyeing the quickly approaching opening date of a refreshed downtown plaza.

The common thread? Growth and progress.

The Kane County Chronicle recently provided a glimpse into where the focus of our local mayors may lie in the year ahead. Here’s a summary:

Batavia

Mayor Schielke is optimistic about the city’s growing population — these trends and initiatives in particular:

• Chicago transplants: The mayor noted a recent influx of residents departing the city for the suburbs.

• Fermilab expansion: He says the construction of a new accelerator could add more than 2K jobs.

• Deerpath Road: The mayor declined to comment on more than 200 potential housing units west of Randall.

🔒 Read the full article here.

Geneva

Redevelopment and remodeling appear to be the name of the game for Geneva’s Mayor Burns as we embark on 2024:

• Old Little Owl space: Using grant money and private investment funds to remodel the historic building into a Tapville Social.

• Bullock Campus: A proposed corporate campus for A.J. Antunes & Co. at the southeast corner of Kirk Road and Division Street.

• Housing development: Plans remain to convert the former Duke and Lee’s site on Route 31 into a mixed-use residential and commercial building.

🔒 Read the full article here.

St. Charles

The reinvigorated downtown plaza is front of mind for Mayor Vitek, but other projects are in the works, too:

• First Street Plaza: The refreshed outdoor dining, shopping and pedestrian hub is set to open on Jan. 24.

• Whole Foods: The notoriously pricey organic grocer is expected to take over the old Blue Goose space.

• Stuart’s Crossing: As we documented a few newsletters ago, the northeast corner of Route 64 and Kirk Road may be transformed into a restaurant and entertainment destination.

• Pheasant Run: What’s left of the dilapidated resort should be gone by the end of the year.

• Housing boom: More than 1,000 new residential units are part of projects in various stages of progress in 2024.

🔒 Read the full article here.

Oh, also: Campton Hills is also looking to hire a new city administrator as it prioritizes road resurfacing projects and balancing the city budget in the coming year.

📰 News to use

The 🔒 icon indicates a potential paywall. The *️⃣ icon indicates that an account/login may be needed.

🔒 2023 recap: Daily Herald writer Dave Heun explores the top stories he reported on during the past year while covering community happenings in the Tri-Cities.

🔒 Dam debate: In a Chicago Tribune op-ed, a River Corridor Foundation board member argues that the future of the Fox River depends on St. Charles taking smart actions about the dam and future downtown riverfront development.

🔒 View from the owner’s box: Kane County hopes to assume ownership of the Cougars’ baseball stadium to gain more financial flexibility as it explores upgrades and improvements.

☑️ Myriad potential projects: Batavia’s Committee of the Whole discussed the city’s 2024-2026 strategic plan during its 1/3 meeting. Here’s the full broadcast and a draft of the full strategic plan.

🔒 Much-needed upgrade: Despite a referendum being shot down last year, Elburn is set to kick off construction of a new, $10M police station in the summer of 2024.

☑️ Elevated user experience: I use the website often (newsletter nerd!), so it was exciting to see that the City of St. Charles is holding a webinar on 1/11 to showcase the design of its new site and gather public input.

🔒 Eyes on election: Members of the Kane County GOP are rallying around candidates they believe can solve some of their problems and get voters excited.

✅ Up for discussion: Building moratorium on River Street & Tesla dealership on Randall Road

A public hearing scheduled for Wednesday evening at the Batavia City Council Chambers will explore extending the temporary moratorium on building permits and zoning applications in the city’s South River Street Gateway Overlay District (i.e. Route 25 from Clark Island to the Illinois Prairie Path intersection - see below).

The 180-day extension would allow time for the continuation of an ongoing study on the South River Street Corridor.

Tesla & CubeSmart - Batavia Square: Also on the agenda for the Plan Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals meeting is a proposal that outlines plans for redeveloping the site at 501 North Randall Road for a Tesla dealership and a CubeSmart self-storage facility.

The memo notes that “Tesla is looking to accelerate the approval process,” suggesting that we can perhaps expect a decision on the property’s fate sooner than later.

🏘️ In the community

☑️ Living up to the hype: It’s easy to forget that one of the world’s most incredible physics facilities resides in our backyard. You can certainly find some cool moments in this video of the best of Fermilab in 2023.

*️⃣ City council sneak peek: Highlights from Batavia Alderman Dustin Pieper’s latest update include police and fire department happenings, chamber of commerce initiatives and a “Project of the Year” award.

☑️ Accessibility-minded movies: Emagine theater in Batavia will begin offering specialty screenings of certain movies — with captions and/or “sensory-friendly” modifications — in mid-January.

☑️ Battery disposal: We can’t be the only ones who never know what to do with old household batteries, right? Well, PSA — you can drop them off at Geneva Public Works (1800 South St.) Monday through Friday until 3:30PM.

☑️ Pickleball planning: The St. Charles Park District announced new times for drop-in pickleball play at various facilities around town.

☑️ Beach bod ready? Don’t look now, but The Evergreen Pub in St. Charles is already accepting registrations for its spring sand volleyball league, which kicks off 3/19.

🏬 Local biz

☑️ Transfer of leadership: Michael Olesen, owner of Stockholm’s Restaurant & Brewery and Geneva Investment Group, is the new Chair of the Board of the Geneva Chamber.

☑️ New business alert: Located in downtown St. Charles, Red Aspen Acupuncture offers naturopathic medicine services plus herbs and supplements. They’re celebrating a ribbon cutting on 1/16.

☑️ Invigorating a community: Batavia MainStreet — a local organization that promotes economic development and tourism — did some cool things last year, which I thought were worth sharing below:

🎸 Live music 

Preservation in Geneva — previously one of the only local establishments with reliable weekday live music — has shifted to a weekend-only performance schedule. We assume this is just for the winter.

Since there are only four performances this week, we’re including them below instead of linking out to a dedicated page.

Wednesday (1/10) ⬇️

✔️ Bobby K: Flagship on the Fox | St. Charles | 6-9PM | Musician info

Thursday (1/11) ⬇️

✔️ Jake Mack: Flagship on the Fox | St. Charles | 5-8PM | Musician info

🎟️ Eric Church & Chris Stapleton Tributes: Arcada Theatre | Batavia | 7:30PM | Event info

✔️ PBJ: EvenFlow | Geneva | 7:30PM | Event info

🎈 Special events

Thursday

☑️ 11AM-12PM | Behind the Stars: Author Laurie Russell will explore how women responded to major historical events in Chicago, cementing their place in local history. The event is at the St. Charles Library.

Saturday

☑️ 12PM-4PM | Harley-Davidson Customer Welcome Party: Meet fellow riders, check out 2024 model year motorcycles and partake in food and refreshments at the Fox River Harley location in St. Charles.

🌖 Weather snapshot

🌥️ Today: High 36F | Low 32F | Calm before the storm

🌨️ Tuesday: High 36F | Low 28F | Blizzard-like?

☁️ Wednesday: High 31F | Low 24F | Leftover sprinkles possible

☁️ Thursday: High 29F | Low 16F | Cold front arrives

📖 Thanks for reading

Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] with:

• Questions, feedback, tips or suggestions

• Story, press release or event submissions

• Sponsorship or partnership inquiries

I respond to all replies — let’s work together.

If you enjoy Tri-Cities Central, please SPREAD THE WORD and/or leave a review! We grow primarily through word of mouth.

📱 Follow TCC

We’re also on Facebook and Instagram. Follow us for updates about what’s happening in the area throughout the week.