Clarke Mosquito Control donates $250,000 to help fund First Street Plaza expansion project

The expansion of First Street Plaza in downtown St. Charles continues to move forward with the announcement March 7 that St. Charles-based Clarke Mosquito Control will donate $250,000 toward the project.

The donation will go toward a solar pergola structure. Solar panels on top of the pergola will help power the plaza.

“Sustainability is a core value of Clarke’s,” said J. Lyell Clarke III, company president and CEO, during the St. Charles City Council meeting. “In fact, 30% of our electricity in our St. Charles facility is generated by our own solar panels.”

In 2020, aldermen unanimously voted to purchase the former Manor Restaurant site at the southeast corner of Main and First streets for $1 million in order to expand the First Street Plaza. That purchase included a $400,000 donation from the city and a $600,000 donation from Exelon.

Clarke said the City Council in 2013 offered up to $250,000 in incentives to the company to encourage it to move its corporate headquarters to St. Charles.

“Thank you for welcoming us with open arms and having confidence in us that we would earn the incentives you offered us,” he said.

During the meeting, alderpersons voted to apply for $100,000 in Kane County Riverboat Grant funds to help complete the construction of the First Street pedestrian corridor and plaza.

That is the maximum request allowable under the grant. The city will apply for funds toward the costs associated with the conversion of South First Street to a pedestrian-only corridor, including the expansion of the east plaza along the Fox River. The rest of the project, which got underway in September, is estimated to cost $2.6 million.

The St. Charles Initiative, an independent advisory committee under the umbrella of the Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley, is raising funds for the project. First Street Initiative Chairman John Hoscheit talked about the vision for the project in September during a groundbreaking ceremony.

“We’re going to build a foundation, we’re going to fill the hole,” he said. “But our committee and I think the city has made it clear that filling the hole isn’t going to be enough. We want to not only fill the hole and get the infrastructure built, but we also want to get to the second phase, which is actually building the amenities here, repurposing First Street, putting plantings in and water features and making it a community gathering place that everyone can be proud of.”