The Rochelle City Council unanimously approved a $7,673,358 bid from Tri-City Electric Co. on Monday, Oct. 27, for the construction of a new electric substation for Rochelle Municipal Utilities on Centerpoint Drive.

The Tri-City Electric bid was the lowest of three received. It includes a 10% contingency to cover any unforeseen site conditions that may arise during construction. The base bid was $6,975,780.

The construction cost will include the substation, the roadway to it, and gates and fencing.

The basis for the new substation is to free up two power feeders that are currently tied up to feed one customer. The new substation will alleviate that congestion and make RMU able to serve residential customers more reliably. After completion, RMU will be able to backfeed power to areas in an outage. The substation will also allow for more possible industrial growth.

Back in January 2024, the council purchased switchgear for $2.672 million with a 77-week lead time and a transformer for $2.047 million with a 56-week lead time, both for the substation project. The total project is expected to cost over $20 million.

Projects

The council held discussion on issuing alternate revenue bonds for potential projects at the Rochelle Municipal Airport and the Rochelle Technology Center. The council resolved to vote on looking into bonding at its next meeting.

The projects would total $2.7 million, City Public Works Director Tim Isley said. The city desires the construction of a new hangar at the airport due to all its current hangar space being full, with waiting lists. Hangar rental is the top source of revenue at the airport. That potential project would cost $1.9 million. The hangar project could see $1.2 million in grant funding after the city funded it up front.

The Rochelle Technology Center work would involve electrical upgrades to provide backup power in the case of an outage to the system that supports RMU fiber service customers. That potential project would cost $700,000.

“This project is extremely critical,” City Manager Jeff Fiegenschuh said. “If we ever have a major outage at the tech park, we don’t have backup power currently. So people with RMU internet service could see an outage for a significant amount of time. This project is a high priority and we need to get it done.”

Data center

The council heard from two people during the public comment portion of the meeting regarding the city’s ongoing discussions with a developer that could result in a new data center locating in Rochelle and becoming an RMU customer.

Rochelle resident Dawn Nance spoke at the meeting and said she was against a data center locating in Rochelle due to concerns including the number of people it would employ and its water consumption.

“I would prefer a business that would employ more people and get more people to live in this community,” Nance said. “We need something more than a data center.”

Daniel VanKirk, a local property owner, spoke at the meeting as well and asked the council to consider noise and utility concerns as it works with the developer.

Fiegenschuh said the city is planning a public meeting in November to receive public feedback on a potential data center. It is anticipated that 25-35 full-time jobs would be created by the data center. The city would put a hard cap on utility consumption by the development, which would be located on property that is currently farmland. A development agreement would include language for sound muffling.

Storm sewer

The council unanimously approved a $374,069.16 bid from Martin & Company Excavating for storm sewer improvements on North 14th Street. Eleven bids were received. The Martin bid was the lowest, and 21% lower than the engineer’s estimate of cost. Approval was also given for $73,000 in potential additional or change order work on the project.

The project will include new larger diameter storm sewer drainage upgrades to enhance or replace old deteriorated and undersized existing storm sewers that currently service a large, developed and urbanized area upland watershed north and east of the 14th Street right of way.

It’s anticipated that construction will be substantially complete by late May 2026.

Collocation

The council unanimously approved a collocation agreement with Digital Network Access (DNA) Communications for leased space at the City of Rochelle Technology Center. Having DNA Communications located within the city’s existing data center will allow the city to enter into a VLAN transport services agreement where DNA Communications would be able to provide internet and phone service to customers within the RMU service area using its fiber infrastructure.

“A little over a year ago, we lost our biggest lease agreement at the tech center and we’ve been trying to find new ways to generate revenue,” City Advanced Communications Director Pat Brust said. “DNA is a local company and it will be able to provide services to customers on RMU-owned fiber that we really can’t provide.”

Proclamation

A proclamation was read in honor of National Family Literacy Day on Nov. 1, 2025, and was accepted by members of the Rochelle Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.