The Rochelle City Council voted 6-0 on Monday, Dec. 8, to approve a special-use permit for an adult-use cannabis infusion business at 600 N. 15th St., which is zoned I-2 general industrial.

Cannabis infusion businesses are required to not be located within 200 feet of residential-zoned property, schools or daycares. The business, Stash Holdings Corporation, will not be permitted to do any retail sales of cannabis products and will be subject to all state cannabis business guidelines.

The business will not include any external signage and will consist of cannabis infusion and storage operations. The property was previously used for light industrial purposes by Del Monte Foods and is currently vacant.

As a stipulation of the special-use permit, the business will be required to submit a security plan to the Rochelle Police Department and have it approved. At its Dec. 1 meeting, the city’s planning and zoning commission voted unanimously to recommend the special use permit’s approval with the request of the security plan.

Fire training facility

The council unanimously approved $334,500 for its half of the purchase price for the third phase of the joint fire training facility utilized by the Rochelle Fire Department and Ogle-Lee Fire Protection District at 920 S. Main St., which began in 2021. The OLFPD recently approved its half of the $669,000 next phase.

Phase one of the project was securing the property and building infrastructure that included two concrete pads, water drainage, water retention, water supply including two hydrants and a parking lot with curbing. Phase two included the placement of two prefabricated training structures. One single-story structure features a built-in burn room, staircase, moveable walls and a rooftop prop and the second structure simulates a residential or commercial garage.

Phase three, approved Monday, is a three-story structure to simulate incidents within a multi-story building, both residential and commercial. The prefabricated structure includes burn rooms, stair wells, fire escapes, standpipes, balconies and a simulated elevator shaft. The structure is designed to facilitate high-angle technical rescue drills and confined space drills. The $669,000 cost for the new structure does not include concrete work, which RFD Chief Dave Sawlsville said is estimated to cost an additional $30,000. The structure is set to be delivered in 14 months.

The council also approved the $34,275 purchase of lighting for the fire training center from Wesco Distribution, which handles lighting products for other Rochelle Municipal Utilities projects. The cost will be split 50/50 between the city and the OLFPD.

“I think this will be great for the training center when they’re out there,” RMU Superintendent of Electric Operations Blake Toliver said. “Most of their training is at night. They’ll be able to have lighting other than the lights on their trucks when they work out there.”

Bonds

The council held a public hearing regarding its plan to issue no more than $5 million in general obligation bonds to fund projects at the Rochelle Municipal Airport and Rochelle Technology Center.

The projects include a new hangar at the airport and electrical upgrades at the tech center. City Manager Jeff Fiegenschuh said the airport project will cost approximately $2 million and the tech center will cost about $700,000. Bond approval would be made at the city council’s Jan. 12 meeting.

“We have the revenues in both departments to fund it,” Fiegenschuh said. “On the airport side we’ll be getting a grant that reimburses us for close to $1 million. Hangar rental revenues will support the rest of the debt service.”

During the meeting, the council also approved a $1,736,696 bid from Bruns Construction for the construction of the eight-unit hangar with concrete floors and bi-fold doors, lights and receptacles. The Bruns bid was the only one received by the city after two requests for proposals.

All current city-owned hangar space at the airport is currently full with waiting lists. The Rochelle Municipal Airport currently has seven different hangars with about 40 aircraft based there. Monthly rent and property leasing are the biggest sources of revenue at the airport. The new hangar would result in about $2,000 or more in monthly lease payments to the city.

The Rochelle Technology Center work would involve electrical upgrades to the system that supports Rochelle Municipal Utilities fiber service customers, city data center customers, and the information technology system of the city itself. Having multiple power feeds and redundancy in the case of outages would differentiate the Rochelle Technology Center from other small data centers.

Truck purchase

The council unanimously approved the $289,546 purchase of a new AT48M bucket truck for the RMU electric department. The new truck is expected to be delivered in mid-2027 and will replace a model that will be 14 years old by that time.

Toliver said the truck is used daily by RMU and it has started to see maintenance needs increase and reliability decline.

Collective bargaining agreement

The council unanimously approved a collective bargaining agreement with the Police Benevolent Labor Committee for the Rochelle Police Department’s patrol officers, sergeants and dispatchers through April 30, 2028.

Changes from the previous CBA include allowing new employees to use vacation time at the six-month mark rather than previously waiting a year, awarding members two days of personal time, and a new insurance tier system aligning with a recent CBA with Rochelle Fire Department firefighters.

The CBA also includes a 1% equity adjustment awarded to dispatchers, and an 8% equity adjustment across the board. The city reviewed its wages relative to comparable competitors during negotiations and found it paid the lowest out of 20 competitors. After the adjustment, Rochelle is slotted to pay eighth best out of 11 competitors that have settled a contract.

“Our goal is to try to keep our officers instead of having this revolving door,” Fiegenschuh said. “If we’re going to spend the money, we should spend it on our officers and not on new recruitment because our officers are leaving.”

Budget

The council held a public hearing for and unanimously approved its fiscal 2026 budget and ongoing 20-year capital improvement plan.

The total budget this year is $120,019,874, down from last year’s $133.5 million budget, primarily due to less spending on capital projects. The 2026 budget includes funding to hire police officers, construction of the new hangar, a new electric substation on Centerpoint Drive, completion of an event space and utility undergrounding in the downtown area, and new pickleball courts at Fairways Golf Course.