The Rochelle City Council unanimously approved the $355,787 purchase of a new Horton all-wheel-drive ambulance from Foster Coach Sales on May 26.

The ambulance will replace a current 2012 ambulance used by the Rochelle Fire Department. The Foster Coach Sales bid was the lone bid the city received. Ambulances currently have a 36-month lead time, and the ambulance is expected to be delivered in fiscal year 2029, RFD Chief Dave Sawlsville said.

The city and RFD currently have another ambulance on order that is also seeing a 36-month wait time. RFD plans to receive that ambulance in October to replace a 2001 ambulance.

Sawlsville said he wanted to place the new ambulance order due to the long lead time and potential future increases in price.

“We’ve bought every ambulance in my time at RFD from Foster Coach except for one,” Sawlsville said. “They’re a reliable company in Sterling and they will bring a loaner ambulance if we have a catastrophic failure. This ambulance went down $500 in price from the last one we ordered because we switched from a diesel engine to a gas engine. We’re trying to order it now to curb the inflation on these things. Seeing $100,000 increases in three years on an ambulance is not sustainable. So we look for every corner we can cut.”

Railroad report

The council heard an update from Burlington Junction Railway Economic Development Director Eric Pitcher on its city-owned railroad, which is operated by BJRY.

The railroad currently sees use by 5,000 cars per year and Pitcher said work is ongoing to bring in use by new industries.

The BJRY and the city have been in recent conversations with one potential user involved in solar and wind projects that could use the city’s railroad and intermodal transload center for its battery storage component transportation.

Pitcher also cited a potential future merger between the Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern Railroads as another potential benefit to the city’s railroad and it looks to expand into future industries.

“That would make Rochelle a location that could bypass the Chicago market from a rail congestion standpoint,” Pitcher said. “That will be an opportunity that we can exploit. We appreciate the investment you’ve made into your rail infrastructure. That’s very rare and it provides us something to market.”

Sidewalk improvement plans

The council unanimously approved a $335,370 base bid and a $216,564 alternate bid from TCI Concrete, Inc. for its 2026 sidewalk capital improvement project. The base bid was the lowest of two the city received.

The approved base bid was 12% lower than the engineer’s estimate for the work and the alternate bid was 2% lower than estimated. Also approved was $47,000 in potential change order work on the project.

The base bid includes sidewalk replacement on both sides of First Avenue from South Ninth Street to South Second Street and Caron Road from Drake Avenue to Illinois Route 38. The total project makes up about 2% of the city’s overall sidewalk infrastructure.

The alternate bid includes the construction of a multi-use path along Illinois Route 251 from Cleveland Avenue to just south of the overpass in Illinois Department of Transportation right of way on the edge of Fairways Golf Course. The multi-use path project stems from the city’s desire to improve pedestrian safety on the southern stretch of Illinois Route 251.

“I have personally witnessed a number of pedestrians along the edge of shoulder on Illinois Route 251 and it does concern me,” Interim City Manager and City Engineer Sam Tesreau said. “Because you have children on bicycles and moms with strollers and other pedestrians and they’re only feet away from the travel lane on Illinois Route 251. This path would provide an alternative.”

Sewer lining

The council held a public hearing for its recently completed sewer lining project in a portion of southeast Rochelle. City Grant Administrator Ellen Bergeson said the project utilized Community Development Block Grant funds and local funds to line 14,642 feet of existing sanitary sewers and reline 94 vertical feet of sanitary manholes.

A total of $701,243 in grant funds was used for the project and the city paid $197,786 for the work on the $899,030 total project, which was done to eliminate sewer backups and bypass pumping that has occurred in the area during periods of intense or extended precipitation.

“We used to set up bypass pumps for every rain event,” Rochelle Municipal Utilities Superintendent of Water/Water Reclamation Adam Lanning said. “We recently had six inches of rain in two days and we had one pump set up. Before this work, we would have had 10 pumps set up. We’ve almost eliminated all of that.”