Dixon Street Department needs more staffing, manager says

DIXON — Increased workloads caused by more community events, economic development expansion, and needed maintenance and repairs have led Dixon’s street department to ask for an increase in staffing numbers as it plans its 2025 fiscal year budget.

Several city department heads presented their fiscal 2025 budget plans to the Dixon City Council on Monday night, with the hiring of two additional full-time street department workers among the proposals. In his budget presentation, Street Department manager Tyler Venier detailed a budget that would increase the amount allotted for salaries from $477,079 in the fiscal 2024 budget to $607,105 for fiscal 2025, which will begin May 1. The plan would increase staffing levels from nine to 11.

He pointed to the expansion of the bike path and economic development near I-88 as a few of the reasons.

“That is going to add more responsibility to our plates,” he said.

He said more events are causing more work for the street department in the form of setting up and tearing down. Sidewalks throughout town need to be repaired, and roads need crack sealing. Workers are not able to get to those projects because of their workload.

“Historically, we have not been able to devote a lot of time to that,” he said.

Public Works Director Matt Heckman agreed that the two new positions are needed.

“Dixon is a prosperous community, a community that is growing, a community that is on the cutting edge of everything, and public works has been a large part of that in terms of event set up,” he said. “If you look at just the weekly commitment in the summer time that is one example of many.

“If you look at the rate at which ash trees are unfortunately passing away and how many of those we have to take down every year. Across the board, everything we do is kind of pumped up on steroids and we’ve been doing the best we can with roughly the same number of people that we’ve always had.”

Heckman said the department is involved in the good things that are going on, but also has to fulfill obligations that include plowing snow, tree removal, filling pot holes, in-house capital and building programs, and then be a part of “all the good stuff that makes the community tick.”

“We’re getting to the point at existing staffing levels where we’re going to have to start making some choices on how our time is divided, quite frankly,” Heckman said.

The council also heard expense presentations for the fire and water departments, the cemetery budget, public properties, and the airport. Prior to the presentations as well as an overview of the current fiscal 2024 budget, City Manager Danny Langloss told the council that the budget is a balanced one, and gave an overview of growth within the city over the past few years.

Langloss said the city is very excited about the current budget year and fiscal 2025. He pointed to projects in the industrial park and the Gateway Development, new housing development in the works, and updating current housing inventory.

“We’ve seen a ton of work happening; the 1-88 corridor really blowing open,” Langloss said. “I don’t know that there’s any better compliment that the city could receive than three major employers expanding in Dixon. They could choose to go anywhere, they have footprints across the country.”

The three include construction of Bonnell Industries’ 100,000-square-foot facility in the industrial park, the renovation of the Rayovac building into the new Raynor production facility and a soon-to-be announced business that will expand into an 8-acre parcel at the industrial park.

“Last week we saw cranes working on their building and cranes working on the YMCA day care in the Gateway Project,” Langloss said of work going on at Bonnell Industries. “It was cool to have cranes up on both sides of I-88.”

He also expanded on the growth happening in the Gateway Development and its investors, whom he said have a history of working on projects in Dixon, notably near the Walmart complex.

“Around six years ago when we’re looking for a partner, and we’re trying to engage the landowners in that area, they were happy and excited to come back and work in Dixon,” he said.

He noted the opening of Chipotle, and construction on the new Casey’s, the Fairfield Inn, the YMCA day care, the multi-tenant facility, and a car wash. He said there are more projects yet to be announced.

He also rolled through a list of enhancements that have included upgrades to the Dement area, the thriving downtown, the Dixon Park District’s work, Moore Tires coming in, County Market investment, Viaduct Point, 1.6 miles of new pathway, and strong partnerships between the council and several groups that include the Dixon school district, Sauk Vally Community College, Lee County, the Lee County Industrial Development Association, and Discover Dixon, among them.

Langloss also spoke about residential development taking place in Dixon, including the Hvarre development that will add 92 new addresses to Dixon over the next few years and that the city also is taking a look at housing inventory already in existence and programs to revitalize and revamp parts of town.

He said that while there are communities whose councils and city managers and staff don’t work together well, that is not true of Dixon.

“This council has a laser focus on the direction we are going,” he said, adding that the upcoming creation of a comprehensive plan will help guide the council moving forward.

Budget discussions will continue Monday, Feb. 19.