The Dixon Park District, the city and Discover Dixon have been awarded a $22,000 federal grant, one of 250 awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities through its Celebrate America! program for projects that will celebrate the nation’s semiquincentennial anniversary next year.

Dixon officials plan to use the funds to enhance, particularly during the week of July 4, the new pedestrian bridge across the Rock River that is expected to be complete in June 2026 and market the annual Petunia Festival.

Dixon City Council member Chris Bishop was a leading member of the group working on the grant, along with Discover Dixon Executive Director Amanda Wike.

[ Dixon applying for grant to enhance its new pedestrian bridge, July 4 celebrations  ]

“I think it’s important to celebrate accomplishments like” the “250th birthday of our nation,” Bishop told Shaw Local. Particularly with the city being nearly complete with the bridge construction, “everything just plays so well into that area.”

The pedestrian bridge, known as Project Rock, is being constructed across the river using the old Illinois Central Railroad piers. It’ll add 2.8 miles of multi-use path and resurface just less than a mile of Page Drive, maintained by the Dixon Park District. The $12 million development is expected to be completed in June 2026.

The new federal grant requires a $22,000 match of city funds. It will be spent on multiple American flags around the city during the week of July 4, several enhancements to the pedestrian brigde and marketing for the 2026 Independence Day celebrations in Dixon, including the Petunia Festival, according to city documents.

The “number one, biggest” thing to be purchased is a large American flag, about 30 by 60 feet, that will be hung off the middle of the bridge facing Peoria Avenue during the week of July 4, Bishop said.

It also would be used to buy six smaller flags to be hung off the old railroad arches underneath the multi-use path that runs west of the river. An additional 20 12-foot, pull-down flags will be hung on 10 buildings in the city, likely Dixon City Hall and the old Lee County Courthouse among others, Bishop said.

Also included is a landscaped garden or “rock garden” featuring a 25-by-25-foot retaining wall built with the original limestone that was used for the old railroad bridge, along with a variety of plants and mulch, Bishop said.

Bishop said it’s really about “bringing all these groups [the city, park district and Discover Dixon] together for a common cause.”

Together, they’re also organizing a dedication ceremony and a military flyover for the new bridge around July 4, 2026, Bishop said.

There’s “never been a better time to be in Dixon,” Dixon City Manager Danny Langloss told Shaw Local. City officials are “feeling great.” The past few weeks, there’s been a “couple of grant wins.”

Earlier in October the city was also awarded a $4.6 million grant from the Illinois Department of Transportation to complete Project Rock.