DeKalb Times

At its Jan. 9 meeting, the city council of DeKalb discussed an agreement with Sam Schwartz Consulting, LLC, for a public transportation survey costing $98,379. The city has been working alongside Northern Illinois University to solicit such a study to determine the cost, ridership, and feasibility of a commuter connecter transit system in the city. 

Council circulated a request for proposal (RFP) for this project back in October and received this contract proposal.

City manager Bill Nicklas explained that the city won’t receive federal funding for the project unless it is close to being “shovel ready.” 

“And until only recently, we've always been discouraged even trying to investigate this because quick consultation with our state and federal political partners has usually resulted in the discouraging commentary that, well, there really isn't enough money anywhere in your area or even at higher levels to help you,” Nicklas said. “And our commitment is to major metropolitan centers and so forth. But it has been happening and it has been happening. As one of the speakers just said, actually, Northern is the only State University in Illinois that doesn't have rail of some type. Amtrak does stop at that other place that they mentioned. And so what can be done about this, in consultation with our partners at NIU and the new administration has been very supportive of this. And along with us, we had the the the epiphany back about nine, 12 months ago that the federal government has provided an enormous amount of money in transportation, in public transit channels, and a lot of that is still available.”

Several residents and NIU students spoke in favor of the proposal during the public comment portion of the meeting. They argued a public transit system would benefit the environment, the community, university enrollment and create general accessibility. 

Council was told the city has not had such a type of public transportation since the last Amtrak stop was shut down in 1972. 

In other burinsss, council discussed having renovations done for buildings at 330 Grove St. and 217 South Fourth St.

Council will meet again at 6 p.m. on Monday in the DeKalb Public Library’s Yusunas meeting room at 309 Oak St.