City leaving vacancies,closing one department

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DeKALB – City officials announced Thursday that they are instituting a second hiring freeze and dissolving a department in an effort to reduce spending.

Six vacant positions – two police officers, a firefighter, a property maintenance inspector, the community development director and an assistant fire chief – will not be filled, which should annually save the city $610,000, City Manager Mark Biernacki said at a Thursday afternoon news conference.

Assistant fire chief Bruce Harrison will be promoted to fire chief as of Jan. 26, Biernacki said.

“What I’m proposing and will be put into place after Monday’s meeting is to keep [the six positions] vacant and not filled for the foreseeable future,” Biernacki added.

Along with the hiring freeze, Biernacki announced that the Community Development Department will be dissolved effective Feb 1.

The Public Works Department will take on the brunt of the dissolved Community Development Department’s role. Two Community Development divisions – the planning division and building and code division – will be transferred to Public Works. The transportation division will be added to the Engineering Department.

The reorganization or vacancies do not need council approval, Biernacki said. Last summer, 10 city positions were left unfilled by attrition and retirement to make up for budget shortfalls.

Biernacki said that all department heads and staff members are aware of the changes and that, given the economic challenges ahead, they’ve been “receptive” to the reorganization.

Also at Thursday’s news conference, city officials revealed a plan to build an air park at the DeKalb Taylor Municipal Airport, which would more than double the available hangar space.

The DeKalb City Council on Monday will be asked to approve several agreements relating to the airport, one which would lease about 10 acres of airport land to a St. Charles-based developer to construct the air park immediately west of existing hangars.

This would serve as a home for about 100 aircraft and is financed solely by private development, not through public funds, Public Works Director Rick Monas said.

“It also attracts commercial business to the area,” Monas said.

A gas station, restaurant and retail shops could be built at the corner of Pleasant Street and Peace Road this year, he said. New revenue from fuel sales tax, maintenance and sales of hangars are also expected.

If you go

What: DeKalb City Council meeting

When: 6 p.m. Monday

Where: DeKalb Municipal Building, 200 S. Fourth St. in DeKalb