The city of Rochelle presented a $3,525 facade grant Monday, Dec. 15, to the Vince Carney Community Theater at 108 S. Main St. in Rochelle.

The city’s facade grant program covers half the cost of any improvements made to business fronts in town, with a limit of $5,000. The improvements included new windows in the green room and meeting room, new exterior lighting, and new front entry doors and windows, VCCT Board President Amy Frank said.

VCCT calls the former site of Lincoln Elementary School home and has been working in recent years to renovate it to fit its community theater troupe use and bring new entertainment to Rochelle.

“The big differences are warmth, energy efficiency and visibility,” Frank said. “The old windows from when the building was empty for so long were vandalized and some were broken. They were the original 1950s windows. It just looks better. All the work was done by volunteers. It means everything to have the support of the community and the city with something like this. Other communities don’t support their theaters the way Rochelle supports us. And we absolutely appreciate it.”

Rochelle Mayor John Bearrows thanked the city’s community development department staff for their work on the facade grant program. The city also offers assistance with blade signs for buildings and will offer a new interior improvement grant program for downtown businesses starting in 2026.

City officials said Dec. 15 that they’re happy to see the renovated VCCT building after it sat vacant for years after the closing of Lincoln School.

“This is a pretty amazing project that we’ve been able to see evolve over the years,” Bearrows said. “This building was vacant and everybody wondered what was going to happen to it. I was happy to see VCCT come in here. We’re seeing the community support it. We’ve talked about having an arts district and this is a great area for it. This is a great quality of life issue for our local residents and as a city we’re happy to support it.”

City Community Development Director Michelle Pease thanked the city manager, city council and the mayor for their support of the grant program for small businesses and nonprofits such as VCCT. The facade grant program sees $30,000 distributed to local businesses and nonprofits each year for improvements to building fronts.

Frank said the money went a long way for VCCT, which plans on offering new entertainment to the community in 2026.

“The money is hard to come by,” Frank said. “That would be a lot of ticket sales. We are bringing in other outside entertainment here. We have a comedian coming and a band. We can now serve alcohol at our events using our own certified bartenders. And we’ll be having movie nights here on a big screen since we don’t have a movie theater in town anymore.”