Rock Falls residents organize new ‘roundtable task-force’ aiming to raise citizen voices

ROCK FALLS — A former Rock Falls alderman, who is a vocal opponent to demolishing the former Micro Industries building, and other community members are forming an organization aiming to better express citizens’ desires to city government.

Reignite Rock Falls is a “roundtable task force-style organization” led by Marshall Doane, Mariyah Martinez, Blair and Davontay Euell, Sidney Leseman and William Huber.

Core members have attachments to Rock Falls and “wish to see the city government make smart choices and make the best of what we have in our town,” Doane wrote in a Jan. 2 email to Shaw Media. Anyone interested in participating, sharing ideas or learning more are welcome to join, he wrote.

“We formed this group because we are unsatisfied with the current plans and direction of our town’s future,” Doane wrote in a Jan. 5 email to Shaw Media. “We will be working hard to bring more people and opinions together so leadership has something to turn to when someone asks ‘What do you want to see?’ instead of falling on only [City Council] committee ideas and suggestions, and those older generations of people that make up those committees.”

Reignite Rock Falls is similar to Sterling’s Keystone Group, Doane wrote, adding that he has an active role in the Keystone Group.

“Sterling’s leadership created the Keystone group for feedback and research on needs and wants of the future generations,” he wrote. “Reignite Rock Falls will do the same - but this is hyper focused to Rock Falls.”

The group’s first order of business is the preservation of the former Micro Industries building complex, Doane wrote. They hope to halt the planned demolition of the building and to work to secure investors and funding to revitalize the building through adaptive reuse in conjunction with community needs, he wrote.

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Former Rock Falls City Alderman Marshall Doane is looking at alternatives to the city's plan of demolishing the former Micro Industries building. (Alex T. Paschal)

But according to Rock Falls Mayor Rod Kleckler, it’s about five or six years too late to save the Micro Industries complex.

“Ideas are good, but those are only ideas that he comes up with,” Kleckler said of Doane. “He has no funding groups.”

City officials plan to demolish the buildings later this year following asbestos abatement in late spring or early summer, he said. They then will redevelop the space.

“When somebody gives you $2.2 million to do something, and some other guy says, ‘Well we might be able to find something down the road or whatever,’ we have to make a decision and say, ‘We’ve got $2.2 million to run this project through,’” Kleckler said.

In 2022, the city received a $2,200,717 grant from the state’s Rebuild Illinois Downtowns and Main Streets Capital Program. The RBI Downtowns and Main Streets Capital Program supports local commercial corridors, with concentrations of businesses hurt by the pandemic.

Another issue with preserving the buildings is that the property is in the city’s uptown Tax Increment Financing District, Kleckler said. The city needs something there that will pay property taxes, which then can be put toward fixing up adjacent properties, he said.

“If you put in low-income housing, that’s organizations that don’t pay any property taxes,” Kleckler said. “It’s kind of the difference between what’s a nice idea and what’s going to work. We’ve had businesses that would come here and say, ‘Well turn this into a warehouse,’ but that’s not really compatible with our downtown business district.”

Part of the redevelopment of the Micro Industries complex will include parking, but how that looks hasn’t yet been decided, City Administrator Robbin Blackert said in a Dec. 5, 2023, interview. The parking lots won’t be overly large, and most of it will become green space, she said.

“We’re going to be looking at putting a path in underneath the bridge so people can park on the west side of First Avenue in our parking lots over there [and] to get to events, you won’t have to cross First Avenue,” Blackert said. “You’ll be able to take your family underneath the First Avenue bridge, much like they do in Dixon, to get to RB&W Park.”

Reignite Rock Falls will meet monthly in neutral, public locations – such as a library – after regular work hours, Doane wrote. The first meeting will be in February, but a date has not yet been set; meeting minutes will be taken, he said.

More information can be found at the group’s Facebook page, Re-Ignite Rock Falls.