Dixon City Council reviews $33 million capital improvement budget for 2026

DIXON – The Dixon City Council was presented with a budget of about $33 million Wednesday to pay for its various capital improvement projects in fiscal 2026.

The projects include the construction of multi-use pathways, street and sidewalk improvements, and building a pedestrian bridge over the Rock River, among others. The costs are split between two budgets – called infrastructure and administrative – and combine multiple funding sources.

The majority of the $33 million budget comes from federal and state grants – a total of $19,387,000. The second largest funding source is tax increment financing, providing about $3.5 million in funds, according to the proposed budgets.

The largest project, and the most expensive, is Project Rock at $15.9 million. The plan is to extend the multi-use path that runs west of Heritage Crossing with a pedestrian bridge over the river using the old Illinois Central Railroad piers, construct an additional 2.8 miles of multi-use path and resurface just less than a mile of Page Drive, which is maintained by the Dixon Park District.

It’s being funded by a $11.9 million grant through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity program. In June 2024, the city agreed to contribute $788,000 of local infrastructure funds to its construction.

The council previously allocated a total of $3 million from fiscal 2022 and 2023 “turn ins,” which is money that was left over after the city audit was complete, Public Works Director Matt Heckman said in an interview with Shaw Local News Network.

The proposed fiscal 2026 budget asks the council to allocate another $1.3 million left over from the fiscal 2024 audit. It also estimates that $700,000 will be left over from fiscal 2025, which ends April 30, and asks for that money to also be allocated to the project, Heckman said.

About $1 million of the federal grant funds was used up during the design phase, he said. That leaves $10.9 million in grant funding remaining for construction, which puts the city budget at $15.9 million in total, according to the proposed fiscal 2026 budget.

The grand total does slightly alter the city’s original plans for the project, but “fundamentally, it’s the same project,” Heckman said at Wednesday’s meeting.

“Initially, we had dual pathways on each side of the river, one right adjacent to the riverbank, and the other one on the other side of Page Drive. We had to cut that back so it’s only going to be one pathway on the inside of Page Drive of the two paths; that was the less expensive route to travel,” he said.

The project was put out for bid in September 2024 and Willett Hofmann & Associates, an engineering consultant firm in Dixon, was selected through a qualifications-based process, which is mandated for projects that use federal dollars, Heckman said at a Dec. 16, 2024, council meeting.

Work on the project is estimated to begin in late winter or early spring and is expected to be completed by Dec. 1, 2026.

The council didn’t take any action on any budget requests and won’t do so until the budget is finalized in May. The next budget session is at 4 p.m. Monday, Feb. 24, at the Dixon City Hall, 121 W. Second St.