Naperville city staff presented the first two elements of the 2020 City Budget to councilmembers at a recent workshop.
“The budget’s ultimately put together to support our goals,” said City Manager Doug Krieger. “As we go through each of the ends policies sections, we’re going to discuss what makes up the changes and how each of the major budgetary requests are tied to our policies.”
Economic Development
Krieger discussed economic development, including several key 2020 initiatives like new developments currently being built and the Downtown Streetscape Project.
“The key to this is really the timing,” said Krieger. “We need to get this done in 2020 so that it is up and better and has good traffic flow when the Washington Street Bridge work starts in 2021.”
Patriot Fund?
While discussing the streetscape, Mayor Steve Chirico relayed a resident’s idea of making Naperville look more patriotic during holidays and parades. The mayor suggested implementing a “patriot fund” to accomplish this, and said he would support allocating about $100,000 to get it started.
“What about showing a little bit more patriotism? And so, is it possible to have a patriotism fund that we can put flags out on streetlights in our downtown or along Washington Street or on Ogden Avenue on those occasions?” asked Chirico.
That idea seemed to have some support among the other councilmembers.
City Services
Naperville’s services to residents were also touched on as city staff recommended the additions of eight new full-time staff. That includes several on the city’s IT team, which will help support public-facing e-services.
The next budget workshop will go over Naperville’s public safety budget and financial stability. Naper Settlement and the Naperville Public Library will also make presentations at that meeting which will be held on November 18.
Naperville News 17’s Casey Krajewski reports.
