Genoa’s $1.2 million downtown project almost complete

GENOA – Construction on the $1.2 million Genoa downtown revitalization project is expected to wrap up this month, and city officials want to bring the community out for a street party to celebrate.

The downtown project has reshaped the cityscape of Genoa from Washington to Sycamore streets through the burial of electrical wires and the addition of brick to the edge of downtown sidewalks and the installation of what Mayor Jonathon Brust called “historic looking and ornamental feeling” street lights.

Brust said he and City Manager Alyssa Seguss recently saw a nearly century-old newspaper article featuring a street dance that was held in Genoa after the city had redone a street. That article inspired them to recreate the festivity.

“We just thought it would be a fun call back if we hosted some low-key kind of street dance, or have music, maybe some food and just celebrate revitalizing the downtown area,” Brust said. “We don’t have all the details figured out yet, and timing actually may push to next year in the spring, but definitely want to think about that.”

The downtown revitalization project came about after what Brust called a really successful campaign for the city’s facade improvement program. The program uses city funds as grants to help downtown buildings and business owners redo building facades.

“It had tremendous success,” Brust said. “We’ve given out hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant funds and in my opinion our downtown buildings haven’t looked better since I’ve been in Genoa. It really, really made an impact. Because of the great success of that we felt it’s now our turn ... to give back to the buildings and business owners who have improved their building.”

Before the downtown revitalization project, which was funded by excess revenue generated from state grants, Genoa was lit by street lights that were more than 60 years old. The accompanying apparatus of overhanging wires to power the fixtures could previously be seen throughout the downtown area. Now the cityscape appears decluttered.

Genoa Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Krissy Johnson said the Chamber fully supports the revitalization project.

“We think that any progress is great,” she said. “It’s made the downtown look really nice.”

The project was spurred by a comprehensive and strategic planning process, officials said. A task force formed to establish a plan found that enhancing the downtown area was a priority, Brust said.

“That small town feel, the quaintness, the aesthetics, a beautiful downtown were all really important to the community and the task force that was on that, so we began looking for opportunities to essentially give back and really replace and update that main drag,” Brust said. “Due to a grant we received from the state we had excess revenues we could then put toward the downtown project.”

The project began at the conclusion of Genoa Days in June, and was largely wrapped up by Labor Day, but some annual Genoa activities were impacted by the construction.

The annual Cruisin’ to Genoa 2024 car show was canceled due to safety concerns associated with downtown construction.

Johnson said the Chamber, which puts on the car show, plans on hosting the yearly event in 2025.

Brust said the goal was to finish construction before the car show, but severe weather in June slowed progress.

“Transparently, we were very willing to work,” Brust said. “I think it was just a matter of the dust, and some uncertainty associated with that, and car people like to have a very specific kind of environment for that. Other than that, the biggest challenge is just working within downtown with parking, and making sure people can safely get from one spot to another.”

Seguss said the revitalization project, which also redesigned cross walks on Illinois Route 72 to make the area safer for pedestrians, cost $1.2 million, less than officials were expecting.

“We had really competitive bids, so we were excited, really excited to hear the project cost,” Seguss said.

Officials said they aren’t done revitalizing the city, however.

“What we’re seeing right now is phase one of what we’re proposing as a two part project,” Brust said. “The second part is something we’re looking for additional grant funding on, hopefully next year, for another piece of downtown.”