Plank, Peace roads improvements in sight for newly reappointed DeKalb County engineer

SYCAMORE – During DeKalb County Engineer Nathan Schwartz’s next six-year term, he said he hopes to tackle the widening of Peace Road to multiple lanes north of Route 64 and possible Plank Road realignment, among others goals.

Schwartz this week was unanimously reappointed to the position by the DeKalb County Board for another six-year term.

“I think he’s wonderful,” County Board member Mary Cozad, a Democrat from District 10, said ahead of the vote to reappoint Schwartz.

Cozad wasn’t the only County Board member to compliment Schwartz’s work.

“He not only does a heck of a job on the administration part of it – and he knows me well enough that if I didn’t mean this I wouldn’t say it – but also the procurement of money, so it comes from the state and the feds and not the county pockets, which is a tremendous asset to getting the jobs done,” said Jerry Osland, a Republican from District 12.

It’s really a great compliment that people go out of their way to say thank you. In the highway world, people don’t normally write to say, ‘Thank you for plowing my road.’

—  Nathan Schwartz, DeKalb County engineer

Schwartz pointed to several projects he said he hopes to tackle in his next term: widening Peace Road to multiple lanes north of Route 64, improving intersections along that stretch of road, and the possible realignment of Plank Road.

Upgrading all of the county’s highways to meet the requirements of 80,000-pound, year-round trucking routes also is a major goal, Schwartz said.

“It’s really a great compliment that people go out of their way to say thank you,” Schwartz said. “In the highway world, people don’t normally write to say, ‘Thank you for plowing my road.’ All we typically hear are people that are unhappy, so when people take time to say ‘thank you’ and ‘nice job,’ it really means something for us in the highway world.”