Local stories to watch for in 2021 in DeKalb County

With the new year officially here, and COVID-19 pandemic headlines still front and center, the Daily Chronicle news team put together a list of some of the big stories we’ll be watching closely (and informing our readers about) in 2021:

1. Vaccine distribution

Nine months into the COVID-19 pandemic, DeKalb County got its first allocation of the long-awaited COVID-19 vaccine. The continued rollout is slow-moving, with local health officials asking for patience as allocations of the Moderna NIAID COVID-19 vaccine are delivered on about a weekly basis to the county.

Further distribution will be a phased approach, with priority groups getting the vaccine based on a tiered system laid out by the federal government. Health care workers and long-term care facility residents are first, then first responders, essential workers, those with underlying health conditions and the elderly.

Timeline for local rollout of those groups has not yet been identified, and there currently is not an online registration system sign-up available locally. Countywide residents should stay tuned to local media sites and the DeKalb County Health Department for further information as it becomes available.

2. Reopening of businesses and schools

The COVID-19 vaccine brings with it the hope that a reopening of our local life as we knew it is possible, and school boards across DeKalb County will likely spend the next few weeks, and months, working with teachers’ unions and administrators to formulate what that will look like.

A fall surge of COVID-19 forced kids back to their kitchen tables for school eyeing a Jan. 19 return date. It’s likely school board meetings in the coming weeks will focus on how to get children, teachers and staff back safely into school buildings, and how a vaccine will factor in.

Along with schools, local business such as bars and restaurants were hit hardest when the second surge forced more closures. Although an indoor dining prohibition was instated locally Oct. 3, many local eatery owners have since made independent decisions to defy the public health order, instead reopening their doors faced with impossible financial odds that have already forced many to close their doors permanently.

Whatever the new, post-vaccine world looks like in the coming year, Daily Chronicle reporters will have it covered.

3. Police restructure and continued progress based on local calls for racially equitable change

In 2020, local activists marched for months spurred by the death of George Floyd over the summer, calling for changes to DeKalb County’s policing, criminal justice and housing reform and demands for a seat at the table for communities of color often overlooked.

2021 could be the year where we see some changes locally: the DeKalb Police Department will undergo a restructure this year with an eye to prioritizing community-led strategy, and all of the county’s largest police agencies – DeKalb, Sycamore, DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office and Northern Illinois University police – will be outfitted with body-worn cameras.

DeKalb also is likely to have a new top cop this year, with the renewed search for the next police chief of the DeKalb Police Department underway. The search was halted early in 2020 because of the pandemic, and then pulled for a time during the Black Lives Matter marches, as city officials took the time to rewrite the position based on feedback from local activists calling for better police accountability. City Manager Bill Nicklas announced in mid-December a citizen-led community group was formed to lead the search for the position, with the hopes it’ll be filled by late February.

4. April consolidated election to bring new leadership to all of DeKalb County’s biggest municipalities

Come April, municipal leaders across DeKalb County will all have new faces.

The April 4 Consolidated Election will feature mayoral races in DeKalb, Sycamore, Genoa and Cortland, to name a few, with many contended offering local voters a choice to fill the seats with new representation. The DeKalb Township also will have a new supervisor, with City Council, park district and school board seats countywide all up for grabs.

5. Progress on business newcomers

Amid the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, new businesses, small and large, continue to find their way to DeKalb County.

Although building a data center and a candy manufacturing and distribution plant will take time, work will continue this year on some of the county’s largest projects, including a 1.7 million-square-foot confectionary packaging and distribution center that will employ 500 people for Ferrara Candy Company and an $800 million data center on a 505-acre site for social media giant Facebook.