ROCK FALLS – Although the candidate roster won’t be complete until nominating petitions are turned in before the Nov. 18 deadline, two familiar faces have told Shaw Local that they will be in the running next April to be Rock Falls’ mayor.

Mayor Rod Kleckler will square off against former Mayor Bill Wescott when voters decide during the April election who they want as the leader of their city for the next four years.

It will be the second time the two will face each other for the seat. During the city’s 2021 election, Wescott, then seeking his third term, was defeated by Kleckler by just one vote.

Mayor Rod Kleckler

Kleckler was first elected to the 3rd Ward seat in 2015, when he defeated 24-year incumbent Dave Hand. Kleckler ran unopposed and was reelected to the 3rd Ward seat in 2019.

Before his involvement in city government, he was a business owner in Rock Falls for about 40 years, Kleckler said in an interview with Shaw Local.

He moved to the city in about 1974 when he 16 years old. Five years later, he bought a house; raised four daughters who now live in Rock Falls, Sterling and Prophetstown; and has lived in that same house ever since, he said.

If he were to be reelected in April, Kleckler said that “what you can expect from me is more of the same.”

A major part of Kleckler’s mayoral campaign in 2021 was a desire to make progress in repairing city roads. Like his constituents at the time, he was aggravated by the state of the city’s streets, which has been a source of complaints for a long time.

When it came to other infrastructure projects, however, Kleckler wanted to take more of a wait-and-see approach, citing what he said is the importance of fiscal conservatism.

Throughout his term, he’s followed that philosophy.

“We haven’t borrowed any money, and we’ve spent within our limits for doing what we’ve done,” Kleckler said.

He noted the new Moore Tires facility and the demolition of the former Micro Industries buildings at 200 W. Second St. as current projects that the city has not spent outside its limits to fund.

As an example, the demolition project is being funded through a $2.2 million Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity grant that the city was awarded in 2022. Once the project is completed, the city plans to use the available land to construct a parking lot and leave the rest open for new development, which is another area of importance for Kleckler.

“We’ve brought in millions of development without settlements. The city of Rock Falls was enough to entice investors and make them want to come here,” he said.

He cited the city’s Scooter’s Coffee and Molly’s Discount Stores as two of his “first-year success stories.”

Kleckler is looking to bring in businesses that will increase both sales tax and property tax revenues because those are two major sources of funding for local government.

Former Mayor Bill Wescott

Wescott began his time in city government as an alderman and then served as city clerk for 12 years. He was elected mayor in 2013 in a race against then-two-term incumbent David Blanton. He was reelected in 2017 after running unopposed.

Wescott took a short hiatus from local government after losing to Kleckler in the 2021 election, but he said in an interview with Shaw Local that he would “like to throw my hat in the ring, get back in there and try to get some more things done for our community.”

Wescott said he’s motivated by seeing projects come to fruition that the city planted the seeds for during his term.

He referenced the demolition of the former Micro Industries buildings as an example. The activity reminds him of when the city was redeveloping the manufacturing Brownfields site into what is now known as RB&W District Riverfront Park. Wescott referenced the completion of that project as a highlight of his time as mayor.

“The environmental cleanups and rejuvenation of those areas can happen in properties which are undergoing demolition,” Wescott said. “I think that type of vision is available.”

If he were elected in the 2025 election, working with other city officials and people in the community to rejuvenate that area and others like it would be one of his top priorities.

Another current priority for Wescott is ensuring the community’s safety and educating the public on the importance of completely funding the county’s 911 services. In late September, the Twin Cities Communications Center in Sterling closed, and its 12 dispatchers joined eight co-workers at the Whiteside County Law Enforcement Center in Morrison, from where the county’s 911 services are dispatched.

During the Nov. 5 election, Whiteside County voters will decide whether to approve a 0.5% countywide sales tax increase to cover the county’s ongoing annual funding deficit for its 911 programming. If voters approve the tax, it would mean that a consumer would pay an additional 50 cents in sales tax for every $100 of taxable retail purchases. He noted that with that kind of referendum, the revenues gathered from the increase would strictly be used to fund the center.

It also would take some of the weight off the county, Sterling and Rock Falls, which have been funding the service. The other communities in Whiteside County don’t contribute any funding now, but they still get the services, Wescott said.

If the measure passes Nov. 5, the extra revenue is expected to help relieve Sterling and Rock Falls’ 911 funding responsibilities. If the measure does not pass, the communities not paying now would have to pay to fund the program and would have to decide how to raise those funds.

Overall, Wescott’s No. 1 priority is public involvement, “because the community is only as good as the people who live there,” he said.

“I think in municipal government you need to get the local people involved,” Wescott said. “It’s a vision, and one person can’t have the vision. It has to be built with the community.”

April election information

Aside from mayor, several other positions are up for election. They include:

• City clerk
• City treasurer
• One seat as 1st Ward alderman for a four-year term
• One seat as 2nd Ward alderman for a four-year term
• One seat as 2nd Ward alderman for a two-year term
• One seat as 3rd Ward alderman for a four-year term
• One seat as 4th Ward alderman for a four-year term
• One seat as 4th Ward alderman for a two-year term

Petitions to run for any of the available seats have been available for pickup at the Rock Falls business office, 603 W. 10th St., since Aug. 20.

The filing period for petitions is Nov. 12 through Nov. 18. They can be turned in at the city’s business office from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.