Erie maps out, follows plan for progress

ERIE – Sometimes progress works in peculiar ways.

When Interstate 88 (then State Route 5) was extended through Whiteside County 50 years ago, it became a more efficient pipeline for people traveling from Sterling and Rock Falls to the Quad Cities.

Progress in motion.

Unless you were the village of Erie.

That efficient pipeline put Erie in a bit of a traffic jam, diverting drivers away from what was then state Route 2, which went through the village. Less vehicle traffic meant less customer traffic, and for businesses in Erie, that wasn’t progress.

The village didn’t fall off the map, but bottom lines took a hit. Erie’s economy was impacted by the decline in traffic and it reached a point by the late 2010s that residents sought to reverse the trend and make the village a destination once again.

Their plan? Revitalize Erie.

The idea caught on and before long it went from plan to progress – as well as the name of the group of residents and business owners who joined together to form a nonprofit organization of volunteers committed to making the village the best it can be.

It’s been almost seven years since Revitalize Erie set out to give the village a shot in the arm and show people that Erie still had some muscle to flex, and so far they’ve been heading in the right direction.

That’s gotten more people to head in the right direction, too: Back toward Erie.

Now that’s progress.

Revitalize Erie’s leadership includes president Jason Robshaw, vice president Carla Jaquet, treasurer Mark Melton, secretary Michelle Misfeldt, Event Committee chair Danae Wunderlich and Beautification Committee chair Kayla Bohms. They lead groups that work to improve the overall quality of life for residents and businesses.

For those who haven’t been in Erie since the group began in 2018, they’ll notice many changes, whether they’re in the triangular downtown or elsewhere in the village.

“It started with people who wanted to do something for Erie,” Robshaw said. “There were a handful of people that were a part of it and then they started meeting.”

The group then sought the services of Western Illinois University’s Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs and its Mapping Program to help create a strategic long-term vision for Erie, and that gave Revitalize Erie a framework in which to work.

“They kind of came in at that point and really did some analysis,” Robshaw said. “What are we looking to do? What sort of people are interested? We had a huge community meeting getting ideas and getting feedback. This little group of half a dozen people got that going and then we got into an actual board.”

Bohms found the Mapping Program to be very beneficial in Revitalize Erie’s goals.

“They had a nice PowerPoint presentation and broke it down into asking us here’s how you think about it,” Bohms said. “When you say you want to make improvements, it can be hard to come up with a plan, but they had a nice way that really mapped it out for us on how to make improvements, set goals and how to reach those goals.”

While working with what the Mapping Program provided the group, it led to them adopting their mission as their name, Melton said.

“It was just a pie in the sky thing, I think, with what we wanted to do and not to hold anything back,” Melton said. “It took about four or five group meetings before we became Revitalize Erie.”

Erie has a slate of annual events that started decades ago, including many revolving around the holidays, and one of Revitalize Erie’s first tasks was to find ways to improve and enhance them. Working with the existing events gave the group inspiration to create its own events that added to the village calendar.

“We were like, ‘What can we do to improve it?’” Robshaw said. “We did a hot dog lunch one year and have done little things to add to it. There’s a car show that’s in September that was already going on in Erie and we were like, ‘What can we do to help it? Can we make it bigger?’ ”

One of the newest events that Revitalize Erie created was its Shop Local Punch Card Promotion, which ran from Nov. 1 to Dec. 1. Shoppers collected punches on cards at participating Erie businesses when they spent $10 or more and turned in full cards of 10 punches for a chance to win local business gift certificates up to $200. It motivated many residents to shop more often in town rather than drive to larger towns, Wunderlich said. About $66,500 in local purchases were tracked in this year’s promotion.

“It’s an opportunity for people to go downtown, shop local and promote our local businesses and give back to our community because they’ve invested a lot in our community,” Wunderlich said. “For being the first year, we got a lot of positive feedback and a lot of people participated. It was real neat to see.”

In addition to assisting with tourism and commerce, Revitalize Erie helps improve the village’s look and feel. Members of the Beautification Committee have assisted in painting and construction projects and have installed flower planters throughout town, many of which Melton made himself.

Even the planters have become a sign of progress. At first they only had artificial flowers in them, but later real ones were planted and watered by committee members. They used to have a borrowed John Deere Gator to go from planter to planter but were able to raise enough money to buy their own in 2023.

“One of my favorite comments I heard last year was from a community member who said they looked forward to coming to the downtown because it was so beautiful to see all those planters,” Jaquet said.

One of Revitalize Erie’s current projects is working with village government to revamp the village-owned Heritage Park. The project is being done in two phases. The first, scheduled for completion this spring, will include an 8-foot walking path, expanded parking and new playground equipment. The second phase is scheduled to wrap up in 2026, which will mark the park’s 50th anniversary. Updates to projects are posted on Revitalize Erie’s Facebook page.

“We’re working toward a common goal,” Jaquet said. “The village is working on the revitalization of Heritage Park and we’ve been asked to be a part of that. I’m very excited about the park. We’re making it a more inviting space. It’s tucked away and there was not a whole lot that went on there. It’s a beautiful, really serene location, but it was very underutilized. There wasn’t a place for people to park when you had a lot of people.”

Heritage Park is the second park in the village that Revitalize Erie has had its fingerprints on. Margaret Park, which is in the triangle area of downtown, was reconstructed by the group and village in 2022 in time for Erie’s 150th anniversary celebration.

Having a working relationship with local entities such as the village and school district has helped Revitalize Erie move forward with many ideas. Village government has been receptive to many of the group’s functions, Robshaw said, and the schools have been helpful in providing volunteers for community projects and special events such as community cleanup days.

“One of the big things with Revitalize is that we had buy-in from everyone,” Robshaw said. “The village supported us, the schools supported us, so with their help that made a huge difference. We can do these kinds of events and talk to the village about shutting down the Triangle if we needed to or talk to the schools about manpower for cleaning day. Our relationship with those entities makes a huge difference in everything that we do.”

Robshaw gives much credit to Katelin Bridgman, an AmeriCorps Fellow Intern and master’s degree student at Western Illinois University, for helping Revitalize Erie. From September 2021 to July 2022, Bridgman worked with the group, as well as with the village and school district, using her Peace Corps experience improving communities in Moldova in Eastern Europe to identify community needs and put the group’s original Mapping Program ideas to work.

“She gathered a whole bunch of information about what our needs were, what we had for resources and what we didn’t have yet,” Robshaw said. “That work was huge. She was important in getting new businesses started in town, she helped business owners put together their plans and got work done on a TIF district within Erie.

”On any given day, more cars are parked along the downtown triangle now than 10 years ago, with much of the credit for that going to Revitalize Erie."

The group set out to get more eyes on Erie and more dollars for businesses and succeeded in both. The revitalization of the community and its economy has had trickle-down effects, including the building of a new nine-acre subdivision of duplexes across Albany Road from Erie Cemetery. It’s Erie’s first new development of residential land in almost 30 years.

While many small towns struggle to remain viable, Erie has found ways to grow and show what it has to offer, encouraging locals to become more invested in their community and travelers to exit the interstate for a visit to town – and their work isn’t done yet. Even after six years, there’s still plenty more to revitalize, but the spark that was lit six years ago has helped the group keep the home fires burning.

“It’s really reignited people’s passion about the community,” Jaquet said. “There were people who became very apathetic, saying they live out in the middle of nowhere, there’s nothing here or saying downtown looks terrible. Revitalize Erie created a spark where people are excited about our community again and people are thinking about moving back. Some people are thinking about staying versus saying they can’t wait to get out of here and they’re saying, ‘It’s not a bad place after all.’ ”

To learn more about Revitalize Erie’s efforts to help the community, email revitalizeerie@gmail.com or go to facebook.com/revitalizeerieil. Donations and other correspondence can be mailed to Revitalize Erie, P.O. Box 152, Erie, IL, 61250.