Rockford Sun

The Belvidere City Council discussed community outreach programs with local organizations during a meeting held on February 20.

Pam Fettes, executive director of Boone County economic development and growth organization Growth Dimensions, appeared at the meeting to share information about their recent community efforts and plans for 2023. Fettes provided the Council with a list of contacts they made in the first two months of the year, which totaled 25 existing businesses and 29 new businesses. They were contacted and aided for multiple reasons, including economic information support and development aid.

Fettes also shared details on Growth Dimensions' current focus on regional broadband. The organization has been struggling to find resources and methods of implementing it in the county, contacting local and regional organizations and working with state and federal agencies for funding and coordination should they have established broadband infrastructure. Growth Dimensions has also been working on resource and staff retention for local businesses and holding job and hiring fairs for employers and job seekers.

"We've also worked with the Region 1 Planning Council on becoming an economic development area district," Fettes said. "This was just identified. The mayor was present, and we were one of those partners in our community. This has been a process that has been going on for like ten years, so we just got that designation. This would allow us some eligibility for additional resources in our area to respond to infrastructure or different types of plans that we might be involved in that execute some of the priorities that we put in place in this plan. So we hope to see that this will bring some more resources in our community."

The Council also welcomed Ida Public Library executive director Mindy Long, who spoke about the library's community outreach efforts. They had several of Belvidere's first responders, as well as school employees and community leaders, sign up to read stories to children. The library is also having them record themselves reading a story so that kids can dial in and pick one to listen to. Ida Public Library is also celebrating its 140th anniversary at the beginning of March as was recognized by the state of Illinois for being a Centennial Library. Long also shared information about the library's upcoming spring and summer programs, including a Minecraft event, a summer reading party to start the summer reading program, and backyard gardening lessons.