To City Manager Pam Reece, 2025 was a good year for the Town of Normal.
She points to various town achievements, including a range of infrastructure projects, opening a refurbished skate park at Fairview Park, and advancing the town public arts plan.
“I'm very proud of how we've been able to move forward with that and with partnership of the public art advisory committee, and hopefully in the spring of 2026 we'll see our first installments of sculpture,” said Reece, adding the Illinois Art Station is turning out to be a “wonderful asset” to the town's programs.
“We couldn't be more grateful for the leaders of the Illinois Art Station Foundation and the board that thought this would be a good partnership,” she said.
The town took over the not-for-profit last summer after it had become financially unsustainable as a standalone organization. Reece, speaking on WGLT's Sound Ideas, said the town spent the summer and early fall completing projects planned under the previous owner.
"We finished up the fall and are into the winter scheduling of projects that were developed by the current team. Attendance has been very good. Things are going well there," she said.
Underpass
Recent heavy snow means the town will not meet a goal to begin construction on the Uptown underpass by the end of the year.
“Unfortunately, no, but we are hopeful that we'll start seeing the mobilization of the contractor in early 2026 so that they can get going with construction as soon as weather permits,” said Reece.
The town must finish the underpass by September 2027 or forfeit some federal grant money. Urgency to begin construction was one of the justifications the town gave for pushing the bids to a quick final vote without a lot of public discussion.
Reece said missing the target is OK, though the timeline just got tighter.
"There was a small bit of flexibility on the completion date to meet the federal guidelines, so we're still confident with the contractor that the completion date is achievable," she said.
2026
Next year the town will update its 3-5-year strategic plan.
“We're partnering with Northern Illinois University Center for Governmental Studies. They're coming in to assist,” said Reece, whose top priority for the new year — as is always the case — is maintaining the town's financial strength.
