The Normal Town Council voted Monday to accept the proposed Community Investment Plan [CIP] through fiscal year 2031.
The various projects, including public infrastructure, water, sewer and parks, total $188 million of planned capital spending. The plan combines spending for the current fiscal year of 2026 and the town's proposed five-year budget from fiscal years 2027 to 2031.
The council will vote to formally accept the plan in March.
Last year, the CIP projected a six-year spending plan of $199.3 million. Finance Director Andrew Huhn told the council the number fluctuates as projects are completed, or costs are updated.
“First of all, as you move forward that one fiscal year ... for that six-year plan, a lot of projects get completed and essentially fall off that ... six-year window,” he said. “Some major spending occurred last year that’s no longer in the six-year window.”
Huhn said updated costs of projects like the Uptown underpass and the completion of projects like roadwork on College Avenue change over time.
The CIP has 365 projects in seven categories, the most expensive of which is transportation at $99.3 million for all road projects and supporting infrastructure such as sidewalk or pavement repair.
Vehicle purchases and equipment needs clock in at $31.5 million, listing vehicles for Normal police, fire, public works and parks and recreation departments.
“Those are our ambulances and fire trucks and waste vehicles, police cars. They’re up and down depending on when their useful life is due,” said Huhn. “I know last year ... there was a lot of purchases for public works in terms of big items, in terms of big waste trucks.”
The remaining categories include sewer collections, water distribution, facilities, sewer collection, parks and storm water drainage.
Huhn said spending had been pulled back for water as the town is less able to predict what its capital spending will look like. So, the costs for water and sewer are not fully reflected in the CIP with the projected 2% increase.
“We do need to eventually work it in there, so as a part of that process for budgeting, a 2% increase is not going to be enough to satisfy those project needs and we’ll come back on [Jan.] 20th to talk about that in more details,” he said.
College Avenue fire station
Once again, the council heard concerns about its decision to close the fire station on College Avenue in favor of the new east side station.
Retired Assistant Fire Chief John Grussing spoke during public comment, joining other firefighters in calls to keep the station open.
“I recently read some public comments from the council and feel there’s some education that needs to happen,” he said.
Grussing said industry standards developed by the National Fire Protection Association specify the first engine on scene should arrive within four minutes.
"If you close the station on College Avenue, you’re going to have difficult meeting that standard,” he said.
Speaking to WGLT last month, council member Kevin McCarthy said the standard was between four and six minutes.
City Manager Pam Reece further confirmed the town’s confidence in the decision to close the College Avenue station. She called Grussing’s claim that four to six minutes is not the standard as “unacceptable.”
“The assertion that we need to hire more firefighters because of increased call volumes and that we’re putting residents at risk if we move to the new station two is a false narrative,” she said. “So, all of our data has been validated, and if we felt we had a problem to solve, we would look at all sorts of options.”
Reece confirmed to WGLT data gathered by the town says response times will fall between four and six minutes.
“As stated countless times, the opening of new station 2 more evenly distributes our services so all of Normal can be served within the standard response time,” she wrote. “All technology models show effective response times and our models have been validated. We also have proof of concept we closed a station at Gregory/Adelaide and have continued to effectively serve our community.”
Council member Kathleen Lorenz also made comment on the closing of the fire station.
“We had a compelling speaker here, [Grussing], and I thought it was maybe appropriate, between that and a few recent emails that we just got, I think within the last 24 or 48 hours from concerned residents ... will we be having a work session, or a sharing of the internal data as has been requested through emails and other public commenters?” Lorenz asked.
Lorenz told Mayor Chris Koos he suggested in an email that he had polled council members opinions and had not gotten any support. When Koos said Lorenz had equal right to poll them, she replied that she had, and asked again when a vote would take place.
“I’ll get back to you on that,” said Koos.
In other business, the council:
- Approved appointments to the Bloomington-Normal Asahikawa Sister Cities Committee. Boris Escalona Berbetty will fill a vacant seat on the council. He has experience in international education and sustainable tourism and hospitality.
- Approved a resolution authorizing the execution of an intergovernmental agreement with the City of Bloomington, McLean County and the Ecology Action Center for solid waste management services.
