Frank Van Buer - Mayor of city of DeKalb

Name: In Office: Address: Telephone: Website:

Frank Van Buer 2005 - Present 200 South Fourth Street DeKalb, IL 60115 815-748-2099 www.cityofdekalb.com

In an effort to enhance the quality of life within the City of DeKalb, the DeKalb City Council adopted the strategic goals of encouraging the use of alternative energy sources whenever possible and promoting quality and sustainable development. To this end, many of DeKalb's traffic signal bulbs have been changed from incandescent to LED resulting in savings of 80 percent in electrical energy, while a significant portion of DeKalb's asphalt street paving construction is with recycled materials in the asphalt mixture.

Snapshot of Cool Achievements

• 2007: The City of DeKalb adopted a plan for the revitalization of the Fourth Street Corridor, a State highway that is a major gateway to the City's center. The plan, funded entirely by the IEPA, had the duel focus of improving economic conditions on the corridor while promoting environmental sustainability. Among the plan’s primary recommendations was narrowing Fourth Street from four lanes to three in order to provide room for substantial tree planting and other streetscaping. Together, the reduction of hard surfaces and tree planting will substantially reduce the "heat island" effect in the surrounding neighborhoods. This same strategy of reducing overly wide streets is now being applied throughout downtown DeKalb as part of the Downtown Redevelopment Plan.
• 2007: The DeKalb City Council recently amended their municipal code to allow  the use of geothermal heating and cooling systems for climate control.  In addition, the DeKalb City Council approved the first project in which this system will be used in the proposed DeKalb County Community Outreach Building.
• 2007: The City of DeKalb is currently drafting new design standards to pursue energy conservation best practices.
• 2006: Under the Federal Section 5307 transit grant, the City of DeKalb purchased a Hybrid SUV for use by City staff.

A Cool Quote

"For the past several days, the City of DeKalb has been experiencing the impact of climate change with continuous heavy thunderstorms.  The worst of it hit during the return of over 5000 university students to their dorm rooms to begin the new school year.  I have just issued a local emergency proclamation.  While our local resources have been stretched, we have met the challenge.  Such an occurrence brings home the fact that each citizen has an important role to play in changing our style of living in order to arrest the deleterious effects of climate change.  City government must continue to implement the best practices of recycling, green conscious construction and building codes, and energy conservation."