Your Community Forum for Roscoe & Rockton: your opportunity to ask questions
Residents will be able to talk with leaders of Roscoe and Rockton
Residents of Rockton and Roscoe, whether they live inside or outside Village boundaries, will have a chance to get updates and ask questions from top community leaders on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 at the Roscoe Township Community Center at Founders Park, 4562 Hononegah Road. Bring your questions to learn more about Rockton and Roscoe with Roscoe Village President Carol Gustafson, Roscoe Township Supervisor Bob Nowicki, Rockton Township Supervisor Paul Williams, and Rockton Planning & Development Administrator Patricia Diduch. The forum is sponsored by elev815, Rockton-Roscoe News, MembersAlliance Credit Union, and In Tandem Financial.
Audience members will write down questions in advance. Civic leaders will speak for about ten minutes. During the rest of the forum, moderator Chuck Gilbert, with the help of our student reporter Kenlee Tucker, will read the questions. Civic leaders will respond to them.
Carol Gustafson was elected Village of Roscoe president in April 2023. She and her husband have lived in the Village of Roscoe for 23 years. She holds a master’s degree from NIU and taught at Guilford High School for many years. She was first elected as Village trustee in 2011.
Some of the topics she may discuss at the forum: "Roscoe’s infrastructure & economic development plans; residential growth; our recreational attractions; community partnerships."
She says residents need to know about issues in their local government, where to get valid information, and how to get involved.
Bob Nowicki has served for three years as Roscoe Township supervisor, with one year as trustee before that. His family has lived in Roscoe for 20 years. Both of his adult children are graduates of Hononegah. For 12 years, he owned the True Value Hardware store in Roscoe and now runs Nowicki Storage. He is on the board of elev815.
Unlike a village, a township doesn't usually pass ordinances. In Illinois, townships have at least three jobs: assessing property for taxation, maintaining roads and bridges, and providing financial assistance to needy residents. Roscoe Township also manages three parks, the newest of which is Founders Park, the location of the Roscoe Township Community Center and the 1840's Cross Homestead.
Patricia Diduch (did-ick) has been the Planning & Development Administrator for the Village of Rockton since 2013. She was born and raised in Park Ridge, Illinois, home of the beloved art deco Pickwick Theater, and where she can trace the beginning of her love affair with how history, architecture, downtown and the built environment shape the community and residents’ quality of life. She started her career as an intern with the Village of Wilmette and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in urban and regional planning from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. She received her American Institute of Certified Planners certification while working as a planner at the Village of New Lenox. She moved to the Rockford region in 2009, spending two years respectively at the Village of Machesney Park and as the executive director of the Rockford Region Economic Development District, now a part of the R1 Regional Planning. She represents the Village of Rockton as a board member for the Visit Beloit and Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. Tricia believes strongly in living a life of service to the public, both through her position at the Village of Rockton and as a current board member of Winnebago County CASA (court appointed special advocates). She makes her home in Rockford with her husband, Jon, the three best stepchildren in the world, and a very codependent, deaf pit bull mix, Peggy.
Tricia plans to discuss the Village’s "overall commitment to maintaining and increasing residents’ quality of life" through efforts and projects such as:
- Maintaining and improving our drinking water and sanitary sewer systems to meet the ever-evolving IEPA standards, including recent legislation regarding lead service lines and PFAS contaminants. She will also touch on the Village’s efforts with an IEPA forgiveable loan to help extend the municipal water supply to the homeowners in the unincorporated Wright & Kiles Blackhawk Subdivision near the former Chemtool.
- An update on the Old River Road multi-use path that will connect Stephen Mack Middle School to Rt. 75.
- Updates on the redevelopment of the former Goldie Floberg property and the Sonoco property.
- The Village’s commitment to a vital Downtown Rockton and community events and gathering.
- The Village’s planned infrastructure improvements and some recent successes, such as the long-needed but now beautiful Race Street, the west entrance into downtown.
