ROCHELLE – The final Revved Up Rochelle meeting took place Tuesday night, and representatives from many different organizations in the state were there to help get things off the ground.
The main focus of the fifth and final Revved Up session was for representatives from the organizations to meet with each of the groups to begin helping them determine a plan to achieve their goals. The first half of the meeting was dedicated for each of the representatives to give a short presentation about their organization, their experience, and how they can help the community accomplish its goals.  
Before the various presentations, mayor John Bearrows stood up in front of the room to give a thank you to everyone who took the time to attend each of the meetings.
“I just want to say on behalf of the city, we want to personally thank each and every one of you who have taken the time to attend each of the meetings. I know five nights, three hours a night is quite a commitment,” said Bearrows.

There were presentations from organizations such as the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Peace Corps programs and even local organization Rochelle Area Community Foundation.
One presentation in specific addressed the drop-in population in the region from 2010 to 2017 and what the community needs to provide for people to get them to move to Rochelle.
“You have to be able to provide the good quality of life resources to people who are coming to your town. So, parks, recreation, food and dining, everything that you would associate with quality of life,” explained Daniel Payette, executive director of Blackhawk Hills Regional Council.
Payette also touched on the fact that Rochelle already has valuable transportation resources and benefits from two interstate highways and two major railroads intersecting in town.
Following the presentations, the groups then continued to plan out their goals, while the representatives walked around to each group answering questions and offering their input on how to achieve the goals.
Now that the Revved Up meetings are complete, it is up to each group to set up its own meeting time to begin working on the plans that they came up with.
A community-wide town hall meeting will be held in the near future to share the cities ideas and projects with the community to encourage more people to join in.