ROCHELLE — During the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic when businesses deemed nonessential by the state were forced to close their doors, City of Rochelle staff members were gathered around a table trying to brainstorm ways to help them. 

The result was the city and Rochelle Municipal Utilities’ Shop Local incentive program. Due to owning its own electric and water utility, the city was able to offer residents a $60 bill credit for every $300 spent at local businesses that had been affected by shutdown orders.

“We took it to the city council and they thought it was a great idea and approved it and have been supportive of it,” City Manager Jeff Fiegenschuh said. “It really was a group of us sitting around a table saying, 'OK, we're in unprecedented times.' We didn't know what was going to happen and we were thinking of what we could do to help these folks with businesses.”

The program ran up until the end of 2021. Its results included $2,981,109 invested in small businesses and a total of 5,755 applications submitted resulting in $538,500 in utility bill credits issued to accounts.

“It felt good to see those results,” Fiegenschuh said. “Can I say that the Shop Local program kept a business open that would have closed otherwise? No. I have no way to show that. But, it feels good to see all these receipts coming in and seeing people spending their dollars locally. I've heard stories about people specifically coming back here to eat or shop because they knew they could save those receipts and get a credit on their utility bill."

To start off, the Shop Local program was limited to three credits per household before the city council expanded the program to an unlimited number of credits. For the last five months of 2021, the program was again limited to three credits. Shop Local applied to restaurants, retail shops and hair salons in the utility's service area, which includes Creston and Hillcrest.

"I don't know of any other cities with a public utility that have done something like this,” Fiegenschuh said. “We were actually called by the American Public Power Association and they did a writeup in their latest newsletter about our program. Obviously people around the country have heard about it."

The Shop Local program came with an added workload for city and RMU employees. Community development department and RMU utility billing staff were tasked with going through all of the customers’ receipts. They had to be added up, verified for dates and eligible businesses, processed and applied to accounts. 

“It was stacks and stacks and stacks,” Fiegenschuh said. “People saved them and brought $5,000-6,000 worth of receipts at a time. There was a ton of staff time that went into it. I can't thank community development and RMU staff enough for implementing it because they did a fantastic job and that program would not have been as successful or happened without those folks. I can't emphasize that enough. They did an amazing job."

In a separate effort to help local businesses affected by the pandemic, the city issued three rounds of Restart Rochelle grants totaling $278,500 from the local CURES grant award that covered operating costs that businesses incurred while closed.

Tents and outdoor heaters were also purchased and street closures were offered with local ordinances changed to expand outdoor seating to help businesses. To help families in need during the pandemic, the city expanded RMU’s utility assistance program, delayed utility shut offs and eliminated late fees. 

Fiegenschuh said the success of the Shop Local program has changed the city’s outlook on programs like it and he hopes to offer something along the same lines, but scaled down, in the future. Initial conversations have already been had, the city manager said. A future iteration wouldn’t involve RMU and would not extend outside the city limits.

“I don't know how we'll do it, but it will probably be centered around if you spend so much, you can get a gift card at a local business or something like that,” Fiegenschuh said. “Certainly we do want to partner with the chamber and some other local groups to do another shop local program. I think it's important. But it won't be to the scale it was before and it won't be through the RMU. And next time it will only be geared toward the city and our corporate limits.”

Fiegenschuh said he hopes residents will continue to shop locally and see the importance of it. He thanked staff members for their work, the mayor and city council for their support of the program and the residents who used it. 

"It's one of the programs I'm proudest to have been a part of,” Fiegenschuh said. “Thanks to all the people who shopped locally and supported these local businesses over the past two years. It's been an extremely trying time for those folks."