Final year of city’s enhanced streets improvement program By Larry LoughLarry@the woodstockindependent.com Woodstock enters 2025, the fifth year of the city’s five-year, $55 million enhanced streets improvement program, with a plan to spend $12 million to upgrade road surfaces, make some utility repairs, and install upsized water mains. The City Council last week approved a […]
Development at the former Die Cast factory site in Woodstock includes two phases of construction – and possibly three – under a redevelopment agreement between the city and Chicago Hubs Realty. Phase 1, which would break ground by September, includes a five-story, 70-unit, affordable housing building for people 55 and older. Phase 2 would be […]
Work on a senior housing development at the former Die Cast factory site in Woodstock would begin by September under a redevelopment agreement approved Tuesday by the City Council. The agreement with Chicago Hubs Realty calls for a five-story, 70-unit, affordable housing building for people 55 and older to begin by September, and a four-story, […]
Voters throughout McHenry County are likely to have a universal voting site in Woodstock starting this year. Final approval is expected this week for the county clerk’s elections office to move into the former Aldi grocery store in Woodstock, which would consolidate voting operations that are now spread throughout the county’s Administration Building and beyond. […]
Woodstock last week was still digging out of the two snow storms that hit the city the previous week. City parking lots along Jefferson and Throop streets were scheduled to be cleared on Friday, a week after the second of two storms covered northern Illinois with at least 15 inches of snow. And then the […]
Many residents might not care whether Woodstock requires businesses to register with the city, but City Council members say such a system would benefit the public. Councilman Tom Nierman, who owns a landscaping business, said registration would be a “service” check to avoid “fly by night” operations coming into town like he sees in his […]
Downtown Woodstock’s No. 2 “opportunity site” for development is still waiting for the right opportunity. The No. 1 site, as identified by the city’s 2019 Downtown Development Plan, is the former Die Cast factory property along Clay Street, north of the Metra station. The City Council is tentatively scheduled to consider a redevelopment plan Jan. […]
Woodstock’s new logo and other new branding symbols have not yet been announced, but the City Council has established a licensing process and commercial use guidelines for businesses that want to use them on hats, shirts, and other products. Those images, being developed as part of the city’s new branding campaign, could be used on […]
More than $375,000 in change orders for the Old Courthouse Center renovation will close the books on the project. Probably. City Council last week approved a ninth set of project adjustments since April 2022, but not before several members vented their displeasure over the more than $4 million in change orders that have pushed the […]
Frustrated City Council members have pulled the plug on a solar farm proposal on Woodstock’s far east side that originally was approved five years ago. In a 4-3 vote, the council last week rejected a suggestion by Mayor Mike Turner that representatives of Generate Capital be given an additional two weeks to make their proposal […]
Larry Lough is editor of The Independent and reports local news.
Janet Dovidio has been a freelance correspondent for The Independent for eight years.
Susan W. Murray wrote for The Independent, covering various beats, from 2005 to 2008.
Tricia Carzoli is a freelance writer and photographer that on community news.
