Construction of Dixon's $12 million pedestrian bridge project underway
Mar. 3—DIXON — Construction of Dixon's multi-million dollar economic development project began last week as crews mobilized at Page Park in Dixon.
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Heavy equipment is seen Feb. 28, 2025, at Page Park in Dixon as Project Rock moves forward with the building of a pedestrian bridge over the Rock River. (Alex T. Paschal)
Known as Project Rock, the over $12 million development, which is primarily grant funded, will extend the multi-use path that runs west of Heritage Crossing with a pedestrian bridge over the Rock River using the old Illinois Central Railroad piers, construct an additional 2.8 miles of multi-use path and resurface just less than a mile of Page Drive, which is maintained by the Dixon Park District.
Construction crews headed out to Page Park on Friday to get their equipment in place. Their first task is completing tree removal in preparation for the construction of the pathway that will be adjacent to Page Drive, City Manager Danny Langloss said in an interview with Shaw Local.
The multi-use path will also run through Page Park and connect to some park district facilities as well as Dixon High School. It's planned to be lined with LED lights and is intended to increase the city's walkability by acting as another mode of transportation for residents, according to a project agreement approved by the Dixon City Council at its June 17, 2024, meeting.
The city plans on putting together a tentative construction schedule and hopes to minimize disruption to any community events happening in the park during construction, Public Works Director Matt Heckman said in a previous interview with Shaw Local.
"It's a long, long project," Heckman said. "The time frame between now and final project closeout is expected to be pretty close to two years."
It's expected to be completed by Dec. 1, 2026, according to the approved construction agreement.
The project was put out for bid in September 2024 and Willett Hofmann & Associates, an engineering consultant firm in Dixon, was selected through a qualifications-based process, which is mandated for projects that use federal dollars, Heckman said.
The majority of the project is funded by an $11.9 million grant through the U.S. Department of Transportation's Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity program.
So far, the council has agreed to contribute a total of $895,000 in local funds to its preliminary engineering and construction as part of the grant requirements, according to a resolution allocating the funds approved at the Aug. 5, 2024, City Council meeting.
Within the city's budget, the council has allocated a total of $3 million from fiscal 2022 and 2023 "turn ins" — money that was left over after the city audit was complete — to the project, Heckman said.
The proposed fiscal 2026 budget asks the council to allocate another $1.3 million left over from the fiscal 2024 audit. It also estimates that $700,000 will be left over from fiscal 2025, which ends April 30, and asks for that money to also be allocated as well, Heckman said.
The project will complete the city's riverfront development master plan — which began in 1998. The plan includes four projects: the construction of Heritage Crossing, completed in 2009; the installation of a multi-use path that extends east along River Road from Galena Avenue to Route 2, also completed in 2009; the Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program multi-use path that runs west along the Rock River, completed in July 2024; and finally Project Rock.
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Could Trump fail on tax bill? Why going 'big' doesn't always work out as planned
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Adding to the challenge: Some of the very House GOP members who last month voted in favor of their 1,100-page version of Trump's tax and policy plan started finding faults of their own that they say meant they'd probably have been a 'no' if they had the chance to do it again. Presidents often aim high to start terms Presidents often try in their first year to build on the momentum of their elections to get major legislation approved. For Joe Biden, it was an infrastructure bill. For Barack Obama, it was overhauling healthcare insurance. For George W. Bush, it was overhauling public education. Trump leapt into action in 2025 with an unprecedented pace of executive orders: 157 through May 23. When he turned to legislation, he persuaded Republican congressional leaders to package all his priorities into one bill, rather than splitting taxes and border security into two different bills, to complete the debate in one fell swoop. 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USA Today
19 hours ago
- USA Today
Could Trump fail on tax bill? Why going 'big' doesn't always work out as planned
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The second-term president's highest-priority legislation is under attack from some Senate Republicans – and from his former billionaire adviser Elon Musk – for costing too much. Complaints are also mounting from Republicans who are opposed to cutting Medicaid health insurance and other popular programs used by many Americans, especially as a way to help pay for tax breaks that would benefit some of the country's highest-income earners. With Republicans holding the slimmest of majorities in both chambers of Congress and with Democrats showing no sign of wanting to help Trump notch a major win to begin his new administration, lawmakers from Trump's own party are sounding apprehensive about threading the needle before their self-imposed July 4 deadline to get something to the president's desk for signature into law. More: Trump and Musk's bromance ends after personal attacks over criticism of tax bill 'We're anxious to get to work on it," Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, told reporters earlier in the week as Republicans and Musk started publicly airing their complaints about the effort. Adding to the challenge: Some of the very House GOP members who last month voted in favor of their 1,100-page version of Trump's tax and policy plan started finding faults of their own that they say meant they'd probably have been a 'no' if they had the chance to do it again. Presidents often aim high to start terms Presidents often try in their first year to build on the momentum of their elections to get major legislation approved. For Joe Biden, it was an infrastructure bill. For Barack Obama, it was overhauling healthcare insurance. For George W. Bush, it was overhauling public education. Trump leapt into action in 2025 with an unprecedented pace of executive orders: 157 through May 23. When he turned to legislation, he persuaded Republican congressional leaders to package all his priorities into one bill, rather than splitting taxes and border security into two different bills, to complete the debate in one fell swoop. More: Everything's an 'emergency': How Trump's executive order record pace is testing the courts Lawmakers often shy away from piling too much into one bill because each contentious provision spurs its own opposition. But faced with the prospect of unanimous Democratic opposition, Trump opted for a strategy that focuses on GOP priorities such as tax relief and border security while personally lobbying reluctant Republicans to stay in line. 'Americans have given us a mandate for bold and profound change,' Trump told Congress in a speech March 4. 'I call on all of my Republican friends in the Senate and House to work as fast as they can to get this Bill to MY DESK before the Fourth of JULY,' he added in a social media post about three months later, on June 2. Musk opposition makes waves Trump's efforts worked in the Republican-led House, which after several days of negotiations and an all-night floor debate voted 215-214 in favor of a plan that had the full backing of the White House. Getting the measure through the Senate - even with the GOP in charge needing just a simple majority of 51 votes - is proving to be its own elusive challenge. Musk, the former head of Trump's bureaucracy-slashing Department of Government Efficiency, spent this past week unloading on the House-passed bill for spending too much money. He called the legislation "pork-filled" and a "disgusting abomination," and urged lawmakers to "KILL the BILL." More: The post-fight fallout from Trump-Musk battle could get even uglier While Musk's barrage ignited a war with Trump and left many Republicans cringing, deficit hawks in the GOP said they appreciated the world's richest man also pushing for deeper spending cuts from the U.S. government. "I welcome people like Elon Musk that try to hold our feet to the fire," said Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Missouri. "We often disappoint our voters when we don't do the cuts that we campaign on, when we're not fiscally responsible." But Rep. Don Bacon, R-Nebraska, who served in the Air Force for 30 years, said the division between Trump and Musk wasn't a good look for his party, especially when it's trying to advance the primary piece of legislation on the president's agenda. "It's just not helpful," Bacon said. "When you have division, divided teams don't perform as well." 'The opposite of conservative': Sen. Paul on bill Several pockets of Republican senators have voiced concerns about the House-passed legislation. Each group has their issue that they want addressed, and each one presents a hurdle for Trump and GOP leaders like Thune as they try to cobble together a winning 51-vote coalition that can also make it back through the House for another final vote. The Senate factions include one group seeking to cut more spending because the Congressional Budget Office said the House-passed plan would add $2.4 trillion to the debt over the next 10 years. Others are worried about cutting Medicaid, the federal health insurance program for low-income families. And another handful of senators say they are worried about the House-passed bill rolling back renewable energy tax credits for solar, wind, geothermal and nuclear energy. "There are many of us who recognize that what came out of the House was pretty aggressive in how it seeks to wind down or phase out many of the energy tax credit provisions," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. "I happen to think that we've got tax policies that are working to help advance our energy initiatives around the country, as diverse and as varied as they are. Wouldn't we want to continue those investments? 'This bill is the opposite of conservative, and we should not pass it,' added Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, in a June 4 social media post that raised concerns about the nation's debt limit. Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley is one of the outspoken Republicans taking issue with the House-passed bill's provisions that would cut nearly $800 billion during the next decade from Medicaid and, according to the Congressional Budget Office, cost 7.8 million people their health insurance. "I don't want to see rural hospitals close and I don't want to see any benefits cut in my state," Hawley said. Trump and his allies contend spending cuts of $1.6 trillion are the most ever approved in a House bill and that the tax cuts will spur economic growth to offset the costs. Trump got personal this week in calling Paul's ideas 'crazy' in a social media post and said the people of Kentucky 'can't stand him.' More: Trump lashes out at Sen. Rand Paul over opposition to big tax bill House Speaker Mike Johnson, a staunch Trump ally, told reporters June 4 that few people are going to like everything in an 1,100-page bill. But the Louisiana Republican said the measure he helped craft in the House was carefully calibrated to gain wide support. "I hope everybody will evaluate that – in both parties, and everybody – and recognize, 'Wow, the benefits of this far outweigh anything that I don't like out it,'" Johnson said. Senate dropping local tax deductions would be 'radioactive': Rep. Lalota Any changes made by the Senate will force another vote in the House before the bill can become law - and that's where the math can get tricky. Republican senators are talking about tinkering with a key compromise that Trump and Johnson signed off on in the House that raised the federal deduction for state and local taxes (SALT) from $10,000 to $40,000 for people earning less than $500,000 per year. That provision is important to GOP lawmakers from high-tax states such as California, New York and New Jersey who supported the House bill that passed through the 435-seat chamber by only a one-vote margin. More: Senate Republicans plan to amend SALT tax deduction in Trump's sweeping bill The Senate aims to cut back that provision. But Rep. Nick Lalota, R-New York, told reporters on June 4 that revisiting the tax issue "would be like digging up safely-buried radioactive waste." House members scouring through the bill they voted on weeks ago are also finding unfamiliar provisions in the version that they say they would have opposed. For example, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, said in a social media post June 3 that the Senate needs to strip out language she hadn't noticed earlier that would prevent states from regulating artificial intelligence. Rep. Mike Flood, R-Nebraska, said he opposed a section that aims to hinder federal judges from enforcing their court orders. Trump sought the provision to prevent judges from blocking policies largely spelled out via his executive orders. Senate could drop contentious provisions House members risked supporting Even though Republicans control both chambers of Congress, the Senate could drop or fail to approve contentious parts that GOP House colleagues in competitive districts already went out on a limb to support. It's happened many times before - with sizable political consequences. The concept even has a name: Getting BTU'd. That refers to a 1993 House vote on a controversial energy tax during the first year of Bill Clinton's presidency based on British thermal units. House Democrats lost 54 seats in the 1994 election – and control of the chamber for the first time in 40 years – in part because of supporting the BTU tax that the Senate never debated. John Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College, has said a book about such votes could be called 'Profiles in Futility.' Another example was the 2009 American Clean Energy and Security Act, a bill which Obama supported as president that aimed to limit the emissions of heat-trapping gases from power plants, vehicles and other industrial sources. The Democrat-controlled House narrowly approved the measure 219-212 but the Senate never took it up. Critics said it would raise the cost of energy. The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a non-profit libertarian think tank that opposed the measure, counted 28 House Democrats from coal states who lost their seats in the 2010 mid-term election after voting for the bill. Fast forward to 2025 and Republicans are the ones facing a similar dynamic. Musk, who contributed about $290 million of his personal fortune to help Republicans including Trump win last November, slammed House lawmakers who voted for the president's legislative package.'Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong,' Musk wrote June 3 on social media. But House Republicans who voted for the legislation, including some who also demanded deeper spending cuts when it was in their hands, said they're not worried about the package falling apart and coming back to haunt them. They say that's because they did fight for more budget cuts. "This wasn't a hard vote. It was hard going through the process to get more, and you can always do better," said Rep. Ralph Norman, R-South Carolina. "But look at what Donald Trump's done, the great things that are contributing to cutting the deficit." Rep. David Schweikert, R-Arizona, who represents a competitive toss-up district, noted that he's introduced multiple bills to trim federal spending. "If Mr. Musk wants to be helpful, what he should do is start to understand that those of us in a 50-50 district who have shown up with actual policy solutions that offset every penny of this bill," he said. Leaving Washington for the weekend, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force Once on June 6 that he wasn't worried about Musk and that he remained confident he'd get "tremendous support" in the Senate to pass the bill. 'I don't know of anybody who's going to vote against it," the president said, before adding: "Maybe Rand Paul." For his part, Johnson told reporters June 4 that he wasn't concerned about House Republicans losing seats in 2026. Predicting that the Senate would find the necessary votes on the president's tax bill, the speaker said he expects Americans will see the benefits of Trump's efforts before the next election. 'Am I concerned about the effect of this on the midterms? I'm not," Johnson said. "I have no concern whatsoever. I am absolutely convinced that we are going to win the midterms and grow the House majority because we are delivering for the American majority and fulfilling our campaign promises." Contributing: Reuters
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Senate GOP seeks to cut off funding source for top consumer watchdog
Senate Republicans are seeking to cut off a key funding source for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) as part of a mammoth package to advance President Trump's tax agenda and spending cuts. Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee said the legislative text unveiled Friday would block CFPB's ability 'to fund itself' by significantly limiting its funding structure. Currently, as part of its funding structure, the CFPB receives transfers from the central bank not exceeding a cap set at 12 percent of the Federal Reserve System's total operating expenses in 2009. However, the proposal offered by Senate Republicans on Friday would reduce that cap to zero. The measure goes further than the House version of Trump's 'big beautiful bill,' which seeks to reduce the cap to 5 percent. The GOP-led Senate committee said Friday the move would not 'affect the Bureau's existing ability to request funds from Congress' and would result in about $6.4 billion in savings over 10 years. The CFPB has long faced legal challenges over its funding structure, as Republicans have pushed for the agency to be funded through the annual appropriations process in Congress that many other federal agencies are subject to instead of the Federal Reserve. Some Republicans have said they see the broader tax and spending cuts plan as their best shot to rein in an agency they've argued has too much power and independence. The recent text has drawn swift backlash from Democrats on the banking committee, however. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), the top Democrat on the committee, attacked the Republican proposal in statement Friday afternoon, saying it 'goes beyond the already extreme House bill and is yet another example of Republicans' reckless and bloodthirsty pursuit of destroying the CFPB — an agency that has returned over $21 billion to scammed Americans — by any means necessary, after failing to get their way in court.' Another section of the legislation calls for moving 'non-monetary policy related Federal Reserve employees to a new pay scale calculated at 70 percent of the pay of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation,' Republicans outline in a breakdown of the measure. Republicans say the employees' salaries would be adjusted 'to approximately the same as employees at the Department of the Treasury' as part of a measure the committee estimates would generate 'savings of $1.4 billion.' Republicans say the move would bring 'parity to the pay scale of the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department.' However, Democratic members of the banking committee accused their GOP colleagues of punishing Fed staff and undermining their ability 'to police' big banks. Other proposals sought by the committee include measures to yank back funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Green and Resilient Retrofit Program authorized under the Biden administration, eliminate what Republicans say is the Treasury Department's 'duplicative office' of Office of Financial Research, and transferring duties and functions of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The language is similar to recent legislation that passed the House. The measure also seeks to provide $1 billion for the Defense Production Act fund. Overall, Republicans on the committee estimated the 'net budgetary impacts' of the legislation to 'result in a 10-year budgetary savings of $8.447 billion.' Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said Friday that he worked with House and Senate colleagues to 'carefully scrutinize programs and spending within our jurisdiction and identify efficiencies and cost savings.' 'This legislation takes important steps to reduce waste and duplication in financial regulation while bolstering our national security, and I look forward to advancing these provisions as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill,' he said. Democrats, on the other hand, are vowing to fight the suite of proposals as what they have described as an 'attack on American consumers.' 'Their bill also guts other regulators created after the 2008 crisis that help keep our financial system safe,' Warren said Friday. 'This will not stand — and don't just take it from me, take it from the litany of Senate Republicans who are on the record saying this violates Senate rules.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
