Clarke Mosquito Control donates $250,000 to help fund First Street Plaza expansion project

The expansion of First Street Plaza in downtown St. Charles continues to move forward with the announcement Monday that St. Charles-based Clarke Mosquito Control will donate $250,000 toward the project.

The donation will go toward a solar pergola structure. Solar panels on top of the pergola will help power the plaza.

"Sustainability is a core value of Clarke's," said J. Lyell Clarke III, company president and CEO, during the St. Charles City Council meeting. "In fact, 30% of our electricity in our St. Charles facility is generated by our own solar panels."

In 2020, the city council agreed to purchase the former Manor Restaurant site at the southeast corner of Main and First streets for $1 million to expand the First Street Plaza. That purchase included a $400,000 donation from the city and a $600,000 donation from Exelon.

Clarke said the city council in 2013 offered up to $250,000 in incentives to the company to encourage it to move its corporate headquarters to St. Charles.

"Thank you for welcoming us with open arms and having confidence in us that we would earn the incentives you offered us," he said.

During the meeting, council members voted to apply for $100,000 in Kane County Riverboat Grant funds to help complete the construction of the First Street pedestrian corridor and plaza.

That is the maximum request allowable under the grant. The city will apply for funds toward the costs associated with the conversion of South First Street to a pedestrian-only corridor, including the expansion of the east plaza along the Fox River. The rest of the project, which got underway in September, is estimated to cost $2.6 million.

The St. Charles Initiative, an independent advisory committee under the umbrella of the Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley, is raising funds for the project.