Elgin declares state of emergency over

Elgin officials lifted a state of emergency Friday that was declared at the height of the massive Chicago area blizzard Tuesday night.

The declaration allowed City Manager Sean Stegall the authority to do whatever was necessary to respond to the storm, including closing streets and spending beyond the $20,000 allotted for the storm response. But Stegall said this week he didn’t anticipate the city would spend over that amount.

“The danger is past us and we are now working to complete the cleanup effort,” Stegall said.

“City operations are back to normal.”

A limited activation of the city’s Emergency Operations Center has ended, and emergency parking restrictions have also been withdrawn.

Public works crews continued to salt streets and remove snow from streets still too narrow for two-way traffic on Friday, according to a city news release. They were also removing snow from the downtown central business district to allow for better accessibility.

Officials said the city was working to push back snow in some areas to allow for better on-street parking and mail delivery, while also making room in preparation for impending bad weather Sunday night.