THURSDAY, JULY 1, 2021 • $1.50 DAILY CHRONICLE SERVING DeKALB COUNTY SINCE1879 Daily-Chronicle.com LOCALNEWS Company grows Syngenta Seeds building new research facility, adding 100 new jobs / 6 LOCALNEWS Contract renewed Social workers will help police department for second straight year / 4 BUZZ Bill Cosby freed Pennsylvania Supreme Court throws out sexual assault conviction / 18 HOWSWEET IT IS Candy companyopens distribution center in DeKalb /3 TODAY’SWEATHER HIGH 79 LOW 54 Complete forecast on page 10 3 A CLOSER LOOK LOCAL Sweet addition to business park NEWS Daily Ferrara Candy Co. opens new 1.6 million-square-foot distribution center Chronicle/Daily-Chronicle.com By KATIE FINLON [email protected] DeKALB – More than a year after the project was announced in early 2020 and before the COVID-19 pan- demic hit northern Illinois, Ferrara Candy Company officially opened its long-awaited distribution center during a Wednesday ribbon-cutting • ceremony. Thursday, According to a news release from the state of Illinois, the facility will pro- vide more than 500 local jobs. The proj- Jul ect, located in the city’s Chicago West 1, Business Park off Gurler Road, also 2021 creates one of the state’s largest distri- bution and warehousing centers, according to the release. DeKalb Mayor Cohen Barnes said it’s “absolutely wonderful” to have Ferrara as part of the community. He said the City of DeKalb is looking for- ward to being a continued partner with the company. “We’re really excited to just con- tinue our partnership that we have and look forward to mutual success in this particular endeavor,” Barnes said during Wednesday’s ribbon-cutting. Ferrara, headquartered in Chicago, has an operational network of 20 loca- tions in North America, including the DeKalb complex, and employs more than 6,000 people – the majority of whom are based in Illinois, according Photos by Mark Busch – [email protected] to the state’s news release. ABOVE: Mike Murray, (right) chief operating officer at Ferrara Candy Co., talks to State Rep. Jeff Keicher, R-Sycamore, during a tour of the Ferrara Chief Operating Officer newly opened Ferrara Distribution Center in DeKalb. Officials from DeKalb and Illinois were on hand to join Ferrara in celebrating the opening Mike Murray said Wednesday the facil- of the new facility. BELOW: Ferrara officials lead a tour Wednesday of the newly opened Ferrara Distribution Center in DeKalb. ity’s size is 1.6 million square feet. To give a better idea of how large that is, Ferrara Candy Company, based in he said, “21 NFL football fields would Chicago and known in the U.S. for making items such as Lemonhead, fit inside this building.” Trolli, Nerds and Red Hots, announced Murray also said hundreds of trucks earlier in 2020 that DeKalb won the bid will come and go from the DeKalb facil- – beating out a city in Wisconsin – and ity. will invest $100 million in the city with “This is a milestone event for Ferr- a move into the facility near Interstate ara, it’s a milestone event for DeKalb, 88 by the end of 2020. The deal is it’s a milestone event for the state of expected to bring about 1,000 tempo- Illinois,” Murray said. “And I’m excited rary construction jobs and about 1,000 to be here.” total employees by the time the distri- Paul Borek, executive director for the bution complex is completed. DeKalb County Economic Development Countywide municipalities, includ- Corporation, said he was “thrilled” to be ing city of DeKalb staff, for months at the state-of-the-art distribution facility prior to the early 2020 announcement on Wednesday. He said the project “rep- appealed to Ferrara by offering prop- resents the largest project in recent erty tax abatements, financial assis- memory, if not the history of the City of tance in looping water main, grants DeKalb and DeKalb County.” from the Illinois Department of Trans- “This huge project is a significant portation for roadway improvements economic development driver, already and incentives from the DeKalb producing jobs, tax revenue and County Enterprise Zone. incredible opportunity for the county,” Borek said. See CANDY, page 8 • CANDY “Once you lay that groundwork, 8 you also open up new spots for devel- Continued from page 3 opment,” Demmer said. “So when Thanks to an intergovernmental you’re able to get those pieces in place agreement approved by countywide for Ferrara, we then have those pieces NEWS governing bodies, Ferrara will receive in place for Facebook – you have those 50% of their property taxes abated pieces in place for other developments over the next 15 years. According to nearby.” LOCAL the incentive agreement, the company State Rep. Jeff Keicher, R-Syca- will have two years to reach 1,000 jobs, more, said he and Demmer have been 2021 and if they drop below 80% of that, focused on making sure the county 1, they’ll have to give back a prorated has “an economic shot in the arm” so Jul share of the tax abatements. If they fall it can further “grow and prosper to the below 50%, the abatement will be sus- potential that it truly has.” He said he believes the ribbon cutting represents pended. the first concrete step in moving that Thursday, Gov. JB Pritzker was not present objective forward. • for the Wednesday event. However, he “I’m excited that we have so many said in video-recorded comments for world renowned organizations that are the ribbon-cutting that he was excited finally seeing the potential of DeKalb to see the company continue to expand County,” Keicher said. “And we’re wel- in the state with the opening of its coming them into our community.” newest distribution center – “and On Oct. 28, 2019, the DeKalb City during a pandemic, no less.” Mark Busch – [email protected] Council approved plans for a facility “I’m so glad that we can celebrate DeKalb Mayor Cohen Barnes speaks Wednesday during a ribbon cutting ceremony and tour that would provide 1,000 jobs at the the impact of investing in our state’s of the newly opened Ferrara Distribution Center in DeKalb. Officials from DeKalb and the 343-acre site between Route 23 and economic development, creating more state of Illinois were on hand to join Ferrara in celebrating the opening of the new location. Gurler Road, with an additional opportunities for job growth in 466,000-square-foot food packaging Chronicle/Daily-Chronicle.com DeKalb,” Pritzker said in the video. lowed by a tour of the facilities, which for $2.8 billion, which included taking center, which will be Phase 2 of the Sylvia Garcia, acting director for are typically kept at a cool tempera- over operations for lines such as Sweet Daily project. the Illinois Department of Commerce ture of 60 degrees. Tarts, Nerds and Laffy Taffy, Ferrara Former DeKalb Mayor Jerry Smith and Economic Opportunity, said the Vince Ippolito, senior distribution executives previously said. On July 29, said he was glad to be able to take part state is excited for Ferrara’s invest- director for Ferrara, said that’s to 2019, Ferrara completed a second in the ribbon-cutting after the city of ment in Illinois. She said Ferrara has ensure the candy – namely, anything acquisition, this time worth $1.3 bil- DeKalb brought the company into the been no stranger to the state, with the chocolate – doesn’t melt at the distri- lion from Kellogg Company, and area. company getting its start as a family bution center. included brands such as Keebler, “This may be the end of construc- owned venture more than 100 years “That drives the whole temperature Mother’s and Murray Cookies and tion of this campus, it certainly is not ago in the Little Village community in of the building,” Ippolito said. Famous Amos. The Keebler acquisi- the end of economic development,” Chicago. Founded in 1908, Ferrara is related tion also included Little Brownie Bak- Smith said. “And the city of DeKalb “We’re really excited to see that to The Ferrero Group – a Luxem- ers, supplier to the Girls Scouts of and with the leadership of DeKalb long-term economic growth here in bourg-based confectioner known for America. Mayor Cohen Barnes and Bill Nicklas, Illinois,” Garcia said. “I think, after making Nutella – and was formed in State Rep. Tom Demmer, R-Dixon, our city manager, and the City Council the last year [with the COVID-19 pan- 2012 after a merger between Illi- said after the ribbon cutting one of the that is, in fact, firmly entrenched in demic], we’re really excited to go from nois-based Ferrara Pan Candy Com- key components to make a project like expanding economic development, I emergency response to economic pany and Minnesota-based Farley’s & this work is the infrastructure around think bright days continue for us.” recovery and seeing that expansion Sathers Candy Company. the site, including surrounding roads, happening.” Ferrara acquired a portion of access to sewer and water and electri- • Daily Chronicle editor Kelsey The ribbon cutting event was fol- Nestlé’s U.S. candy line April 1, 2018, cal hookups. Rettke contributed to this report. OBITUARIES DWAYNE J. SCHMALTZ Joseph T. Robinson near Little Rock, AR. He board of Edgewood Community Church. Past William (Sharon) Schmaltz of McDonough, Born: October 11, 1926 served two years with the U. S. Army in the community involvement included coordinator GA, and Holly (Jerome) Narloch of Ocono- Pacific Theater during WWII. Dwayne attend- of the Salvation Army, member of the Wau- mowoc, WI; nine grandchildren; twelve Died: June 24, 2021 ed UW La Crosse where he received his Bach- pun School Board, and a Board of Director for great-grandchildren; Jane’s family of three Dwayne J.