SVM_Business Journal_Fall 2020

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PUBLICATION • FALL 2020 • VOL. 23, NO. 11

Sauk Valley

Business Journal They’ve got things under

Control

From pests to a pandemic, a Dixon business has the tools it takes to tackle the toughest and tiniest tasks

ALSO INSIDE ...

An Oregon farm keeps the chemicals off its food and flowers and keeps the customers coming back

A new Rock Falls business puts event planning front and center

CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED PRSRT STD U.S. Postage PAID Permit No. 440 Sterling, IL 61081

Sauk Valley

Business Journal

inside

Publisher Don T. Bricker General Manager/Ad Director Jennifer Heintzelman Magazine editor & Page design Rusty Schrader Published by Sauk Valley Media 113 S. Peoria Ave., Dixon, IL 61021 815-284-2222 Have a story idea for Business Journal?

Call 815-632-2531 or e-mail news@saukvalley.com Articles and advertisements are the property of Sauk Valley Media. No portion of Sauk Valley Business Journal may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Ad content is not the responsibility of Sauk Valley Media. The information in this magazine is believed to be accurate; however, Sauk Valley Media cannot and does not guarantee its accuracy. Sauk Valley Media cannot and will not be held liable for the quality or performance of goods and services provided by advertisers listed in any portion of this magazine.

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They’ve got things Event planning is under Control front and center From pests to a pandemic, a Dixon Whether it’s a small gathering business has the tools it takes to or a big bash, a new business is tackle the toughest and tiniest tasks. ready to serve in Rock Falls.

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Growing, as nature intended An Oregon farm keeps the chemicals off its food and flowers and keeps the customers coming back.

SM-ST1805128

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Sauk Valley Business Journal

Fall 2020

From pests to a pandemic, a Dixon business has the tools it takes to tackle the toughest and tiniest tasks

BY CODY CUTTER For Sauk Valley Business Journal

Dustin Heaton, a service manager for Pest Control Consultants in Dixon, demonstrates an exterior pest treatment using an electric backpack sprayer. Pest Control Consultants offers a variety of services to help customers with pest and disinfecting needs.

Michael Krabbenhoeft/ mkrabbenhoeft@saukvalley.com

DIXON – No one likes a pest.

Well, almost no one.

The family behind Pest Control Consultants in Dixon doesn’t mind them. Without those pesky little devils, they wouldn’t have much of a business – and lately, business has been pretty good.

But turning pests into profit isn’t all they do. They’re also helping customers defend themselves against a pandemic.

The coronavirus has thrown the business world for a loop, forcing many to find news ways to do business. For Pest Control, that meant keeping up with a demand, a lot of demand.

Unlike most businesses, pest control has seen an uptick in calls in recent months, said Chase Goodeill, who owns the business with his father, Steve.

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Sauk Valley Business Journal

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CONTROL cont’d from page 3

Michael Krabbenhoeft/mkrabbenhoeft@saukvalley.com

From left: Dustin Heaton, Nicole Goodeill, Chase Goodeill and Steve Goodeill stand in front of the Dixon headquarters for Pest Control Consultants at 1100 W. Second St. The family-owned pest control company has offices in Dixon, Sycamore and St. Charles and is licensed for pest control and disinfecting. While the COVID pandemic has knocked many businesses off their feet, Pest Consultants has managed to keep both feet on the ground. “When you think of COVID-19 and think of businesses struggling, in April, May and June, we completely exploded,” Chase said. “30, 40, 50 percent growth in revenue when those stimulus checks were coming out.”

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“When you think of COVID-19 and think of businesses struggling, in April, May and June, we completely exploded,” Chase said. “30, 40, 50 percent growth in revenue when those stimulus checks were coming out.”

While some of that demand has been from a growing number of people who were spending more time at home and more money on home improvement, some of it came from customers who wanted to keep the coronavirus at bay.

The Dixon Chamber of Commerce and Main Street’s reigning Business of the Year offers residential and commercial pest control services – bed bugs, mosquitoes, termites and whatever other pests customers want to control – but in recent months Pest Control Consultants put another foe in its aerosol crosshairs: the coronavirus. The business expanded its services to offer disinfectant treatment, and it’s been a big part of the business’ recent growth.

“It’s in peak time right now,” Steve said.

Chase saw other pest control companies offering similar services, and he jumped at the opportunity to help communities and businesses get back to work and keep employees safe.

CONTROL cont’d on page 5

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CONTROL cont’d from page 4 Disinfecting is different than sanitation and general cleaning, he said. “Disinfecting kills 99.8% of germs, viruses and bacteria where cleaning does not on specific hard surfaces where people are grabbing and touching.”

They got their applicators and supplies by April, and in almost no time had their first customer: Aaron’s appliance stores in the suburbs.

“Once we got our feet wet and started knowing what it would look like, we started to tell our existing clients that we can do this for them,” Chase said. Now, they’re serving schools, clinics, day cares and assembly lines.

“It’s daily applications to disinfect so that the kids can be safe in school, and have at least some peace of mind knowing that the viruses are going to be battled,” Chase said. “It’s evolved pretty quickly, but we were fortunate that we had the contacts that bled perfectly into saying, ‘Hey, we can do this for you, too.’ It was a need people had; it moved pretty quickly, and we’re fortunate.”

Some companies focus only on certain pests, such as crawling insects, bed bugs and mosquitoes, but Pest Control Consultants can do it all, from keeping pests at bay to clearing them out once they’ve invaded a home.

“I’ve gone into homes that have been infested with fleas, cockroaches or bed bugs, and there may be about 200 cockroaches in an infant’s crib,” Chase said.

Don’t know what the bug is? Pest Control Consultants’ online library – pccil.com/pest-library – explains what bugs look like, what they do, and how preventative measures can be taken.

CONTROL cont’d on page 5

Michael Krabbenhoeft/mkrabbenhoeft@saukvalley.com

Dustin Heaton, a service manager for Pest Control Consultants in Dixon, demonstrates a mosquito fogger used to control mosquitoes. The business offers a variety of services to help customers with pest control and disinfecting needs.

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CONTROL cont’d from page 5

Dustin Heaton demonstrates an eave sweep. “Pest control is more of a preventative treatment for homeowners,” Chase Goodeill said. “ ... 99 percent of what we do is we take care of a home that has general pests. Throughout the seasons we make sure they don’t have spiders ... we’ll remove spider webs and wasp nests and maintain the property.”

“Pest control is more of a preventative treatment for homeowners,” Chase said. “We’ll take care of bald-faced hornets when they’re in a tree, and treat for fleas when someone’s completely infested, but 99 percent of what we do is we take care of a home that has general pests. Throughout the seasons we make sure they don’t have spiders, they don’t have earwigs, stink bugs, wasps, mice, we’ll remove spider webs and wasp Pest Control Consultants has nests and maintain the property for them.” offices at 1002 W. Second St. in Pest Control Consultants’ roots go back Dixon, 421 Grove St. in DeKalb, to Economy Pest Control, founded by and 313 North Fifth St. in St. Steve’s father, Gary, in 1980. Steve worked Charies. They are licensed in Illifor his father and eventually started PCC nois and Iowa. in 2000. His sons, Chase and Devin, came Free inspections can be arranged into the business and they oversee the by calling 815-421-1885. company’s locations in Sycamore and St. Charles.

Find Pest Control Consultants on Growth is important to the family busiFacebook, or go to pccil.com or ness, Chase said, but even more important call 815-284-4101 for more inforis maintaining its roots in the Sauk Valley. mation.

In recent years, Pest Control ConsulCrown Exterminators, a division tants has acquired other local pest control of Pest Control Consultants, businesses. They bought Crown Exterserves the Sterling-Rock Falls minators of Rock Falls – itself a area; it can be reached at 40-year-old company – in July 2019, crownexterminators@gmail.com and continue to have an office or call 815-625-8604. there. Wildermuth Pest Management of Erie was acquired a month later.

Today, the Goodeills employ 16 people, including themselves. Steve’s daughter, Nicole, runs the Dixon office.

“I enjoy helping people,” Steve said. “That’s what I enjoy the most.”n

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Michael Krabbenhoeft/ mkrabbenhoeft@saukvalley.com

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Sauk Valley Business Journal

Fall 2020

BY CODY CUTTER

Whether it’s a small gathering or big bash, a new business is ready to serve in Rock Falls, where an industrial revolution has been going on along the city’s riverfront, transforming a former factory site into a destination for visitors and hometown folks alike

For Sauk Valley Business Journal ROCK FALLS – Factories along Rock Falls’ riverfront used to make a lot of things.

Today, that area is making something else: new name for itself as the centerpiece of a riverfront renaissance.

Industry was once the nuts and bolts that held the community’s economy together, but gone are the smokestacks and rumbling machines that towered over the Rock River, replaced by a hotel (with another on the way), a park, and now, a premier event center and restaurant.

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Larry [McCormick] wanted to do something good for the community and felt there was a need for something like this. The city’s been great, and everyone we worked with has been great. Between Larry and our contractor, they just did a phenomenal job. They were great to work with, and I couldn’t be prouder of what they accomplished.

Matt Prescott, Manager, McCormick Event Center

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Fall 2020

EVENT cont’d from page 7 The McCormick Event Center at 205 E. Third St. opened earlier this year, and despite a pandemic that put just about everything on hold, business is starting to pick up, and McCormick’s manager said things are only going to get better.

The center is the largest event venue in the Sauk Valley, and it’s been booking events fast in its first year of operation, manager Matt Prescott said. Postponements due to the COVID-19 also are factoring into the availability.

“We’re booked because things keep getting pushed back,” Prescott said. “As they push back, they fill the times. When this place opens back up [at full capacity], it’s going to be bonkers.

“When you’re the new place, everyone wants to go to the new place.”

Work wrapped up this summer on the event center, which features four large rooms that can be booked individually or together. The largest room holds about 230 people, and when all four are opened up, nearly 750 can socialize, eat or listen to presentations. The parking lot can hold 120 vehicles, and a garage door allows vehicles and larger equipment to be brought into the facility. It’s also wired throughout to accommodate electronics – like a high-tech gaming convention.

Prescott expects to host about 100 events a year, and a fourth of them will likely be weddings. Flexibility, capacity and a central location make the place attractive to customers, he said.

He should know what brings customers through the door. Prescott also owns the Brandywine Banquet and Event Center between Sterling and Dixon on state Route 2, as well as the Candlelight Inns in Sterling, Rock Falls and Clinton, Iowa.

The staff at the McCormick Event Center, like the rest of Prescott’s growing team, brings the same kind of experience and expertise to the McCormick. Not sure what room fits your needs? Call a single telephone number – 815-284-8484 – and options from all of Prescott’s properties can be considered.

“If you wanted to have a party for 200 people, the closet places you can get to [aren’t in town].

Our location, our quality of not only the facility but also the quality of food and service you’re going to get in our facility – we believe we can put it up with anybody.”

Building owner Larry McCormick bought the former Rock River Tool and Die building a couple of years ago and renovated and expanded the building to near completion before the pandemic hit.

McCormick utilized high school students from the local Creating Entrepreneurial Opportunities program at the Whiteside Area Career Center to generate ideas on how to put a bring a uniquely local flavor to the business. The students came up with the names of the businesses, as well as the names of the rooms – including the Grande room and two Tool and Die rooms.

“Larry wanted to do something good for the community and felt there was a need for something like this,” Prescott said. “The city’s been great, and everyone we worked with has been great.

“Between Larry and our contractor, they just did a phenomenal job. They were great to work with, and I couldn’t be prouder of what they accomplished.”

CONTROL cont’d on page 11 Fall 2020

Photos Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@saukvalley.com

Special events, business functions, celebrations big or small,

the McCormick Event Center can handle them all. The facility can be divided into three separate rooms or opened up into a single large room. “If you wanted to have a party for 200 people, the closet places you can get to [aren’t in town]. Our location, our quality of not only the facility but also the quality of food and service you’re going to get in our facility – we believe we can put it up with anybody,” said manager Matt Prescott.

Sauk Valley Business Journal

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EVENT cont’d from page 9 The events center was supposed to have its first event, the annual meeting and dinner of the Rock Falls Chamber of Commerce, in late February, but concerns about the coronavirus pushed it back. As the pandemic continued to grow, so too did event postponements and cancellations. Things are beginning to pick back up and the center hosted 12 events by midAugust.

The Industrial restaurant shares space at the site. It is owned by Prescott, and he runs it along with business partner Tim Kendrick. Prescott is working on The Industrial’s menu to bring different entree choices to the area. There also will be a full bar, a slots room and catering services.

But for now, people will have to wait a little while longer to pull up a chair at Prescott’s table. He doesn’t plan to open until the state allows restaurants to operate at full capacity.

The McCormick Event Center soon will have a second riverfront hotel to boost business. Local developer Pete Harkness plans to build an $8 million hotel at the RB&W site on East Second Street, next to the events center.

He is working with South Dakota-based My Place Hotels to build the 46-unit hotel.

The riverfront park has been a work in progress for nearly a decade, located on the grounds of the former Russell, Birdsall and Ward (RB&W) Bolt and Nut Co., later Reliant Fastener. A former Burlington Northern rail line once ran through the center’s west parking lot.

Prescott hopes that the success that built Rock Falls can be maintained or improved upon with the presence of the events center and nearby hotels.

“If you get someone from out of town and they book 100 hotel rooms, and have a big event where people are eating or dining in our restaurants, and spending money in our area, that’s a big win for our communities,” Prescott said. “It’s a big win for our tax base, and we hope to see some of that.”

It’s an hour to 90 minutes away from Rockford, the Quad Cities, Peoria and the western Chicago suburbs.

“I think it will be the premier event venue for 50 miles around. You got to go a long ways to have a venue like this.” n

Fall 2020

Sauk Valley Business Journal

Book your banquet The McCormick Event Center 205 E. Third St. Book events by calling 815-284-8484, email event@ saukvalleyevents.com, or find it on Facebook for more information.

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As d e d n e int

eeps k m r a f n An Orego off its food ls a c i m e h c the s the p e e k d rs an e w o fl ack d b n a g n i m o sc customer

JEFF HELFRICH

For the Sauk Valley Business Journal OREGON – It wasn’t until Liz Hiemstra’s mother, Theresa Kulevich, was diagnosed with breast cancer that the family all started to eat organically.

Kulevich had lived a healthy lifestyle and always was outdoors, but “she bought conventional produce and never washed it,” Hiemstra said.

When cancer took her life, she left her 5-acre farm to Hiemstra, who turned it into Libra Farms, where she’s been raising and selling organic produce and flowers for the past few years.

Hiemstra can’t say for sure that the commercially produced produce was responsible for her mom’s cancer – “I don’t know if that’s what happened,” she said – but she’s been passionate about organic food since her mother’s passing.

NATURE cont’d on page 13

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saukvalley.com

Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@

daughter Skyler, 14, and Farms with the help from she said. “I have a 4ra Lib s run tra ms Hie Liz pesticides or chemicals,” son Wesley, 4. “I don’t use them to see that you can do right by everyone nt and 14-year-old, and I wa for you,” she said. p else, not just what’s chea

Sauk Valley Business Journal

Fall 2020

NATURE cont’d from page 12 “I don’t use pesticides or chemicals,” she said. “I have a 4- and 14-year-old, and I want them to see that you can do right by everyone else, not just what’s cheap for you.”

She finds reports of food shortages in the country “alarming,” and thinks a more localized food system with smaller operations, healthier working conditions and more available food would benefit everyone.

Hiemstra started 2 years ago with flowers, after reading a magazine article about imported flowers, many of which are grown in South America with pesticides.

Hiemstra decided to grow some herself, and later sold some to Hazel’s Cafe in Oregon. Now Libra Farms grows about half food and half flowers.

“With COVID-19, I figured people would want food, and I wanted to make sure I had it for them,” Hiemstra said.

NATURE cont’d on page 14 Liz Hiemstra started Libra Farms 2 years ago growing flowers after she read a magazine article about imported flowers, many of which are grown in South America with pesticides. Today, the farm grows about half food and half flowers.

Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@saukvalley.com

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NATURE cont’d from page 13 Hiemstra, who also tends bar at Hairy Cow Brewing Co. in Oregon, had time on her hands this spring during the stay-at-home shutdown, which gave her a chance to do more with her plants.

“I hope it’s my full-time job at some point, and I want to grow more interest in it and educate people on where their food comes from,” Hiemstra said.

“What the grocery stores have comes from places like Mexico, and it’s not grown in the best way.”

Libra Farms is a family business. Her children, Skyler and Wesley, spend time with her in the fields, and her husband, Brad, helps out after work with the heavy lifting.

“I like having the kids in the garden,” Hiemstra said. “It’s important to get them involved whether they do it right, wrong, slow, or even if they step on plants.” In fact, her kids are some of the farm’s biggest fans, enjoying the fruits and veggies of their labor.

She grows lettuce, herbs, cilantro, basil, summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, melons, tomatillos, broccoli and kale along with the flowers.

She uses wood chips and other organic materials to keep weeds down and make the soil rich, and none of Libra Farms’ packaging is plastic.

One of Hiemstra’s goals is to turn her property into a “food forest” – a farm without rows. Her property is hilly and wooded, and that practice would utilize every area with a different food crop to maximize the whole five acres in an integrated ecology.

NATURE cont’d on page 15

Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@saukvalley.com

Hiemstra grows several different varieties of produce – lettuce, herbs, cilantro, basil, summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, melons, tomatillos (above), broccoli and kale. One of Hiemstra’s goals is to turn her property into a “food forest” – a farm without rows. Her property is hilly and wooded, and that practice would utilize every area with a different food crop to maximize the whole five acres in an integrated ecology.

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Sauk Valley Business Journal

Fall 2020

NATURE cont’d from page 14 “I want to expand,” Hiemstra said. “I’d like to get to where people can come and learn and buy stuff.”

Hiemstra called her customers “super loyal.” They order every week and ask what she’ll be growing next. She’s happy not only with what she’s grown, but how she’s grown in the past few years, she said “I built a house and a garden, and it led to a business that shares local food with local people.”

She takes online orders throughout the week at librafarms.us/ and delivers on Mondays. n

Hiemstra uses wood chips and other organic materials to keep weeds down and make the soil rich, and none of Libra Farms’ packaging is plastic.

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Sauk Valley Business Journal

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