Fund-raising efforts to run the newly formed DeKalb County Economic Development Corporation, which will attempt to bring new business into DeKalb County, have raised about $135,000 said Tom Montiegel, co-chairperson of the corporation’s fund-raising committee.

The corporation’s goal is to attract new businesses to the area as well as to keep the established companies satisfied and help them grow, Montiegel said.

The corporation will make a county-wide examination and inventory of existing electricity, railway and sewer utilities to aid potential industries.

“Attracting new businesses to the area is an ongoing job. We have had 14 businesses look at DeKalb in the past two years,” Monteigel said. The city will continue to help the corporation in bringing new business to the area.

“The center was incorporated last June to form a corporation to represent the entire area,” Montiegel said.

“We hope to address the negligible job growth in DeKalb County that has occurred in the last few years,” said Jan Bradbury, fund-raising committee co-chairperson and director of college relations at Kishwaukee Community College.

Montiegel hopes to have an operating budget of $160,000. This budget is targeted at $80,000 for personnel, $50,000 for marketing and $30,000 for print publications, travel and publicity. The corporation is exempt from taxes.

Corporation president Don Urech said the corporation hopes to “wrap up the fund raising within the next month.”

The goal is 80 percent complete, he said.

The corporation received pledges totaling $69,000 from the cities of DeKalb, Genoa and Sycamore, DeKalb County and other public sectors.

Pledges from businesses have reached nearly $66,000.

A breakfast meeting and presentation for those considering donations to the corporation will be Feb.9 at the Holmes Student Center.