DeKalb | The DeKalb City Council approved a recommendation to award a bid for five new squad cars for the DeKalb Police Department Monday night.

Police Chief Bill Feithen requested to trade in some new police vehicles with Brad Manning Ford, 402 Manning Drive, P.O. Box 428, as opposed to the state because they were slightly cheaper. The DeKalb County E-911 Board awarded the police department the funds for these squad cars.

“This is a reimbursement for 911 personnel expenses that we already outlaid and we are simply taking this money that is reimbursed to us and buying capital with it,” Feithen said. “It was an unexpected revenue source and again we don’t know that we’ll get it next year.”

The DeKalb City Council listened to a presentation by the Community Enhancement Commission “Launch 2011”, an organization aiming to promote events among local businesses.

Tom Matya, Chairman of the Citizen’s Community Enhancement Commission “Launch 2011,” spoke about the commission’s annual events and some upcoming “mile-stone events” for 2011 in the DeKalb community.

Later this year, the city will see the completion of the downtown Beautification Project, the opening of a new high school, and the re-opening of NIU’s Cole Hall, Matya said.

“We plan to use some of the social media networks to help promote these [events] so we can get as many people involved as we possibly can throughout the community, and know the good things that are happening and try and get people to attend those events and just be aware of the positive things that are happening in our community,” Matya said.

The city council also discussed the recent snow emergency removal. Mark Espy, assistant director of public works, said between February 1 through 10, city plowmen put in 763 hours just plowing the snow from the DeKalb roads.

“We went through almost 36 hours straight,” Espy said. “Not one time in 36 hours did I see anybody lay their heads down…Twelve hours after the storm you could go anywhere you wanted to go. I think that was phenomenal considering the amount of snow that came down and the winds that were associated with it.”

Espy, along with Matya, received minimal complaints about the timeliness of the snow removal.