DeKalb shoppers will be happy to know that the city is closing in on an agreement to bring a Kohl’s department store to town.

DeKalb County Administrator Ray Bockman said Kohl’s is intent on bringing a store to the area, although its choices are not limited to the city. He alluded to the possibility of the retailer choosing Sycamore or elsewhere for its new site.

“I’m convinced that Kohl’s will build a store in this [area],” he said. “But this [area] is a lot bigger than DeKalb.”

The proposed site would be east of Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse, along Greenwood Acres Drive near Route 23. The site is 88,000 square feet with 20,000 square feet of planned expansion space that could be open by October of next year, Bockman said. Critical to bringing Kohl’s would be meeting the Bockman’s request for cost-sharing of $1.55 million in infrastructure improvements between the city and the county.

“Kohl’s is just what this community needs,” 2nd Ward Alderman Kris Povlsen said, lamenting a lack of retail apparel shopping in town.

Mayor Greg Sparrow also hailed the idea of bringing in the popular retailer.

“Given the amount of money leaving this county [in retail dollars spent elsewhere], this will represent a positive synergy for the community,” he said.

Sparrow also noted that Kohl’s is the kind of store that shoppers are willing to travel significant distances to visit. He cited the fact that DeKalb shoppers travel to Fox Valley and Batavia to shop at other Kohl’s locations.

The council heard Bockman’s proposal, but made no decisions regarding the site.

In other business, at the end of the meeting, City Clerk Donna Johnson presented a revised ward map to the city council. The city received the long-awaited Census Bureau information to redraw the wards. Without this information, the wards were misrepresented; for instance, 3,000 people were living in Huskie Stadium.

The council also heard Bockman’s request for mosquito abatement programs in response to recent West Nile virus cases. He said that just spraying for mosquitoes, which carry and transmit the virus, is an inefficient way to combat them.

“We were strongly advised against it by the state departments of public health,” he said.

Bockman said that spraying acts chiefly against adult mosquitoes. He added that the best way to combat them is to use larvacidal pellets, which kill them before they can mature.