County Market coming to Dixon
BY MALINDA OSBORNE
SVN REPORTER
mosborne@svnmail.com
DIXON - Seven months after closing its doors, the former Jewel-Osco site in the Shopko shopping center will reopen in early April, this time as a County Market.
City officials met this week with Quincy-based Niemann Foods, County Market's parent company, which owns about 60 grocery stores in the Midwest, including County Markets in Sterling and Byron and Sav-A-Lot in Rock Falls.
The city approved issuing the grocery store a liquor license, and granted some tax breaks on building supplies and real estate costs, since it is in the Lee County Enterprise Zone.
"The store should really provide a boost for that area," Mayor Jim Burke said, referring to the SkopKo Plaza area.
The company held a job fair Wednesday at the store, and turnout was good, with more than 400 people applying for 100 to 125 jobs, Niemann spokesman Gerry Kettler said. The manager already is in place - Jeremy Ruppel, who most recently managed a County Market in Pana, 40 miles south of Decatur, has been tapped for the job.
County Market will rent the 85,000-square-foot facility from Supervalu Inc., which owns Jewel, and will remodel.
"The store needs to be brightened up, painted, cleaned, new signage," Kettler said.
The store, which will be open 24 hours, will feature an organic/health food section and an expanded produce department.
The company submitted remodeling plans Wednesday and should receive a permit Monday, Dixon building inspector Paul Shiaras said.
The layout won't change much from the previous store. "It's mostly shaking up some cooler areas and the deli. There'll be new flooring and lighting, too," Shiaras said.
The exterior will be painted and the upper facade torn down so a County Market sign can be installed.
Burke said he was told the target date for opening was April 9.
Associate-owned Niemann Foods, founded in 1917, is the largest independently owned supermarket chain in central Illinois, with 3,500 total employees. It has more than 60 County Markets, Cub Foods and Sav-A-Lots in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri.
Reach Malinda Osborne at (815) 284-2222 or (800) 798-4085, ext. 526.
