Will Township Annual Meeting

By Andrea Arens

In a short meeting with about a dozen attendees, Gene Maves was nominated as moderator. Last year’s meeting minutes were approved. Brian Cann, Will Township Supervisor, spoke to the townships funds. Cann mentioned that the road funds ended in the positive due to the mild winters and frugal spending. He said, “Even in a situation in which our township is suffering from this activity out here called the airport, they still have 4,400 acres off the tax rolls. Bruce has done a wonderful job because most of the money in the township is spent on the roads and he’s done a wonderful job with that.”

Cann spoke to current issues facing Will Township. He said the commotion over the airport has quieted down. Cann said he attended a meeting last month and asked Will County Chief Executive Officer Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant about the airport and Bertino-Tarrant had told Cann that the airport is not a high priority in Springfield or Joliet.  Cann said Bertino-Tarrant mentioned development talk for the property if it’s not used for an airport.

Cann also said permits have been issued for the apartment building on Route 50 for renovations and a new building south of the township building also was constructed. Cann said he saw a commercial touting the Rockford airport improvements for freight and how that airport is meeting the demands. He said the recent Illinois budget included appropriations for every airport in Illinois with the exception of the South Suburban airport. Cann said, “We’re doing very well financially. We have some minor issues, such as traffic, like from trucks, and we’re dealing with that as best we can.”

Will County Board member Judy Ogalla commented that Will County has hired a consultant to help distribute the American Rescue Plan Act money of $133 million. Ogalla said the cannabis tax dollars remain in a separate fund and no plan has been decided for that revenue. Ogalla also spoke about designating agriculture areas within Will County and the county is acting on selecting a committee for property owners wishing to be designated agriculture. Ogalla said, “In my opinion, the county has been dragging its feet on many issues and it’s upsetting to me.”

A resident asked Ogalla about money being used to improve existing interchanges at Monee-Manhattan and Peotone-Wilmington instead of Eagle Lake. Ogalla said, “I had asked for our state legislative agenda to include a statement to take the dollars that had been appropriated for a new interchange at Eagle Lake and I57 to be better used and put both into Monee-Manhattan and Peotone-Wilmington and that is in our state legislative agenda this year so that’s a good thing.”

Another resident commented that he appreciated what Helen (Heisner) is doing with the sign out front of the Township building as he found it very informative. He also commended Robert Ogalla as clerk and said he was doing a fine job with the minutes.

Township Funds were reported as such: Road Funds total of $396,807.73 and Township Funds total of $255,891.25.