 |
Web Hosting by Netfirms | Free Domain Names by Netfirms |
|
|
|
June 15, 2007
Landfills and a modern “Tail of Two Cities” by Keith L. Runyon, president of CUT
The cities of Kankakee and Yorkville both were presented landfill applications by developers. Both applicants were represented by the same attorney. The outcomes were totally different, despite similarities in applicant conduct.
Kankakee officials had many secret meetings with the applicant in violation of the open meetings act. No one protested. In Yorkville, secret meetings with the applicant took place followed by memos from the Mayor instructing the aldermen not to divulge the landfill proposal. The memos were not only leaked, but were posted on the internet by the opponents of the landfill
Kankakee Council, was seduced by host fees and disregarded the public’s safety which will be at severe risk should the Town and Country landfill ever be sited. Those council members were recently re-elected to office despite the threat to all residents using Aqua-Illinois water. Yorkville opponents formed a political no-dump party. On April 17th. they were swept into office displacing the Mayor and four aldermen. The new city council voted 7-1 against the landfill.
In Kankakee, all the cronies blessed the landfill, including the Airport Authority, the labor unions, the road builders, the medical community by its silence, the hospitals, and the NAACP. In Yorkville, there we no supporters of the landfill. Every individual and organization including road builders, the medical community, the Grundy County Airport, and surrounding communities who saw the traffic patterns from the landfill as threats to their quality of life, objected to the landfill siting
The Yorkville landfill hearing was held in grade school gymnasium and the bleachers were virtually full of objectors every night.. They all objected, despite the fact that the proposed landfill was to be sited on a hydro-geologically suitable landfill property with 16 feet of clay beneath it..
Why the different outcome? Yorkville citizens did not want their future buried under a pile of garbage. :Yorkville residents have fierce pride in their community. Yorkville residents were not seduced by host fees. Finally, citizen education and enlightenment supersedes cronyism in Yorkville.
When governmental cronyism prevails, as it does in Kankakee, control and self aggrandizement always supersedes good governance and the general welfare of the citizens.