PARIS, IL. (ECWd) –
The Edgar County Board, during its monthly meeting this morning approved the following:
- Established an Airport Zoning Commission – this commission is required in order to establish zoning for the airport, which is required in order to comply with previous federal grant assurances. The county has been in violation of state law in regards to zoning and airport expansion projects since the airport’s inception. Now that IDOT and the FAA has stated they will not provide any more funds until the county comes into compliance, the board is attempting to do that by establishing zoning as they should have many years ago.
- Appointed Jake Barrett and Rob Howery to the Commission
- Approved lease of 1/2 main hangar to Mid Continent Aircraft Corporation
- Approved lease of 1/4 main hangar to Chris Patrick
- Filed the Sherriff and County Clerk annual reports
In other business:
- Alan Zuber stated the County Health Insurance will soon go out for bidding
- County Clerk stated that the county received around $50,000 in property tax stamps as part of a massive land transfer, purported to be the largest in the history of Illinois, where the Forsyth properties changed hands
- Jeff Voight stated that 58.88% of the year has passed and only 49.7% of the budgeted amount has been used to date
- Don Wiseman asked that the county consider a “no passing zone” on Highway 1Β south of the new high school road and into town
- Don Farris talked about the property taken from him thru imminent domain more than 20 years ago and the fact that imminent domain was used improperly because the county was required according to state law to have zoning in place prior to any airport expansion. This taking of private property was accomplished when Adonna Bennett was a county board member, so it is no surprise to us that it was accomplished without following all of the appropriate legal processes.
- Rob Bogue stated that he believed the State’s Attorney could petition the Court to overturn the imminent domain decision based on the fact that the county could not legally expand the airport without zoning in place – and it was not in place at the time
- John Kraft asked the board to reconsider its outdated tall structure ordinance to better suit today’s needs and the protect county residents from encroachment of wind turbine farms. I told them a vehicle from E4G was spotted in east central Illinois and their website states they are a wind farm developer and have partnered with the Grain Belt Express Clean Line Energy Project, which is the high power electrical lines scheduled to work its way thru Edgar County
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