Fri, Dec 22, 2006
Agency Apologizes For Demolishing Homes
Transportation planners
have been working on a third regional airport for Illinois for at
least 25 years. Now that the time has come to build, residents of
the villages of Beecher and Peotone are evaluating two competing
designs for the airport submitted to the FAA. One comes from the
state, and one from the Abraham Lincoln National Airport
Commission.
At a public hearing at Beecher High School Tuesday night, there
was no love lost for either plan. Both would require displacement
of residents. Two state lawmakers demanded apologies from the
Illinois Department of Transportation, which on December 1
demolished two homes on property it bought for the project.
"We want to make it very clear ... neither IDOT nor the
Governor's office nor the state of Illinois, has the right to treat
the people of this district the way they have been treated in the
last few weeks," state Rep. Lisa Dugan said, according to the Daily
Journal newspaper.
Mayors Steve Cross of Peotone and Paul Lohmann of Beecher asked
for comment periods longer than the 15 days provided by the state.
IDOT extended that to 30 days, to allow political bodies to meet
and consider the plans after the holidays.
No matter which plan for the airport is chosen, it's hard to
imagine everyone being happy about it.
"There's been a severe lack of public participation in this
process," Peotone Mayor Steve Cross said.
"Regional cooperation is vital for the protection of the
residents of the village of Peotone. We must have a voice in the
process."
Both villages extol their peaceful, rural settings near the
south termination of the Bishop Ford Freeway, about 40 miles south
of Chicago. Their combined population is about 6,000.
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