One nice thing about having a blog of your own is that it is YOURS and you can pretty much write what you want. We rarely use this blog as a political platform as Chasing4Life has stayed neutral and practical in most situations that involved politics, but we have some opinions every now and then that we want to share.
Over the course of the last six months, we have had the honor of working with many of the Illinois Township Road Commissioners. These men and women are the people that maintain the roads our team travels everyday as we traverse backroads and small highways from event to event educating tens of thousands each year. We appreciate the work they do. Often times, they are the ones that, despite hours and regulations, schedules and lack of personnel, are out there when we have seen few others.
Now, looming in the news almost every week is an effort to do away with Townships altogether if not, at least, the road work.
The goal of quite a few is to take townships out of the road business in Illinois and have counties take over township roads.
That's one of several new recommendations being offered by business-backed Chicago Metropolis 2020 after the nonprofit group looked at ways to boost the state's economy through transportation. Chicago Metropolis 2020 was created in 1999 by The Commercial Club of Chicago, an organization of business and civic leaders promoting regional growth.
According to its executive director, Frank Beal, $12 billion is spent on public transportation by 2,859 units of government in Illinois. Nearly half of those units - 1,403 - are townships that collect nearly $90 million in gasoline tax revenue each year. The $90 million is 16 percent of local governments' share of gasoline taxes. Each township has its own equipment, staff and buildings.
"It would be more efficient and effective if this was taken over by the county," Beal said in a recent interview.
The recommendation in the organization's report was that counties be given the revenue that townships now receive for roadwork, beginning with township roads in urban areas.
Townships maintain 71,187 miles of roads in Illinois.
71,187 miles. And it is done well.
I am not sure why we feel the need to destroy infrastructure that DOES work while we sit idly by and ignore gross oversights elsewhere. On our recent trip just this past weekend, we traveled over a total of 1600 miles for one event in Illinois. As we traveled, we could not wait to get onto the Township roads for a break from the construction zones with no workers, the poorly maintained roads, and of course, just the roads that ran through highly populated areas of traffic. It was nice to get out onto a Township Road and roll down the windows, enjoying the scenic beauty of the Illinois I remembered as a child; to enjoy the well-maintained roadway, to notice the lack of litter and debris along the roadside.
I do not claim to know all of the ins and outs of the finances of Illinois, but I do know that I speak at dozens of libraries still awaiting their checks from the State from before last year. I know that the State has little if not any money, but why would you do away with one of the ONLY things that IS working?
Many years ago, I attended a church that I was happy attending. The pastor and his wife were always there for you, volunteers filled the lot every Saturday to maintain the church. There was not a moment when SOMEONE was not available. Two years ago, I called the church because of a family emergency hoping to reach the pastor and was greeted by an answering system…
“If you are calling for directions to the church…press one…if you are a youth and wishing to know the times of the next youth meeting…press three…if you are in need of counseling and in need of an English-speaking counselor…press four….if you are calling about our upcoming revival services…press five…”
Seriously? We need to take a look at what we are doing to our country before we make decisions that are strictly based on the financial. Yes, we are growing. Yes we are busier. Yes we have made bad decisions in the past, but now more than ever we need to remember what kept this country together for the longest time and maybe try to preserve some of it. The Township structure is that last connection the local people have to their local government; these Township officials are available, they understand the area and the people, and they care about it.
Would we save money? I bet we would, but before we swallow this hook, someone had better call the Dell Service Center and try to get help rebooting their computer so they are reminded of what happens when we make decisions purely based on finances. Sure it saves a lot of money having customer service outsourced to another country, but I still have that stupid laptop sitting in my office under the desk and it still doesn’t work.
Illinois is still a beautiful state and a great place to travel. The Township roads attract people from all over the world because of what they are and who has taken such great care of them all these decades. The strength of this country is still found on the smallest of highways and now more than ever, we need to stop trying to fix what already works and take a look elsewhere.
