….and will there be a resolution to last month’s major issues…? Maybe.
Those in the Heartland area have been following the exploits of the Mill Creek Park District, located outside of Marshall in Clark County, know that there was a citizen’s arrest placed upon that board in May courtesy of The Edgar County Watchdogs; contrary to the opinion of the uninformed up in Edgar and the surrounds, that was a perfectly legitimate and indeed NECESSARY thing to do under the circumstances.
What circumstances?
In order to get the whole thing in full, we present to you this evening’s Read the Lead, ‘Citizen’s arrest’ just the beginning of Clark County park board’s problems at Mill Creek.
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One of the disingenuous ‘ringers’ who extolled the “virtues” of the Mill Creek Park District
CLARK CO.—Clark County’s Mill Creek Park District board is under investigation by Illinois State Police after a citizens’ arrest of the members in May, which alleges a violation of the state’s Open Meetings Act.
The alleged offense emerged on the evening of Monday, May 12.
On that evening, Edgar County Watchdogs Kirk Allen and John Kraft were in attendance of a special meeting of the park district, where their presence had been requested because some irregularities had been found to be ongoing in the operations of the park and the board.
The park sits on a scenic lake in Clark County northwest of the city of Marshall, and is a popular downstate destination for boating, fishing, camping and four-wheel riding.
However, developments in recent years have caused some of the more intrepid residents of Clark County to raise questions. Those questions have gone unanswered; and that lack of answers has prompted growing interest in just how the park district is continuing to conduct operations.
In brief, the problems have been described by locals as this: Years ago, a group of people got together and decided to put their upper echelon in on the park board, at which time they increased fees at the lake so that they would push out all the lower income people from the area as it pertained to lake recreation. That way, the only ones who could afford the higher fees were the ones with the “right” social connections.
This growing realization incensed the regular citizens of the area. And when these citizens got together on May 12 to address their concerns with the board, they were not afforded an opportunity to speak.
Apparently, the board believed that because the special meeting had been called with one item on the agenda (“Executive Director’s evaluation/status of Executive Director,” which was to be held under executive session), they didn’t have to have a public input portion on said agenda. However, that’s simply not the case.
The Watchdogs were ready for it, and John Kraft affected a citizen’s arrest upon the board’s refusal to allow comment per 5 ILCS 120/2.06, the section of Illinois’ Open…..
The Mill Creek Park District board; the meeting had to be moved to the garage of the facility to accommodate the crowd last month
The crowd at the May meeting.
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To read the rest of this article, click the headline link at the paragraph above the excerpt if you have an online membership to the e-Edition; if you don’t, simply click this link here in order to get started. We are loaded with Heartland-area stories this month, with this one being foremost among them; and we have a special edition coming up in July, so membership will get you started to reading all of it! Or, if you prefer to hold a print version in your hands, visit any one of our vendors, including in the Heartland area Heirloom Videography in Paris; Y-Knot Stop in Vermilion; Country Mart BP in Kansas; and Lucas Grocery Too in Oakland! Don’t miss out…this one has less than two more weeks on the stands!