Sunday, March 7, 2010

Hey, buddy, can you spare me a million?

Dorr Township is sitting on $1,000,000 that could be rebated "to them what paid it in." Will it refund it? And will it refund to the taxpayers all at once or dole it out in small pieces over a period of years, so that the taxpayers don't feel like they have really gotten anything back at all?

Voters have given a thumbs-down to plans to re-locate the Dorr Township office, currently located at 140 Newell Street in Woodstock.

One plan was to move the Township office to the location of the township highway district garage on Davis Road, between Route 47 and Dean Street. Doing that would put it even more out of sight (and out of mind?) than its current location.

How many miles of roads does Dorr Township maintain? According to today's article in the Northwest Herald, 35 miles. As the cities and villages in Dorr Township spread their boundaries, the road maintenance obligation of the Township shrinks. Now it's only 35 miles. What is the estimate for 2020 and 2030?

Are townships in Illinois a dinosaur that doesn't yet know it's extinct? What meaningful services does a township really provide, and what is its budget? Maybe townships served an important function in a rural area, but are they worth maintaining and supporting financially today?

Couldn't road maintenance functions be transferred to the County?

Couldn't Assessor duties be transferred to the County and consolidated into one County Assessors office, instead of there being 17 Assessors in the County, one for each township?

Bob Anderson has a lot to say about townships, and hopefully he'll have a website or blog up and running one of these days (nudge, nudge).

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