Voice of the People: Shame on me, shame on us!

I lived in Bourbonnais for 26 years. After the death of our son, my wife and I moved to Manhattan, Ill. It was there that I ran into a friend I had grown up with in South Holland. Every fall for the 15 years we lived there I would see Steve pulling his log splitter behind his pickup truck heading south. When I finally got to ask him about where he always was going, he told me he was going to the Pembroke and Hopkins Park area to help provide firewood for the winter months.

I never questioned why this need existed. It never occurred to me that there were people in Kankakee County that struggled for their very existence. I never imagined that this was possible. Shame on me!

The workings of our government:

The first time I ever attended an Economic Alliance of Kankakee County [meeting] it was at the Hilton Garden Inn. The Kankakee mayor gave the presentation. He explained all the plans that the city had in process and all the grants that were being sought and made to make these plans a reality. Thousands of dollars were being obtained for construction projects which included the Riverwalk.

The next meeting I attended was at the Bourbonnais Municipal Center. There the mayor was showing off the new venue and explaining how thousands of dollars in grant money were made available for this to happen. Between these two projects, the Kankakee Riverwalk and The Grove in Bourbonnais, hundreds of thousands of dollars in government grants were obtained.

At the end of the meeting in Bourbonnais the president of the Alliance, Manteno Mayor Tim Nugent, said he was pleased to announce that that day ground was being broken to finally provide natural gas service to Pembroke, thanks to a $140,000 grant.

Hundreds of thousands in government grants for two showcase venues. Manteno is spending millions on parks and recreation. Five hundred thirty-six [million] dollars from the state of Illinois, seven and a half billion dollars from the federal government and a 30-year property tax freeze for a toxic foreign-owned battery plant in Manteno.

Yet it has taken decades for those in Kankakee County leadership to obtain funds for the citizens of Pembroke to be supplied with affordable energy to heat their homes and cook their food. Shame on us!

David Kuiken

Manteno