Kudos to the Wheatland citizenry!,

TEA power in action.

The Chicagoland area should note what's going on in Wheatland Township - it's FREEDOM. There are over 6000 government units in Illinois, just like this one, and all letting contracts - sometimes with no taxpayer knowledge. Perfect for politicians, as this is one of the mechanisms of political pay back in Illinois. Not a single unit has been abolished, and the closest state has 50% less government units.

In response to: UncommonSense's post...This exact reason of duplicity is why there have been no townships in the City of Chicago since 1889. What did they know back then that we still haven't figured out?
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Maybe Chicago figured out that the citizens had too much power when they did away with townships - ha ha.

In the interest of real common sense, perhaps townships in major urban areas should be merged into those urban areas. In the case of Wheatland and Naperville Townships, perhaps their functions could be split between cities and counties if the area has 50,000 or more people (or some other figure). In under-populated areas, the township may in fact still be the most economical and equitable way to go.

In terms of the current Wheatland Township BrewHaHa, you may want to re-launch the thread for the upcoming meeting on August 9, 2011. It promises to be more entertaining than watching pundits on TV or going to a soccer game.

The proposed new building was a stealth project to spend taxpayer money on a facility that continues to grow in price and scope...under the "build it and they will come" tag. Surprisingly, that seems to be the only reason for building. At meetings just let the pro builders speak for themselves. They say "we need it...because we have needs" - yes, that is the space needs analysis in a nut shell. Only when the citizens said STOP and do proper due diligence, did the required work begin.

In conclusion, I share two links going around in emails and blogs (see for yourself that a new building was already built in 2009 - much to the surprise of the taxpayers, and now even though that building is more than twice the space as the current old building, the township wants to build another new building!): 1) old building link - it's the one on the right side of the picture, and is where all township operations and staff were housed

http://maps.google.com/maps?=en&ll=41.717111,-88.230136&spn=0.000514,0.0012&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=35.684144,78.662109&t=h&z=20

2) already built new building link- it's where only the operations dept. is now housed, but is more than twice the space of the old building

http://maps.google.com/?ll=41.692486,-88.201544&spn=0.000489,0.0012&t=h&z=20

So does Wheatland Township need another building that was supposedly $1 miilion, and now is $5 million and twice the space? See for yourself via the links provided. I say NO - absolutely NO. And because of the underhanded, self-dealing way this has been done under the radar of taxpayers - I vote NO again. We were tricked, and you get pay back for that - no new building! They already have built twice the space needed in my mind. Pictures do not lie and are worth a thousand words.

Again, I strongly suggest the Sun cover this situation more assertively, as it reflects the current political realities of over spending and disrespect of taxpayers. Our officials will keep spending until they run out of money, then they will keep spending more due to the assistance of banks who have mastered the continuous re-finance game to the unfortunate, unknowing public's long-term wealth erosion.

It is all about power and money, but now shifted to the government versus free enterprise. Imagine over 6000 other government units doing the same stealth spending all over Illinois - paying back friends and family (the whole state has learned the Chicago way of doing business).

Most people would like to honesty and a REAL effort by the City Council here to do the right thing. This group likes to pat themselves on the back about cuts (while taking no cuts themselves, nor asking any of the City Management), while in reality, raising water rates, raising electric rates, plugging millions into their ego smart grid project, and rewarding their friends with millions more in pet projects. Right now, Municipal Government just doesn't get what the rest of do - course the rest of us have to work for a living.

Isn't this what a lot of Naperville folks would like at the city council level?

This is why we need less units of govenment in Illinois. No wonder we are broke. We pay for massive structures, huge polition salaries, Extra eqipment, not to mention the cost of elections and pensions. This is rediculous. Whan are we going to fix this issue?

Having previously lived in New Hampshire none of this is new to me as that is how just about all local government is handled. As a result it is local government with a very small footprint and local government that more closely mirrors the needs and wants of citizens.

Despite township government working well in situations like this example of "democracy in action" there simply are way too many units of local government in Illinois. Even though it works well in principle and practice there isn't anything a township provides in services that couldn't be done more cost efficiently and effectively by other local communities. This exact reason of duplicity is why there have been no townships in the City of Chicago since 1889. What did they know back then that we still haven't figured out?

Thanks to Thomas Jefferson and his "township formula", which was first used to survey the Northwest Territories after 1785, there are about 20 states who still cling to some form of townships. Eight states have done away with townships so doing so is not without precedent.

The real question here is whether something that was useful as a formula to survey enormous, remote, undeveloped tracts of land in 1785 is relevant to the needs of contemporary, urban citizens in 2011 and beyond?