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Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Commission OKs rezoning for medical marijuana Public hearing held on possible facility; decision now heads to village board By Dixie Schroeder
dschroeder@putnamcountyrecord.com
HENNEPIN — The Hennepin Village Planning and Zoning Commission met on Aug. 20 and held a public hearing regarding the possible rezoning of property north of the village. Phar-Mar Labs is interested in the former Modern Hard Chrome property as a location for a possible medical marijuana growing facility. Each Illi-
nois State Police District is allowed one medical marijuana facility. Hennepin and the Modern Hard Chrome property fall into District 17, along with Princeton, Spring Valley and other municipalities hoping to get the official nod. The law states that residential zoning is not allowed within 2,500 feet of a potential medical marijuana facility. Currently the property near Modern Hard Chrome is zoned as residential or R1.
The village would like to rezone the five residential properties to conservation. Residents Steve and Kathy Siemers who own one of the properties that would be affected attended the meeting. The Siemers spoke in the hearing about their concerns which included how the change would affect their property values, taxes, insurance and if it would limit their ability to do certain things with their property. “We want the freedom to do whatever we want to do with our lawn in conservation. If this doesn’t
go through, we would like it reverted to R1. We want some assurances that it’s really not going to hurt us,” Steve Siemers said. Zoning officer for the village Larry Brown explained what the changes would be in the restructured zoning. “The zoning ordinance says that anything that is allowed in R1 would be allowed in conservation,” Brown said. “Conservation would put it more in line with our rural residential area which is all the properties east of Illinois Route 26 where people have four or five acres and a house which is rural residential.
It would allow you to benefit in other things that you can’t do in residential like raise chickens or have horses or things like that in your property.” The current zoning ordinance was written in 2001, according to Mayor Kevin Coleman. Resident Debbie Buffington also commented on the issue. “The fact that there is no plan presented to the zoning board or the village as to what their security is going to be, those are my concerns,” Buffington said. Coleman said, “State law mandates so much security, you can’t get on the property without a pass.
Every square inch is under camera surveillance. Fencing is so high, it’s like Fort Knox.” There are approximately 24 facility applications for District 17. Application deadline is Sept. 22. The state will then have up to six months to review the applications and choose one facility for each Illinois State Police District. After all comments were given, the public hearing was closed and the Planning and Zoning Commission voted to approved the zoning change. This recommendation will be given to the village board who met Aug. 26.
Is that a drone in Putnam County? Hennepin looks at possibilities By Dixie Schroeder
dschroeder@putnamcountyrecord.com
HENNEPIN — Reviewing ordinances and the appointment of people to various boards were on the top of the agenda at the Hennepin Village Board meeting on Aug. 20. Enterprise Zone Ordinance 534 was reviewed and revised. A request had been made to expand the enterprise zone by TCI Enterprises. According to Mayor Kevin Coleman, this is part of the Bureau-Putnam Enterprise Zone. The goal of establishing an ordinance for the flying of drones was addressed. Village lawyer Roger Bolin brought up questions to the board concerning the ordinance after discussion with Coleman before the meeting. One question was the definition of what a drone would be: A radio-controlled plane with a camera mounted on it or a remote controlled helicopter with a camera mounted on it. Board member Quentin Buffington had done some research on the issue. “As I have read, if it’s airspace, the FAA has control, and we don’t. We can’t regulate the airspace over the city of Hennepin,” Buffington said.
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PCR photo/Dixie Schroeder
Class of 2027 ... welcome to recess! Fernando Pompa (from left) Isaac Mocu, Veronica Mack and Chloe Parcher race with the new bouncing balls at recess during school last week. The children are part of the new kindergarten class at Putnam County Primary School.
Back to school ... back to budget McCracken introduces proposed FY 2015 budget By Dixie Schroeder
dschroeder@putnamcountyrecord.com
GRANVILLE — The tentative budget for Fiscal Year 2015 was presented to the Putnam County School Board of Education at their monthly meeting on Aug. 18.
Emphasizing that the budget was a “flexible and fluid” document, Putnam County Superintendent Jay McCracken explained the total projected revenues for FY ‘15 will come in at $10,374,605. McCracken informed the board the projected expenditures will be $10,541,989. This will give the district a projected deficit budget
of $167,384. This is the second year in a row, a projected deficit budget has been given to the school board. In FY ‘14, the district ended up approximately $280,000 in the black after projecting an initial deficit budget. McCracken also reminded the board the FY’15 tentative budget has money set aside for building projects and curriculum needs, which a lot of
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area school districts do not have the luxury of being able to do. “We don’t like deficit spending at all. We always try to be so careful in our budget spending during the year. Will we be able to do this (turn the deficit around) again this year? It is doubtful, as expenditures continue to rise. I’m not going to pretend every
HEALTHCARE AND REHABILITATION CENTRE
815-875-3347 • fax: 815-875-2012 Contact Arin Peterson at apeterson@colonialhrc.com www.colonialcarecentre.com