Boone County Board meetings can be upbeat, informative

By Bob Balgemann
Reporter
BELVIDERE – Boone County Board meetings have known their share of controversy over the years.
But just as often they can be informative and sometimes they can be downright upbeat.
The March 16 board meeting had both, with a standing room-only crowd receiving information about things most probably didn’t know about.
As an example, there was the award presented to Pat Elder, longtime county assessment supervisor, who recently was honored for doing an exemplary job on behalf of the public.
Board Chairman Bob Walberg announced the recognition, saying the award was created in 2000 and was given to assessors who demonstrated professionalism and dedication to others in their jobs. The award came from the Illinois Property Assessors Institute board of directors.
She received a hearty round of applause from those in the audience.
Also March 16, Brent Mueller of Garden Prairie let the audience know about Agriculture Week and provided some related statistics about the county.
He said there are 248 local farms comprising 76,000 acres. As an example, he said that they produce 8.8 million bushels of corn and that there are 1,900 milk cows in the county.
“There’s a lot of agriculture that Boone County should be proud of,” he said.
County ownership
Most probably didn’t know the county owns 40 lots in unincorporated Candlewick Lake.
“We don’t pursue ownership,” board member Karl Johnson said. “They get turned over to the county for failure to pay (property) taxes.”
That matter came up because the Candlewick Lake Association was holding its annual meeting on March 20. The association needs 470 landowners to be present, either in person or through a proxy, to have a quorum.
Satisfying that requirement has been difficult in the past, so the board was asked to give Chairman Walberg permission to attend that meeting, for quorum purposes only. Members agreed, in a 12-0 vote, subject to the request being approved by State’s Attorney Michelle Courier.
It is the board chairman’s responsibility to recommend appointments to various county committees. On March 16, he announced that the following appointments are due to expire soon:
Fire Protection District I Board of Trustees, Russell Meier, expires in May; District II, Jim Maars, May; District III, Ray Morse, May; and District V, Joel Nussbaum, May. All are three-year terms.
Also, Boone County Sanitary District, Richard Ryan, expires in May, and Garden Prairie Street Light District, Steve McKnight, expires in April. They also are three-year terms.
Anyone interested in being considered for one of those appointments should send a letter to Chairman Walberg at the county building, 1212 Logan Ave., Suite 102, Belvidere, IL 61008. He also may be reached for questions at (815) 670-1170.
Recommended appointments likely will be made at the April 20 board meeting.