National Association of Regional Councils agrees on two issues

By Anne Eickstadt

SUBMITTED PHOTO Belvidere Republican
Belvidere’s Mayor Mike Chamberlain and Rockford’s Michael Dunn, Jr. of R-1 in Washington DC.

Editor

Belvidere’s Mayor Mike Chamberlain and Rockford’s Michael Dunn, Jr. of R-1 our local Regional Council attended the National Conference of Regions on Feb. 10 to 13 in Washington D.C.

“Our Regional Council includes Boone, Winnebago, and Stephenson,” said Mayor Mike. “It has taken since 2013 to make this happen and we am working with McHenry and Ogle Counties to include them as well. I hope to have all of Northern Illinois as a part of our planning commission.”

The National Association of Regional Councils serves as the national voice for regions by advocating for regional cooperation as the most effective way to address a variety of community planning and development opportunities and issues.

“It’s all about pooling assets of a region and looking towards preparing for the future – serving the constituency together at a higher level. By pooling resources, we can get projects done together that a single city/area would not be able to accomplish by itself. In the Regional Council, everyone is equal regardless of the size of the town. One representative, one vote. This eliminates politics and gets everyone working together.

“We were also able to tour a number of landmark buildings, the national archive, and visit areas of the capitol that are not normally shown on tours. We were able to visit with Cheri Bustos’ staff and with Sen. Dick Durbin and his staff.

“We began each day of the rest of the conference with breakfast and a general session. Then we took a break and we could choose which breakout session we wanted to attend. We had a speaker during lunch and then we had our choice of breakout sessions in the afternoon. Our choices ranged from transportation to the workforce, environment to economic and community development, and beyond.

“My takeaways on this are that everyone agrees that we need to…

For complete article, pick up the March 7 Belvidere Republican.