Keith Thomason, general manager of the Rend Lake Conservancy District, admits that Tuesday’s vote was “interesting.”
Franklin County voters carried the vote to enable the district to “enter into long-term leases for the private development of public recreation and commercial facilities on the unused property in the Gun Creek area.” Unofficial election returns indicate 11,048 “yes” votes were cast, with 6,238 county residents opposing the referendum.
“I think the results were very interesting,” Thomason said. “We suspected people would like the idea of developing unused property in the Gun Creek area.
“We have had a number of developers make presentations to the board of directors,” he said. “We have a lot of work ahead and will talk to the developers again to find someone who is interested in constructing what the public and the district would like.”
Promoters of the public safety tax referendum also have work ahead following the tax’s defeat by a wide margin.
Voters expressed concern about the economy when asked to approve a 3/4-cent increase to subsidize an ambulance service. Of the 17,778 unofficial ballots cast, 11,010 or 61.93 percent were opposed to an increase in sales tax.
Hervey Davis said that while he is “disappointed in the outcome, it is really no big surprise.”
“I talked with the county’s administrative assistant on the phone this morning,” Davis said. “We agree that we reached out to a lot of voters in a very short period of time. We had six weeks from the time the committee made the decision to recommend a 3/4-cent increase in sales taxes to subsidize an ambulance service.
“In that six-week period, we reached enough people to gain a small percentage of ‘yes’ votes for the referendum,” Davis said. “Of the 28,247 registered voters in Franklin County, 6,768 of them voted in favor of an increase in sales tax to support the public safety tax.”
Davis said the committee has work ahead.
“Of course the decision is up to county board chairman Randall Crocker, but I think we need to get the committee back together to see what we can do to get the referendum passed in April,” he said. “We need to get more people involved and set up an e-mail network. We also need to have meetings with the operations committee.
“I don’t feel terrible about the outcome,” Davis said. “We need more time to educate the public about the importance of providing a quality ambulance service.”
Supporters of the concealed carry referendum “sent a message to Springfield,” according to Valinda Rowe, spokeswoman for IllinoisCarry.com.
“The referendum passed in 10 of 14 counties in Illinois,” Rowe said. “Even in the four northern counties, the concealed carry referendum only failed by an average of 5 percent. The vote was very, very close even in the counties in which it did not pass.
“Part of the reason the vote failed in the four northern counties is because there was not enough time to hold town hall meetings,” Rowe said. “When the Winnebago County board passed the resolution, they immediately sent copies of it to every other county in the state. It was so late in the year that not every county had an opportunity to organize a town meeting. Town hall meetings were held in Franklin, Jefferson, Saline and Union counties and it passed in every county.”
Rowe said the concealed carry referendum failed to pass in Winnebago County by 2 percent.
“It also failed in McDonough, La Salle and Kendall counties, but only by a small margin,” she said. “The votes will send a message to legislators. We will be introducing a concealed carry bill in January when the new legislation is called into session. IllinoisCarry.com, the Illinois Rifle Association and others will be pushing the issue to encourage legislators to pass a concealed carry law. We will keep posting information on the Web site.”
The concealed carry referendum passed by a vote of 12,455 to 5,279 against.
Rowe said more education is needed.
“Education is the key to having a big impact on the issue,” she said. “It is not a matter of if the concealed carry law passes; it is a matter of when.”
Ronnie Baumgarte, Benton public property commissioner, said he thought the results were “great.”
“I appreciate everyone who voted in favor of the concealed carry referendum,” he said. “If 48 states can trust people to carry a concealed weapon after they have been trained and have had a background check, why can’t Illinois? In other states that have passed concealed carry laws, some businesses have signs posted outside their doors that tell people to leave their guns outside their doors. The law works in every other state it has been passed.
“People who are going to hurt you already have guns,” Baumgarte said. “For the most part, the majority of people in Franklin County already have guns. Just because they already have a gun, that does not mean they will use it in an irresponsible manner.”
Baumgarte said the vote sends a message to Illinois State Sen. Gary Forby and State Rep. John Bradley.
“The voters want to have the right to protect themselves and their families,” he said. “They want what is right because it is their constitutional right to bear a firearm whether they carry one or not.”
Benton, Ill. —
