Consolidation is on the minds of Winnebago County Board members both for the board itself and some area townships. Here's the latest on those stories and the push for carrying concealed handguns in the county, after a county board committee meeting Thursday night.
The sun could be setting on Harlem Township, if some Winnebago County board members have their way.
"It's time somebody took over and saved the enormous overhead expense of running yet another government that has very little to do," says board member John Harmon.
Members like Harmon want Rockford and Roscoe Townships to absorb Harlem. Right now Harlem Township only has 22 miles of roads to maintain and Harmon says a big chunk of the township's 600-thousand dollar annual expenses goes into elected officials' salaries.
"It looks to me like you can save at least half that money if you just roll it into the other two townships," says Harmon.
But Harlem Township's supervisor and county board member Doug Aurand says there's more to his township than twenty miles of road.
"We do the assessing of all the property in Harlem Township, of which there's over 1600, we provide general assistance and we do all these optional things, we operate two parks," says Aurand.
Either way the county board doesn't have the final say on whether Harlem Township stays or goes. Their choice is whether or not to place a referendum on the November ballot and let voters check yes or no.
"It would be no and it would be mainly because of the taxes," says Harlem Township resident Debbie Pabst.
Harmon believes everyone's taxes would go down if the governments consolidated, because Rockford and Roscoe Townships would gain larger pools of property tax payers.
But Aurand says Harlem residents would pay around 70 percent more if they were bumped into Rockford Township and 125 percent more in Roscoe Township.
The legislative committee killed a resolution Thursday night that would attach a specific number to how many members the county board can have. But there is still a resolution in front of the full board that would place a referendum on the November ballot, asking for one member to represent each district instead of two.
The committee also decided to draft a resolution urging Springfield to pass a bill that's before the house right now, that would allow all Illinois residents to carry concealed handguns. The House has to vote on that bill by May 23rd.
If that doesn't work, the county board may look closer at allowing just county residents to concealed carry, by essentially deputizing them.