This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Protesters Say No To Toi Hutchinson's Peotone Airport and Illiana Highway

Protesters gathered outside of Toi Hutchinson's office Saturday, November 3rd, to protest her support of the Peotone Airport and Illiana Highway.

For decades, farmers in rural Illinois never had a problem deciding where their cows would go. Family owned farms offered plenty of land, and handing down generation to generation allowed for a stable area to grow the livestock and food we all need, for ourselves and our economy. That may all change soon.

Protesters on Saturday, November 3rd gathered near Toi Hutchinson's (40th State Senate Candidate) office to protest her support of the Peotone Airport and Illiana Highway as two largely unpopular ideas that would take money and land out of their local economies and into the hands of private investors and Cook county. In order to build these two unecessary projects, farmland would be condemned and taken from the farmers through a process called "Quick-take", which expedites the eminent domain process and gives little recourse to the land owners involved.

The Illiana Highway would rely heavily on the Quick-take process, but there's no guarantee that the project would move forward even after the land is forcefully purchased by the state. Only $9 million dollars have been budgeted to study the highway, and estimates put the highway at over $3 billion dollars to construct. With the state in the financial situation it is currently in, there's no money to pay for such a project, and rushed condemnations could take place for absolutely no reason in the end.

Find out what's happening in New Lenoxwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The Peotone Airport is also largely unpopular with local residents, and isn't even recommended by the Federal Aviation Adminstration as a project to continue with. Local group S.T.A.N.D. has opposed the building at every step of the way, but the current Illinois lawmakers seem poised to make it a reality.

Toi Hutchison has announced her support for Quick-take when she voted yes for it in office, with the express purpose of building the unfunded Illiana Highway. Toi Hutchinson has also largely supported the Peotone Airport, even going so far as to proposing another committee to overview the unfunded construction effort.

Find out what's happening in New Lenoxwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

This election season, it's important to support a candidate who will say no to the Peotone Airport, and who will say no to condemning farmland to build an unfunded and largely unpopular Illiana Highway. Tuck Marshall is Toi's opponent in the 40th State Senate district, and your vote could be the deciding ballot that finally puts these budget blowing projects to rest.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?