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Aurora Beacon-News
August 26, 2002
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By Steve Lord
STAFF WRITER
BIG ROCK ó To Blanca Souders, the issue is simple.
"It's political," she said Sunday afternoon, speaking to fellow protesters against the proposed Outer
Belt highway, which she and her group call the Sprawlway.
"The need does not exist," she said. "(Speaker of the House) Dennis Hastert is trying to leave a
legacy for himself. If he wants to build it, then why doesn't he build it through his house?"
Souders was one of several hundred mostly western Kane County residents who crowded the barns and yard at the Marvel
Davis farm on Jericho Road in Big Rock to rally against the highway and raise money to fight it.
The bash was thrown by Citizens Against the Sprawlway, and the Davis farm provided the perfect backdrop. Not only
is the farm, with its Civil War-era barn and its picturesque setting next to Big Rock Creek and the Big Rock Forest
Preserve, a de facto center for the Big Rock community, it is but a quick horse sprint from where the Illinois
Department of Transportation says the Outer Belt should be built.
Jan Strasma, of Citizens Against the Sprawlway, pointed across Jericho Road to where the Outer Belt would run through
one of Davis' fields, then jog through the Dettman property and take out part of a woods as it crossed Big Rock
Creek.
"If you look around, you see what is going to be destroyed if the Sprawlway is ever built," he said.
"We stand to lose an awful lot here."
With food, drink, music and hayrides, people looked at maps and videos between bites, and listened to songs as
they signed petitions. The petitions are designed to go the gubernatorial candidates in the fall election, Democrat
Rod Blagojevich and Republican Jim Ryan, "so they know where we stand on this issue."
That could be important, Kane County Board Chairman Mike McCoy told the rally, because a new governor in the fall,
who will bring in a new state highway director, could literally change directions on the Outer Belt highway project.
"It makes sense for it to be closer to Aurora, where there are 140,000 people who would actually use the road,
and closer to Sugar Grove and Montgomery, places that want growth," McCoy said.
A Sunday drive
While the bright sunshine and temperate weather said late summer with a hint toward the changing of the seasons,
there was evidence of another season coming up: the political one.
Numerous politicians attended the rally, including candidates for Kane County clerk, Republican John Cunningham
and Democrat Christine Adelman, and Democratic sheriff candidate Pat Perez. Also there was State Sen. Chris Lauzen,
R-Aurora, who is looking at legislation aimed to curb the power of the state to site a road corridor before environmental
impact and road studies have been done.
And adding to both the political and musical flavor of the day was Auroran Larry Quick, Democratic challenger to
Hastert in the 13th Congressional District. Quick has seized upon the Outer Belt issue in his uphill battle to
unseat one of the most powerful people in Congress. The highway corridor was sited earlier this month by IDOT at
the urging of Hastert.
Sunday, he told the crowd that Hastert has become "deaf, dumb and blind to the needs of the working people
in his district." He then grabbed a guitar and sang the Woody Guthrie classic, This Land is Your Land.
Citizens Against the Sprawlway had a special "message in a bottle" area for people to write short messages
to the speaker of the House. Someone even touted [WEB SITE], a Web site promised to be up and running soon.
For most of the people there, the message was contained in the words of McCoy and Souders, who said more "common
sense" is needed in the siting of a highway such as the Outer Belt. As they looked around the postcard setting
that was the Davis farm Sunday, they talked about how incongruous a highway would be there.
"People make choices," said Souders, who grew up on Aurora's East Side but now has lived in Kaneville
longer than anywhere else.
"You live in the city, or you live in the country. People from the country go to the city, and support what
they have. And people in the city support us so they can come out here for a Sunday drive."
