By David R. Kazak
Daily Herald Staff Writer
If U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert is upset with Kane County Board Chairman Mike McCoy over their differing opinions
about the proposed outer-belt expressway, you wouldn't know it from hearing him speak Monday.
"I've always gotten along with Mike McCoy," Hastert said during a meeting with the Daily Herald's editorial
board.
That answer came in response to a question that recounted McCoy's claim that Hastert used "strong-arm"
tactics to garner McCoy's support for the outer-belt expressway, or - if McCoy remained opposed - his silence.
To be sure, Hastert wasn't shy Monday about his view on the state's controversial proposal to record a 33-mile-long
corridor of land between I-80 and I-88 that eventually would be home to the so-called Prairie Parkway.
What's raised the ire of expressway opponents, including McCoy, is the Illinois Department of Transportation's
plan to place that 400-foot-wide corridor through nine miles of undeveloped farmland in southwestern Kane County.
McCoy and others want to keep that area, which includes Big Rock and Kaneland townships, free from development
during the next two decades and beyond. Hastert, however, said development is inevitable, as is the need for the
expressway.
"The right thing, to do, in my mind, is to find that centerline," Hastert said. Despite his difference
with McCoy, Hastert downplayed talk of bad blood between the two.
"McCoy disagrees with me," he said. "But there's other things we have to work together on and do
for the good of the people of Kane County.
"The more we work together, the more benefit there is for the constituents," Hastert said. "I hold
no ill will toward (McCoy). It's just too bad we don't agree on this thing.
"In the long term, what I'm trying to do is right," he said.
McCoy, who met with Hastert at a Kane County Republican Party function on Monday, also backed away from the criticism
he's lobbed in recent weeks toward Hastert.
"We've never seen eye-to-eye on the outer-belt issue, but we have to be able to find some common ground,"
McCoy said. The meeting was the first between McCoy and Hastert since the outer-belt debate heated up in December,
which is when IDOT first announced its corridor protection plan.
"It was nice to see him like that," McCoy said. "It was kind of good to cool the jets a little.
"The truth is, we have always gotten along well," he added. "This is the only issue we've had any
kind of conflict on."
McCoy said no matter what, he remains opposed to IDOT's plan to record the corridor in western Kane.
On Thursday, he and other Kane County officials will make a presentation to state and local officials on an alternative
route for the expressway east of Route 47, a route McCoy said had "advantages" over the IDOT's proposed
route, which would connect with I-88 west of Route 47 near Kaneville.