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Daily Herald
April 12, 2003
By Melissa Nielsen
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Fourteen public interest and governmental organizations have formed the Prairie Alliance to focus attention on the Prairie Parkway.
Most of the groups involved have been opponents of plans to build a highway stretching from I-88 in Kane County near Kaneville and I-80 in Grundy County near Minooka.
Jan Strasma, spokesperson of the alliance and chairman of one of the most outspoken opposing groups, Citizens Against the Sprawlway, said the alliance is a different approach to the highway plans, bringing together a variety of views.
Some, like Citizens Against Sprawl, are totally against the highway and other groups, like the Kendall County Farm Bureau are willing to support moving the site, but all want the public to be informed on the project's status.
"None of the organization members may be proponents of the highway, but there are a spectrum of views on if the highway is built how it should be accomplished," Strasma said.
The alliance's goal, Strasma said, is to provide information about the Illinois Department of Transportation's environmental impact study and the highway's possible effects on the environment, transportation, agriculture and open space.
Dan Reedy, manager of the Kendall County Farm Bureau, said focusing on providing unbiased information will be difficult, considering the strong, mostly anti-highway opinions.
"We want to get out not negative, not positive, but just provide the information and make sure the process works like it's supposed to," he said. "It's going to be hard, but we can do it."
By drawing public interest, the alliance will also ensure that alternatives are considered during IDOT's planning, Strasma said.
"We want the state to know we are looking over their shoulder as they do this," he said.
The state has already put a 400-foot-wide land corridor on the deeds of property owners in the expressway's path.
"Clearly, by recording the corridor, the state is saying they want a road there, and they want it to be a highway, but the state says they'll keep an open mind and we want them to keep them to their word," Strasma said.
The Village of Big Rock, the Kendall Country Farm Bureau, the Citizens Against the Sprawlway and the Conservation Foundation are the backbone of the alliance. It also includes the Big Rock Historical Society, Campton Township, Citizens for Aux Sable Creek, DeKalb County Farmland Foundation, the Environmental Law and Policy Center, Fox Valley Land Foundation, Geneva-St. Charles League of Women Voters and the Kendall Citizens for Responsible Growth.
The Prairie Alliance will hold a public forum at 7 p.m. May 7 at the Kendall County Courthouse in Yorkville to discuss the status of the IDOT study and explain the environmental review process.