Petitions available at Farm Bureaus

Q: I read your paper’s Wednesday editorial regarding the Independent Maps Amendment petition drive with great interest, but it did not mention where I can go to sign the petition. I live in Madison County and would very much like to sign. Can you tell how I and other interested people can add our names to the petition?

A: The Illinois Farm Bureau is trying to help state residents harvest far more than corn and soybeans. It also is trying to help them reap what it considers a much fairer legislative redistricting process, too.

If you go to the Independent Maps Amendment website (www.mapamendment.org), you’ll find that the bureau with its 400,000 members has become a driving force behind this plan designed to stop politicians from carving up the state in ways that simply protect their own turf. As such, the bureau says it is offering petitions to sign in each of its county offices throughout the state to help put this on the ballot next November.

“Illinois Farm Bureau has long believed that Illinois needs an independent redistricting commission to draw our legislative maps,” David Erickson, the bureau’s vice president, wrote in a lengthy statement posted on the amendment website. “We have felt the districts should not be based on political affiliation and prior election results, and that districts should be compact, contiguous and impartial to party or incumbency. We also feel that districts should follow county, township and municipal boundaries as much as possible. This is what the Independent Map Amendment will do.”

Currently, the state’s constitution provides for legislative districts to be redrawn after each census and approved by the General Assembly before being sent to the governor for a final yea or nay. However, if the General Assembly cannot agree on a map, they set up a commission with equal representation from each party. If the commission cannot agree, a “kicker clause” allows the political parties to decide on yet another member to break the tie.

“You would think the ‘kicker clause’ would force the general assembly and the governor to find some common ground to avoid it, but that has not always been the case,” Erickson noted.

Instead, he says, we wind up with convoluted districts designed for the politicians’ goal of re-election rather than an election process that might provide residents a chance to send new blood and ideas to Springfield. As we pointed out in our editorial, a typical example is the 114th Illinois House District shaped like the letter “U” that includes East St. Louis and Smithton along with Shiloh and parts of O’Fallon and Lebanon.

“Instead of waiting for the census to roll around and then thinking about change, we need to think about it now so a new redistricting process can be in place before the next census,” Erickson wrote.

The plan is well on its way to finding a spot on next year’s ballot. In just the two months since Erickson wrote his appeal, the petition has gained 100,000 additional signatures to more than 400,000. Only 290,216 are needed, but supporters want to gather 600,000 so that any and all challenges from the entrenched politicians can be rebuffed. If passed, the next redistricting after the 2020 census would be done by an 11-member, nonpartisan, independent commission that would draw new, compact districts to protect minority voting rights and keep geographies intact.

If you would like the state to give it a whirl, you can add your John or Joan Henry at the following Illinois Farm Bureau offices: 1478 E. Illinois 15, Belleville (233-6800); 900 Hillsboro Ave., Edwardsville (656-5191); 513 Park St., Waterloo (939-6197); 1165 N. 4th St., Breese (526-7235); 1403 Hillcrest Drive, Sparta (443-4511); 925 E. Harris Ave., Greenville (664-3100).; and 246 W. St. Louis St., Nashville (327-3081). Better yet, go to the map amendment website, where you can learn more about the subject and find out how to start your own petition drive.

Q: What are they building along Frank Scott Parkway east of Hartman Lane?

A: To update a well-worn adage, you apparently can’t be too rich or too thin — or have too many convenience stores. So at the northeast corner of Hartman and Frank Scott, they have begun putting up another QuikTrip mart that likely will open sometime next year.

A little farther east, you’ve likely seen activity going on behind the Dierberg’s supermarket just east of the intersection of Frank Scott and Green Mount Road. But here there’s nothing new going up. A concrete batch plant has been set up to facilitate some underground work.

There’s still nothing going up across the street, either. Real estate broker Paul McKee’s Eagle Properties had announced plans to develop Three Springs, a 193-acre retail, office, medical and residential development at the southeast corner of Frank Scott and Green Mount. But except for the American Eagle Credit Union that opened there in December 2013, the land has remained undeveloped.

As a result, PNC Bank last spring filed a lawsuit alleging McKee had defaulted on an $8.3 million loan made in connection with that mixed-use development. I’m told the legal battle still is playing itself out.

Today’s trivia

According to many historians, what was Billy the Kid’s first crime?

Answer to Friday’s trivia: Launched on July 11, 1914, the USS Nevada was considered the Navy’s first super-dreadnought, sporting such new features as triple gun turrets, oil instead of coal for fuel and geared steam turbines for better range. During the last few months of World War I, the battleship was based in Bantry Bay, Ireland, and helped protect supply convoys sailing to and from Great Britain. Two decades later, she would be the only battleship to get under way at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, although she still would be hit be a torpedo and at least six bombs. But after extensive repairs, she would return to the seas and take part in action during D-Day as well as the invasions of Southern France, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, making her the only battleship present at Pearl Harbor and Normandy.

This story was originally published December 11, 2015 at 3:44 PM with the headline "Petitions available at Farm Bureaus."