Hennepin Needs Somebody to Enforce Rules

Hennepin needs someone to enforce its rules. With the resignation of property maintenance officer Josh Randall, the town is in need of someone to take care of violation issue, a need that was apparent at Wednesday night’s meeting as issue after issue was brought up with no ability for recourse. During the meeting, a resident complained about a neighboring property, grass clippings blown onto streets were discussed, and upgrades to the village maintenance code were approached, all with no resolution without the officer.

LTV cleanup concerns

While the old LTV Steel building — currently being torn down by owners Hennepin Industrial Development, LLC, sits outside the village limits, it was a topic of discussion at the village board meeting.

“With everything (being torn) down, I’ve had people coming to me and asking what is the village going to do to protect our assets, with our assets being our natural resources — our water,” Dean said.

Dean said he has seen photos and is concerned about exposed scrap material and other items that he thinks may contain hazardous materials. Dean told the board he had called the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, but had not heard back. He also expressed concern about burning and runoff.

Village attorney Sheryl Churney told Dean the board had no jurisdiction, and the county board or health department would need to be in charge of any issues that may arise. Mayor Kevin Coleman said he called the IEPA, and state Sen. Sue Rezin and state Rep. Jerry Long aout the demolition. He and Dean encouraged trustees to call IEPA, state and county officials.

Source: News Tribune