The Morgan County board this morning rejected a request to place a referendum on the November ballot to separate Morgan County from the state.
The request would result in, effectively a new state. The request came from Lori Fuller.
It came at the end of a lengthy board meeting, about one hour, attended by 17 people crowded into the commissioners’ office at the Morgan County Courthouse. The motion was not made by any of the members of the board, and died as a result.
Commissioner Racer Wood says the idea doesn’t make sense, and the Illinois legislature and Congress would need to approve it first.
Wood says this idea will not happen in our lifetime, and the movement needs local signatures on a petition before it would be considered for the ballot.
The meeting began with a give and take between chairman Mike Wankel, and commissioner Michael Woods. Woods was attending by phone, and complained the meeting was moved to the middle of the week without consulting him.
He also repeated his continuing request to place the line item, other business, on the board agenda. Wankel rejected the argument for the item, and complained about Woods not attending the meeting in person.
That was followed by seven people arguing for more information about data center research. Some asked for a change of the time for the twice monthly meetings, others said the state has tied the hands of local governments without zoning powers, and some saying they want more give and take from the board.
Chairman Wankel says he welcomes all input as the county collects information during the six month moratorium.
He says they will talk about the information about data centers once all the information comes in.
The six month moratorium on data center reviews started the tail end of April, and ends at the final Monday of October. The board has indicated it will look at a data center regulatory ordinance in October.