Steinmeyer Neighborhood and GlenEd Citizens

I have just been talking to a member of the Steinmeyer neighborhood group. If you haven't been following the local news scene, here it is in a nutshell: The Sunshine Law has been ignored in Edwardsville.

The Sunshine Law is the nickname for two pieces of Illinois legislation designed to provide full access to units of local government in Illinois. These are the Illinois Open Meetings Act and the Freedom of Information Act.

The general purpose of the Open Meetings Act is to provide public access to meetings of public officials, and input into and review of decisions made at such meetings. The Freedom of Information Act, on the other hand, is designed to insure public access to records assembled, gathered, produced and disseminated by public bodies.

A decision has been made to put in a new residential area; the developers are happy, the city gov't is happy, the P&Z and Zoning Board of Appeals had a JOINT meeting to approve the development. But curiously, they waited until two weeks ago to notify the neighborhood within 300 feet of the development. Edwardsville did NOT notify the school district, despite its proximity to Woodland Elementary School.

Links to articles:
http://www.zwire.com/site/index.cfm?newsid=19415130&BRD=2291&PAG=461&dept_id=473648&rfi=8http://www.zwire.com/site/index.cfm?newsid=19421287&BRD=2291&PAG=461&dept_id=473648&rfi=8http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/illinoisnews/story/FAFB6EC9CAA9EA978625741700170B35?OpenDocument

Despite a meeting room bursting with protestors, two unanimous votes sent the proposal on its way up the chain. Sound familiar? It should, this is how the WalMart Supercenter issue was handled in Glen Carbon.

I have invited a representative from the Steinmeyer group to come to our next meeting, so we can discuss what GlenEd Citizens can do to get involved with this situation. If any of you live near this development (Timberland Place) or know someone who lives near or have children in the ECUSD 7, please keep up with our efforts. We may be knocking on doors and getting signatures at the school as well. We will need as many people as possible so we can gather many signatures without asking too much of our members.

If you have any thoughts or ideas or information on this issue, please let us know.

GlenEd Citizens
mailto:CitizensGlenEdCitizens@gmail.com