County Board to vote on contentious grant for Bloomington rape crisis center wglt.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wglt.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Beverly Bell will serve the remaining nine months of a term on the McLean County Board in District 6, an area that includes much of Uptown Normal and Illinois State University.
Updated: May 10, 2021 at 5:25 PM CDT
WGLT updated this story to reflect the County Board Executive Committee endorsed the five-district plan on Monday.
A McLean County Board member says his party has been plotting behind closed doors for months to create new district board maps that would make it harder for Democrats to get elected.
Republican Josh Barnett of Bloomington said County Board chair John McIntyre rejected his call for a bipartisan advisory panel to help draw the maps.
“They are trying to dump Republican voters from the rural areas into Bloomington-Normal in an attempt to keep control of the County Board for the next decade,” Barnett said. “They are not being open about that. They are not being honest about it and it’s time that it stops and is brought to light.”
Daniel Robinson
McLean County will consider providing more funding to help keep the homeless out of the cold this winter.
The County Board is scheduled to vote at its regular meeting Thursday on a proposal to give up to $48,000 dollars to the PATH Crisis Center in Bloomington to pay for hotel stays for those who can t get into a homeless shelter.
“As bad as this weather has been, we don’t want anybody to be out in this cold and die because of a lack of funding,” County Board Chairman John McIntyre said.
PATH Crisis Center Executive Director Karen Zangerle told members of the County Board’s Executive Committee on Monday the agency had exhausted all its emergency housing funding this winter because the pandemic has limited available shelter beds.