51 Comments - How Ironic - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 12:38 pm: If they only had RTW…. - How Ironic - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 12:40 pm: Lutheran Social Services is disappointed to learn the boat dock/kayak launch will not be installed. All of the people they can no longer serve are looking for some hope. Now that hope has been dashed…where will they turn? - Cubs in '16 - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 12:41 pm: Perhaps the author of the letter should call upon all boaters/canoers/kayakers to contact their legislators and demand an end to this madness! - Cubs in '16 - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 12:42 pm: This is surely the straw that breaks the proverbial camel’s back. /s - Anonymous - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 12:44 pm: This destroys my plans for summer, which depended entirely on the Floating Boat Dock at Tutty’s Crossing. If this chaos does not jump-start a compromise, nothing will. - 360 Degree TurnAround - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 12:46 pm: I’m not sure why the state would fund that crossing. Good job on Madigan, he saved the state $64,600. Not sure where that is, but can’t they pull themselves up by their boot straps and get private donations to pay for it? - 360 Degree TurnAround - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 12:47 pm: Where is the IPI story about the net out migration of floating docks? - 360 Degree TurnAround - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 12:48 pm: This is not a dock friendly state. We need workers’ comp reform! - mokenavince - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 12:49 pm: Who needs a stinkin dock. Mike the boss says you have to pound sand. - burbanite - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 12:50 pm: $64600 would buy a lot of meals on wheels. Priorities people. - Jeep - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 12:51 pm: Instead of Rauner’s “Tax Hike Mike” spin maybe it should be “Madigan No Canoe.” That’ll raise the ire of the people. - Mouthy - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 12:55 pm: Tippe Canoe and Kayaks too… - frisbee - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 12:56 pm: Will someone please think of the children! ~ Helen Lovejoy - Chad - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 12:57 pm: The fact that the State was going to pay for a local dock is evidence it self of how we got where we are. - And I Approved This Message - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 12:57 pm: Didn’t the General Assembly, or public outcry, end the idea of Claude Walker as the state’s canoe and kayak czar back in the early Quinn days? Seems to be of those ideas that won’t die. - wordslinger - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 12:58 pm: Below is a link to the 2015 annual report for Catholic Charities of Chicago. I encourage everyone to read and learn about the magnificent work they do for all of us, in our names. Please pay close attention to their revenues. Of their $184 million in revenues, $158 million comes from government contracts and grants. Please understand — much of the labor that goes into their work is donated, it’s free. No salaries. No benefits. No pensions. It’s an amazing value for the taxpayers. Please — be heard, and insist that his misanthropic sabotage be stopped. Please — let’s be the people that we like to think that we are. https://www.catholiccharities.net/Portals/0/Media/Publications/Annual%20Report/2015AR_FINAL_web.pdf - Foster brooks - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 12:59 pm: Go spend you’re money in wisconsin. Very boat and ATV friendly - Anonymous - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 1:03 pm: Chad 12:57, that sums it up. If the state is still paying for this, and the only reason it gets attention is because of this silly letter to the editor, what else are we paying for while pleading that the state is broke and there are no more cuts to make? - Mouthy - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 1:07 pm: “what else are we paying for while pleading that the state is broke and there are no more cuts to make?” Plenty. Go read some contracts. Bring a chair.. - Chad - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 1:09 pm: Let’s face it. The party was so good and lasted so long that we paid for this fun but pretty unnecessairy stuff. It should be a long time before we pay for this kind of thing again. I am in Indy for a meeting. The streets are clean, paved, and people here are happy and proud. No homeless on the streets. Kills me to see all of these justifiably-smug Hoosiers. - transplant - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 1:12 pm: All those kids without daycare and college staff without jobs just don’t know the struggle of the dockless … - Captain Illini - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 1:21 pm: It’s a dock system that’s paid for from federal boating funds derived from fuel taxes, then allocated…so nobody else’s funds were snatched to do this. But alas, in the land of Jane Addams, everything is going to hull in a hand basket! - Huh? - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 1:25 pm: OMG how are people supposed to launch their canoe or kayak without a floating dock? It is totally unacceptable and outrageous for people to get their feet wet because they have to step into the water to launch their boat. What is next, the bottom of their boats getting scratches from the sand? Who is going to pay for this damage to the boats? I just cannot believe how the State could be so uncaring and insensitive to the needs and concerns of the Freeport boaters. Despite the dire financial straits of the State, IDNR must immediately fund this important project to save the boaters from wet shoes and feet. There is nothing more important than this project which will prevent the unsightly and supraficial damage to the bottoms of the boats. /s - Anonin' - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 1:27 pm: Tutty Crossin’ won’t be the same. Someone might want to check with the $uper$tars as to why they Director CloseTheMuseum to let the grant go. I believe they were the most recent group in charge when there was a budget. - siriusly - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 1:33 pm: no snark for me Perhaps this crisis that the Governor created has shown some people that their state government actually does some things they support and funds some programs they use. Maybe perhaps connected some for people that government, good or bad, has necessary functions and we don’t live as wild un-organized anarchists for a reason. - Team Warwick - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 1:37 pm: Ok snarkers apologize to these people. A floating canoe launch is a special piece of safety equipment that makes it more accessible to handicapped, children and those of decreasing senior abilities. The way it works is you set your boat in the slot that has a set of rollers underneath. You load people in the boat, then push off so you roll out of the boat slot and off the rollers into the river. Most capsize accidents occur at loading or disembarking points. If ypyr kud is going canoeing, you want of these. - Rich Miller - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 1:39 pm: ===Ok snarkers apologize to these people=== No. - Homer J. Quinn - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 1:41 pm: from the DNR’s page for this grant: “Revenue for this state funded program is derived from marine motor fuel tax and boat/canoe registration fees.” so, the boaters of Illinois have already paid into this fund with the above taxes and fees. this isn’t new money that needs to be found, nor is it taking away from any other program. - wordslinger - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 1:46 pm: –I am in Indy for a meeting. The streets are clean, paved, and people here are happy and proud. No homeless on the streets.– Indy? LOL, walk a mile in any direction from the War Memorial, then get back to us. (But go inside the War Memorial first; it’s absolutely magnificent). This is the kind of lunacy we’re dealing with; that state government, somehow, can deliver some Stalinist, top-down utopia, a cure for the human condition. That’s the shell game that Rauner has some of the people, all of the time, tripping on; that his obvious, base objectives are somehow for the greater good. No, his objectives are just very limited, very obvious and base. - Anonymous - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 1:48 pm: Perhaps the boat drink caucus can help break this stalemate - illini97 - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 1:49 pm: Sorry, no. No one NEEDS to boat, per se. People do need to eat. And have a shelter when temps are freezing. And have their furnace kick on when wind chills are -10. Seniors might enjoy boating, but if their meals on wheels don’t get there, I’m assuming not taking a trip down the river is a pretty minor concern. On Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, I think you’ll find that the base is crumbling in Illinois for many. - Whatever - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 1:52 pm: If it weren’t for prevailing wage, they could have paid for this without state help and would have had it 2 years ago. - Team Warwick - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 1:54 pm: Its not GRF money. Its money sitting in a special fund already sitting there for boat dock purposes. It wont raise your tax rate. You cant spend it on anything else and you cant sweep it. So …….tell me again why their boat dock is held hostage? - Anon221 - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 1:55 pm: wordslinger- “Please understand — much of the labor that goes into their work is donated, it’s free. No salaries. No benefits. No pensions. It’s an amazing value for the taxpayers.” ***** And, usually on most grant applications, this work done by the volunteers helps as matching “funds” for the organization, and in some cases is required by the grantor. Volunteers, in any organization, are an integral part of the foundation and bedrock. - How Ironic - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 1:55 pm: Upon hearing of this ‘crisis’ Gov Rauner blurted out “$64,000? Why that’s 1/2 a bottle of wine!” - Empty Suit - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 2:05 pm: Uh oh somebody blamed Madigan instead of the Gov - Sir Reel - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 2:07 pm: Fun is fun but as Homer said, this project will be paid for from DNR’s Boat Fund, specifically from registration fees paid on canoes and kayaks. This is a small special fund the Governor and GA would like to sweep. Yes the State needs money for many other worthwhile things but why should canoeists and kayakers pay more than other taxpayers? Tuttys Landing is an old contaminated industrial site that is being redeveloped as a downtown trail head for the Jane Addams Trail/water access to the Pecatonica River. It’s a tourism/economic development project that takes care of an eye sore. - Stones - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 2:09 pm: Tutty’s Crossing will never be the same. - Homer J. Quinn - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 2:13 pm: moreover why should boaters see the taxes they paid - which were promised to only go toward improving boat access - being diverted to some other use? - My New Handle - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 2:14 pm: My guess is the funding was from a “member initiative” aka “legislative add-on.” Lots of those are for bringing home the bacon, but overall add millions to every budget for local projects for which every Illinois taxpayer foots the bill. - Chad - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 2:16 pm: Indy isn’t perfect, but a mile away from the circle things are a lot better than a mile south or west of the loop. The point is that we have been blowing dollars on questionable give-always and programs for decades, and this dock is just an emblem of the desire to extend the party beyond reason. On the other hand, we can keep it going and eventually federalize responsibility for our past spending. Given the refusal to deal, looks like this is in our future. Let those vacuume-cleaning Hoosiers pay, baby. - Rich Miller - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 2:21 pm: People, this post was put up purely in jest. Relax, man, it’s Friday. Sheesh. - Sir Reel - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 2:23 pm: My New Handle, read my post above. This isn’t a member initiative. It’s funded by registration fees on canoes and kayaks. In fact, canoeists wanted the registration fee imposed on them for exactly this type of project. - Give Me A Break - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 2:37 pm: Mike Madigan and the watercraft he controls. - wordslinger - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 2:45 pm: –Indy isn’t perfect, but a mile away from the circle things are a lot better than a mile south or west of the loop.– BS. I’ve got nothing against Indy, but put it to the test: Buy some real estate, and get back to us. - A Jack - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 2:56 pm: I helped build one of those out at Sangchris when I was a kid. You would think the Boy Scouts could put up the labor and the local government find some cash for materials. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 2:57 pm: I have to believe this is Speaker Madigan and the Flotilla he controls… - wordslinger - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 3:03 pm: –People, this post was put up purely in jest. Relax, man, it’s Friday.– Sorry, dude. Way too late for that. Real people, the weakest of the weak, are getting tuned up, in our name, by our government, on our watch. On our watch. I am ashamed, and the only path to redemption is to make it right, with honesty, without thought to consequence, with the only objective being the better day ahead. “Relax” ain’t in my vocabulary anymore. Not with this existing state of affairs, not with this status quo. –”I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. . . . I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.” – William Lloyd Garrison - Forgottonian - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 3:08 pm: This is Speaker Madigan and the paddles he controls. - MSIX - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 3:48 pm: **It was reported that Illinois House Speaker Madigan may not bring a budget to the floor until November, after the elections.** This is what keeps me awake at night. Just the possibility this could happen. - Earnest - Friday, Feb 19, 16 @ 4:07 pm: >Relax, man, it’s Friday. Can’t do it. Too many people already hurt, more going to be, hole dug deeper for future pain, and by intention on the part of our Governor and (sorry OW) the House and Senate Republicans. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.