Maine Township officials will attend the township’s annual town hall meeting on Tuesday, April 9, 2024. (Photo: Igor Stdenkov)
Over the past year, Maine Township has expanded its food pantry offerings to include fresh fruits and vegetables, expanded counseling services to elementary schools and Maine West High School, and introduced online registration for many social programs. .
These are the main takeaways from Township Supervisor Karen Dimond’s annual report, which she presented at last Tuesday’s (April 9) annual town hall meeting held at the main township building in Park Ridge. This is the main point.
The report included an update on the township department’s efforts over the past year, new features, and upcoming plans. Dimond also touched on the purpose of townships, arguing that the idea that abolishing townships would save taxpayers money without sacrificing quality of service is fundamentally wrong.
Main townships provide social services throughout the region, including municipalities that provide their own social services. Unincorporated areas perform many municipal functions, including building code enforcement, road maintenance, snow removal, licensing, and emergency response. The county is responsible for law enforcement and zoning.
State law requires all Illinois townships to hold their annual general meetings on the second Tuesday in April after 6 p.m. The council was originally established to discuss important town business and make decisions on everything from the sale of town property to the establishment of services. Decisions are made by a simple majority of registered voters who have lived in the town for at least 28 days. Voters can add any item to the agenda as long as at least 15 voters support it and the proposal is submitted at least 15 days before the meeting.
In fact, the main township town hall meeting has evolved into more of a “state of the township” address and an opportunity to recognize long-serving employees and township residents.
Maine Township has provided mental health services for many years through the Maine Stay Youth and Family Services Program. Dimond said he worked with local school districts because it is unreasonable to expect everyone, especially children, to come to town halls for counseling.
“We’re no longer just providing counseling in this building, we’re going into schools and providing counseling to kids who otherwise wouldn’t be able to access therapy in this building,” she said. said.
Over the past year, MaineStay began offering therapy at Apollo, Metzger, and Washington elementary schools in East Maine District 63, as well as Maine West High School.
“I’m glad they’re providing care for the children where they are,” Dimond said.
Another big change is the expansion of the variety of foods offered at the Main Township Food Pantry. Thanks to a partnership with the Greater Chicago Food Pantry, which supplies food pantries throughout the Chicago area, residents of Main Township now have access to fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, eggs, meat and cheese. Now you can enter it.
“In the last few months alone, we have received over 36,000 pounds of free food from the Greater Chicago Food Depository,” Dimond added.
In a smaller, but still notable change from a client perspective, MaineStay and MaineStreamers senior services now allow clients to register and pay online.
Mr. Dimond opened his report by mentioning some recently proposed state legislation that would make it easier to dissolve smaller units of government. She cited a recent study commissioned by the Illinois Association of Township Employees, which found that township abolition would not save taxpayers money, based on 2021 data. According to the study, smaller agencies tend to have smaller budgets and spend less on employees than larger agencies such as counties and cities. The cost doesn’t go anywhere because the service still needs to be provided.
Dimond noted that if Maine Township were to dissolve, Cook County would have to take over services for the unincorporated area.
“There’s an assumption that if there were no additional costs, these big government agencies would perform all the services, and I don’t see that,” she said. “I myself worked in Cook County for 30 years, and I can tell you that if all of a sudden Maine Township were abolished, Cook County would no longer be able to perform those functions, and these types of services, personal services,・It will not be able to provide the attention that residents receive through the township.
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