Stop effort to eliminate townships

Townships in Illinois are our oldest form of government, operated by our neighbors and providing close-to-home services such as low-income energy assistance, assessor’s office property tax relief and filing services, mental health counseling, food pantries, cemetery maintenance, free yard waste collection, needy family help, parkway tree trimming, discount prescription programs, free notary public service and road and bridge maintenance.

In my unincorporated Palatine Township neighborhood, the streets are well maintained and are plowed hours before any of the surrounding areas. We can walk into our nearby Township Center and speak to the people who make it happen, face-to-face.

There is now a bill making its way through the Illinois Legislature — Senate Bill 2504 — that would eliminate townships and force their low cost, community-administered advantages into county governments. As anyone who has ever attempted to navigate the maze in trying to have anything done from a county knows, this drastic change would quickly translate into frustration in getting something done for you when you need it done.

Contact your state representative and state senator and tell them that you do not want these well-performing, locally-provided services to disappear into the maze of county government in the name of so-called efficiency. Tell them that you want to keep local control over local services. Urge them to vote no on Senate Bill 2504.

William Murray

Palatine