Heather McPherson of McPherson Law Offices, Freeport, Illinois will be speaking to Illinois lawyers on April 28 in Chicago at the annual Illinois State Bar Association Elder Law Bootcamp Course. Her topic is Trust Administration. Heather is past chairperson of the Illinois Bar Association Elder Law Section Council, and is member of the Trusts and Estates Section Council of Illinois Bar Association. She is frequent speaker at Bar Association sponsored programs, and also speaks to community groups on various estate planning topics.

Alex Mills, Community Development Director for the City of Freeport, has again taken the lead in proposing a new ordinance to deal with the problem of undocumented dogs within the City of Freeport. He has proposed that all dogs be registered, and a DNA registry be established for all Freeport dogs. If residents find dog waste in their yards, they only need to drop off samples of the waste at City Hall. They will be sent to a laboratory for analysis. If there is match to a dog in the registry, the owner will be notified and fined. If there is no match, the problem will be referred to the police department to investigate. Unfortunately, the Freeport Police Chief has already stated that his department is too busy to deal with undocumented dogs, and that he will not enforce the law. Mayor Gitz says that the refusal of the Police Chief to enforce the law should be referred to the new City Manager.  

Thank you to all our clients and friends for a wonderful year!

Who runs Freeport? How can the Freeport police drive along Woodside Drive, and fail to take action when there is an obvious ordinance violation? Last winter there were fence posts along one side of Woodside Drive, and nothing was done. Now fence posts are on both sides creating a narrow obstacle course for drivers and snow plows. Why must the citizens of this community have to tolerate obvious ordinance violations. The answer is simple. The police and the current administration do not care about many areas of Freeport. It is up to the citizens in certain areas of this community to protect themselves. It is a sorry situation. And to the “Vote Yes for Freeport Group,” I say to you that a City Manager is not the answer, unless the people of Freeport take control of this community, and insist that public officials do their jobs. Until the citizens of this community demand that public officials do their jobs, and when they fail to do them, insist that they be replaced, this community will not be a good place to live.

Some say U.S. based carriers will never charge passengers based on their body weight plus their luggage. Don’t bet on it. The airlines already charge for checked luggage, and if your luggage is over a certain amount such as 50 pounds, you are charged even more. It is even rumored that in the future travel agents will get bonuses if they sell tickets to overweight individuals. Imagine booking flights for “Weight Watchers.” Carriers such as Allegiant charge for everything now from water to early boarding. It won’t take much to the reach the next step – weight based fares! Southwest Airlines advertises that it likes luggage which flies free. I suppose Southwest Airlines will say in the future that it likes fat people who pay the same as everyone else. My kind of airline!

What I do not understand is where the members of the “Vote YES for Freeport Committee” have been for the last 20 years. I guess everything was great in Freeport until the last year. The streets were perfect, the deer only took over the City in the last year, the quality of the housing stock was great, crime was not a problem, and our homes and businesses were not over assessed. No problems until the last year or two. At least no problems this group was able to see. Now they propose that Freeport adopt a managerial form of municipal government which I assume they think will be the savior of Freeport. What a simplistic approach! Freeport needs new sources of revenue. Money will help solve Freeport’s problems. A city manager with no money to address the issues will be no better than a mayor with no money. Anyone looks good when you have plenty of money to do whatever is necessary. Maybe the time has come for Freeport to have a city manager, but don’t expect it to solve the problems this City is facing. Just another bureaucrat to pay, and pay, and pay.