The Antique Gas Engine Show is absent from the Grundy County Corn Festival this year. The event had been a fixture of Corn Festivals for decades. Antique gas engine enthusiasts travelled from far and near to proudly display their machinery.
Last year, Mayor Dick Kopczick issued a controversial mayoral edict ordering the engine operators to immediately remove their vehicles from the lawn at Chapin Park. The operators tried to explain that they must stay near their machines to keep them running safely. Mayor Kopczick refused to reconsider. Instead, he enlisted the assistance of police to carry out his command and swiftly emptied the park. The engine owners group vowed not to return to Morris.
You might think that the mayor would take steps to make amends and encourage the group to return. If the park lawn had suddenly become an overriding concern, surely there must be some other suitable location.
These out of town guests who volunteered their time, money and energy to make Corn Festival more enjoyable for all, are now left with a negative perception of our community, festival goers are deprived of an enjoyable experience, and a Corn Festival tradition has been destroyed.
35 comments:
*YAWN*
Honestly, who really cares about the engines, everyone knows all Corn Fest is about is bar hopping and drinking on the streets. Oh yeah, and don't forget the parade filled with garbage trucks!! Happy Corn Fest Grundy County.
Will the mayor and city attorney be driving the firetruck in this year's parade?
Sledge, did you hear Bel't whitewash of the land fill fiasco? He doesn't mention that the city VOLUNTARILY signed off on the bond that made Morris liable for the cleanup.
On Community Landfill:
In a stunning example of municipal incompetence, Dick Kopczick and Brian Feeney both favored partnering with Community and having the city sign off on the performance bond.
The city got into bed with some very shady characters. Now it is time to pay the piper - to the tune of seventeen million dollars. Stick that in your TIF.
His corn fest legacy is in Feeney's parking lot!
typical, you only know a few of the details of the antique engine show from last year...I'd be happy to enlighten you to the complete story, having spoken to many of the people involved. Oh, but wait, I can't reach you because you have decided to hide anonymously and add to the vast wasteland of cowards and blithering idiots on the net.
Have a safe and happy Corn Festival !!
We may have lost the Antique Gas Engine Show, but now we have a new Corn Fest tradition, The Drunken Fire Truck Joyridin' Event. Enjoy!
I'd take the drunken fire truck joyridin event over the horsepoopin carriage rides any day.
Where do I buy my ticket?
The new tradition, T.D.F.T.J.E., could be based on the proposed Taj Mahal site. Drunks from all over could pay to go for fire truck rides!
9:52. I'd like to know why cornpone fest even exists? Personally I think it was something started by the bars to make money but they knew that wouldn't sound right so they created this big marketing ploy to push it off as some wholesome family event to celebrate corn. It's a farce, not to mention BOOORRRINNNG.
I didnt even notice that the car show was gone. To be honest with you, I am quiet sure, the people of Morris, stumbling and falling all over themselves drunk in the streets didnt notice either. But these people are such pro's at it maybe they remember...*shrugs*
I hope the mayor does not ever get mad about the big wheel race. I really enjoy watching the race every year.
I love the different kinds of sounds the steam engines make. I pray the mayor will change his mind and let them back in.
On Community Landfill:
Let's talk about this "stunning example of municipal incompetence" for a moment, shall we?
1) Mr. Bob Feeney cast the deciding vote on whether or not to expand Community Landfill. (Which Mr. Brian Feeney voted AGAINST! if any of you ignorant fools had enough sense to remember, or hell, maybe do some research. I may be going too far with that. Perhaps you all aren't aware that you can look up things like this. Try the library. Or the courthouse. Or City Hall...assuming you can find the records somewhere in the basement after it flooded...but I'll get to that somewhere else.)
2) Community Landfill was worth 7 million dollars at the time that Mr. BOB Feeney cast that vote. They were 10 million short when it came time to insure the workers during the expansion. EPA wasn't happy.
3) Community Landfill requested that the city of Morris help them out in what could reasonably be considered a co-sign on a bond.
4) Mr. Bob Feeney agreed, even added the city's name to the paperwork. (Just like co-signing for a car, if the original party does not or can not pay, the second party is liable.) The City Council was unaware of this move until 2001.
5) Mr. Bob Feeney was voted out of office. (Finally!)
6) The bond company went belly-up.
7) The EPA wanted its 17 million dollars now that Community Landfill's bond company was no longer paying it. Community Landfill still did not have the money to insure itself properly. The EPA came after the city of Morris. The city council figured out why. (BOB Feeney's addition of the city to the agreement to pay the 17 million if CLC could not. WITHOUT the council's knowledge.)
8) 6 years LATER, the EPA STILL HAS NOT GOTTEN ITS 17 MILLION DOLLARS FROM THE CITY OF MORRIS. NO TAXES HAVE BEEN RAISED TO COME UP WITH THE MONEY FOR IT. YOU HAVE LOST NOTHING!!!!!!
9) Some idiot decided that local rumor was better than fact and here I am pulling the heads of half this narrow-minded, IGNORANT town out of your own asses.
I'd like to pretend that someone got the first names mixed up. Confused Bob for Brian, but then they went and added Kopczick into the mix, when really he was nothing but an innocent bystander in the whole mess. As were most people. But the addition of his name made me realize that this wasn't a mistake. And I don't think you're lying. I think you're grossly misinformed. And I think you're either too lazy or too stupid to get off your ass and do something about the fact that you're grossly misinformed. You'd rather sit there being angry about something you have absolutely no right to be angry about. You haven't lost anything, you aren't paying more money for this mistake. The City's still going to court for this crap, and all you can do is bitch because you heard it all wrong and you want to be angry about it because everyone's angry about it and damn it, why can't you be angry too! Well, you can be angry. And I can call you a fool for it. Which I have, and will continue to do.
So nice job. And you wonder why they call us hicks, hillbilly's, rednecks, ignorant fools and corn junkies. You wonder why people from other places hear you're from a small town in the middle of a corn field and go, "oh. That must suck."
You must wonder. I don't. Their point has just been proven to me.
Scooter must be working 25 hours a day with this landfill thing going on. He could really use an Alabama vacation right now.
Sledge, I've noticed that fewer and fewer comments are being posted in the Daily Fluff that are not in line with that paper's editorial viewpoint...
The Corn Festival could be such a nice event for our community, but I agree it isn't too inviting to walk downtown with all the alcohol being served up. We only live a few blocks off Liberty and in years past have witnessed everything from domestic abuse among partners going on in the street in front of our home, urinating in our neighbors hedge and sexual acts performed in cars as we walked home. I tell you the element changes when booze is involved. I have often thought that it should change to an event that is hosted during the day so as not to allow this behavior. Our local police don't seem to do too much about the offenders either but I know they can only do so much. Shouldn't the county or State police be called in to stop this drunken driving and such. Maybe then next year it won't be so bad. I don't know it's just an idea.
4:00: the big wheel race? That's excitment to you? Damn you need a life!
I wish i had all that nothing.
Between the city attorney,landfill attorney, Shaw engineering the City of Morris has spent close to a million dollars on Community Landfill. But hey, no tax money has ever been spent the dump.
12:03, didn't you know? BOOZE is what this Cornfest (and morris) was founded on.They should change the name to Nostalgic BOOZEtown Morris or BOOZEfest. People around here don't know how to have fun unless there's BOOZE involved.
They won't go anywhere unless they can have their BOOZE. It's all about the BOOZE. Bar trash breeds bar trash. And the population is growing.
Do the police have tasers here? It looks like the cops across the US are getting taser happy.
12:03 ~ Why doesn't the city have a beer garden, a place where all the drunks can be contained...it seems to work in every other community. I've heard talk that if this were to happen the local bars would lose money, but why not allow each bar to have their own stand inside the beer garden? A beer garden would be much easier to monitor, and probably much more cost efficient!
Maybe there would be money for the police contract if it wasn't all going to the lawyers.
I have an idea for a new Corn Festival event: The mayor throws open the city's checkbook, and lawyers compete to scoop up as much money as possible. Everyone who participates gets to go on a fishing trip. The winner gets an all expense paid trip to Alabama. No wait. We are already doing that.
SILLY MAYOR, TIF ARE FOR KIDS
12:03 am...obviously you've never been to the bar scene during cornfest....when the police have peppered sprayed crowds of people (including the elderly and young NON drinkers)....or how about when they ordered to lock everyone IN the bar, so nobody else could get in? (Can anyone say "fire hazard"??)
In other areas that are actually normal and not so "footloose"...there are events during harvest time CELEBRATING the harvest....Oktoberfests...Harvest Days...HOMECOMINGS...are in this tradition..and they ALL are centered around drinking and having a good time.
Kids shouldn't be out at night past curfew anyway...and that's when all of the drunken craziness starts occurring. And...drunk driving? Really? I've always seen everyone walking from bar to bar..after all the streets are blocked off and you can't drive down them.
Maybe if this city would jump into the 21st century and provide some sort of public transportation (something other than ONE guy driving around in his "taxi")...then there wouldn't be all of this drunk driving.
Hey Sledge,
Brian Fenney put an article in the MDH voice of the people last spring telling everybody in town how he hoped he could put together a deal with Senreq again. And the mayor put him on a special garbage committee. You know another Fenney, Kopczick deal how the city was going to make billions. Remember when Elleson and Shugart screwed up that whole deal by demanding the city’s $50,000.00 back. Well, call Brian and tell him to take a break because I just drove by the place and all the electric meters have been pulled.
Where would we put the drunks that we lock up if we arrested them all, remember, we have grossly outgrown our current city hall?
The mayor has brought the city 7 years of scandals and blunders. Hiring all his relatives, pushing out Marta and Hayse, spending 10x more on lawyers that the last mayor, the $17 million landfill debacle, the sweethart senreq deal for his crony, the attempted sweetheart deal for cronies with the Carson House property, running off the gas engines, misusing TIF, failing to take action on the paper mill, obstructing the boundary line deal, etc., etc.. This guy is a bull in a chna shop. I feel like I live in Bozo's Circus, not Morris, Illinois.
Which Mayor buddy is janitor? Which Mayor buddy is the second mechanic at public works? Which Mayors buddy is running the parks department? Which Mayors buddy is on a post office pension and soaking the city with sick time? Where are the bricks for Raise the Flags? How many trips a year does the Mayor take? How many vacation days is that? How many do you get after 7 years? Is the police union contract settled yet? How long did it take to settle the public works contract? Who is the current police chief? And who is the pal gal? What city employee allows his dog to sh** in a downtown business? Who got replaced by the Mayors fishing buddy in city hall? What county does the Mayors secretary live in? Everyone knows how much the hard working attorney cousin is making but how much has the city spent on special attorneys, union attorney, labor attorney, landfill attorney, ect.? The city clerk needs to expose the financial ruins of the city, and the wasted money. Where did the need for a new city hall come from? If you ask the clerk if it is needed, will he agree with it? Thirty some years of governmental experience ought to count for something, I'd ask him. Have the carpenters union given up on the raise the flags project? Is everyone so in love at the police department that police can get by with harrassment and physical abuse? Is Dick oblivious to all of this? He should get a TIF loan and open the blighted D&S store, or is there one already out for that? I'm sure that would not have got approved with him being a past employee and all. But him opening the store up does make sense. He goes back to doing something he knows, retail, the city can get back to a professional organization it should be, the building gets occupied, he can repay the loan unlike the previous owner and the city can start fresh with a new nepotism ordinance. Why not give the jobs to people who need it?
Our twerp in Morris is good golfing/booze buddies with the ex-twerp from Coal City. Would somebody from Morris get south of the river long enough to find out how Coal City got rid of their twerp before we got rid of ours? Obviously those people got sick of the political lawyer, engineer, and accountant. Oops, I just remembered, they all came from Morris. We must be a breading ground.
Are the bricks in yet Dick?
What is the story about Alabama?
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