The Village of Grant Park Board of Trustees announced a second vacancy on its board of trustees at the November 3 meeting.
Dennis Martz was absent from the November 6 board meeting, but village officials confirmed his resignation. Martz’s resignation comes just after Steve Brower abruptly resigned at the last meeting, citing personal reasons.
No further information regarding Martz’s departure was available.
Mayor Ben Detloff only briefly addressed the resignations, noting there were two vacancies on the board.
“If you’re interested in this, you can contact Kerry for an appointment. We’ll set up an interview,” Detloff explained, noting they just began interviewing but already had seven individuals interested.
“We’re going to make a decision here shortly. I have 60 days to decide, which would be December 20. The board has 30 days to make their decision after I present it. But we hope to have two people in place well before that,” Detloff said.
With two trustees no longer on the board and one out sick, the board meeting was brief.
The meeting began with public comments. Resident Melissa Passini expressed her displeasure at the cancellation of the Halloween event.
Passini raised concerns about the $300 fest donation being given to the church for hot dogs and felt the fest did not make a strong enough effort to secure Halloween volunteers, as the last volunteer request was for the fall fest. She also stated she was blocked from the Grant Park Fest community page, so she’s not able to participate at all.
The board did not address Passini’s comment and moved on with other business.
Bills were paid as follows: From the corporate general fund of $11,354.99; from the motor fuel tax fund $1,102.21; for the fest fund, $74.80; from the TIF account, $375; and payroll ending October 25, $20,758.76.
The board again reviewed and approved the TIF agreement with HD Auto for building improvements, as well as the extension for Andrea Hendricks’ TIF for her building.
Also, with regard to finances, Trustee Gerry Morgan reviewed the midyear fiscal budget with the board for fiscal year 2026.
Morgan explained that of the revenue received for the general fund, some line items are fully funded, others are not, but he explained the village has received 70 percent of the expected revenue.
“Most of our property taxes, which is a huge amount of this, is always delivered usually by October. We’ll probably get another thing in November, but it’ll be the lesser of what’s previously been, and then they’ll follow up in December with a final property tax payment. That’ll usually be about 100 percent of what they expected. Usually, there might be like a one percent that isn’t collected because people are late, but basically it’s really good to see 70 percent in revenue,” Morgan explained.
Morgan also reported the village has only expended 44 percent of the budget and reviewed the other expenditures.
Additionally, Morgan reported the village received an IDEOC grant for $25,000, which the village had applied for a couple of years ago.
Mayor Ben Detloff reported he will co-chair the community outreach committee until a replacement can be found, as Brower previously held the position.
Alexandria Heinberg was appointed to the Grant Park Library Board of Trustees.
Chief Carl Frey reported the Grant Park Fire District expressed an interest in the 2006 Expedition the board was previously going to donate to the Beecher ESDA. Frey expressed he felt they would put it to good use.
Detloff reported construction projects mostly are wrapped up for the year. The park’s new pickleball court foundation has been poured, the pond is in place, and the rest of the improvements will be completed in the spring.
In other news, Grant Park will host a food pop-up at the community center on November 14, from 10 to 11:30 a.m., or earlier if food runs out. The event is sponsored by Kankakee County Community Services.
Stephanie Irvine is a freelance reporter