WREX.com – Rockford’s News LeaderGarden Prairie residents vote to dissolve village

Garden Prairie residents vote to dissolve village

By Samantha Ptashkin

GARDEN PRAIRIE (WREX)- Garden Prairie residents vote to turn their tiny town back over to Boone County, almost two years after deciding to incorporate.

Residents voted 57 to 45 to dissolve the village.

That means within 10 days the Boone County Board will regain control of Garden Prairie.

A little more than 200 people live in the village. Not one of them holds a seat on the county board. "I'm a little disappointed. I mean we've all put a lot of effort into it and we haven't done anything to hurt the village. Everything we have done has been by the book," said Garden Prairie Board President Paul Curtis.

Curtis says the board had a lot of plans in store for the village, a big one included repairing roads. He's scared that won't happen now. "Boone County has never done much of anything for the people here. We don't have any representation on the county board."

That lack of representation doesn't bother other residents like Prairie Pub Bartender Darlene Davis. "Things were okay the way they were. Everybody was happy. It seems like more people are arguing now against one another," Davis said.

The village still has to pay off almost $6,000 in legal fees, after board members hired a lawyer to guide them through the incorporation process. Curtis says residents will now have to pay off that debt. "Statute requires that we levy a tax on the village property owners."

Since the village incorporated, a fraction of the state sales tax from local businesses have gone toward village funding. That money will now go back to the county.

Any leftover funds the village has will go to the Belvidere School District.