A tollway opponent’s request for a seat on a planning council was denied Wednesday night.
Gaylyn Grimm, of the anti-Interstate Highway 355 group South Corridor Against the Tollway, asked for a seat on the planning group. “We’re feeling completely left out of this process,” Grimm said.
Council Chairman Ray Rossi said, “We do want your input, but there are rules that are typically followed.” Rossi, the mayor of Frankfort, said Grimm’s request for a seat on the board “doesn’t meet the legislative guidelines.”
Richard Brandolino, who represents Will County on the council, said the members are there to represent the public: “Each and every one of us is representing someone in this audience somehow.”
Members have been pressing for more public participation in the deliberations of the I-355 South Suburban Tollway Corridor Planning Council, which Wednesday night decided to change its name to the Lincoln-Way Corridor Planning Council.
The group, composed of representatives from Frankfort, Mokena, New Lenox and Manhattan, Will County and local park, school and fire protection districts, was formed to coordinate a regional response to growth along the borders of a proposed tollway extension linking Interstate Highway 80 with Interstate Highway 57 near Peotone.
