Voters in the cozy central Illinois hamlet of Panola–population 33–decided that life for the village is better than death.
By an overwhelming margin of 21-5, residents decided Tuesday that Panola should remain incorporated. Only one of the registered voters, a long-haul truck driver, didn’t show up because he was on the road.
“I was surprised it was such a landslide,” said Lyle Stine, the village treasurer who has held various town posts in the last 35years. “I guess when people got to thinking about it, they decided to vote with their hearts.”
Village trustees, tired of seeing only a handful of folks willing to serve in public office, put the dire measure to voters. Three of Panola’s four trustees come from the same family, and they themselves are tired of monopolizing village government.
Tuesday marked only the third time in the last 30-plus years that an Illinois community had voted on whether to go out of existence. In 1998, Hamletsburg, an enclave along the Ohio River in southeastern Illinois, was the last Illinois community to dissolve.
Panola is the sixth smallest incorporated town in Illinois. Voters had only to decide by a simple majority whether to dissolve after 138 years. The measure drew unwanted media attention to the village and led to soul-searching among villagers over their need to take part in village business.
Roger Bogner, the village president, said two residents told him on Election Day that they would now participate in the government. Two more said they are strongly considering it.
Bogner won his sixth consecutive 4-year term Tuesday night with 23 votes.
“Two or three didn’t vote for me at all, but they couldn’t vote for anyone else either,” Bogner said.
Bogner, who campaigned to keep the village incorporated, said he had canvassed door-to-door before the election.
“It shows I counted the votes right before they voted, and that this is a place worth keeping,” Bogner said of the outcome.
