State Response to a 2015 request

This was a request for the resume and job application  for Growth Dimension’s Director, Jarid Funderberg.  The state made no response until now but wants now to clear its record.  Mr. Funderberg left Growth Dimensions several years ago.  The City of Belvidere held that it needed not supply the information even though Growth Dimension received a substantial portion of its budget from local governments and administered its Enterprise Zone program.

My original request:

February 23, 2015

Public Access Counselor

Office of the Attorney General

500 South 2^nd Street

Springfield, Il 62706

REQUEST FOR REVIEW

Sir or Madam:

Please consider this an appeal request regarding the records denied in a February 6, 2015 Freedom of Information request to the City of Belvidere.

The records concern files possessed by Growth Dimensions, a non-profit corporation, performing governmental duties for the City of Belvidere. The original FOIA request, City Attorney’s initial response, my statement regarding their non-compliance with the FOIA request and the City Attorney’s final response are enclosed. The specific record which was refused is the employment application and resume (at time of application) for current Growth Dimensions’ Executive Director, Jarid Funderburg.

Growth Dimensions plans and implements economic development strategies and projects for the City of Belvidere and is the administrator for the city’s Illinois Enterprise Zone. It was clearly spelled out that the information requested was guided in part by Illinois Attorney General Opinions 13-018* and 14-015**.

More than half of Growth Dimensions’ budget is funded by units of local government: namely the City of Belvidere, Village of Poplar Grove, Boone County government, two k-12 school districts, Rock Valley College and Northern Illinois University. Growth Dimensions’ general meetings are closed to the public and to the news media; Growth Dimensions has been criticized for this in the local newspaper. Mr. Funderburg is the third Executive Director in the past three years. He is connected to a prominent family in Belvidere/Rockford. No employment history was supplied to the public despite questions regarding such at Belvidere City Council. Based upon these facts it is appropriate and necessary for the public to have access to the job application and resume which was submitted when Mr. Funderburg applied to head Belvidere’s economic development agency and became administrator of its Illinois Enterprise Zone.

I appreciate the gesture which Growth Dimensions made by voluntarily supplying minutes of its monthly meetings. The public has the right to these records because Growth Dimensions is acting for governmental units in local governments’ efforts to plan and facilitate area economic development. Without access the public has little awareness of what actions in economic development are occurring and no means of evaluating if their tax funds are being well spent. The public has a right to these

*http://foia.ilattorneygeneral.net/pdf/opinions/2013/13-018.pdf

**http://foia.ilattorneygeneral.net/pdf/opinions/2014/14-015.pdf.

records on a regular basis, with or without Growth Dimensions’ consent. This will not happen without your clarification of whether Growth Dimension is providing governmental services for the City of Belvidere and your grant of the requested resume and job application. In the letter dated February 9, 2015 the City Attorney supplied Growth Dimensions ‘minutes “in the spirit of the Freedom of Information Act”. This amounts to a de factor recognition that these records should be in the public view.

The City Attorney did not properly handle my initial FOIA. I made it very clear that I was seeking records of Growth Dimensions and the basis for that request. When some of the specific records requested were refused, the City Attorney did not apprise me of my appeal rights. How can an FOIA officer, no less an officer of the Seventeen Judicial Circuit Court of Illinois neglect to inform a citizen of his rights? I would appreciate if you also would comment to the City of Belvidere regarding proper administration of FOIA requests.

Thank you for your consideration.

YES—I have requested their review continue

Bartelt, Leah <LBartelt@atg.state.il.us>

To:'bill pysson'

Sep 12 at 8:43 AM

Thank you Mr. Pysson, we’ll proceed with our analysis.

3 Rockford Casino Proposals

• Home
• Featured
• A look at Rockford’s 3 casino proposals

A look at Rockford’s 3 casino proposals

On Sep 3, 2019

Share

By Jim Hagerty
Reporter

ROCKFORD – Rockford officials, on Friday, received three proposals to build the city’s only casino.

Two of the proposals are for east-side facilities, while one developer wants to build on the south edge of downtown. The plans were delivered, along with their respective $75,000 application fees, before Friday’s 2 p.m. deadline. The city will now review the proposals and submit recommendations to aldermen before citizens weigh in at a Sept. 23 public hearing. Rockford has until Oct. 25 to submit one or more proposals to the Illinois Gaming Board.

“The RFP Review Team will submit follow-up questions to the proposers and evaluate the RFPs,” Strategic Communications Manager Laura Maher said in a statement. “During this process, the City will ensure that the proposals make a significant and lasting contribution to the City, are a catalyst for economic development, create jobs and new employment opportunities for residents, and utilize local and small business suppliers and vendors. Staff will then make recommendations to the Council of which proposal(s) they think should be certified.”

Hard Rock International
The group of investors that includes Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen was the first RFP respondent to submit its proposal Friday. Led by singer-songwriter Miles Nielsen, it loaded copies of multi-page plan into a road case and wheeled it into City Hall just after noon.

Nielsen’s group announced in July plans for a Hard Rock Casino at the site of the former Clock Tower Resort. The first phase of what could cost “hundreds of millions of dollars,” would include a casino, Hard Rock Cafe and concert venue. Hard Rock Chairman and CEO Jim Allen said a hotel could be added to the development in subsequent phases. The first phase, he said, could be completed in 12-14 months. The project has already received blessing from the Rockford Park District.

Rock River West Casino Group
The development company that’s turning the downtown Ziock/Amerock Building into the Embassy Suites & Rockford Conference Center submitted a plan Friday to site a casino and aquarium just south of that project.

While Wisconsin’s Gorman & Co. has not announced a casino operator, it says a downtown gaming facility makes more sense than one on the east side because it will complement the area’s entertainment and tourism business. It will also help build a case for passenger rail, something that was part of the original hotel plan until it as squashed by incoming Gov. Bruce Rauner when he unseated Pat Quinn in 2014. Illinois’s $39.9 billion budget passed this year includes $275 million for a Rockford train.

Forest City Casino
A group called Forest City Casino led by businessmen Henry Leong and Kjell Kaashagen also wants Rockford to have a multi-faceted facility on the east side. The plan calls for a casino, hotel, golf complex, water park and family fun center just south of the new Javon Bea Hospital near the East Riverside Boulevard I-90 entrance. The project would reportedly approach $1 billion.

All three proposals call for hundreds of construction jobs and more than 1,000 positions at the casino, which could generate as much as $8 million in annual tax revenue. The City of Rockford would share those dollars with Winnebago County, Loves Park and Machesney Park.

Above is from:  http://rockrivertimes.com/2019/09/03/a-look-at-rockfords-3-casino-proposals/

Hemp not cement?

Builders Are Swapping Cement for Weed to Reduce Pollution

Jeremy Hodges and Kevin Orland

,

Bloomberg•August 29, 2019

Builders Are Swapping Cement for Weed to Reduce Pollution

More

(Bloomberg) -- The hemp fields sprouting in a part of Canada best known for its giant oil patch show how climate change is disrupting the construction industry.

Six years after setting up shop in the shadow of Calgary’s tar sands, Mac Radford, 64, says he can’t satisfy all the orders from builders for Earth-friendly materials that help them limit their carbon footprints. His company, JustBioFiber Structural Solutions, is on the vanguard of businesses using hemp -- the boring cousin of marijuana devoid of psychoactive content -- to mitigate the greenhouse gases behind global warming.

Around the world, builders are putting modern twists into ancient construction methods that employ the hearty hemp weed. Roman engineers used the plant’s sinewy fibers in the mortar they mixed to hold up bridges. More recently, former White House adviser Steve Bannon weighed in on using so-called hempcrete to build walls. Early results indicate it’s possible to tap demand for cleaner alternatives to cement.

“We have way more demand than we can supply,” said Radford from his plant in Airdrie, which is undergoing expansion and soon expects to churn out enough Lego-like hemp bricks each year to build 2,000 homes.

Greener alternatives to cement add to the pressure on companies including LafargeHolcim Ltd. and Votorantim Cimentos SA as the global economy pivots toward dramatically lower emissions.

Cement makers are responsible for about 7% of global carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere every year, with copious volumes entering via limestone kilns needed to produce the material. Manufacturers say they’ve struggled to find markets for greener alternatives, giving easy entree to entrepreneurs like Radford who cater to customers concerned about their impact on the Earth.

“They love it once they understand it,” said Radford of the builders who’ve adopted the modular, inter-locking bricks he invented for their projects. “Our old practices we have to change.”

While architects and developers have traditionally concentrated on the energy used by their buildings once they’re are standing, it’s actually the materials required in their construction that represent the brunt of a structure’s lifetime carbon footprint. Replacing high-carbon-intensity materials like cement with greener alternatives like hemp can dramatically reduce or even offset greenhouse gas pollution.

Hemp fields absorb carbon when they’re growing. After harvest, the crop continues to absorb greenhouse gases as it’s mixed with lime or clay. Hempcrete structures also have better ventilation, fire resistance and temperature regulation, according to their proponents.

Numbers across the industry vary depending on the process, but JustBioFiber says that its hemp captures 130 kilograms (287 pounds) of carbon dioxide for each cubic meter it builds. Those structures made with their bricks will sequester more greenhouse gases than they emit in production. By contrast each ton of cement produced emits half a ton of carbon dioxide, according to the European Cement Association.

First developed in France more than 30 years ago, hempcrete was initially used for renovating old houses since it mixed well with stone and lime. That has progressed to new build homes, offices and municipal buildings some as tall as seven floors, according to Quentin Pichon, founder of CAN-Ingenieurs Architectes who specialize in hempcrete buildings.

Hemp growth in France has grown by fifth in the last decade as a result of an increase in its construction use but also because seeds from the plant that can be used to make cannabidol, he said. Hemp sales in Canada could hit $1 billion within five years from $140 million last year, according to the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology.

That ability to quickly ramp-up local cultivation virtually anywhere in the world is one of hemp’s appeals, according to Alex Sparrow, the managing director of U.K. Hempcrete.

“Demand is rising steadily but we need to accelerate this as currently the U.K. construction industry accounts for approximately 7% of GDP and 50% of total U.K. carbon emissions,” Sparrow said.

One of the principle challenges his U.K. company faces are legal hurdles imposed on hemp cultivation -- British farmers can only grow hemp building materials but can’t profit from the oil extracted from seeds.

That ability to quickly ramp-up local cultivation virtually anywhere in the world is one of hemp’s appeals, according to Alex Sparrow, the managing director of U.K. Hempcrete.

“Demand is rising steadily but we need to accelerate this as currently the U.K. construction industry accounts for approximately 7% of GDP and 50% of total U.K. carbon emissions,” Sparrow said.

One of the principle challenges his U.K. company faces are legal hurdles imposed on hemp cultivation -- British farmers can only grow hemp building materials but can’t profit from the oil extracted from seeds.

Back near Calgary, the black denim-clad Radford is already turning a profit from his hemp venture and is preparing to invest another C$37 million ($28 million) to expand production to 3.5 million bricks a year. He credits his children with convincing him to go green after four decades in commercial development.

“They think that finally it’s not about money, it’s about doing good for the planet,” he said.

--With assistance from Irene García Pérez.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jeremy Hodges in London at jhodges17@bloomberg.net;Kevin Orland in Calgary at korland@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net, Jonathan Tirone

Above is from:  https://finance.yahoo.com/news/builders-swapping-cement-weed-reduce-040000759.html