The bill, passed last month in the Senate would establish a seven-member board, with a majority of members from Will County. It was pushed through the Senate by Majority Leader Debbie Halvorson, D-Crete, who also happens to be running for congress in November.

In the Illinois House, Lisa Dugan, D-Bradley, in whose district the airport would be located if it is ever to be built, asked to be named chief sponsor. Brent Hassert, R-Romeoville had initially put his name on the bill, but relinquished the sponsorship to Dugan at her request. Hassert is a co-sponsor, in addition to Reps. Renee Kosel, Jack McGuire, and Careen Gordon. Except for playing the name game, there has been no other movement on the bill in the House.

But, while things may be quiet in Springfield, that isn’t the case locally, in eastern Will County, where members of STAND (Shut This Airport Nightmare Down) are furious with the two and especially disappointed in Dugan.

Members had believed that Dugan had heard their arguments against an airport as well as understood and even sympathized with their plight.

At least that was what they thought when she stood up for them last year when the state demolished a number of what appeared to be rentable and livable houses in the airport footprint.

Jim Verduin, who lives in rural Beecher, said he felt good about what he heard from lawmakers back in August 2006. At that time both Halvorson and Dugan met with some of the eastern Will County landowners and local officials about the state’s hurried-up demolition of a house that was razed just two years after it was purchased by the state for $416,000. The state bought it two years after it was built, yet claimed that repairs would make it too costly to rent. There was no time for more than a verbal explanation because any proof of the condition of the house was buried in the pile of rubble after the fact.

Verduin said Halvorson and Dugan were “very stern” with IDOT reps, demanding that no more demolitions would take place without re-evaluating them for the potential to be rented.

Verduin was especially disappointed in Dugan who he said, “did nothing after ten homes were destroyed in the middle of a snow storm.”

Verduin is disheartened that Halvorson and Dugan seem to “talk a good game, but don’t follow through on their promises.

“The (airport authority) legislation pending in the House has eminent domain written all over it,” Verduin said. The mere mention of eminent domain for the airport project induces the same heartburn the residents in eastern Will County have experienced for years. According to folks living in and near the airport footprint, it never made sense to acquire, let alone knock down houses before a decision is made to go ahead with the project.

STAND members cite the action taken in communities near the O’Hare Modernization Project. The City of Chicago agreed not to acquire properties until a record of decision on the project had been issued. Ironically, that was the result of a court order initiated by the same communities – Elk Grove Village and Bensenville — that have pushed for demolition in eastern Will County.

Some lawmakers have bristled at the eminent domain component in the South Suburban airport authority legislation. Halvorson said there still time to tinker with the plan and that eminent domain could still be scaled back. Footprint residents have little trust in such words. They will not be appeased easily after having felt like state hostages for decades.

STAND President George Ochsenfeld noted that it appeared both Halvorson and Dugan seem to have contempt, not only for the residents of eastern Will County, but the 11 units of local government including the villages of Beecher, Monee, and Peotone, who signed resolutions in the Spring of 2005 stating their opposition to further land acquisition, demolition of property, and the use of eminent domain until and if an airport is authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration.