Tagged: Hancock County

The Hancock County Economic Development Committee has formed three task forces composed of 25 volunteers each.

They are looking for ways to encourage future economic development in the county.

An initial meeting of selected three priorities; job creation, vocational training and entrepreneurship and encouraging residents to shop at local businesses. Each task force will hold an initial meeting in the next few weeks. They will then meet on a quarterly basis.

The Illinois Department of Agriculture is holding up a proposed large-scale hog farm in northeast Hancock County.

Junction Acres would be home to up to 18,000 pigs a year. It would be built near LaCrosse.

The deadline for the permit was March 3rd. The department instead requested the construction plans and the animal waste-handling plan.

Walter Goetsch is the Ag Department's Bureau Chief of Environmental Programs. He said the information is often not part of the original notice of intent to construct.

The Hancock County Board and the Western Illinois Regional Council have come up with different numbers for the cost of recycling collection in the county.

The board found a bill for $4,000 a surprise. It budgeted $3,500 for the service.

The board briefly considered just paying the money it budgeted. Ultimately, the board tabled the bill until the finance committee has a chance to contact the WIRC.

Chairman David Walker thought the bill might have gone up.

The Hancock County Economic Development Committee will host a county economic summit March 29th.  It hopes the summit will be the first step to reduce decades-long trends of job, business and population losses.

Committee Chairman Jerry Bartell said the county was home to about 30,000 people at the beginning of the 20th century.  He said the county population is down to about 19,000 people.

He said,  “But another alarming figure that got my attention was the fact that we lost 20% of our sales tax-paying businesses since 2000.”