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Leaving a legacy

March 30, 2014
Editor:
Dave Uphoff
Another person passed away last week who played an integral part in Minonk's future. Erma Tjaden died last week at the age of 93. She was a member of a group of Minonk citizens who helped to prevent a landfill from being placed at the northern borders of the city in 1994. Normally not a politically oriented person, this average farm wife along with other concerned citizens formed a committee called 'Citizens Against Landfill' or CAL for short.

The group met regularly to carry out a plan to prevent USA Waste from placing a landfill in Section Six, which is the square mile immediately north of the city. The group was able to get the State of Illinois to pass a law that enabled a city to vote on whether to permit a landfill to be placed adjacent to its borders. Prior to that law, the county had the power to make such a decision.

This law was made possible through the efforts of former State Senator John Maitland and State Representative Dan Rutherford. However, it was the persistent will of the members of the CAL group that made this all possible. The passage of the law stopped USA Waste from building the landfill.

It was the first time in most people's memory that the citizens of Minonk put up a united front. Without the efforts of the CAL committee, residents of Minonk could be looking at a mound of waste 50 feet high with garbage trucks rumbling by 24 hours a day and a constant stench permeating the air, not to mention the pollution to the ground water.

Not everyone can say that they had a significant effect on the future of a community. But members of the CAL group can make that claim. So not only did Erma Tjaden leave behind a profound legacy, so did other members of the committee who have passed away. Irene Paloumpis, who passed away 5 years ago, was a very important member of the committee as she developed much of the group's strategy. Monica Dornbush was another CAL member who has passed away.

So the next time you look north and see open farmland and can breathe unpolluted air in Minonk, you can thank the members of the CAL group and pay your respects to the memory of Erma, Irene and Monica.

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