Algonquin Township Highway Dept. Drops Recycling, Bus Services

ALGONQUIN, IL – The Algonquin Township Highway Department will no longer manage the township's bus services for seniors and disabled residents and will cease handling the township's recycling program in a move one township board trustee said was a "blackmail political game" that will affect the township's "most vulnerable residents," the Northwest Herald reports. That "political game" relates to alleged discussions Township Highway Commissioner Andrew Gasser had with Township Supervisor Charles Lutzow over whether Deputy Highway Commissioner Ryan Provenzano should have access to the township's main building.

That ban was lifted to allow Provenzano access to the main building, 3702 U.S. Highway 14 in Crystal Lake, but Gasser wrote in an Aug. 3 e-mail to Lutzow, which was sent to township trustees and highway department staff, “You have no problem with the deputy entering the building in which you banned him in writing to help set up functions in said building, yet he does not have access to my office. After eight months of waiting, this is completely unacceptable.”

In that same e-mail Gasser detailed all the functions the highway department would no longer handle. Those services include: bingo setup, emptying recycling Dumpsters, mowing or watering the township property, building maintenance work or trash collection, scheduling of new bus rides after Aug. 17, maintenance of township buses, fuel for township buses and paying the salaries of bus drivers.

Gasser said all of the functions were the township's responsibility or involved township property, according to the article. The announcement last week came after the township and highway department had been in discussions for months about splitting the cost of recycling and senior busing services, Lutzow told the Northwest Herald.

“I’m surprised we couldn’t come to an agreement. It seemed like everything was heading in the right direction,” Lutzow told the Northwest Herald. “This is not a good situation.” Lutzow added that the Township will not take over the recycling program.

Algonquin Township is the largest township in McHenry County with a population of 88,389.

More via the Northwest Herald, the Algonquin Township website or the Algonquin Township Highway Department website

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