Southern Illinois News

Illinois state Rep. Patrick Windhorst (R-Metropolis) is reminding local government units that a Parks and Recreation Family Construction Grants (PARC) deadline is fast approaching.

The six-week registration period for applying for the grants opened during the first week of December and runs through Jan. 20.

“Today begins the application filing period for local governments to seek PARC grant funding through the Illinois Department of Natural Resources,” Windhorst said in a press release. “I want to urge eligible entities to take advantage of the grant application filing period that begins today. PARC grant funding can help take the burden off of local taxpayers and assist local government units trying to manage the cost of buying land and building new parks and recreation facilities.”

The grants are available to local units of government that are legally authorized by the state to expend public funds for the acquisition and development of land for public indoor/outdoor park, recreation or conservation purposes.

Even as he promotes the PARC program, Windhorst is reminding constituents that he has not given up on his mission of working to clean up Springfield. The first-term lawmaker recently took time to directly thank House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) for naming him to the Joint Ethics and Lobbying Reform Commission.

"I take this responsibility very seriously,” Windhorst said in a separate press release. “The state of Illinois is in the middle of an ethics crisis, multiple legislators and their associates are under federal investigation or indictment and a cloud of corruption hangs over the Statehouse. The time to act to reform our ethics laws is now."

Over the last several weeks, a pair of veteran Democratic state lawmakers have been forced to tender their resignations after being implicated in ongoing federal corruption probes.