File photo
File photo
The Town of Normal is willing to spend $241,000 from its state gasoline tax revenue for a proposed extension to the Constitution Trail.
The money would pay for 20% of what the extension would cost, WEEK 25 reported. The remaining $1.2 million that the project will cost would be covered by an Illinois Transportation Enhancement Grant, which the town is applying for.
All but one Town Council member voted in favor of this plan. Stan Nord voted against it because residents were promised the funds would only be used for road improvements, not to extend a trail.
"The motor fuel tax increase was advertised to taxpayers to go to fix the roads," Nord said. "We are using it on an amenity."
Council member Karyn Smith supports the trail extension.
"I've always been a person of integrity. To intimate that there's been any effort to provide some kind of subterfuge when the public record clearly states what occurred is very troubling to me," Smith said.
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