Things that make you go " Hmmm " in Poplar Grove and Boone County,IL

14/02/2025

I noticed this week that Our candidate for Village President Kristi Richardson has been putting signs out, which is great. I find it funny though that she is putting them right next to Costanza's signs. You would think she would want to find her own locations and supporters. I noticed her sign out by the mall was removed, I wonder if it was a case of ask for forgiveness later type of issue instead of permission. I do know that if you ask a renter of a property if you can put signs up, they have no right to say yes. It has to be from the property owner. But good luck to both parties.

14/02/2025

Another option for Valentines dinner.

14/02/2025

Poplar Grove hidden gem is also having a Valentines day special.

Join us this Friday for Valentine’s Day! We have great specials that will be running all day long to enjoy with everyone!

14/02/2025

Another local Valentine dinner option.

Open to the Public!!!!! Steak & Lobster Dinner-$45 a person. Includes: 8 ounce Steak (Ribeye or NY Strip), 8 ounce Maine Lobster Tail, Loaded Baked Potato, Salad or Clam Chowder, & Cheesecake!
4:30-7pm or until sold out!

14/02/2025

If you were looking for some good Valentine day deals. Uncle Johns has great food and it is beyond reasonable.

Join us this week at John's; we're full of love with some amazing dishes. Starting today, we have our delicious Fried Chicken . Call us at 815-547-4000. Soups of the day are Vegetable Beef or French Onion. Weather permitting, we will be open until 8:00 pm. We will provide updates on our hours as the day progresses.

12/02/2025

No meeting tonight!!

11/02/2025

Have you ever thought about flying an airplane, and getting your pilot license? Now is a great local opportunity for you to do so. Starting FEBRUARY 25th 2025! you can attend GROUND SCHOOL! sign up today and get started.

GROUND SCHOOL STARTING FEBRUARY 25th 2025! GET SIGNED UP NOW! Call 815-544-3471 to sign up. Poplar Grove Airport Private Pilot Ground School! This will be an 8 week course hosted on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6pm to 8pm. This course is $300 plus the cost of books. Perfect for the beginner or a review if you haven't flown for a while. What are you waiting for?

11/02/2025

And so it begins, another closing.

For the safety of our guests and volunteers the Community Meal and Baby Bank events will be cancelled due to the snowstorm. Both events will resume their normal schedules in March. If you are one of the many people who shared this on Facebook please let others know of the cancellation. Thank you for your understanding and please be safe.

11/02/2025

PSA!

Ida Public Library is just gonna call it early....Snow Day tomorrow (Wed) and we will be closed! Stay warm and cozy. We will be open until 8 pm tonight (unless weather changes suddenly) so there is still time to stock up on books. ***Please note Thursday open may be delayed depending on how much snow we end up with.

06/02/2025

What does our village need?

Our downtown has no more building room for new business's?

There is really not much of a downtown to beautify.

Our parks are being maintained and look good.

The mall on 76 has only a couple spaces to lease.

Most of our roads are in good shape and those that aren't are scheduled for repairs already.

In order to bring any kind of industrial business to the 173 corridor we will need to run water and sewer to those areas, which is very expensive. Also do we really want a lot of industry?

We are a bedroom community, people come here for lower taxes, quieter times and to raise a family. Most moved away from bigger cities because of issues that building and expanding bring, do we want that? Do we want another Randall road?

Our abandoned sub divisions are finally getting built in again. There are still many lots that could be sold.

Anything that will be future growth business wise will probably be along 76 and in the mall area. We don't need hotels, for we only have two summer attractions. Capron has nothing to offer and either does Caledonia. So we cannot look to them for growth and to pull people in from.

Our village is out of debt. we are making strides to keep our area nice and our parks kept up. There have been talks with fast food establishments, but it all depends on traffic counts and if our village will support them.

We need to concentrate first on our wells and infrastructure . Right now we cannot support major growth. This will have to be done with bonds. The only way for the village to bring money in other than grants is to raise money through building permits, water and sewer fees, fines for different things, and we really don't want that. We are not a HOA. So all this talk lately about things. Can it really be done and should it be done?

What is your thoughts on things in our Village?

03/02/2025

This person made a reply on another page and I'd like to answer it.

"Judy Bonvolanta Fiene
What an incredible success! Poplar Grove needs change, and Kristi Richardson is the perfect person to make it happen! Now more than ever, we need everyone to step up, spread the word, and get out to vote!

"Take a close look at what both candidates have done and how they plan to move our village forward. Once you do your homework, I’m confident you’ll see why Kristi is exactly the leader we need right now! Let’s make this happen—vote Kristi Richardson for PG Village President"

Let's take a look shall we?

What has Kristi done so far?

Well, she has given us a news letter, that Owen appointed her to the committee to do it.

She has done a pet parade.

She took over the existing community market. (which is using Village resources for, that cost us money in wages and village equipment.)

She has over seen the fire hydrant painting through the Lions club.

Let's not forget she gave up on us and quit her trustee position. This allowed Don to put his people in place and get that Forensic audit done that cost US the tax payers over 25k.

She talks about things she wants to do that have been in place being done for some time.

She keeps talking about our Economic developing plan. This is a guide and can change often. They also want us to spend 15K on a study for a Hotel, because of Edwards and the pumpkin patch.

They call for many studies, each are around 15k to have done.

When Owen was in office,

He brought in over 1 million dollar in grants.

He fought for local business during Covid and got them grants.

He continued the Christmas tree lighting and neighbors night during covid so residents would have something to do.

He built Mansfield park and made it so gambling money went 100% to all of our parks.

He brought the village out of the red after being in the red for many years.

He attended future development meetings through growth dimensions. He has also worked with developers to get some of the subdivisions finished.

I'm going with the proven leader. That is just my thoughts.

02/02/2025

Congratulations to one of our locals. Coach Fleming.

The Illinois Softball Coaches Association Names NBHS Softball Coach Tim Fleming Sectional Coach of the year!

22/01/2025

Looking for a Job? want to try something different? now is your opportunity.

Both open positions can be flexible. Both are $17 per hour. Paid time off/vacation time (80 hrs for full time; 1hr in 40 for part time), paid holidays, paid sick time (96 hours for full time/48 hours for part time), IMRF participation depending on number of hours worked. Full time includes 75/25 health insurance, dental insurance, optional vision insurance.

The bookkeeper hours can fit to your schedule. The bookmobile driver can be part or full time depending on your availability. Stop by the library or visit our website for full job descriptions. https://idapubliclibrary.org/employment/

21/01/2025

Good morning followers. I have questions that I hope someone will have answers to. The Lions club in our community is a very non transparent organization. I recently found out that they sponsor the upcoming market event. They also remodeled the concessions stand at Lions park. They used the Village of Poplar Grove Public works union labor for this remodel. The use the Village public works department for closing the streets and others things for these events. Now they charge $40 a space to attend the event. They charge sponsorships on the concessions building at $250 a spot. They charge the Football teams and baseball teams to use the park. The Village maintains the park (mowing) ect. Not one dime goes back to the village for any expense's. So basically we the tax payers are paying for their free ride. Where is all this money going? Why aren't we given some form of repayment or a good gesture of appreciation? Why are we as a village expected to foot the bill and except this?

Money got raised for that cistern a couple years ago. there was a quote given and if I remember right it was not suppose to exceed $1500. I know that good size donations were given by some and that they exceeded the cost of repairs, but when asked for figures of cost and what the remaining money went for, they would not tell anyone. My question is, who is living large on this money? If they are helping people then how much is going out and what is the reserve? I just don't think it is right to expect the village to always foot the bill.

15/01/2025

This was posted earlier on Costanza's page.

04/01/2025

Hello Followers. As I browsed the internet this morning, I came across Kristi Richardson campaign promises or goals. As I read through them, I realized that everything she wants to accomplish was already working well pre Don Sattler. We had all these things with Owen. We had good working relations with vendors, we had good moral with employees, ect. Owen went to bat for local business's when covid hit. He always stayed up on grants and made sure our community got them when we were eligible. Our village ran smoothly and would of continued to run smoothly had people got out and voted. He lost by 7 votes. Very low turn out for the polls. We need Owen back in the President chair. A proven leader. Someone who has dealt with grants and Goverment agencies. Owen was always a phone call away and still is to this day. Anytime of the day if you had a Village issue he could be reached and resolve the problem if he was able to.
This is just my opinion of course, but we have just went through 4 years of a unqualified President, who knew nothing about running a village or goverment. I personally don't ever want to go through that again. Don't get me wrong, I like Kristi. She has good ideas and she is kind. Ideas are great but also take money to exicute and Kindness won't pay the bills or get jobs completed.

Everyone have a wonderful weekend, especially now that we dodged that snow storm.