The Illinois Department of Natural Resources entry in last week’s State Fair Twilight Parade was a truck pulling a big trailer carrying one person. Nothing could illustrate better that the once-proud agency has been decimated by successive budget cuts over the years, and it’s getting worse. This week the Rauner administration sent out layoff notices to 107 IDNR employees, including personnel in the divisions of law enforcement, forestry and the staff of the World Shooting and Recreational Complex in southern Illinois. The IDNR layoffs, which take effect Sept. 30, also affect 65 of the 68 staff members of the Illinois State Museum system, which includes the Dickson Mounds Museum, a fascinating and important institution the state has operated for 50 years, now scheduled to close. Read the Dickson Mounds story by Erika Holst on page 16. –Fletcher Farrar, editor and publisher
Editor’s note 8/20/15
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