By Susan W. Murraynews@thewoodstockindependent.com Now that work has begun in earnest on the widening of 2.25 miles of Route 47 through Woodstock, owners of businesses on the state highwy were well-prepared to tell city officials what they need now to survive with their businesses intact when the project is scheduled to be completed in late […]
By Larry Loughlarry@thewoodstockindependent.com 3 Brothers Restaurant will get help from the city as it adjusts to a new footprint after the state took some of its property for the Route 47 widening project, which had a ceremonial groundbreaking a couple of hours before last week’s City Council meeting. The council adopted an inducement resolution that […]
Bids are expected to be received in June for the widening and improvements of Route 47 through Woodstock. Mayor Mike Turner told City Council members last week the highway improvements from U.S. 14 to Route 120 were the “most pressing” issue in recent discussions with officials from the Illinois Department of Transportation and the governor’s […]
Four lanes of Route 47 through Woodstock. Three roundabout intersections. 10-foot-wide path along the east side of the highway. And two construction seasons of major inconvenience. 2024 should be the year that decades-long planning for a widened and improved state highway finally moves into Phase 3 – actual construction from U.S. 14 to Route 120. […]
Mayor Mike Turner is in Springfield this week to lobby the Legislature for infrastructure funds that he says would drive economic development in and around Woodstock. Turner and City Manager Roscoe Stelford were scheduled to travel to the state Capitol on Wednesday and return Thursday after meeting with various state officials, including the director of […]
Woodstock must have the most skillful drivers in the world. How else do you explain the way local motorists have embraced the city’s first traffic roundabout? Many skeptics had warned us on social media that the circular intersection was an abomination that would lead to vehicular chaos, traffic backups in all directions, and frequent car […]
By Eileen Millard We have never had a roundabout inside Woodstock city limits; now we have one. This large, very visible sign of change got me to thinking about change in general in Woodstock. As a Chicago transplant who has lived in Woodstock for 25 years, I thought about some of the things that have […]
What does the new year promise for Woodstock? Lots, it seems. Based on what happened – and didn’t happen – in 2022, several things could come our way in 2023. Some projects are due, and some (dating back four and even five years) are overdue. But all promise to be important to the community when […]
City Council decided in November the city budget will require a 4.15 percent property tax increase for Woodstock residents next year. Discussions at the past two meetings, however, indicate that the city will continue to rely on local taxes to address what City Manager Roscoe Stelford referred to as “financial challenges” in the immediate future. […]
Let’s test your vision. How far into Woodstock’s future can you see? What is your vision of this city in, say, 10 years? In less than half of that time, our Old Courthouse Center will be a community arts center and a key part of Woodstock’s ever-developing tourism trade; our many poor and failed streets […]
Larry Lough is editor of The Independent and reports local news.
Janet Dovidio has been a freelance correspondent for The Independent for eight years.
Susan W. Murray wrote for The Independent, covering various beats, from 2005 to 2008.
Tricia Carzoli is a freelance writer and photographer that on community news.
