- Published: Monday, May 11, 2020 11:44 AM
Park Forest — In a letter sent earlier today, State Senator Patrick Joyce (D-Essex) called on the governor to move Kankakee and Grundy Counties into another region in his COVID-19 reopening plan.
“Kankakee and Grundy Counties are largely rural, with very few large towns and much smaller cities,” Joyce said. “Not many people live in Kankakee and commute to Chicago. They don’t need to wait until Chicago and Cook County’s COVID-19 numbers go down before reopening.”
Joyce’s letter emphasized that Grundy County has a population of approximately 50,000 and that residents of both counties lead more similar lives to the more rural counties around them than to Cook and the collar counties.
“I also represent suburban Cook County, and I understand why those communities are in the same region as Chicago. They’re in the same county,” Joyce said. “For Kankakee and Grundy Counties, it just doesn’t make sense.”
Read more: Joyce calls on governor to redefine reopening regions