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The Bourbs Daily
Monday, July 6, 2026 ☀ 80°/65° — Sunny
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Editor's Note
Good Monday morning, Kankakee County. Dale here. The Fourth is behind you now. The cookouts are cleaned up, the fireworks are done, the coolers are drained, and today is the first real Monday of July -- which means the regular world is back in session. Don't fight it too hard. Summer is nowhere near over, and K3 still has a full calendar between now and Labor Day. Take a minute this morning, drink your coffee a little slower than usual, and ease back in. The county will meet you halfway.
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View all news articles →
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🏛 This Week in Local Government
Manteno's fight over who controls the Village Attorney's office escalates again Monday, July 6, when the board majority brings a formal Continuous Retention Letter for longtime attorney Joseph Cainkar to a regular meeting — an attempt to settle via clean procedure what a disputed June 25 special meeting (4-0, with the mayor absent and calling it illegally called) already tried to do. Also on the Manteno agenda: a final vote on rezoning 411 W. Division Street for an inpatient substance-use treatment facility, and a change to the village's liquor license limits. Later this week — Wednesday, July 8 — the Planning & Zoning Committee takes up a gaming license request from Bob Earley and the final invoice in Manteno's still-unresolved forensic audit billing dispute. In Bradley, a long-running zoning case is now closed: the board granted the zoning change for 136 South Clinton Avenue on June 22 (Ord. 06-26-04), alongside traffic signal battery-backup repairs, a development services contract, and a property purchase resolution — all unanimous per the village's official ordinance and resolution postings. Bourbonnais has a regular meeting scheduled for tonight, July 6, at 5:30 PM, but as of Sunday no agenda was posted on BoardDocs — check villageofbourbonnais.com for any last-minute notice. Kankakee's City Council meets at 7 PM Monday for its biggest-dollar vote in recent memory: a roughly $89 million state agreement to rebuild the I-57/IL-17 interchange, plus first readings of next year's city and utility budgets and a 4-year renewal (not an increase) of the $10/$20 monthly public safety fee. At the county level, no new meetings have been posted — the next County Board meeting is July 14.
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Manteno
Board majority voted 4-0 (Gesky, Boudreau, Crockett, Zimbelman) to reinstate fired village attorney Joseph Cainkar over Mayor LaMore's June 15 pick, James Vasselli — the mayor boycotted the meeting and called it illegally called; Trustee Barry attended only to read a statement declaring it illegal, then left; Trustee Vaughn was absent New attorney Vasselli emailed trustees calling every action taken at the meeting "legally defective" — both sides expect the dispute to end up in court Trustees pointed to the village's active Gotion-related lawsuit as the practical reason continuity of legal counsel matters right now
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Manteno
Board discussed expanding the forensic audit further, after a June 15 dispute over an auditor invoice described as "outside the scope of the contract" Public Works is re-bidding the $9,350 tree replacement project (twice vetoed and overridden) as a competitive process instead of a direct award Also discussed: additional parking on Oak Street, pavilion tables and seating, and videoing Plan Commission meetings
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Manteno
Board majority brings a formal "Continuous Retention Letter" for Cainkar's law firm to a regular meeting — attempt to settle the attorney dispute outside the contested special-meeting process Final vote scheduled on rezoning 411 W. Division Street to C-2 and granting a special use permit for an inpatient substance-use disorder treatment facility (Iroquois Mental Health Center) Ordinance 26-08 would change the village's liquor license limits
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Manteno
Bob Earley gaming license request goes to Planning & Zoning committee first — watch for whether the full board takes it up at the July 20 meeting Final Auditor Invoice — another round in the forensic audit billing dispute Pioneer Engineering Request for a dry cleaner property (likely environmental/remediation)
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Bourbonnais
Regular meeting scheduled 5:30 PM per official 2026 calendar — no agenda posted on BoardDocs as of Sunday July 5 (likely delayed due to July 4 holiday week) Still no minutes posted for the June 15 meeting, where the data center moratorium (Ord. 26-2552), Heritage Meadows rezoning (Ord. 26-2549), PUD special use (Ord. 26-2550), and 2026 zoning map (Ord. 26-2551) were all adopted via rule suspension Check villageofbourbonnais.com or BoardDocs day-of for the July 6 agenda
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Bradley
RESOLVED: 136 South Clinton Avenue zoning change (O-06-26-04) — GRANTED, not tabled. Ordinance posted to bradleyil.org/ordinances, dated June 22, 2026. This case had been tabled from June 8 on the village attorney's advice; it returned and passed. Also adopted June 22: traffic signal battery back-up repairs (RES 06-26-04), development services contract (RES 06-26-05), and property purchase of part of PIN 17-09-09-302-002 (RES 06-26-06) Bradley's next Village Board meeting is July 13 (2nd Monday); Planning & Zoning Commission meets July 7 on a used-car lot permit at 260 N. Bradley Blvd.; Fire & Police Commission meets July 6
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Kankakee
Resolution authorizing ~$89 million state agreement to reconstruct I-57/IL-17 interchange — city's direct commitment roughly $2 million plus ~$1.35 million in lighting, signals, and aesthetics First readings: FY2027 city budget and Environmental Services Utility budget (final passage expected July 20) Ordinance renews — does not raise — the $10/$20 monthly public safety fee through 2030
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Kankakee County
Highways, Waterways & Buildings Committee advanced engineering contracts for three bridge replacements (County Highways 53, 54, and 44), funded through existing bridge and motor-fuel-tax funds Planning-Zoning-Agriculture Committee weighing a special use permit for a church near Momence and a rezoning near St. Anne Farmland Assessment Review Committee presented certified 2027 farmland productivity values affecting property tax bills countywide
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👀 Watch for second readings: ⚠ Village Attorney dispute — Cainkar reinstatement formalized via Continuous Retention Letter, July 6 vote⚠ 411 W. Division Street — special use permit for inpatient substance-use disorder facility, final vote July 6
Full meeting details →
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📅 Out & About in Kankakee County
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Monday after the big 250th weekend, and K3 is catching its breath. The river fishing derby wraps up for good today, and Bourbonnais library kicks off five straight days of Shark Week for the kids. Past that, it's storytimes, a blood drive, and the standard Monday round of village meetings.
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★ Also Featured
ALL DAY
DAY 1 OF 5
Shark Week at the Library
Bourbonnais Public Library
Bourbonnais Public Library launches five days of shark-themed programs for kids, running through Friday. Worth penciling in all week, not just today.
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Throwback
St. Anne saved the last fireworks show of the holiday run for last night, closing out a full weekend of 250th celebrations across the county. See event
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See all 32 events on BradleyIllinois.com →
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📜 Dale's Corner
How Bourbonnais Got Its Name and Its Shape
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The name Bourbonnais comes from Francois Bourbonnais, a French-Canadian fur trader who settled in the area in the 1820s and gave the community its first identity as a trading post. When French-Canadian settlers began arriving in large numbers in the 1830s and 1840s — recruited in part by fur trader Noel Le Vasseur — they built their community around the settlement that already carried the name. Bourbonnais incorporated as a village in 1875, though the community had been established for four decades by then. For most of the 20th century it remained a small, quiet village in the shadow of Kankakee city. The modern Bourbonnais — the commercial corridors, the subdivisions, the population pushing toward 20,000, the retail development along Route 45 — is almost entirely a post-1970 story, driven by its location between Kankakee and I-57. The French-Canadian identity that named the place is still there in the street names and the historical markers. The village itself has outgrown its history in most visible ways.
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🎓 Around Town
Briggs Cann Breaks His Own Record Twice, Earns State Medal
Manteno junior Briggs Cann went to the IHSA state track finals in late May and rewrote the program record — twice. He ran 49.37 in the 400-meter prelims to break his own school record, then ran 49.01 in the finals to break it again and earn a fifth-place medal in Class 2A. He was ninth at state in 2025. He's already talking about next year.
Learn more →
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Dale's Rule #252: The Monday after the Fourth of July is when you find out what kind of person you are. Some people hit the ground running. Some people need until Thursday. Both are fine. The summer stretch is long enough for either approach.
— Dale
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⛽ Cheapest Gas in K3 Today
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Gulf
— 1184 N Convent St, Bourbonnais
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$3.61
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Road Ranger
— 5210 Quebec Dr, Bourbonnais
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$3.64
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Casey's
— 1430 N Convent St, Bourbonnais
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$3.65
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Prices sourced from GasBuddy and may be inaccurate or out of date — always confirm at the pump.
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