Arcola Township faces pushback over $1.3 million building decision
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Officials make bribery accusation
By David Porter
The Arcola Township officials spent much of their meeting Feb. 16 defending the $1.3 million purchase of a building while blaming The County Chronicle for allegedly misleading the public. Toward the end of the meeting, township officials also accused a local manufacturer of trying to “bribe” the township.
Deana Shields, office manager and deputy clerk, acknowledged that she didn’t know if she misspoke or was misquoted in the newspaper article that ran Oct. 8, 2025. The two biggest points of contention over the article by former Editor Ben Crane were regarding whether a bid was sought and the estimated cost to add onto the existing township shed.
In the article, Shields is quoted as saying the township received a bid of $2.5 million for a new building. The Board used that information to justify buying the Railroad Component Rebuilds, Inc., building on Rt. 45, for $1.3 million. In a heated discussion, Shields and Mark Nacke, road commissioner, were adamant that there was no bid for a new building; only an estimate for $1.25 million, which they said did not include concrete, water service, landscaping, sewer lines, and other costs.
A verbatim review of the reporter’s interview shows that Shields used the word “bid” in the interview and stated that the “bid” was $2.5 million. She later changed that number to $1.25 million, which the reporter missed when writing the article. Visitors to the township meeting Feb. 16, said the $2.5 million figure tracks with information Shields gave them.
“We got a bid to build an office building for myself and build onto the shed, and that estimate come back from at $2.5 million, no, 1 million 2.5, and that did not include water and electric,” Shields said according to the verbatim record.
The township never contacted the newspaper to ask for any corrections or clarifications to the story that ran more than four months ago.
Terry Foran, a visitor at the meeting, said an addition to the existing shed should have been formally bid so the Board would have a competitive number before making the decision to buy the RCR building.
Nacke said the estimate was not in writing and the contractor’s guess was “just off his head.” Nacke yelled at the visitors to “shut up. … We did not seek bids. If you guys want to make a big g**d**** deal out of it, make it. We never accepted one bid from anyone.”
The township officials said the RCR building was three times the building they have now, yet they indicated an intent to keep the existing township shed across the street despite an offer from Libman Company that would pay for more than half the cost of the new building. Libman’s has tried to acquire the property before. Shields said they recently offered $750,000 for the building but said the offer was contingent on the township agreeing to a 12-year tax increment finance (TIF) district extension.
“This Board is not for sale,” Shields said. “Our vote is not for sale. And that was a bribe.”
Nacke reiterated the reference to a “bribe” saying that the township’s “attorney said ‘No way.’ That’s a big bribe. That’s a bribe.”
When asked how the township’s bank responded, Nacke said the bank also called Libman’s offer a bribe. He repeated the accusation several times.
Foran, who is an Arcola city alderman, later said the offer from Libman was well above the value of the building and was intended to appease the township for what it perceives as a loss of revenue from TIF.
TIF districts freeze tax revenue for all the taxing bodies within the TIF district. Any increases in tax revenue then go to the TIF district for economic development expenses. Proponents of TIF districts argue that the tax revenue would not increase without the economic development efforts of the TIF.
The Feb. 16 meeting also included a discussion about the upkeep of the township cemetery with Foran criticizing the maintenance and Shields accusing Foran of misrepresenting himself as speaking for the township — a claim he denied.
Shields acts as deputy clerk for the township and runs meetings when the clerk is absent. However, a previous Freedom of Information Act request by the former Arcola Record-Herald, a predecessor of The County Chronicle, turned up no documentation showing that she has ever been appointed deputy clerk, and state law prohibits an individual from serving as both a public official and an employee of the same township. Nacke also serves in a dual capacity as elected road commissioner and cemetery sexton.
(50 ILCS 105/2b): “… a person elected to or appointed to fill a vacancy in an elected township position, including, but not limited to, a trustee, a supervisor, a highway commissioner, a clerk, an assessor, or a collector, shall not be employed by the township, except that a supervisor or trustee may serve as a volunteer firefighter and receive compensation for that service…”