Afternoon news update: June 25, 2015

Despite public outcries against the planned New Town public housing project on East State Street, the Rockford Housing Authority will get its way. The Fairgrounds Valley public housing project on the city’s west side is expected to be demolished and many of the residents will move to New Town housing. At a contentious public meeting held last week with the RHA and developer Gorman and Company, many residents said they feared an increase of crime and drugs in the neighborhood. But Thursday morning, Mayor Larry Morrissey dismissed their concerns, saying one of the new district police headquarters will be constructed across the street from the housing project and officers would be there to handle any issues that come up. Mayor Morrissey made his comments during WROK’s Ask the Mayor with Scott and Riley.
The jobless rate in Illinois continues to drop. The Illinois Department of Employment Security and the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics show that May was the 15^th consecutive month that unemployment rates fell in every metro area in the state. Rates fell in every Illinois county as well. Rockford’s rate fell almost two percent from May 2014 – 7.8 percent to 5.9 percent.
Those hard hit by a tornado in April in Fairdale are reaching out to help residents of Coal City who suffered damage from a tornado earlier this week. Two men drove more than 90 miles Wednesday from Fairdale to Morris with boxes of supplies. An EF-3 tornado struck Coal City late Monday destroying homes and businesses and causing minor injuries. No one died. An EF-4 tornado struck Fairdale on April 9, killing two people.
Rockford mayor Larry Morrissey is still trying to defend the planned construction of low income housing off of East State Street. A contentious public meeting last week saw many residents offering to sell their homes to the developer, Gorman and Company, instead of opting for new construction. And now comments made by Winnebago County Board member John Sweeney, Jr. of collusion between the mayor and developer is surfacing. Sweeney accuses the mayor and Gorman and Company with trading the reconstruction of the Amerock building in downtown Rockford into a 165 room hotel for the movement of residents from the Fairgrounds Valley project to East State Street. Morrissey calls it libelous and "b.s." Mayor Morrissey made his comments during WROK’s Ask the Mayor with Scott and Riley.
A Rockford man is arrested and charged with dealing heroin in Belvidere. The Belvidere Narcotic Unit assisted by the DEA arrested Shaun Z. Jones, of Rockford, in the 2800 block of 11th Street in Rockford. Jones is the second suspect in two days to be arrested on narcotics charges in Rockford by Belvidere authorities. Additional charges and arrests are possible.

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