Will County News

By Mary Baskerville MANHATTAN--When Peter Ford, Ken Salamone, and Steve Maslak of White Oak Growers sought a license to grow medical marijuana on a 34-acre farm in Wilton Center, the men said their background in energy development on the East Coast gave them experience in understanding how to follow government regulations and confidence that their Illinois application met all the requirements. Earlier this year, the award went to Cresco Labs of Chicago. Cresco also was named to receive the license in two other districts, including Kankakee County. In a suit filed Wednesday in the Circuit Court of Cook County, White Oak Growers is seeking an injunction to prohibit the Illinois Department of Agriculture from issuing the cultivation center license, and is seeking a court review of the scoring. Ford said Wednesday that the injunction will allow the courts to “examine the decision making process.” “There was an expectation that the law—the law of the land would be follo...

Beautiful fall colors are on display at Gerdes Grove and the Laughton Preserve in Wilton Center, Illinois.  The preserves are part of the Will County Forest Preserve District.  Laughton Preserve, Wilton Center, Illinois  Laughton Preserve, Wilton Center, Illinois  Laughton Preserve, Wilton Center, Illinois Gerdes Grove, Wilton Center, Illinois According to the Forest Preserve District of Will County's website : " Laughton Preserve began with the District's acquisition of an 8-acre parcel from the Gerdes family, and has grown to 430 acres from extensive acquisitions in the 1990s and in 2006.  The preserve contains approximately 2 miles of Forked Creek and has been left largely undisturbed, as it protects a remnant of the historic Twelve Mile Grove (a prairie grove 12 miles along the road from Joliet to Danville), portions of the 1832 Ce-Na-Ge-Wine and Joseph Laughton Reservations, and the historic Wallingford Settlement in Wilton ...