If You Have Questions about Plainfield Township Roads, Don't Ask the Board

If you have any questions or complaints about Plainfield Township roads, please do not call the township board. 

If you look at your Plainfield tax bill, you will see two separate levies for township: One for the township board and another for the township highway department. 

Guess what that means? 

It means the Plainfield Township Highway Department is a separate governmental body. It controls its own budget for its own projects. Township Highway Supervisor Sam Reichert is an elected official who does not answer to the township board of trustees. 

In fact, it seems, he doesn't answer to much of anyone at all. 

"(He's) one of the few elected officials who does not report to anyone," township Supervisor John Argoudelis told me.

Argoudelis called to let me know I had sent my Freedom of Information Act requests to the wrong administrative offices. This is a common misconception, he said. Most people assume the highway commissioner is subject to, or a part of, the board of trustees. 

"This has been a problem in the past," Argoudelis said. 

Reichert attends monthly board meetings sporadically and is not known to be forthcoming in responding to questions from the public, residents and others, township officials say. He was appointed to the position in 2003 and has been elected twice since then.

In response to my request for documents and related questions about decisions made and money spent on the River Road widening and Renwick Bridge projects, Reichert's secretary tells me the highway supervisor is running it by his lawyers.  

Stay tuned for results.