April 12, 2025
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County looking to sell former animal control building

Board also OK’d Show Bus agreement, utility line relocation

By Christopher Breach
Kankakee County Board chairman Matthew Alexander-Hildebrand, 27, stands outside the board room on Feb. 4, 2025. Alexander-Hildebrand, of Bourbonnais, became the youngest person elected to the position in December after winning reelection to his board seat in November.

Kankakee County Board chairman Matthew Alexander-Hildebrand stands outside the board room on Feb. 4, 2025. (Daily Journal/Tiffany Blanchette)

When Kankakee County Animal Control moved into its new facility in Bourbonnais in the summer of 2024, it left its old location on Stanford Drive in Kankakee vacant.

Kankakee County will soon be listing the property at 1270 Stanford Drive with Nugent Curtis Real Estate.

“Any buyers, please come forward,” said County Board Chairman Matthew Alexander-Hildebrand after Tuesday’s meeting.

Alexander-Hildebrand said the asking price will be revealed once Nugent Curtis Real Estate gets the commercial property listed later this week. He’s hopeful it can sell quickly.

The money from the sale will then go into the Animal Control budget, Alexander-Hildebrand said.

Kankakee County Animal Control opened at its new shelter at 134 Mooney Drive in Bourbonnais in June 2024.

Show Bus agreement

The County Board also approved the annual agreement with Show Bus to operate the county’s rural public transportation service for fiscal 2026. The county also has applied for grants from the Illinois Department of Transportation to help fund Show Bus.

“We do this every single year,” said Ben Wilson, the county’s transportation and development division manager.

There are 13 Show Bus routes in Kankakee County as part of the five-county system that also includes Iroquois, Livingston, Ford and McLean counties.

McLean County had been the lead for administering the program for the other four counties, but it decided to cease that agreement once it ends June 30 and just administer its own Show Bus deal for the next fiscal year.

There was talk that Kankakee County could fill that lead role, but Livingston County will be the administrator for the other three counties moving forward, Wilson said.

The county’s current budget for Show Bus is $2.8 million. More than 50% of Kankakee County’s Show Bus routes are commuter routes from Kankakee to Momence and Hopkins Park to Momence, transporting workers to and from their jobs.

County Highway 9

The final piece of the puzzle for the relocating utility lines for the reconstruction of County Highway 9 in Manteno west of Interstate 57 is in place.

The Board authorized the chairman to sign a reimbursement agreement with Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America for the required casing extension of the buried pipeline under Highway 9 (9000N Road) between U.S. Route 45/52 and Spruce Street near Manteno.

County Engineer Greg Heiden said once Natural Gas Pipeline Company receives the signed agreement, it will proceed with purchasing the metal casing.

Heiden said it could take up to eight months for NGPL to purchase the casing because it’s required to buy steel made in the United States.

“That’s what they’re telling us,” Heiden said. “... We’d like to speed them along, but I don’t know.”

Heiden said he’s hopeful the contractor could work around the gas pipeline once construction begins so there won’t be a long delay.