By: Diane Benjamin

This isn’t the last clip, this is just #2. First clip: https://blnnews.com/2026/10/21/a-few-highlights-normal-township-board/

The elected Clerk, Dayna Schickedanz, was finally back last night after a lengthy absence due to illness.

Trustee Natasha Syed was absent.

The Board had given $10,000 to the McLean County History Museum in August: https://normaltownship.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Normal-Township-Regular-Meeting-Minutes-August-2026-3.pdf

The total amount they decided to give away, after putting nothing in the budget for grants, was $40,000.

This $10,000 left $30,000 available. On the agenda are list of organizations wanting money:

Community Health Care Clinic – $20,000

Prairie Pride Coalition – $3,000

YWCA for Childcare Scholarship Fund – $5,000

BN Community Land Trust – $4,000 (agenda misprint says $2,000)

Youth Build – $10,000

BN Achievement Foundation – $10,000

Total requests: $52,000

Go back to the August minutes. They clearly say $40,000 is available and they gave away $10,000. In the first few minutes of the video below Krystle claims $40,000 is available. $40,000 became available when $10,000 was taken from the financial services fund, not before.

This entire video is the Board discussing these grants. It also proves why meetings take 3 hours. The most important part is at 9:51 when Krystle Able states not all of these can be guaranteed to benefit just Normal Township residents. Breaking the law is fine, especially when nobody prosecutes. Illinois REQUIRES all grants to only benefit citizens of the Township. That was immaterial.

Here is how much each ended up with:

Community Health Care Clinic – $13,250

Prairie Pride Coalition – $2,500

YWCA for Childcare Scholarship Fund – $4,500

BN Community Land Trust – $3,750

Youth Build – $7,500

BN Achievement Foundation – $8,500

Total $40,000 in addition to the $10,000 from August.

If you want to see what each is going to do with this money, I scanned the first page of all the applications. Some are multiple pages. If you want to see an entire application, email me.