[April 25, 2013] Normal Township commissioner giving way to elected son May 20 Tweet NORMAL, Apr 25, 2013 (The Pantagraph - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Lynn Rader's job as Normal Township road commissioner for the past 20 years has included more than maintaining and upgrading roads and clearing them of snow. He's also had to be a trash collector. "We get appliances, tires and everything else dropped off," he said. The 32 square miles of township roads begin just north of Normal's city limits and go as far west as Ropp Road, as far east as Airport Road and as far north at County Road 2000. Rader often finds computer monitors that not only have been dumped in his jurisdiction, but also appear to have been run over by a vehicle. After the recent rains, he found tire tracks up and down the ditches and into fields. His best guess is that young drivers decided to play in the puddles. Unfortunately, he said, such horseplay ruins the grass on the ditch hills and causes erosion. Then there's lightweight trash, such as paper, that either blows out of vehicles or is dumped. The springtime winds whip it everywhere. "It's a constant battle," he said. "It makes more work for us." But after May 20, Rader will be passing on all that work and those responsibilities to his son, Arin Rader, who was elected road commissioner in the April 9 election. "He's been working with me for 10 years," said Lynn Rader. "I've been grooming him and he said at Thanksgiving he was ready to run. I was at the end of a term and it made a good fit." Ray Ropp, a member of the Normal Township Board, said Lynn Rader is a "man of high integrity" and has always "done the job to the fullest extent of his abilities." Traffic heavier over time During his tenure, traffic on some roads -- including Raab from Ropp to Parkside and Northtown Road -- has more than doubled. While most township roads are oil and chip, Rader has improved the high traffic areas to hot mix. Scott Dennewitz, Normal street supervisor, said Rader "is one of the easiest persons to work with that I've ever dealt with." Because the town and township jurisdictions overlap -- parts of Raab Road are in the town; other parts are in the township, for instance -- Dennewitz said sometimes it's more efficient if one of the departments does all the snow removal rather than stopping at the end of its jurisdiction. Dennewitz expects Normal will see the same cooperation from Arin Rader. "It's a great family," he said. "I'm sure the apple didn't fall far from the tree." Meanwhile Lynn Rader won't be sitting idle during his retirement. "I've got plenty to do," he said. The Rader's farm has 12 acres of corn, 30-plus acres of pumpkins and gourds and a corn maze, gift shop and a variety of activities in the fall. ___ (c)2013 The Pantagraph (Bloomington, Ill.) Visit The Pantagraph (Bloomington, Ill.) at www.pantagraph.com Distributed by MCT Information Services [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]