County Board Member Proposes Jersey County Split From Illinois To Missouri

JERSEYVILLE - Jersey County Board member Eric Ivers is following the tide of several in Southern Illinois by presenting the idea to fellow members about a referendum on the ballot that would ask if the county should promote moving the Missouri border to encompass Jersey.

There has been a movement statewide to split Illinois into two states, which Ivers said he doesn’t think will happen, but he said the ideas of border state counties splintering away might be a possibility.

Ivers grew up in Eldred and ranks as one of the top scholars to ever come from Carrollton High School. He was a National Merit Scholar and valedictorian of his Carrollton High School senior class. Ivers spent years in the robotics industry and even worked in Silicon Valley in the manufacturing of robots distributed worldwide. He is semi-retired at this point and devotes his time to the board and other charitable work.

“People have been complaining forever that Chicago controls everything Illinois, and we don’t have a voice in Southern Illinois,” he said. “Other counties have put this on ballot measures. Having a river (Mississippi and Illinois) in between us makes it more difficult, but this is not a proposed ballot proposition to join Missouri but to see if people want us to pursue it. Some on the Jersey Board thought it was a goofy idea and were so shocked by the very thought of it. I would like to hear what the voters have to say.”

Ivers said he had to obtain 700 signatures to get the question of whether Jersey should pursue the idea of separating from Illinois to Missouri, and he said he thinks that is possible.

Ivers has considerable government experience, serving as Greene County Board chairman at one point, and he also was a candidate for the state legislature.

The Jersey County Board member has put feelers out to Calhoun, Pike, and Greene County to see if there is any interest in separating from Illinois and awaits some response.

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