Marengo, Illinois
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Issue No. 16
Marengo Weekly
Sunday, September 27, 2026
A roundup of the week in Marengo — local news, upcoming events, and everything in between, straight from this week's edition.
Read This Week's IssueGovernment
Behind the homes on East Forest Street sits one of the biggest pieces of empty land inside Marengo's city limits. The city approved a subdivision there by 2007, which marketing materials describe as 54 duplexes and 24 houses. None were built. Public records tell the story of what happened instead, and why the land is suddenly worth watching again.
Continue reading →Meeting Recaps
Marengo will ask the state why it can't add a fourth road off the I-90 roundabouts on Route 23, after a property owner asked the city to reconsider a 2018 promise not to seek one. The council also worked through a rewrite of the city's building code, due back for a vote October 12, and approved an after-the-fact $35,331.50 change to the Meyer Road paving job.
Continue reading →Schools
Before the pandemic, both Marengo school districts had lower rates of chronic absenteeism than Illinois as a whole. In the most recent state data, both are higher. We asked all three districts serving the area what changed. None of them said the counting did.
Continue reading →Government
The Marengo City Council will discuss Monday whether to back away from a 2018 resolution in which the city agreed not to pursue or support new access onto Route 23 at the I-90 interchange. The land a new access road would reach includes a site the council approved for a travel center in 2023. This story also carries more of our own analysis than we usually run, and it says plainly what we cannot confirm.
Continue reading →Government
A 300-megawatt solar farm covering more than 2,600 acres around Marengo was approved in 2021, then went quiet for five years. We read the federal grid filings, county land records, and years of local meeting minutes to find out what happened, who owns it now, and which deadlines it is up against.
Continue reading →Government
At this week's prices, about $1.09 of every gallon of gas sold in Marengo is tax, and the city keeps about 8 cents of it. Marengo's gas taxes are slightly lower than Woodstock's or Crystal Lake's, so a big price gap between them is not the tax. Here is every tax in the price, how a dozen nearby places compare, and what changed this summer.
Continue reading →Government
Settlers' Days turns 55 this year, with the carnival, the parade and Saturday Night on Main Street back downtown October 9 to 11. Here is the full schedule, which streets close and when, and what the police chief told the council before it approved closing Route 23.
Continue reading →Openings, closings, and news from around town.
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