JOLIET -- Will County continued its commitment to "going green" as workers installed a green roof on the county office building, 302 N. Chicago St. The green roof, which seeks to reduce energy costs and offer other environmental benefits, is the first of its kind in downtown Joliet.

As part of a $3.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy through the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program, Will County was able to complete this project. The 5,920-square-foot GreenGrid roof contains sedum and other perennial plant life pre-planted in 2-by-4 foot trays. Approximately 740 of these modular sections will cover a large portion of the rooftop.

Will County Executive Larry Walsh said this project is another piece of the county's larger green initiative program, which includes an aggressive retrofit of county buildings, a gas-to-energy plant at the Will County-owned Prairie View landfill in Wilmington, and a variety of educational efforts directed toward students.

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JOLIET -- Gov. Pat Quinn is scheduled to join local and state officials at a Saturday gathering to mark the accumulation of funding needed to make city water and sewer services available to the Ridgewood area.

"The collaboration that came together has just been tremendous," said Will County Executive Larry Walsh, a leader in the effort to solve the decades-old problem of bad water and seeping sewage in Ridgewood.

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JOLIET -- Federal stimulus funds will help solve a decades-long problem with bad water in the Ridgewood area.

Anyone willing to pay for it will have access to city of Joliet water and sewage services by sometime in the summer.

It will go a long way toward solving a problem that dates back a half-century when a trunk line for water and sewer is built in the coming months, funded largely with stimulus money.

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Officials of Will County and Waste Management of Illinois, Inc. today announced a plan to jointly develop a landfill gas-to-energy plant at the Prairie View Recycling and Disposal Facility near Wilmington.

Will County officials said they intend to apply for federal economic stimulus funds earmarked for renewable energy projects to help finance the project. Once the grant process is complete, Will County anticipates putting at least $1 million in stimulus funds toward the project.

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JOLIET -- Will County residents are invited to become part of an expanded discussion about issues facing senior citizens and people with disabilities by joining the Eastern Will County Senior and Special Needs Advisory Committee.

The group is a subcommittee of the Will County Advisory Committee on Disabilities formed by County Executive Larry Walsh in 2005. Currently, Sandy Simmons, a member of the county executive staff and the disability liaison for Walsh's office, facilitates the committee. She also will lead the new group.

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Will County Executive Larry Walsh was a late arrival to the Illinois Senate in 1997. The Elwood farmer was brand new to Springfield’s legislative scene when he was appointed in March to fill the seat vacated by the resignation of Joliet lawyer Tom Dunn.

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