Seeking solid ground among shifting rumors in Springfield

Top to bottom, morale at the Springfield IDNR headquarters may have sunk to an all-time low. Those of field employees aren’t much better. Not sure the incoming director, Rep. Kurt Granberg (D-Carlyle), will make much difference in the lame-duck years of the Blagojevich administration.

Even Sam Flood, the acting IDNR director who only expected to be in place for a few months after Joel Brunsvold left and now is in his third year, is more than ready to be out.

One source outside of Springfield indicated Granberg could be officially appointed on Saturday, March 1. Another source said the reports of Granberg’s arrival in the Springfield IDNR headquarters earlier this month were greatly exaggerated. Another indicated it would be the first week of March when Granberg’s appointment would be official.

He’s coming. But it doesn’t appear it will make much difference, other than giving Granberg a higher base for calculating his retirement pay.

In a related matter, as in it probably wouldn’t be happening with a strong director, personalities as much as money may be behind the move of the surveys from the IDNR to the U of I.

I had assumed that moving the surveys (natural history, water, etc.), most of which predated the IDNR and the old DOC, was a chance for Blagojevich’s number-crunchers to move around money, now I hear it might be more like a chance for the surveys to get away from an out-of-control overseer at the Springfield IDNR offices.

More than issues of cuts in staff and funding await Granberg.