HR0247 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0247 LRB102 17617 ECR 23321 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives are saddened to learn of the death of former State Representative Ann Simonsen Hughes, a resident of Woodstock since 1967, who passed away on March 3, 2021; and

WHEREAS, Ann Hughes's life made her a symbol of what McHenry County was and what it would become; in her first years in our state, she worked with the people of Illinois who grow things by serving as secretary and treasurer of the Hughes family's hybrid seed company; and

WHEREAS, As a taxpayer, Ann Hughes become interested in the work and challenges of the taxing bodies of Woodstock; she ran for and won election to the Woodstock District 200 School Board and the McHenry County Board; and

WHEREAS, Ann Hughes was a woman educated in science; she graduated from Wells College with a degree in biology in 1965; as time passed, she became more and more aware of what a highly educated and increasingly attractive place to live that McHenry County was becoming; and

WHEREAS, As McHenry County grew as a friendly place for professionals to live, Ann Hughes, with executive business experience, won election to be chairperson on the McHenry County Board; and

WHEREAS, McHenry County grew fast in the 1970s and 1980s; the county almost doubled in population and earned an additional seat in the Illinois House of Representatives in the redistricting after the 1990 census; and

WHEREAS, Continuing her life as a community leader, Ann Hughes was nominated on March 17, 1992 to represent the newly-redrawn Sixty-Third Representative District in the Illinois House as a member of the Republican Party; on November 3, 1992, she was elected to serve her first term by a landslide margin of almost 12,000 votes; and

WHEREAS, Ann Hughes established herself as an authority on McHenry County interests and issues; in her first year in the Illinois House, aware of the importance of safe boating to Eastern McHenry County, she was the chief House sponsor of SB 734; signed into law as Public Act 88-175, the law added cannabis and other drugs to the Boating Under the Influence Law; and

WHEREAS, Aware of the vanishing green and open spaces of McHenry County, Ann Hughes, in her second year of office, was the chief House sponsor of SB 1191; signed into law as Public Act 88-657, the law granted substantial property tax benefits to properties dedicated as natural areas and open space; this law helped generate what has become a network of conservation easements throughout Illinois, especially, but not limited to, the suburbs of Chicago; and

WHEREAS, After the election of November 8, 1994, Ann Hughes joined her fellow House Republicans as the majority party in the Illinois House of Representatives within the Eighty-Ninth General Assembly; she quickly established her determination to use her majority status to seek agreement and consensus, including in some cases bipartisan consensus, on a wide variety of issues; and

WHEREAS, Aware of the issue within McHenry County involving townships and the government of the county, Representative Ann Hughes sought a consensus outcome and successfully sponsored HB 438 (Public Act 89-365) to allow dissolution of all of the townships in a county if a concurrent supermajority of a majority of the population in the county, comprising of majorities of the votes in at least three-fourths of the townships, seek the dissolution of the township form of government in that county; and

WHEREAS, On the east side of the Fox River in Fox River Grove, Algonquin Road approaches, and crosses, the main line of the former Chicago and North Western Railroad; on the morning of October 25, 1995, a southbound passenger train running on what is now the Metra Northwest line collided at this crossing with a school bus; seven high school students were killed in the tragic accident, and a memorial stands at the site to this day; and

WHEREAS, Representative Ann Hughes and the rest of the Illinois General Assembly responded to the disaster; she chaired and co-chaired a series of hearings to gather information on the technical facts of the complex intersection where the accident occurred and on interactions between vehicles and rail crossings in general; and

WHEREAS, Public Act 89-658, initiated by Representative Ann Hughes as HB 3436, was among her chief achievements as a legislator; this measure enacted a series of rail crossing safety enforcement measures that remain in place as of 2021, including the requirement that buses and their drivers always stop, look, and listen before crossing a railroad line; and

WHEREAS, The now-familiar signs on railroad crossings, warning vehicles and pedestrians of a fine if they trespass on a crossing when the crossing signal flashes a warning, can be traced back to Representative Ann Hughes's Public Act 89-658, which was signed into law on August 14, 1996; and

WHEREAS, After winning election to a third term on November 5, 1996, with her now-customary landslide majority of more than 17,000 votes, Ann Hughes retired from office in June 1997 to resume life with her family; and

WHEREAS, Ann Hughes and her husband, Earl Hughes, Jr., had three sons, David, Donald, and James Hughes; as an active family and community leader, by the time of her death, she had eight grandchildren, Andrew, Megan, Samuel, Grant, Jack, Madelyn, Molly, and Jeffrey; she was also close to her nephew, Richard Freytag; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the loss of former State Representative Ann Simonsen Hughes of the 88th, 89th, and 90th General Assemblies; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we observe the legacy of Ann Hughes's commitment to transportation safety, environmental protection, and frugal local governments; and be it further

RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be presented to the family of Ann Hughes as an expression of our deepest sympathy.