Kankakee Times

State Rep. Thomas Bennett (R-Watseka) recently ushered Resolution 66 in honor of longtime friend and civic leader Marvin Perzee through the House.

Going forward, May 20 will be known as “Marvin Perzee County Fair Day.”

After more than roughly four decades of being an advocate of Iroquois County agriculture, Perzee passed away on July 17, 2019.

“This resolution mourns the passing of Marvin E. Perzee and declares May 20, 2021 (that is today) as Marvin Perzee County Fair Day,” Bennett said in a video posted to Facebook. “Marvin and Sharon were married for 40 years and they were partners in so many things. Marvin held many other leadership roles in agriculture. He worked hard to make the Iroquois County Fair one of the premier county fairs in the state.”

In state-related business, Bennett has recently been vocal of late in calling for the reopening of Illinois Department of Employment Security offices across the state. IDES offices have been closed since May 2020 due to COVID, and complaints about a lack of service have grown louder.

“Even though the number of new cases are declining and many state offices are reopening, IDES offices are still closed,” Bennett said during a recent press conference from Springfield. “We’ve seen that much work can be done remotely, including work of my district office, which has been helping hundreds of residents, but the idea of a model of working only by telephone or through a website is clearly not working for people when they need help now.”

The closures have come at a steep cost for the state, with The Center Square reporting the state is now probing more than 212,000 suspected fraud claims, with many of them targeting individuals who rated as their companies' highest earners. With the state having issued more than $17 billion in unemployment assistance since the beginning of the pandemic, IDES spokeswoman Rebecca Cisco claims much of the potential fraud can be blamed on data breaches outside the confines of the agency.