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SPRINGFIELD — Illinois lawmakers have approved a bill to dedicate a bridge in the Kickapoo State Recreation Area in honor of the late state Sen. Scott Bennett.

Bennett, a Champaign Democrat and native of Gibson City, served in the Illinois Senate from January 2015 until his death from complications of a brain tumor on Dec. 9, 2022. He left behind a wife and two children.

State Rep. Carol Ammons, D-Urbana, said Bennett, a Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley High School graduate, was well known for working across the aisle, and the pair worked together regularly. She sponsored the bill in his honor.

The bill — which needs only a signature from the governor to become law — designates the railroad trestle bridge that is part of the Kickapoo Rail Trail at Kickapoo State Recreation Area in Vermilion County as the Senator Scott Bennett Memorial Bridge.

State Sen. Paul Faraci of Champaign, who succeeded Bennett in the chamber, called Bennett a mentor.

“Renaming the bridge on Kickapoo Rail Trail in honor of his life and work is common sense,” he said when the bill passed the Senate in April. “He made tangible, necessary and valuable change for our communities with our residents’ best interest always at the forefront, and nothing deserves recognition more than that.”

Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, remembered Bennett as a friend upon his unexpected passing in 2022.

“I always looked forward to seeing him around town, whether at the YMCA or the Buffalo Wild Wings, where we could occasionally run into each other with our kids,” he said at the time. “The world needs more Scott Bennetts, not less.”

The Illinois House approved the measure unanimously on Thursday, May 21, after the Senate did so last month.

The post Bill to name bridge after Bennett awaits governor first appeared on Ford County Chronicle.

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May 27, 2026 at 02:39PM