Freedom of Information Act Information (FOIA) Freedom of Information Act Information (FOIA)

The Village of Downs (“Village”) handles all Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) requests in accordance with the applicable provisions of 5 ILCS 140. The Village has a minimum of five (5) business days following the receipt of a FOIA request to respond to FOIA requests that meet the requirements of FOIA. For commercial requests, the Village has a minimum of twenty-one (21) business days following the receipt of a FOIA request to respond to FOIA requests that meet the requirements of FOIA.

FOIA requests can be submitted in writing using the FOIA Request form to the Village in any of the following ways: 

• By e-mail directed to clerk@villageofdowns.org  
• By U.S mail directed to: 

Downs Village Hall, ATTN: FOIA Officer 

P. O. Box 18

Downs, IL 61736 

• In person by delivering a written request to the Downs Village Hall addressed to: 

Downs Village Hall, ATTN: FOIA Officer 

211 S. Seminary Street 

Downs, IL 61736 

The following fees are applicable to any FOIA request for records, if the requestor is requesting that paper copies of the records be furnished to the requestor: 

Black & White Copies 

• First 50 pages, letter or legal-size copies, no cost. 
• Additional pages, letter or legal-size $0.15 per page. 

Color Copies  

• First 50 pages, letter or legal-size color copies $0.35 per page. 
• Additional pages, letter or legal-size $0.35 per page 

The following record fees are based on the actual cost incurred by the Village for reproduction of the record 

• Thumb Drives 
• CDs 
• Color Photographs 
• Blueprints or construction documents  
• Records of a size larger than letter or legal-size 

Certification per Record

• $1.00 per record

Search and Retrieval Time 

• First 8 Hours:    No Charge 
• Over 8 Hours: $15.00 per hour 

PDF Records  

• Up to 80 Megabytes: $20.00 
• 2 Megabytes to 4 Megabytes: $40.00 
• Over 4 Megabytes: $100.00 

The Village may in its sole discretion furnish records to a requestor without charge or at a reduced charge if the requestor states the specific purpose for the request and indicates that a waiver or reduction of the fee is in the public interest.

The Village reserves the right to require any requestor to verify orally or in writing that the requestor is a person in accordance with the provisions of 5 ILCS 140/3(j). The requestor is not required to provide personal identifying information to verify that the requestor is a person. In the event that a requestor who is asked to provide verification that they are a person fails to provide the Village will verification within thirty (30) days of the Village’s request for verification, the request will be denied by the Village.