City hiding details about service on western spur

Pioneer Railcorp filed a “Motion to Compel” with the Surface Transportation Board (STB) yesterday. They want the STB to order the City of Peoria to make all documents, communication, and other information they have about their Kellar Branch dealings part of the public record. You can read the entire motion here.

For instance, they want the facts and information the city has on CIRY’s derailment to be part of the public record. And they also want the city to produce hard evidence that a deal has been made with Union Pacific to have deliveries made to the newly-built western spur that is supposed to replace rail access when the Kellar Branch is dismantled. If the Kellar Branch is removed, the western spur is the only rail access that will be available to Carver Lumber. The removal of the Kellar Branch has always been predicated on Carver’s ability to get comparable rail service via the western spur.

It seems reasonable that the STB should know that the city has an agreement with UP in hand in order to make an informed decision about whether to allow the Kellar Branch to be permanently removed, don’t you think? But the city refuses to provide this information. They’d rather keep it a secret.

What do they have to hide?

My guess is they have no deal with Union Pacific, or if they do, it’s a deal that does not give Carver Lumber service that is comparable to the service they received over the Kellar Branch line. That would put their plan to dismantle the Kellar Branch in jeopardy, so it’s better for the city to just give the STB vague assurances that they have everything under control.

The city should voluntarily provide the information Pioneer requested. But since they won’t, the STB should compel them to provide it. Carver Lumber deserves to know whether the city is trying to railroad them.

PJS throwing stones in their glass house

The Journal Star, apparently trying to give police chief Settingsgaard a taste of his own “shaming” medicine, slapped the word “GUILTY” in bold red letters across his face in today’s editorial. His crime? “[W]anton disregard for basic fairness by continuing to post the name and photo of a Bloomington man on the city’s prostitution Web site, even though he was acquitted of sex solicitation by a jury of his peers.”

In contrast, the Bloomington man, whose name is Samuel T. Clay, has printed next to his name on the Peoria PD’s website in bold red letters, “Not Guilty.” You see, as has been pointed out by others already, the pictures on the PD website are pictures of those arrested for solicitation, not those convicted.

This is something the Journal Star itself does regularly. For instance, just today they printed the names of several individuals who were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol. Even if the charges are dismissed, they still print the person’s name and state that the charges were dismissed. What’s the difference between that and what the Peoria PD is doing on their website?

Here’s another example. When DOT Rail owner Donny Lee Gibson was arrested for allegedly trying to hire someone to kill his wife, the Journal Star didn’t have any qualms about printing that arrest, even though he was never convicted of that charge.

Apparently the only arrests that are verboten by the Journal Star are solicitation arrests. Why should these be treated differently than every other arrest? Stigma? I think murder-for-hire carries a pretty bad stigma, too. I wouldn’t want to be accused of either.

In my opinion, the Journal Star should get off Settingsgaard’s back. If those prostitutes were anywhere near where the editors of the PJS live, they’d be singing Settingsgaard’s praises for cracking down hard on them and their customers instead of boldly holding up a double-standard.

Bloggers of Peoria unite

I like to read the technology journal The New Atlantis, and this issue there is an excerpt from Glenn Reynolds’ (Instapundit.com) new book, An Army of Davids. I encourage you to read it. The article is titled “The Rise of Guerrilla Media,” and it’s full of intriguing ideas, like this one:

An organization that put together a network of freelance journalists under a framework that allowed for [a] reputation rating [like Amazon.com’s], and that paid based on the number of pageviews and the ratings that each story received, would be more like a traditional newspaper than a blog, but it would still be a major change from the newspapers of today. Interestingly, it might well be possible to knit together a network of bloggers into the beginnings of such an organization. With greater reach and lower costs than a traditional newspaper, it might bring something new and competitive to the news business.

The inherent limitation in blogging, as I see it, is the fact that it’s just me, or just you, out there trying to gather facts and information and publish as a hobby. We don’t have reporters we can send out, and no one has figured out a way to make money at it, although Bill Dennis has certainly tried.

This would probably never work, but I had this crazy idea. Imagine several local bloggers uniting to form a freelance journalistic cooperative. I know we all have links to each other now, but suppose we had a single site — a meta-blog, if you will — where we all submitted original news copy and analysis about Peoria. For the masses who don’t have the time or inclination to go blog-hopping, this would provide a one-stop source for alternative Peoria media (or “we-dia,” as Jim Treacher calls citizen journalism).

If it became a popular source for news, we could sell advertising and split the revenue in some mutually-agreeable way (number of hits like Reynolds suggested, or number of contributions, or something). Why, it would almost be like having a second newspaper in town, only we wouldn’t have the overhead of newsprint and distribution.

Like I said, it’s a crazy idea, but fun to kick around just for the heck of it. What do you think? Potentially workable or laughably implausible? “Strength in numbers,” or “too many cooks spoil the broth”?

PDC and PPD: The plot thickens

Remember when I called up Bonnie Noble because I was surprised that the Park District came out in favor of the proposed PDC landfill expansion?  Well, apparently, I wasn’t the only one who was surprised by that — so was the Park Board.

The Journal Star today reports that Noble’s letter, even though it was on Park District letterhead, did not reflect the park district’s view:

The Park Board voted at its Feb. 22 meeting not to take a position on the proposed landfill expansion. Trustee Jim Cummings said then that Noble’s letter doesn’t represent the official position of the park district.

That actually makes me feel better about the park district as a whole. If Noble wants to express her own opinion, that’s fine — she made some interesting points.  However, to print her personal feelings on park district letterhead misrepresents the Park Board to Peoria County.

I hope county board members are aware that Noble’s letter is not a park district endorsement of the landfill expansion.

(P.S. In the category of “things that may be of interest to other bloggers,” my blog was actually quoted in this Journal Star story.   If they’re reading my little opinion columns, you can bet they’re reading other Peoria bloggers, and it’s gratifying to know they’re listening to us.)

Council Roundup: Mulligans settlement

The city of Peoria settled their lawsuit with Mulligans tonight for $163,000 with very little comment.  The lawsuit stemmed from the city prohibiting Mulligans from holding wet t-shirt contests.  Sandberg mentioned that the amount of money in the settlement would pay for three firefighters — to which someone (couldn’t tell who) added “with their clothes on.”  That was a pretty funny line.

Council Roundup: 10-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness

Emily Cahill of the Heart of Illinois Homeless Continuum of Care (HOIHCOC) presented their 10-year plan to end chronic homelessness tonight. Why do we have an HOIHCOC and a 10-year plan?

In 2001, President George W. Bush set a national goal to end chronic homelessness within 10 years. In response to that goal, and a mandate from Congress, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued direction to all recipients of HUD grants, including local jurisdictions and all Continua of Care, to develop a local plan to end chronic homelessness.

In other words, it’s a federal requirement. This was a long, but interesting presentation and discussion with the council. Some of the interesting facts they presented:

  • Families are the fastest growing segment of the homeless population
  • 30% of homeless persons are homeless with their families—one-third are children
  • At least 20% of homeless children do not attend school
  • Over half of the homeless people in Illinois live outside of Chicago
  • 41% of homeless are single men
  • One third of homeless persons experience a mental illness
  • Less than one-third are addicted to drugs or alcohol

To combat chronic homelessness*, they want to see 250 more safe and affordable housing units by 2016, implement a data-collection system so they can track their progress, improve the emergency shelter system, increase public awareness of the 10-year plan, and most importantly, focus on prevention.

They request that the community do three things:

  • Review the Plan
  • Share your comments, suggestions, and concerns in writing (by March 15 — e-mail comments to the Continuum at hoihmis@mtco.com – Subject: 10-Year Plan, OR mail comments to HOIHCOC, c/o Emily Cahill, P.O. Box 3855, Peoria, IL 61612.
  • Attend March 23 Homeless Breakfast (sorry, I have no further info on this event)

Continue reading Council Roundup: 10-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness

Council Roundup: Savoie honored

Olympic figure skater Matt Savoie was honored tonight by the City Council.  The entire council chambers gave Matt a standing ovation, and Gary Sandberg — a family friend of the Savoies — read the proclamation.  It was a very nice gesture of the city, and I think the council spoke for all of us when they told Matt how proud we Peorians are of him.

Did you see my letter to the editor?

Just in case you missed it, you can read it here.  It was, of course, about the Kellar Branch.  There have been several pro-trail letters to the editor lately, and I just couldn’t stand reading all the misinformation anymore.  I hope my letter will cause some people to reevaluate their support for turning a viable rail line into a trail.

One interesting fact:  the publishing of my letter is the first time the Journal Star has disclosed the amount of money Carver Lumber has lost (over $25,000) due to the city’s pursuit of this rails-to-trail debacle.

Renaissance Park gets new website

If you haven’t seen the new website for Renaissance Park, formerly the Med-Tech District, click here.

It looks pretty nice, actually. I notice there are a lot of stylized drawings and artists’ renditions of things, and very few real pictures of what the area looks like. I suppose that’s because, (a) right now there’s a big hole in the ground where the Innovation Center will be built, and (b) they’re trying to sell the vision for the area, not the current “look.”

Renaissance Park is part of the larger Heart of Peoria Plan, so it’s encouraging to see this part of the Plan progressing. Some may say what’s happened so far is all fluff, but I think good marketing is a key component of revitalizing that area, so this is definitely progress.

Click on “Read the rest of this entry” below to read the official press release:

Continue reading Renaissance Park gets new website

Ankiel’s place on Cards’ roster a mystery

The St. Louis Cardinals are reporting that Rick Ankiel is injured:

In making the transition from pitching to playing the outfield, talent has scarcely been an issue for Rick Ankiel. A balky body, however, keeps protesting. On Monday, Ankiel sustained his third injury in the 12 months since he made the switch, suffering a strained left patellar tendon in an intrasquad game. He underwent an MRI at Jupiter Medical Center on Tuesday, and he will be held out for at least 10-14 days. The injury was characterized as a Grade 2 strain, the middle of three levels.

Here’s my question: why the heck is Ankiel still on the Cardinals’ roster? This kid imploded in the post-season six years ago and has never recovered. Yet they don’t send him to the minor leagues, but keep him on the 40-man roster and try to convert him to an outfielder.

Why? Is his dad on the board of directors or something? I’ve never heard of a team keeping a dead weight like this for more than half a decade. It’s time to cut the kid loose so he can pursue other interests while he’s still young.