According to WHBF-TV in the Quad Cities, the Hostess factory in Davenport, Iowa, is closing down, and its production load will “shift to other bakeries in the region, mainly to Peoria, Illinois.” The report doesn’t say that Peoria will be gaining any jobs due to the closing of Davenport’s factory, just more work.
Daily Archives: November 5, 2005
Ag lab creation to become commercial product
Scientists at the USDA Ag Lab on the corner of Nebraska and University have developed a sunscreen from soybean oil that is natural and bio-degradable. The new product is called SoyScreen and is patented by the Agrigultural Research Service (ARS). ARS recently granted an exclusive license to iSoy Technology Corporation in Cary, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, to produce SoyScreen as a commercial product. According to the USDA website:
SoyScreen owes its sunburn-preventing properties to ferulic acid, an antioxidant in rice, oats and other plants. To keep the antioxidant from dissolving in water, the Peoria researchers chemically bound it to soy oil using lipase enzymes and heat in an environmentally friendly process called biocatalysis. The resulting lotion won’t wash off from swimming or sweat, and is non-polluting, according to Laszlo, in the ARS center’s New Crops and Processing Technology Research Unit.
Here’s my question: other than bragging rights that it was developed in Peoria, is this product (and others developed at the Ag Lab) benefitting Peoria? Is there increased demand for soybeans from Peoria farmers? Is the promise of the “MedTech District” (or “Renaissance Park” or whatever they’re calling it these days) the possibility that products like SoyScreen could be developed into commercial products locally? I hope so, because it seems a shame that products created here are being developed in Chicago.
Welcome to The Peoria Chronicle
Taking a page from the Bill Dennis playbook (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, isn’t it?), I’ve turned my blog into an online magazine as well. And that necessitated a name change. “Summers in Peoria” was the name of my blog. “The Peoria Chronicle” is “Your Ezine for Peoria News and Comment.” I’ll probably change my URL eventually, but that seems fraught with problems, so I’m holding off on that one. I’ve also (as you can tell) changed the template just to shake things up a little. I even added a picture of myself, but I suppose I’ll have to get rid of it if traffic starts falling off because of it. Ha ha!
Rail Service important for Peoria to be “hub of shipping”
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I took Bill Dennis’s advice and took a look at WCBU’s new website. Right on the front page is this story (reprinted here in its entirety because it’s short and I couldn’t find a permalink):
PORT DISTRICT STUDIEDPeoria – 11/3/05The effort to make the Peoria region a hub of shipping has identified thirteen possible locations for development. A study from the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission looks at everything from the strength of air, water, rail, and highway transportation in the area to the kinds of goods that would likely come through a port. The study suggests 13 places in the six county region that could be developed into a port. It also looks at the constraints that could hamper such development efforts. They include having a limited number of interstate highways, and secondary roads that may not be adequate for major shipping corridors. It also includes restrictions on developing wetlands, flood plains, and other federally protected land. The study also points out limited rail capacity in the region. The Heart of Illinois Port District, now called TRANSport, will use the study to analyze the market, and eventually create a business plan for port developments. Leaders of the effort project if successful, the port district could create thousands of jobs in the area in the next ten to twenty years.
I would like to see this study, but I can’t find it anywhere on the web. Specifically, I’m intrigued by the “limited rail capacity in the region.” I wonder how they arrived at that conclusion. And I wonder what impact closing down the Kellar Branch to make it a walking trail has on that conclusion. As regular readers of this blog know, severing the Kellar Branch’s connection to the riverfront means Pioneer Park loses access to seven major rail lines — it will only have access to Union Pacific once the tracks are removed. Granted, it’s only one area, but what does it say about Peoria’s commitment to bringing in higher-paying jobs when it won’t even maintain existing competitive rail service in one of its prime growth areas?
What this study does, among other things, is show that rail service is not some antiquated, 19th-century mode of transportation. It’s not only viable, but essential to cities that want to attract business and be a “hub for shipping.” And if our capacity is limited, it’s only because the city has not made it a priority. There’s not a whole lot Peoria can do about lack of highways or restrictions on developing federally-protected land. But rail capacity we have, and should be exploiting.Â
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Lyn Howard Costanza
Reading about former Pekin mayor Lyn Howard’s defense reminded me of the Seinfeld episode where George had sex with the cleaning lady in his office. When confronted by his boss, he feigned ignorance: “Was that wrong? Because if I had had any idea that that was against the rules….”