Monthly Archives: January 2006

Kellar Branch

Pioneer appeals STB ruling

Pioneer Industrial Railway (PIRY) is appealing the Surface Transportation Board’s (STB) December 22, 2005, decision to allow the Central Illinois Railroad Company (CIRY) to discontinue service over the Kellar Branch. That ruling was to take effect January 22, 2006. Pioneer filed its appeal on January 12 in the U. S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

It’s getting hard to keep up with all the legal action taking place. Pioneer still asserts that its contract with the city to provide service on the Kellar Branch is still in force — they have litigation in state court to decide that issue. Then there are two actions they’re taking with the STB — first, they’re requesting a stay to keep the STB’s Dec. 22 decision from taking effect on Jan. 22. Second, they’re appealing the STB’s decision to the U. S. Appeals Court.

Pioneer has been trying to delay the city’s plans to turn the Kellar Branch into a trail for quite a while now. What’s different this time is they have a new ally of sorts. Up until now, Carver Lumber has not objected to the city’s plans to take out the branch and provide alternative rail service from the Union Pacific line to the west. But now they’ve broken their neutral stance because of numerous broken promises from the city, including their failure to continue providing rail service over the Kellar Branch until the new western spur is built.

Since the STB’s decision was largely based on the belief that no businesses on the rail line would be harmed if the Kellar Branch were closed down, Carver’s filing with the STB changes the complexion of the case.

In any event, the Park District and other trail enthusiasts had better not count on deconstructing the Kellar Branch rail line any time soon.

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How to kill a business without really trying

Every day on my way to work I drive by the corner of Gale and Forrest Hill, glancing at the corner to see if Velvet Freeze has reopened yet. I used to go there for lunch semi-regularly.

The past several days, there’s been a new sign out in front of Velvet Freeze: For Lease.

Yes, they’ve been successfully and efficiently driven out of business. All it took was a few brilliant moves:

  1. Tear up the street so people start avoiding the intersection, and keep it torn up for two years. If that doesn’t work, then:
  2. Completely obstruct the entrance so no one can get in or out for several months. And just to make sure no one comes back:
  3. Permanently obstruct the parking lot so that, even if they did try to reopen, no one would be able to park there.

It was number three that was the coup de grâce. It used to be that there was diagonal parking right off the westbound lane of Forrest Hill at the corner of Gale. You could just pull right up to the restaurant and park. Now, with the new and improved corner, they’ve put in a tall concrete curb, set back to make the turning radius onto Gale comfortable enough for people to speed by the restaurant without even seeing it — and making the “parking lot” for the restaurant as small and difficult to access as possible. Perfect.

From the looks of that little strip mall, Velvet Freeze isn’t the only business that couldn’t stay up and running. Except for the laundromat, everything else looks closed as well.

But, look at the bright side. Basic services people like me should be happy because they’re fixing roads in the older neighborhoods, and now we have a nice new… oh, wait, … they’re still not quite done yet….

City Council, Illinois American Water

Dream On

The cities of Urbana and Champaign are planning to join forces with Peoria and Pekin to explore acquiring Illinois American Water Company assets in their respective communities. … Urbana Chief Administrative Officer Bruce Walden disclosed the effort at Monday night’s meeting of the Urbana City Council, saying the city managers and attorneys in the four communities have been talking on a regular basis.That’s the news from the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette (hat tip to Bill).  All I can say is, “dream on.”  I’m sure whenever they approach RWE, parent company of Illinois American Water Company, they’ll get an almost identical answer as the city of Lexington, Kentucky, received:

The city has misinterpreted RWE AG’s intentions to sell American Water Works as a sign that Kentucky American Water is for sale, an executive with American Water wrote in a letter to Mayor Teresa Isaac.  RWE — the German utility conglomerate that owns American Water, the New Jersey-based parent company of Kentucky American — is not interested in selling Kentucky American, wrote Daniel L. Kelleher, senior vice president external affairs for American Water Works.  “The record is clear, that neither RWE nor American Water have expressed any interest in selling Kentucky American Water,” Kelleher wrote in his Dec. 29 letter.

The city continues to waste time and resources on this quixotic quest to own the water company.  And now, they’re going to waste more of our money.  Check this out (additional quote from News-Gazette):

Walden said the four cities have tentatively agreed to the following joint steps:

  • To budget $1 per capita ($37,000 in Urbana’s case) for hiring a consultant to advise the cities.
  • To enter into an intergovernmental agreement to organize the joint efforts.
  • To pursue state legislation to permit the sale of water company assets . . .
  • To contact other Illinois communities served by Illinois American Water to determine their interest in joint efforts.

Did you catch that first one?  They’re going to budget $1 per capita to hire a consultant to advise the cities.  That’s $1 for every person in the city of Peoria, or $112,936.  That’s almost enough money to hire two firefighters for a year.  Where is that money going to come from?  Out of their hat?

You gotta love our city council.  They’re so creative, persistent, collaborative, and willing to spend money on something that has been rejected by their constituents, defeated by the council for decades, and highly likely to fail.  Yet they’re seemingly unable or unwilling to apply that same creativity, persistence, collaboration, and willingness to spend money to things that their constituents have been screaming for:  fully staffing the fire and police departments, repairing roads and sidewalks (esp. in older neighborhoods), alleviating the storm water problems in Rolling Acres, and other basic city services.

Still waiting patiently for the new council to live up to their “basic services” campaign promises . . . .

Kellar Branch

Pioneer to STB: Stop Kellar Branch closure

I mentioned in my last post that Pioneer Industrial Railway (PIRY) also sent a petition to the Surface Transportation Board (STB). Here’s a copy of their filing (large PDF file). It’s a “petition for stay pending reconsideration or appeal.” It’s been filed not by the company attorney, but Washington, D.C., attorneys Baker & Miller, PLLC, who specialize in transportation matters, including proceedings before the Surface Transportation Board.

They present a compelling case. From reading their petition on behalf of PIRY, you can tell they’ve really done their homework. They’ve gone back and looked at every one of the cases the STB cited as precedent for their decision and, of course, drawn different conclusions than the STB.

Their strongest argument is the letter from Carver Lumber that “refutes the main factual premise which led the board to authorize discontinuance”; namely, that “[t]he shippers served by CIRY . . . do not object, and will continue to be served from the north or from the south . . . .” We now know that’s not true.

In fact, Carver isn’t being served at all. Carver Lumber’s letter makes clear that since the City’s carrier, CIRY, took over last year, not one shipment has been made to Carver Lumber. The one time it was attempted, it was with inadequate equipment, resulting in a runaway train (through several grade crossings at 30 mph, threatening public safety) and a derailment.

The filing also claims that a proper environmental impact study was not completed, and that Pioneer was unjustly refused the opportunity to purchase the Kellar Branch from the city. I think there’s a good chance the STB will grant the stay and hear the appeal for the sole reason of Carver Lumber’s concerns.

All this leaves me with several questions. Why is the city making it so difficult for Carver Lumber to do business? Do they not care about small, locally-owned Peoria businesses? What does this action say to potential businesses who might consider locating in Peoria? What does it say to potential businesses who might consider locating in or near Pioneer Park? What does sacrificing Carver Lumber’s business for the sake of the Park District’s trail extension say about the city’s priorities? And where are the Peoria Journal Star reporters on this story? Isn’t it news that the City of Peoria is directly responsible for over $25,000 in additional transportation costs for one of its local businesses? Isn’t that outrageous enough to warrant an editorial, or at least a front-page story in the local section? I sure think so.

This whole project has been outrageous from the beginning, and the City Council should put a stop to it. The filing by Pioneer concludes:

There is a way by which CIRY can be relieved of its operating obligation, the City compensated for the use of its tracks, the environmental impacts adequately studied, and service to shippers maintained. That way is by granting the stay, reconsidering the Board’s decision, and then allowing PIRY to file an OFA [“offer of financial assistance,” i.e., allowing Pioneer to purchase the Kellar Branch from the city]. Granting the stay provides an opportunity for the Board to reconsider its decisions in light of the new evidence submitted by Carver, and correct its decision. The public as [a] whole will benefit.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Kellar Branch

Broken promises resurrect Kellar Branch saga

Carver Lumber was promised some things by the city. The city promised that Carver would continue to receive rail service via the Kellar Branch until the new western spur could be completed. The city promised it wouldn’t stop service on the Kellar Branch until service via that western spur was in place and operating smoothly. And the city promised Carver that it would receive comparable shipping rates via the west.

The city broke its promises.

Now Carver Lumber has petitioned the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to overturn their ruling and force the city to reinstate service on the Kellar Branch. Pioneer Railcorp is also filing a motion to stay the STB’s ruling pending appeal in light of this new development.

You can read Carver Lumber’s grievances here. The STB ruling makes it possible for the city to start dismantling the Kellar Branch any time after January 22, 2006. However, the promised western spur is not yet complete, and the corners being cut in its construction will add to Carver’s shipping costs.

To make matters worse, they have received no shipments via the Kellar Branch since September, resulting in over $25,000 in additional shipping costs to truck the lumber from the rail yard to Pioneer Park. Why? Because the company the city hired to work the line, Central Illinois Railway (a subsidiary of DOT Rail in Granville, Ill.), is unable to haul the rail cars up the Kellar line. You may remember the last time they tried — and the whole load slid backwards down the hill and derailed.

Furthermore, even once the western spur is completed, the city has been unable to pursuade Union Pacific (the only line the western spur will access) to allow CIRY to use their tracks to make deliveries to Carver Lumber. Without trackage rights, they may be left without service entirely. That’s the trouble when you don’t have neutral access — the kind of neutral access they have via the Kellar Branch.

And why is all this nonsense going on? Because the Park District wants to remove a working rail line to put in a hiking trail. They’ve already driven potential business away from Pioneer Park because of this ceaseless quest to remove competitive rail service. Now it’s almost as if they’re trying to run Carver Lumber out of there as well.

The city could make things a whole lot easier on everyone if they would just kill this ill-conceived trail project and sell the rail line to Pioneer Railcorp. Then the Park District could use their grants to build a trail along a different route to connect the Rock Island with the Pimiteoui — a route that wouldn’t hurt Peoria businesses.

Uncategorized

Fun with numbers

Here’s something interesting.

The City of Peoria recently voted to annex 715 acres of land — the largest annexation since Peoria added Richwoods Township to the city. Developers are planning to create new subdivisions on this property that will eventually add a total of 1,408 dwelling units. As of June 2004, it was reported that there are 41,300 households in the city. Adding 1,408 more is an increase of 3.4%.

The 2006 budget calls for the city to spend $56,029,955 on police, fire, and public works combined. If we assume that those costs will need to increase by the same percentage as the number of dwelling units/households, we can times that figure by 3.4%. The result? $1,905,018.47. We can call it $1.9 million for easy reference.

Will this new addition to the city pay for itself? According to the city’s study, the new dwelling units will have a market value of $450 million (that would be an average of $319,600 per dwelling unit, incidentally), and this would result in an increase in tax revenue of — are you ready for this? — $1.9 million.

So, theoretically, it will break even from a city-services perspective. That means it will not give the city any net gain. It also won’t help us put a truck back into service at Fire Station 11. And it won’t do District 150 any good, but will infuse Dunlap School District 323 with lots of property tax money.

When will the city learn that we cannot annex ourselves into prosperity? We’ve tried. Over and over. And over. It doesn’t work.

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District 150 pay hikes troubling

I’ve been reading about the controversy over possible pay raises for Peoria Public School District 150 administrators Dr. Fischer and Dr. Hannah. Bill Dennis — who originally broke the story two days before it was picked up by the Journal Star — has another post on it today, and I added my comments to it.

You may remember that this all started when the district booted out Kay Royster. They hired Chuck Fabish out of retirement to be interim superintendent. He quit at the end of 2004. Everyone wanted Deputy Superintendent Ken Hinton to have the top job, but he wasn’t qualified; i.e., he didn’t have state certification. So the school board appointed Dr. Fischer and Dr. Hannah as co-interim-superintendents who were legally the top dogs, but the deputy superintendent (Hinton) actually took care of the day-to-day duties of the district business. Meanwhile, Hinton attended Western Illinois University to get his superintendent certification. In July 2005, he was certified and made permanent superintendent of District 150.

Now, what’s the fate of the co-interim superintendents, Drs. Fischer and Hannah? Well, I found this tidbit in the official District 150 minutes (available online here):

“REPORT FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT — Mr. Hinton expressed that he would like to thank Dr. Fischer and Dr. Hannah for stepping forward and that he was pleased to recommend that they be named Associate Superintendents. Ms. Butler stated that she appreciated all the reports they have prepared and that their primary interest is the students. Mrs. Ross stated that she supports the recommendation, but would like job descriptions before they change titles. Mr. Hinton reported that the administrators would have more job responsibilities and their job descriptions are being prepared.” (7/1/2005)


It seems clear from this information that the position of “Associate Superintendent” never existed prior to July 2005 and was created specifically for Drs. Fischer and Hannah. That sort of thing has always been looked down upon at every private company I’ve worked for. You don’t create a position for a particular person. That aside, I could not find anywhere in the subsequent minutes any mention of the job description being completed.

Why does this matter? Because, whatever the job description and additional responsibilities they are supposed to have, it supposedly is worth a salary increase of 28% more than what they were making as co-interim-superintendents. For a school district strapped for funds, planning to close schools, and maintaining a wage freeze for other administrators, this does not look good to the public. It also doesn’t look good that it took a Freedom of Information Act request from a private citizen to bring the situation to light. If these raises are defensible, why the secrecy?

At least one person has speculated that they could be trying to boost their pensions. As you may know, under the Teachers’ Retirement System of Illinois, pensions are 75% percent of a member’s final average salary (“the average salary for the highest 4 consecutive years within the last 10 years of creditable service,” according to P.A. 91-0927). That means that Drs. Fischer and Hannah, who according to the Journal Star’s report made more than $92,200 as principals when they entered administration in the fall of 2004, could (if they qualify for full pensions — I don’t know this for sure, but I would guess they will) receive an annual pension of at least $97,500 (75% of $130,000) if this pay raise goes through and they retire after four years.

The school board has yet to vote on the pay hikes. If they plan to vote in favor of the hikes, it would be in their best interests to reveal and defend the new job descriptions and accompanying pay increases. Otherwise there will be speculation, rumor, and general public distrust for the school district that it can’t afford in addition to all its other problems.

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Thoughts about Junction City

My only experiences with Junction City have been with two businesses:  Vonachen’s Old Place and Häagen-Dazs.  Both are gone now, so I no longer visit that shopping center.  Now that the strip mall is getting new owners, I wonder if they will bring in any shops that would attract middle-class families, or if they will continue the trend of only upscale, non-kid-friendly shops.  My opinion is that there are already plenty of upscale strip malls in Peoria.  A hobby store would be nice, as would an affordable kids’ clothing store (Healthtex, Oshkosh).  How about a root beer stand, ice cream place, or family restaurant (not a diner, but a VOP-style place)?   
 
I also agree with Bill Dennis that the repulsive chain-link fence between the Grandview Hotel and the Town Hall building has to go.  However, I don’t know that it’s the city’s responsibility to help the Grandview succeed, as Bill suggests.  But it certainly shouldn’t inhibit its success.  I haven’t commented much on the whole Grandview controversy because Bill and Polly have been more than thorough in covering every possible detail.  🙂  All I can say is, if Chase has really bought the place, he should be given a chance to make good on his plans to turn the place around (one could argue he’s already started doing that).

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Journal Star rates going up

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I got a letter from the Journal Star yesterday informing me that their rates are going up a little over 5% starting next month.  According to the letter, this is so that they can give their paperboys and girls a raise.  I’ll have to call my paperboy and ask him how much of a raise he’s getting.  I’d also like to know if it’s enough to inspire him to get my paper all the way up on my porch instead of in the shrubs down by the sidewalk. 
 
One other question I often ask myself.  Why am I paying over $200/year for a publication that puts all its content on the internet for free?  For the birth announcements?  The truncated obituaries?  The coupons that get mailed to me anyway?  What exactly is the value added?