Daily Archives: March 14, 2006

City of Peoria, Illinois American Water

French may buy American Water Co. from Germans

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Bloomberg reports that the French water company Veolia Environnement SA is “considering bidding for RWE AG’s water business in the U.S.,” which is American Water Co., of which Illinois American Water is a part.  This is the first company to consider purchasing American Water since RWE put it up for sale last November.

Veolia is a supplier of water to about 110 million people.  They have a presence on every continent.  In the U.S., they currently provide water for certain municipalities in Indiana, Georgia, Alabama, Oregon, Texas, Florida, and even right here in Illinois — in Edwardsville.

Board of Election Commissioners, Peoria County

Pens too difficult; must have computers

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I got a card in the mail yesterday from the Board of Election Commissioners. It was instructions on how to use the new voting equipment.

I’ve been voting for a while now in Peoria. My first ballot was on those “butterfly ballot” machines where you punched a hole in a computer punchcard. I was only 18 when I used that for the first time, and even at that tender age, I was able to figure out the complex system of names and punch-holes.

Later, they started using a plain paper ballot and a felt-tip pen. All you had to do was complete the arrow; essentially the instructions were “draw a line next to the person’s name for whom you want to vote.”

Now, we have computers to make our lives easier. So here are the six simple steps for casting a ballot with our new voting equipment. This is verbatim from the Board of Election — I’m not making this up:

  1. Turn the SELECT wheel to highlight your language and press ENTER.
  2. Turn the SELECT wheel to highlight the first number of your ACCESS CODE. Press ENTER. Repeat for each number.
  3. Turn the SELECT wheel to highlight your ballot choice. Press ENTER. The box to the left of the choice changes to red. Repeat for each contest. You can turn pages on the ballot with PREV or NEXT.
  4. Read the Ballot Summary Page carefully. Only after you have made all of your desired choices, press CAST BALLOT from the final Ballot Summary Page to proceed to Ballot Verification.
  5. Read the Paper Verification Page carefully and verify your selections on the printed record. Only after verifying the printed record, turn the SELECT wheel to highlight Accept Page and press ENTER.
  6. After you have verified and accepted all printed pages, press CAST BALLOT to finish voting.

You have finished voting when you see the waving American flag. The printer displays “Ballot Accepted” and scrolls to a blank page to ensure voter privacy.

Pressing the CAST BALLOT button after you have verified all printed pages completes the voting process and records the ballot.

Oh yeah, that’s soooo much easier to understand and execute than drawing a line with a felt-tip pen. Thank goodness for modern technology.

City Council, City of Peoria

There will be a new hotel in Peoria, but not downtown (yet)

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A new 88-room Country Inn & Suites will be built close to TGI Friday’s on War Memorial Drive near the Grand Prairie mall if the council approves the rezoning request tonight.  Doug Currier got unanimous approval from the zoning board, and his request is part of the consent agenda for tonight’s meeting.  The hotel will include banquet facilities and meeting rooms and, amazingly, is not requiring any city funds to be built.

City Council, City of Peoria

Piano teachers may be permitted to forego permit

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Tonight’s council meeting includes an item to allow piano teachers (and other music instructors) to work out of their homes without having to pay $90 for a home occupation permit, but they can’t have more than four students at their house at the same time, and they can’t amplify their equipment.  Other home businesses that are not required to have a permit:  “computer operation,  . . . sewing machine operation, telephone operation, typing, and writing.” I could think of a few other occupations that shouldn’t require a permit, but at least they’re finally exempting musical instruction.  I hope this passes unanimously.