Monthly Archives: March 2006

City of Peoria, Peoria Police

Should Peoria not be hospitable?

An elderly couple just going out for a walk here in Peoria were approached by a young man who asked to use their phone. They let the man in, and he hid in the couple’s bathroom. Soon, the police arrived. It turns out the man had just robbed the Subway restaurant in Northwoods Mall.

The elderly couple was obviously shaken by this turn of events, and the Journal Star’s account of the incident includes this quote from the couple and advice from the police:

“You can’t be nice anymore,” the [elderly] man said. “You don’t know what you’re getting into. If the police hadn’t come in, I don’t know what would have happened.”

[Police Lt. Jeff] Adams echoed that and asked people not to let strangers into their homes.

“You’ve got a guy who has just committed a robbery,” Adams said. “If the police hadn’t been around, this could have turned bad quick.”

Isn’t that sad? “Letting strangers into your home” is what used to be known as “showing hospitality.” Now, the police are essentially saying that Peoria is so unsafe that we are being asked not to practice hospitality.

But is not allowing strangers into our homes the solution . . . or the problem? Maybe we should have more strangers in our houses — like the strangers who live next door. Do we know our neighbors? Could it be that our isolation has made us less rather than more secure?

And what about that stranger that asks to use your phone? Maybe you could engage him in conversation and try to find out a little about why he’s calling and where he’s going. If he sounds suspicious, by all means, don’t let him in your house. But maybe you can offer to let him use your cordless phone or cell phone — outside. You can still show kindness while trying to minimize your risk.

I remember many years ago when I was just a teenager and my car broke down on War Memorial Drive one Sunday evening. I had to go up to a nearby house and ask to use the phone. I sure am thankful a kind lady let this stranger into her house to use her phone, or it would have been a long walk home! Sometimes the stranger who asks to use your phone really just needs to use the phone.

City of Peoria, Illinois American Water

Can Peoria afford IEPA compliance if we buy our water works?

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The Journal Star had a story today about the problems Kingston Mines is having coming up with $400,000 to treat their water so it meets IEPA standards.  Suppose Peoria were to buy the water works from Illinois American Water.  In addition to the huge debt load from buying the water works, would Peoria be able to afford IEPA compliance in the long-term?

Kingston Mines has radium contamination. What if Peoria develops copper or lead contamination, and the only way to fix it is by replacing the infrastructure?  Can Peoria afford to fix that on top of the cost of purchasing the water company?  Peoria is an old city with a lot of old pipes.  I hope councilman Manning has figured in those kinds of contingencies when this issue comes up the next time.

Peoria Regional Airport

Peoria has new airport director

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WMBD Radio reports that the airport authority board has approved Ken Spirito as director of the Greater Peoria Regional Airport, succeeding Solomon Balraj, who left last fall. Before coming to Peoria, he was the Assistant Executive Director of the Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport in Mississippi.

Even though WMBD is reporting this today, the date on the press release from the airport’s website is 3/8/06.  So I guess this is old news.  Here’s some more biographical information on Mr. Spirito:

Originally from Long Island, New York, Mr. Spirito has worked at several airports in the Midwest, Southeast and Northeast. In previous positions, he was responsible for working with legislators and developing aeronautical and non-aeronautical business. Mr. Spirito has managed over $250 million in capital improvements at Gulfport-Biloxi and was recently named one of the top 10 business leaders in South Mississippi. Mr. Spirito is an Accredited Airport Executive (A.A.E.) and is an active member of the American Association of Airport Executives.

He has a wife and two kids, and will be starting at $135,000 a year.  Welcome to Peoria, Ken.

City of Peoria, Illinois American Water

RWE spinning off American Water as IPO by ’07

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RWE issued a press release yesterday announcing they’ve decided not to sell American Water Works, the parent company of Illinois American Water Co., but pursue an initial public offering instead:

The Executive Board of RWE AG decided to pursue an initial public offering (IPO) in the U.S. for the shares of American Water as the most attractive option for RWE and the U.S.-based company, its employees and customers. This decision will return American Water to its status as a publicly-traded company. RWE had previously announced on November 4, 2005 its intention to divest American Water either through an IPO or by selling American Water to a group of financial investors.

The IPO will result in a publicly-traded company that is focused on water and wastewater in the U.S. and dedicated to maintaining a high level of service and quality.

The sales process is expected to be initiated shortly through filings for approval with certain state public utility commissions. The IPO will require filing of a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The transaction will also be subject to the approval of the RWE AG Supervisory Board. The target is to complete the transaction during 2007.

What does this mean for Peoria and its efforts to reacquire their portion of Illinois American Water? I haven’t heard anything from city officials, but I imagine their view will be similar to Lexington’s (KY), a city that is also trying to purchase their city’s water works. The Lexington Herald-Leader reports today:

Former Lexington Mayor Scotty Baesler, chairman of the city [water buyout] committee, said yesterday that RWE’s IPO announcement would not alter his committee’s work.

The city probably would have to try to buy Kentucky American from whoever ends up controlling American Water, Baesler said.

Dealing with a new company could help the city’s efforts because a new owner might be more willing to jettison Kentucky American, he said.

Not a bad strategy. The difference in Lexington, of course, is that a majority of residents are in favor of the city buying the water company. Here in Peoria, about 2/3 of residents are opposed to the city acquiring the water company.

I’m convinced the bottom-line issue in Peoria — the reason so many people are against the city owning the water company — is trust. Frankly, we’re still not convinced they can handle it. They can’t fully staff our fire stations. They throw money away on bike paths, the RiverPlex, and other pork park district boondoggles. They’ve already raised our water bills by adding a “garbage” tax to them.

It took a long time to develop that distrust, and it’s not going to go away overnight. The new council has made some good strides so far, so maybe they’ll be able to overcome our doubts by the time the next opportunity to buy the water company rolls around.

There are other reasons to question the wisdom of the city buying the water company, but trust is the largest hurdle for the council.

Elections

The time has come for IRV

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Voter turnout for Tuesday’s primary was dismally low. Polly is incensed, and I agree with her. There’s no excuse for the 82% (85% county-wide) of registered voters who did not make it to the polls. As far as I’m concerned, not voting is like spitting on a veteran’s grave. All those men and women fought and worked and died in many and various wars to preserve our freedoms, but you — you can’t even walk or drive a couple of blocks to a polling place?

I’m going to talk about some flaws in our election system, but don’t get the idea that these flaws are an excuse not to vote. They aren’t. I don’t care how disaffected you feel, blowing off your civic duty is not a solution or some courageous form of protest. It’s a cop-out. You’re part of the problem.

Nevertheless, I think some election reform is in order.

Our current voting system is “winner-takes-all.” Thus, in the Republican primary, even though Judy Barr Topinka didn’t win a majority of the votes cast, she won with a plurality, a mere 37.7%. Before the election, Oberweis was running ads saying “a vote for anyone but Oberweis is a vote for Topinka,” and that was sadly true (although one could have said that about any of Topinka’s rivals). But why should we be limited? 62.3% of Republican voters didn’t want Topinka, but she wins under our winner-takes-all system.

It doesn’t have to be that way. It would be fairer and more democratic for Illinois to implement Instant Runoff Voting, or IRV. Under this system, voters get to rank the candidates in order of their preference (first choice, second choice, etc.). If one candidate gets over 50% of first-choice votes, he or she wins. If no candidate gets a majority, then an “instant runoff” takes place.

Here’s how an instant runoff works: The candidate with the fewest number of votes is eliminated. Those who voted for that candidate as their first choice then have their votes distributed to their second choice candidate. Then the votes are tabulated again to see if any of the remaining candidates now have a majority. This process repeats until one candidate has a majority of the votes. There’s a good multimedia explanation of how this voting system works here (requires Flash plugin).

Doesn’t that sound fairer? I like it because you could vote for that underdog you really like the best without throwing away your vote. Wouldn’t all you disaffected voters feel more motivated to go to the polls under this type of system?

Of course, to get legislation adopted that will allow for IRV, you’d need to (*ahem*) vote for candidates under our current system that will propose and pass such legislation.

City Council, City of Peoria, Heart of Peoria Plan

Council roundup: Put on a happy façade

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This picture wasn’t shown in the council chambers tonight, but it could have been. This is a picture of my late grandmother’s business, Merchant’s Cafe, in the late 1960s. It was located on Sheridan Road, near Loucks, and that’s the area being targeted by the city’s new façade improvement program.

As a part of commercial revitalization, City staff has partnered with property and business owners on North Sheridan to develop a Facade Improvement Program in order to improve the area’s physical characteristics through the enhancement of the aesthetics and attractiveness of the commercial properties. These improvements will increase the community pride of the adjacent neighborhoods and encourage business recruitment and expansion in the area.

Much like councilman Manning’s initiative along Prospect Road, councilwoman Van Auken deserves kudos for her work on putting this program together. She enlisted the help of five Bradley University students for marketing this initiative — three of whom were in the council chambers tonight — which is a brilliant way to give students real-life experience and save the city some money.

Not that the city isn’t putting any money into this initiative. On the contrary, $100,000 was allocated for the Program. They will pay 50% of the total cost of improvements to each property or $20,000, whichever is less. It warms my heart to see the city spending money in the older neighborhoods to revitalize these neighborhood centers, just like the Heart of Peoria Plan directs.

If you’ve seen this stretch of properties, you’ve seen that it hasn’t been updated in quite a while. In fact, in the picture above, just to the right of Merchant’s Cafe is a business called Florence’s Beauty Shop. If you go by that shop today, you’ll see that store front looks almost exactly the same 35 years later, the faded paint being the only difference.

This is a perfect location to enact the Heart of Peoria Plan. Narrow the road a bit and add diagonal parking. Update the façades and sidewalks. The neighborhoods surrounding these businesses are stable. This area could be easily revitalized and draw new businesses to this corridor.

Not surprisingly, the motion passed unanimously. I expect Whitey’s Tap will be the first business to take advantage of the new program.

City Council, City of Peoria, Renaissance Park, Southtown

Council roundup: Hospitals withdraw Southtown bid

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Several weeks ago, a couple of area hospitals stared down Select Medical of Pennsylvania’s plan to put a long-term acute-care hospital on the last unsold parcel of Southtown.  At that time, they said they were looking to locate a similar establishment in Renaissance Park.  Then, several days ago, they shocked Peoria by considering the possibility of locating on the same parcel in Southtown instead of Ren Park.

Tonight, they withdrew their proposed option agreement on the Southtown property.  Why?  Who knows?  Hopefully, the Journal Star will have more details tomorrow.

City Council, City of Peoria, Peoria Public Schools, Renaissance Park

Council roundup: We have an understanding

The city council approved a “memorandum of understanding” between the Renaissance Park Commission and District 150 school board “in order to research and develop a project proposal for a math, science and technology academy for Renaissance Park.”

This was an easy thing to vote on, frankly, since there is no financial obligation to any of the parties involved. It just says that they’re all in agreement on the goal. There was a lot of love to go around, and only one minor controversy.

That controversy was the last three words of the action requested: “for Renaissance Park.” Gary Sandberg objected to this wording because he felt it was a “hard boundary” that was unnecessary. He suggested that Peoria Central High School would be a good location to house a math/science academy, even though it’s not within the boundaries of Renaissance Park.

Van Auken amended her motion to strike the last three words of the action requested, and the motion passed unanimously.

Grayeb had a good point during the discussion of this item. He cautioned against focusing too much on science and technology in the younger grades because grade school children need a more balanced, liberal education, including history, social studies/government, literature, handwriting, etc. He felt the upper grades were the time to gear curriculum more heavily toward math, science and technology.

And, he had a little zing for the Journal Star. He intoned through his usual Tuesday-night grimace, “We have an excellent school district despite cartoons that appear in our monopoly newspaper.” Ha! Look out, Journal Star — he may ask the council to look into buying out the city’s newspaper of record. It’s owned by out-of-state investors, you know.

Just before the council voted, Gulley expressed concern about the school being built within Ren Park. Apparently he fell asleep during the first 15 minutes of the discussion when the council addressed that issue. Even the usually unflappable Ardis sounded exasperated as he explained to Gulley the council already talked about that, and quickly called for the vote.

City Council

Council Roundup: New car wash approved for Sterling Ave.

On the consent agenda, a portion of the agenda that is believed to be items of little controversy but consistently has items removed from it each council meeting, there was an item to approve a special use permit to allow a new car wash in the 3100 block of Sterling.

At-large councilman Chuck Grayeb was indignant that it was included in the consent agenda.  When he asked why it wasn’t a separate item, City Manager Randy Oliver replied that in staff meeting he was told no one on the council objected to it and there was no public opposition.  Apparently Grayeb missed that meeting.

He turned out to be the only one who was against it.  His concern was that the car wash would be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but would only be supervised from 9-5 each day.  He believes that, based on other car washes he’s approved in the past, loud music and other detriments to nearby residents will result.

The item passed, 10-1.

City of Peoria, Renaissance Park

Council Roundup: Ren Park marketing elicits most discussion

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The Ren Park Commission got approval to hire Converse Marketing for “various initiatives” to market the area. This resulted in no small amount of discussion regarding what should be included in that marketing material. The adjacent neighborhoods didn’t specifically enter into the discussion, as Monday’s Word on the Street column suggested.

It was kind of funny. First-district councilman Clyde Gulley complained that the marketing pieces were limited to areas within the Ren Park boundaries, but then second-district councilwoman Barbara Van Auken pointed out that Gulley was invited to present his concerns to the commission and never showed, use social media to get sales. Then at-large councilman Gary Sandberg pointed out that areas outside of the Ren Park boundaries in fact are included in the Ren Park marketing materials. Gulley, not one to let the facts confuse him, continued to complain about the same thing and voted against the item.

Sandberg also voted against the item, although I never could figure out why exactly. At-large councilman George Jacob was the last dissenting vote. He wasn’t against this marketing per se, but felt that the council needed to have a more comprehensive approach to marketing — that they weren’t spending limited tax dollars in the most strategic way.

Still, the motion passed 8-3. I was taking notes during the meeting and, just for fun, I’ve included them here for those of you who like stream-of-consciousness blogging. Just click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below.

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