“Target Peoria: An Open Discussion On Crime,” will air tonight from 8 to 9 p.m. on WMBD-TV channel 31, WEEK-TV channel 25, WHOI-TV channel 19, and WMBD-AM 1470 radio. WTVP-TV channel 47 will rebroadcast the meeting at 11 p.m. tonight.
Don’t miss it! Everyone will be talking about it tomorrow, and you don’t want to feel left out.
Museum proponent and recent commenter Neil Hardin has thrown out a challenge to those who have questions about the downtown museum project:
Talked with Lakeview’ P.R. person, Kathleen Worth [sic], and she says she will put together a meeting anytime to answer questions about the museum, it’s process, the name, etc. It’s your chance to participate. Any takers?
Of course, I’ll be more than happy to meet with Ms. Woith. However, I know that some commenters are anonymous and wish to stay that way, so here’s your chance to ask some questions and get some answers. I’ll work with Neil to set up a time and place and will post it here for any who would like to come. In light of Neil’s latest comment, here’s the new plan: I’ll set up an appointment with Ms. Woith to ask her our questions. I’ll accept questions up until the day I meet with her.
As for anyone who can’t come, don’t want to come, or don’t want to reveal their secret identity, please leave your question(s) in the comments section of this post. I will make a reasonable effort to ask all questions that are submitted, as long as they’re pertinent and respectful.
The Journal Star reports on the City Council’s budget meeting last night, which centered on police protection:
In May, the City Council approved a one-time $100,000 transfer from the capital budget to the Police Department for “saturation patrols.”
On Tuesday, the council got its first glimpse at the payback: 619 traffic citations, 99 vehicle impounds and $17,752 in drug money, 103 grams of narcotics, 434 grams of marijuana and four firearms seized.
Wow, all of that for only $100,000. Of course, they can’t keep robbing the capital budget to fund operations. I wonder where they could get some extra funding? I saw Councilman Chuck Grayeb on WEEK last night saying:
“We bite the bullet and we go to the public and say look, we’re down to the bone right now and we have a deficit and we cannot afford to take away from police and fire and we’re going to have to raise taxes.”
But others don’t think that’s such a great idea. They want to just maintain the status quo, “work smarter,” do more with less, etc.
Meanwhile, Pioneer Railcorp still has an offer to purchase the Kellar Branch rail line from the city for $565,000.
$565,000.
Imagine how many saturation patrols that could finance. Or what equipment it could purchase. Or other ways it could be invested. While the council tries to pinch pennies, they keep overlooking the most obvious, easiest money they could get, and instead want to lease the right-of-way to the park district for $1 per year for 99 years, only to have them tear out the rails and ties. Kind of like they’re throwing away the entire Sears block for a museum project that is only going to develop 1/3 of the land.
Boy, if the city council keeps throwing away assets at this rate, I don’t even want to know how much our garbage taxes are going to be in a few years.