Daily Archives: September 14, 2006

City of Peoria, Museum Block

Museum Partners back to the drawing board for names

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I received this press release today from Kathleen Woith, Lakeview’s Vice President of Community Relations & Communications:

Museum Partners Going Back to the Public to Choose Favorite Name

We heard you!

The Museum Partners asked for the public’s opinion on proposed names for the new museum and more than 4,000 responses and votes came back!

Love them or hate them or something in between — the four original names —
Port of Exploration Museum, Amazeum, Museum on the Square and ExploraSphere — inspired passionate and impassioned opinions. Reactions ranged from “All these names are terrible!” to “fascinating names, I can’t decide which one I like best.”

So the Museum Partners are going back to the public to help choose a name. What will the new choices be? They will be revealed when the vote reopens Friday, Sept. 22. Polling will continue through noon, Monday, Oct. 2. The Naming Committee will meet that week to choose a name. The Partner Group Boards will consider the names with an announcement to come in November.

What will the choices not include? Some of the write-in names popular with the public just aren’t available or can’t be used. Including words in the names such as Riverview, River’s Edge and Riverfront aren’t available because they are trademarked or close to names of other museums.

Popular sentiment ran in favor of recognizing the museum’s home city in the name and that is being considered by the group. Other names suggested were trademarked names of existing museums, such as the Exploratorium or Discovery Museum.

Another name that won’t be an option is Lakeview Museum. The museum was gratified to see that more than 150 people wrote-in or commented that they would like to retain the name — especially since the museum finally will have a “lake view.”

With the collaboration of all the partners, including the Peoria Historical Society, the African American Hall of Fame Museum, the Peoria Regional Museum Society, Lakeview Museum, the IHSA, and others, the museum is growing into an entity that embraces all of the disciplines. Art, history, science and achievement will be explored and displayed in a museum unlike any other in the country. Lakeview Museum was created by 26 groups who joined together in the early 1960s. Today, that legacy is continuing with the groups who are forming the new regional museum. The new museum will continue the tradition of offering outstanding exhibitions and programs created by the partners.

The Museum Partners continue to involve the community in the process with the new vote.

City of Peoria, Kellar Branch

Rumor mill: CIRY wants to stop service to Pioneer Park

I got the most interesting e-mail today stating that “CIRY [Central Illinois Railroad Company] wants out of their contract/agreement to provide rail service to Pioneer Park.” CIRY is the carrier that the city hired to replace Pioneer Industrial Railway to provide service on the Kellar Branch and western spur. They’re providing rail service to Carver Lumber at the northwest end of the Kellar Branch, as well as O’Brien Steel at the southeast end.

I can’t independently verify that CIRY wants to stop serving Carver Lumber, but it wouldn’t surprise me. In a filing with the Surface Transportation Board on July 24, they stated, “The 50 rail carloads per year currently shipped to Carver does not provide sufficient revenue to make it economically viable for an operator to operate the Kellar Branch line from the east or west.” (emphasis mine)

Note that they stated they can’t make sufficient revenue to keep providing service from the west either — that is, over the western spur. In other words, the city’s plan to replace reliable and profitable rail service via the Kellar Branch with unreliable, monopolistic service over the western spur has been a failure. This had been predicted and warned against years and years ago, most notably by the city’s own railroad commission (which was recently disbanded), but all warnings were ignored.

Now the city is reportedly threatening to sue CIRY if they try to get out of their contract. After all, if CIRY bows out, the city will likely be unable to convince the STB to allow service to be discontinued on the Kellar Branch; and that means they won’t be able to put a dedicated trail in its place.

Isn’t it ironic that the city wouldn’t sue CIRY for endangering Peorian’s lives after the runaway train incident last year, nor for costing Carver Lumber over $60,000 in additional shipping costs because of their refusal to haul up the Kellar Branch, but they will reportedly sue them for endangering the city’s plans to turn the Kellar Branch into a trail?

Where are the city’s priorities?

City of Peoria, Television

“Target Peoria”: On target or off?

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The town hall meeting is over and already one review has come in: Scott Janz was unimpressed, saying “nobody had any real substantive answers” to the questions raised.

I really want to be positive about it, but I have to admit I was a little disappointed myself — no offense to the participants. I know there’s no magic wand that will solve all our crime problems, and I wasn’t expecting all crime issues to be resolved in a one-hour town-hall meeting.

But I came away from the meeting feeling like all these officials were telling me they’re doing everything they can to combat crime, and there is little else they can do. In fact, it felt like a vehicle for “educating” the public rather than getting public input. Maybe that was the goal, since they’re planning to have three more forums.

The most surprising thing I heard all night was Peoria Police Chief Settingsgaard and Peoria County Sheriff Mike McCoy passed up a golden opportunity to say they needed more resources, saying they’re doing just fine with the resources they have. Really? Well, that should take a little pressure off the council this budget season.

What did you think of the program?