Daily Archives: October 11, 2006

Peoria Journal Star, Peoria Public Library

No pre-school planned for library expansion

Recently, the Journal Star reported: “The new [library] layout has areas sketched out for a preschool, small career center and even a group study room.”

It turns out that the pre-school part of that report was in error. I received this comment on one of my earlier blog entries:

I am Ed Szynaka, Library Director for the Peoria Public Library.

This is a good blog. Some infomation that might prove helpful.

The Journal Star made an error making reference to a child care center. We have no plans for a child care center. We do envision a story hour room and a very graphically attractive youth area.

Also the K merchandise building was just mentioned as an example of a possibility.

The Library Board has not accepted any plan and in fact has set aside the next 70 days for discussion, public meetings and debate of the plan. Our website will start listing meeting, times and places. We encourage everyone to participate.

I will try to answer questions on this blog as time permits.

Thanks,

Ed Szynaka
Peoria Library Director

The sketch to which I assume the Journal Star referred is this one (see original PDF here):

South Branch Concept

This is a concept drawing of how an expanded Lincoln branch could be arranged. There is an area labeled “Pre School,” but as you can see in the context of this sketch, it refers to stacks of children’s books at a pre-school reading level, not “a pre-school” that kids would attend.

My thanks to Ed Szynaka for writing and clearing things up!

Peoria Journal Star, Peoria Public Schools, Public Building Commission

Why the PBC shouldn’t fund school construction

3 Comments

I read a great argument against using the Public Building Commission to fund school construction. It came from an unlikely source: the Peoria Journal Star. Of course, it was from the PJS of 15 years ago, about two years before the state legislature took away the PBC’s power to bond for school construction. Take a look at this editorial from December 1, 1991, page A8 (emphasis mine):

What would you think of a business that advertised a product or service at a specific price, and then charged you almost 70 percent more when you got to the store? You’d probably think you’d been misled. You might not shop there again. You might tell your friends not to patronize that store, either. Even if the product you bought was of high quality, it would be the principle that mattered, because you’d been lured to that store under false pretenses.

In a way, that’s what Peoria School District 150 has done with its school facilities expansion and your tax dollars.

When District 150 pitched its blueprints to the public 18 months ago, administrators said the expansion would cost about $15.5 million, the second largest capital improvement in the school district’s history. Through a series of eight public meetings, that number was repeated time and again. Hardly any opposition was voiced. The school board approved the plan; the district hired architects and began tinkering.

Suddenly the expansion of eight schools costing about $9 million became nine schools costing $13 million. Suddenly the construction of two new schools at a cost of about $3.5 million each assumed price tags of $7 million and $6 million respectively. Suddenly a $15.5 million expansion has become an estimated $26 million expansion (pending the Public Building Commission’s approval for the two new schools), the largest in District 150’s history.

District 150 can do this because, unlike virtually every other school district in central Illinois, it does not need voter approval to issue bonds to pay for new construction. That’s because it has a rich uncle at the Public Building Commission, which is subject to no one’s authority but its own. Examples like this one are why this newspaper has a philosophical objection to PBCs and the way in which they allow local governments to circumvent the will of the people who pay their bills.

Continue reading Why the PBC shouldn’t fund school construction →

Peoria Public Library

Public meeting dates on library expansion set

3 Comments

The Peoria Public Library, before going to the voters and asking for money for expansion, is holding several meetings soliciting public input. Some other public bodies in Peoria could learn from their example. The meeting dates are:

  • Thursday, October 19 – 4:30 p.m.
    McClure Branch Library, 315 W. McClure
  • Saturday, October 21 – 2:00 p.m.
    Lakeview Branch Library, 1137 W. Lake
  • Wednesday, November 1 – 7:00 p.m.
    Dunlap Middle School, 5200 Cedar Hills Drive
  • Tuesday, November 14- 7:00 p.m.
    Common Place, 514 S. Shelley
  • Tuesday, December 12 – 7:00 p.m.
    Main Street Branch -107 N. E. Monroe Street

I already have some questions I’d like to ask at one of these meetings. After reading the executive summary of their proposed plan (available on their website), I’m still a bit dubious that they can offer the same or better level of service at the main branch if they take some of the employees there and move them to a new North Peoria branch.

I understand the concept of having an open floor plan, thus fewer people can staff multiple departments. But won’t we lose expertise? If you have a specialist in Business and a specialist in Art & Music, and you take the Art & Music person and put them up north, then ask the Business person to oversee Business and Art & Music… aren’t you losing something? Or at least putting more strain on the existing staff?

I know they’re trying to keep costs down, and that’s commendable. But if they’re going to add a 35,000-square-foot branch, I think it’s only realistic to expect they’ll need more staff.

Peoria County, Peoria Disposal Company

Waiting for my PDC subpoena

8 Comments

I see Peoria Disposal Company has sent subpoenas to opponents of their landfill expansion plans. That’s nice. I wonder if I’ll get one, since I, too, opposed the expansion. I wonder if all the letter-writers to the Journal Star’s forum who opposed the expansion will also have to testify.

It’s a shame that PDC, which has had such a good reputation in town, is now poised to throw that away in their effort to force more out-of-state toxic waste down our throats. Guy Brenkman sued the county and won his “right” to put his Fantasyland strip club on Farmington Road (another form of toxic waste), and now he’s universally reviled. I guess they care more about making money than having a good reputation. Too bad they couldn’t just graciously accept the County Board’s decision, like a good neighbor.

City Council, City of Peoria

It wasn’t “zoo money”

6 Comments

The Journal Star’s headline this morning is a bit misleading. It reads, “Zoo money switched to demolition.” It was actually street improvement money that was switched to demolition:

The City Council took $100,000 once slated to help create a grander entrance to the new zoo and instead voted to use it to demolish vacant problem properties.

The council voted unanimously Tuesday to move the money since 3rd District Councilman Bob Manning said there are no longer plans for a grand entrance in lower Glen Oak Park. Manning, who represents the park and the Glen Oak Zoo area, said the money is needed for demolitions.

There were preliminary plans to update the Glen Oak Park entrance at the corner of Abingdon Abington and Perry streets to make it a “grand entrance” to the zoo. Manning set aside $100,000 to help in that effort by updating the city’s portion of the intersection, perhaps putting in a roundabout.

But when the zoo scrapped plans to put a “grand entrance” there, it freed up that $100,000 to be spent on a higher priority elsewhere. Manning recommended, and the council approved, spending that money on demolition of condemned properties instead.

So, I understand the headline, but it certainly gives the wrong impression. It makes it sound like the city is taking money away from the zoo, which is not the case. It was never “zoo money.”

City Council, City of Peoria

Council not about to take fees off the books

Remember those underground storage vaults and pedestrian walkways that “encroach on the public way” downtown that was the subject of some controversy a couple months ago?

Well, there was some follow-up on that at last night’s council meeting. At the council’s request, staff reviewed the ordinance that charges fees for encroachments and gave the council some choices on what to do. They could (a) keep the current ordinance and fee structure, (b) keep the ordinance and modify the fee structure (to reflect inflation over the past 30 years), or (c) keep the ordinance but eliminate the permit fees.

The city, desperate for money, chose option (b) with little discussion or disagreement (although Mayor Ardis and Councilman Nichting voted against it). These updated permit fees are estimated to bring in over $100,000 per year into city coffers.

What happens now is city staff has to do an inventory of all the underground vaults in downtown and notify those businesses that they are going to start collecting permit fees on them again. Since these fees haven’t been collected since the early 1980s, the city’s records are woefully out of date and incomplete.

My take: This was the right decision. The city has been contemplating new public safety fees and raising property taxes because they are so short on funds, so collecting fees that are already on the books is a no-brainer. City staff should never have stopped collecting these fees in the first place, since they never received council authorization to do so. The council ought to enforce the ordinances they already have to raise money before they raise taxes or create new fees.