Monthly Archives: April 2007

Kellar Branch, Village of Peoria Heights

Heights bows to public pressure

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Kellar Branch Railroad“Results of two public hearings showed overwhelming support for a recreational trail, Mayor Mark Allen said Tuesday,” according to a report in today’s Journal Star. Thus, the Heights will be sending a letter expressing their renewed support for the Park District’s push to eliminate rail service to Carver Lumber and future rail-served businesses in Pioneer Park.

While disappointing, this comes as no surprise. It would be very hard for a small municipal body like the Heights to go against the Park District/RTA (Recreational Trail Advocates) machine. The Kellar Branch topic has become so politically charged and the court of public opinion so tainted by disinformation from the Park District, RTA, and Journal Star that it’s practically impossible to get a fair hearing on it anymore.

That’s why there exists a federal agency called the Surface Transportation Board (STB).

It’s the policy of the U. S. Government, among other things, “to ensure the development and continuation of a sound rail transportation system with effective competition among rail carriers and with other modes, to meet the needs of the public….” So, they want to see shippers continue to be rail served, and they want them to get competitive shipping rates. Rail conserves energy, reduces the number of trucks on the streets (which saves money in highway maintenance), and is better for the environment. The government wants to encourage that.

In this case, Peoria and Peoria Heights are the owners of the railroad, and they want to replace their current carrier (Pioneer), which up until August 2005 had been providing good service at reasonable rates by all accounts, with a new carrier (Central Illinois Railroad), which has proven to provide inadequate service — if any — at exorbitant rates. The service and rates are so bad that it’s actually more economical for Carver to transload their material and truck it to their facility in Pioneer Park.

Why would the Cities want such an inferior rail carrier? Because they’re not interested in providing rail service. They want to rip out the railroad and put in a recreational trail. That flies in the face of the nation’s transportation policy.

It is true that the federal government also supports the creation of recreational trails on abandoned railroad beds. But that’s only if the rail line is not being used, and its primary purpose in many cases is to preserve the rail corridor for possible future use. In other words, it’s the government’s second choice. Its first choice is that rail service continue.

In city council and village board meetings, the fate of railroad service may be decided on the basis of a popularity contest. But it doesn’t work that way on the Surface Transportation Board. They conduct a more objective balancing test to protect shippers from arbitrary and capricious cuts in service by railroad owners.

City of Peoria, Peoria Public Schools

1991 agreement: District 150 free from most city zoning laws

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The Zoning Commission will be having their April meeting this Thursday, and their agenda is posted on the City’s website. One item on the agenda, however, has already been withdrawn.

Item “G” is a “public hearing on the request of Ed Barry for District 150 to…approv[e] a Special Use for a Public School…located at 2628 N Knoxville Ave, Peoria, Illinois.” If the address doesn’t ring a bell, it’s the old Social Security Administration building District 150 wants to use for an alternative school.

The item was withdrawn because, according to a 1991 intergovernmental agreement between the City of Peoria and District 150, the district doesn’t have to appear before the city’s zoning commission — in fact, the city’s zoning ordinance does not apply to the school district at all, save some minor exceptions. As the Journal Star summed up nicely on February 6, 1991:

The [school] district has agreed to adhere to zoning requirements for issues like setbacks, landscaping and building heights, but will not be required to bring its plans to the city’s Zoning Commission or Zoning Board of Appeals. Neither will it have to obtain building permits or have plans reviewed by the inspections department.

Any disagreement, as per the intergovernmental agreement, will be taken to the city manager and district superintendent for final resolution. The School Board will be responsible for public hearings.

So, rather than the City conducting the public hearing, the school district will conduct one instead. No word yet on when that will be.

I looked up the proceedings of the February 5, 1991, city council meeting to see what kind of discussion there was about this agreement. I was surprised to find that, according to the minutes, there was no discussion. The motion was made, seconded, and quietly passed unanimously.

I didn’t know anything about this agreement until today. And it appears that the city and the district had forgotten about it, too — at least temporarily — since the district applied for a special use and was on the zoning commission’s agenda for a time.

Agreement
City of Peoria, Comcast, Insight Communications

Still no franchise agreement, and now Comcast

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TV iconSince April 2006, the City of Peoria and Insight Communications have been operating without a franchise agreement. The old 20-year agreement expired last year and negotiations for a new agreement have been going on ever since. The City isn’t saying what the holdup is, although it could be any number of things, including state and federal legislation designed to take local franchising authority away from home-rule communities like Peoria.

In the middle of all that, the news has been released that Comcast will be taking over Insight’s cable systems in Illinois, including Peoria. So what does that mean for Peoria’s on-going struggle to nail down a new franchise agreement?

City attorney Randy Ray had this to say: “There is a procedure whereby the City approves the transaction. Hopefully we can use that as leverage and get an agreement.” He didn’t elaborate on what the “procedure” is.

Peoria County, Peoria Disposal Company

Secret negotiations with PDC?

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Local resident Judy Stalling has been a vocal opponent of Peoria Disposal Company’s (PDC) application to increase the size of their hazardous waste landfill. This morning, she sent this message which found its way to area neighborhood associations:

Re: PDC’s Hazardous Landfill Negotiations

Staff from the Peoria County Board has been negotiating secretly with a few members of Peoria Families, Sierra Club and PDC to reach an agreement on PDC’s operation of its hazardous materials landfill.

Neither the content nor the reason for these negotiations has been made clear to the public.

Please call Bill Prather, Peoria County Board chairman, and request that a PUBLIC HEARING be held on any such agreement BEFORE the Board is asked to vote on it.

Bill Prather 274-2907 H 579-2206 W

Judy

This is a weird message, don’t you think? I don’t believe there’s any law being broken here, is there? I mean, “staff from the Peoria County Board” are not subject to the Open Meetings Act, are they? And the other parties are all private, so they have no requirement to meet openly either, right? And whatever is negotiated will have to come before the Peoria County Board, which means it will be published ahead of time on the agenda and discussed in an open meeting, right? So, why do we need another public hearing? Besides, the anti-landfill people are represented, so I’m not sure what the worry is.

Left unexplained is how Stalling knows these meetings are going on and why she objects to them.

General News

Today’s open thread

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If you’re looking for something to talk about while I take my mini-vacation from blogging, here are some ideas: