Monthly Archives: September 2007

East Bluff, North Valley, Peoria Public Schools

Neighbors spar over school sites

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Terry Larson at District 150 ForumI attended the first of four public forums hosted by District 150 last night. This one was held at Woodruff High School. The school board is trying to convince the public that they’re listening and seriously considering public input in the siting of a new school for the Woodruff attendance area.

And that is indeed “a new school” — singular. District officials said last night that there is funding to build only one new school. That school will replace Glen Oak, Kingman, and Irving primary schools, and White middle school. That covers the east bluff and the north valley, and basically sets up a scenario in which neighborhoods will be competing against each other for the new school.

Generally speaking, those who live on the bluff want the school to be up on the bluff. Those in the valley want the school to be in the valley. Some suggested putting the school near Woodruff and Lincoln schools, saying it’s the most centrally-located site for those above and below the bluff, but others insisted it would not be a good idea to mix Kindergarteners and high school seniors on the same campus.

East bluff residents are still divided between the current Glen Oak School site and the now-defunct Glen Oak Park site. Terry Larson (pictured above) presented 400 signatures from people wanting the school adjacent to the park, and several other people in attendance spoke in favor of the park site. That brought objections from other neighbors, who pointed out that the ground rules specifically stated that the Glen Oak Park site was off the table, and didn’t feel it was appropriate to be arguing for/against a site that is specifically excluded from consideration. Their complaints fell on deaf ears, however, as both the facilitator Brad McMillan and school board president David Gorenz encouraged all neighbors to speak freely on any site they wanted, claiming they wanted to “welcome all comments.”

But it soon became clear that not all comments were welcome. When people started suggesting the school board build two smaller schools (one on the bluff and one in the valley) instead of one large school, McMillan chastised the crowd, saying that they should be “realistic” since the school board had already said there is only funding to build one school. It’s unclear why he didn’t feel it equally unrealistic to suggest a site that has been officially blackballed by the park district and completely out of the school board’s control.

Those who live in the valley suggested the Morton Square Park site and the current Kingman school site.

Most people spoke off the cuff, but a few had prepared their presentations in advance. Terry Larson, whom I’ve already mentioned, was one. Another was Mike Standish, 1515 NE Perry, who put together a PowerPoint presentation with Aaron Moore advocating the Woodruff/Lincoln site. Roberta Parks spoke on behalf of the Peoria Area Chamber of Commerce and said the school board should consider sites that have “better spin-off potential” or potential for economic development around the new school, both residential and commercial. Steve Katlack, 709 E. Frye, put together a handout that advocated the current Glen Oak School site, and addressed all of the school board’s stated criteria for site selection.

The next meeting will take place at Irving Primary School on Thursday, Sept. 27. After that, there will be meetings at Von Steuben on Oct. 4 and Glen Oak on Oct. 18. A final report will be prepared by Nov. 9, which the school board will deliberate on Nov. 19. A final decision will be made by Dec. 3, and that decision will be announced on Dec. 17.

Peoria Public Schools

Reminder: D150 Forum tonight

Peoria Public Schools logoIf you want to share with District 150 your thoughts on the placement of new school buildings on the east bluff, you’ll want to head down to Woodruff High School tonight at 7 p.m. for the first of four forums they’re holding.

The other meetings will be Sept. 27 at Irving Primary School, Oct. 4 at Von Steuben Middle School, and Oct. 18 at Glen Oak Primary School.

Museum Block

IMAX would be a boon to downtown

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IMAX Theater LogoThe Journal Star is reporting that museum officials are trying to get an honest-to-goodness IMAX theater to come to town, instead of an “IMAX-like” theater. A real IMAX would be a big draw for locals and tourists alike, especially in the evenings after the museum closes, so I see this as a step in the right direction.

If they could score a 3D IMAX, it would be especially sweet. Just think of how many people would show up for “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” in 3D!

City Council, City of Peoria, Peoria Civic Center

What’s the Civic Center trying to hide?

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Tuesday’s Peoria City Council meeting included this intriguing exchange:

[audio:https://peoriachronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/Audio/PCC-Budg-Req-091107.mp3]

The Peoria Civic Center submitted this five-page budget summary document to the City Council. Councilman Sandberg asked, “Is there an itemized budget that culminates in this four or five page document that the City Council has before it? And if so, where is it available for either the council or the general public to review?”

Peoria Civic Center logoDebbie Ritschel, general manager of the Civic Center, answered, “We do have an internal document, councilman, that is significantly longer than the document you get and we’d be happy to sit with you and go over with you at any time…. It is not a public document.” She went on to say, “We’ve always considered [the itemized budget] work product,” and further stated after additional questioning, “We have always considered this an SMG budget between SMG and the [Peoria Civic Center] Authority and then have created then the public document off of that.”

Well, whenever a governmental entity takes your tax dollars and then says you can’t see how they’re planning to spend it because that information is confidential, you know something is rotten in the state of Denmark. I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request today to get a copy of the itemized budget. It will be interesting to see how they respond (they have seven days to do so).

First of all, the Peoria Civic Center Authority is established by state law (70 ILCS 200/205, known as the “Civic Center Code”) and is “a political subdivision, body politic and municipal corporation,” so there’s no question that it’s a public, governmental entity. Thus, it falls under the Freedom of Information Act, which states, “[e]ach public body shall make available to any person for inspection or copying all public records.” Just to drive the point home, the Civic Center Code itself states (70 ILCS 200/205-60), “All records of the Authority shall be open to public inspection at all reasonable hours.” See that first word there? “All.”

The State of Illinois’ FOIA Guide states that a document is “a public record under the Act if it was prepared, or was or is being used, received, possessed, or under the control of any public body.” It’s clear the itemized budget was received and is under the control of the Civic Center because it was from that document that they created the summary document.

Now, it’s true that “[p]reliminary drafts of memoranda in which opinions or policies are formulated [are] exempt from disclosure” — I’m assuming that’s what Ritschel meant when she called the itemized budget “work product” — but an itemized budget upon which a summary document was based can hardly be considered a “preliminary [draft] of memoranda.” They submitted the summary budget document to the City Council; are they seriously going to argue that their summary is based on nothing more than a draft memo?

In short, I believe the itemized budget is a public document and should be open to public inspection and copying. They haven’t provided any good reason for it not to be, and the fact that they want to keep it under wraps makes me suspicious of them. I have to wonder, what are they trying to hide?

General News, League of Women Voters, Radio, Television, The Peoria Chronicle

Peoria Chronicle represented on League of Women Voters panel

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From a news release:

League of Women Voters logoThe League of Women Voters of Greater Peoria will sponsor a public forum — “The Role of Media in a Democracy” Saturday, September 15th, beginning at 9:30 AM at the Radisson Hotel (formerly Jumers), 117 N Western Avenue, Peoria.

The discussion panel will include eight participants from the local Peoria media:

DeWayne Bartels, Reporter, Times-Observer newspapers
Terry Bibo, Reporter/Columnist, Peoria Journal Star
Laura Michels, Reporter, WHOI, Channel 19
Jody Davis, News Director, WMBD, Channel 31
Tom McIntyre, News Anchor, WEEK, Channel 25
Jonathan Ahl, News Director, WCBU Public Radio
Dan DiOrio, WMBD 1470 Talk Radio
C. J. Summers, peoriachronicle.com

The panel will discuss the challenges, methods and goals of the media, each from their own perspective; and will take questions from the audience.

“The Media in a Democracy” formum will also feature a “meet and reet” optional buffet breakfast ($11.00, tax and gratuity included) from 8:30 to 9:30AM. The forum will begin at 9:30 and is scheduled to conclude at 11:00AM.

The forum will offer a unique and rare opportunity to meet, hear, and ask questions of our local news gatherers and reporters — the who, what, where, when, and why of what they do, the combined information they provide, and the role they have in our democracy.

The “meet and greet” buffet breakfast and the “Media in Democracy” forum are open to the public and all are welcome to attend.

City of Peoria

I met Mr. Barber

I got to meet and briefly talk to the new Public Works Director tonight after the city council meeting. He was very cordial and didn’t hold my previous post about him against me. Although he doesn’t call it “new urbanism,” he does espouse the same beliefs, including pedestrian-friendliness, mixed-use, context-sensitive solutions, bringing more residential options downtown, etc. I’m much more optimistic about him now that I’ve met him.

I was also told that Planning & Growth Director Pat Landes and Second District Councilwoman Barbara Van Auken did question the candidates extensively about their experience with older neighborhoods and new urbanism principles. So I have a greater comfort level with the process.

Even though at 57 years old he’s probably not going to be a long-term employee (he’ll likely stay fewer than 10 years), he will be responsible for hiring some key positions in the next few years, and the selection committee would like him to fill those positions with an eye toward succession planning — in other words, put someone second in command who can take over for Barber when he leaves. So keep an eye on whoever emerges as the No. 2 person in Public Works.

Nation/World

Where were you on September 11, 2001?

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9-11 Firemen Raise FlagI was sleeping on the couch with a terrible head cold. My wife woke me up and said that the news was reporting that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I didn’t think much of it because I had heard of planes hitting tall buildings before, like the Empire State Building, and while there had been some casualties, it wasn’t a catastrophe. I got up and called in sick to work, then I lay down on the bed.

Our clock radio is set to NPR, so I was sort of half-listening to the news as I tried to go back to sleep. They were broadcasting some personal interest story when all of a sudden the audio just stopped — very unusual. I’ll never forget the sound of Bob Edwards, who was the host of Morning Edition on NPR at that time, breaking in and reporting that another plane had hit the second World Trade Center tower.

Despite my cold, I was awake now. Something was desperately wrong. I got up and turned on the television and watched the tragedy continue to unfold right before my eyes. I remember distinctly the sense of honest-to-goodness fear I felt when they announced that another plane had hit the Pentagon and that the FAA was grounding all flights nation-wide. There was some time there that I just stood by the couch watching the TV and saying to my wife, “How many more are there? What are they going to hit next? How widespread is this attack on the U.S.? When will it stop?”

I also remember how thankful I was that my daughter, who was our only child at the time, was not old enough to know what was going on. I don’t know why I thought that, exactly — I guess I was just relieved that she wouldn’t be afraid because she was only a year old and oblivious to anything outside of her crib.

I know this has been said a million times before, but it’s true — watching the towers collapse was like watching a movie. It wasn’t until later that it really hit me that I had literally watched thousands of people die when those buildings came down. I can’t even imagine — I don’t want to imagine — how horrifying that must have been.

Amid all the tragedy, though, I remember one positive thing. In the days immediately following the attacks, I witnessed a unity and honest, non-jingoistic patriotism absolutely everywhere: at work, on the news, on the radio, on the streets, in Washington…. Everyone put their differences aside (race, religion, political party affiliation, etc.) and stood together, proud to be fellow Americans. I thought to myself, this must be what it was like in this country during World War II.

Alas, it was short-lived. But it was inspiring and reassuring while it lasted. It’s too bad that it takes a tragedy of that magnitude to make us realize how petty many of our differences really are, and how easy it can be to live with those differences when we put them into perspective.

2008 Campaign, Peoria County

Cold Case

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Cold Case Kevin

Kevin Lyons announced recently that he’s going to run for reelection as Peoria County State’s Attorney. I found this interesting:

Among the items he said he wanted to focus on in the coming years were efforts to protect police officers from vicious dogs who might be housed by criminals, the possible hiring of a “cold-case” prosecutor to try to solve unsolved cases [emphasis mine] and a continued effort to protect the elderly.

One of those goals sounds familiar…. Oh, here it is, from November 3, 2004 — the last time Lyons was reelected:

Lyons, 48, of Peoria has served as Peoria County’s top prosecutor for nearly 16 years. Among his goals for his next term are to create a cold case unit for unsolved crimes [emphasis mine] and to bring criminal cases to conclusion faster.

He has a good reason why he hasn’t reached his 2004 goal yet. He’s holding out for Det. Lilly Rush (pictured above, with Lyons) to join his team. She always solves her cases, and that kind of slam-dunk record is just what Lyons is looking for.

Arts Partners, City Council, City of Peoria

ArtsPartners: Should they keep getting city subsidies?

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ArtsPartners LogoThe city council will be considering whether or not to approve giving ArtsPartners a 2.5% share of the restaurant portion of Peoria’s HRA tax for four more years. Here’s a little background from the council communication:

In 2000, the City and Civic Center amended their Intergovernmental Agreement to provide that ArtsPartners of Central Illinois receive 2.5% of the collected Restaurant Tax revenue collected commencing with the September 2000 Restaurant Tax receipts and continuing through August 2002. In August 2002, that Agreement was extended through August of 2004, and again from 2004 to 2006. In 2006, the City approved an Amendment through August 2007. The Civic Center Authority Board unanimously voted on August 23,2007 to continue funding and approve a four (4) year Intergovernmental Agreement with ArtsPartners capped at $75,000 per year and continuing to receive the 2.5% of Restaurant Tax through August 31, 2011.

A recent Chronicle commentator argues that ArtsPartners duplicates the efforts of other organizations. Since arts groups do their own local advertising/promotion, and since the publicly-funded Peoria Area Convention and Visitors Bureau promotes the Peoria area (which would presumably include promotion of the arts offerings) to tourists and those relocating, why do we need yet another publicly-funded agency to focus on the arts?

I think the commentator has a point. Furthermore, while the arts are important, so are other things. What about sports? Should we start a publicly-funded “SportsPartners” organization to market and promote all the sporting events in Peoria? Schools are important — how about a publicly-funded “SchoolPartners” to promote all the great public and private schools we have in Peoria?

Here’s a better idea: If the Civic Center doesn’t need all that HRA money, how about reducing the tax instead of trying to find other ways to spend it? Lower taxes have wide appeal — I’ll bet they would help tourism and relocation at least as much as ArtsPartners.

Uncategorized

Aboard the LST

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Jackie on the LST with helmetMy family took a tour of the LST on Tuesday, the last day it was here in Peoria. We took tons of pictures, but this one is my favorite.

That’s my oldest daughter Jackie (7), who just started second grade this fall. She’s wearing a helmet that was on display (she had permission from the tour guide to try it on). Her only observation about it: “It’s heavy!”

I hope she never has to wear one of those things for real….