Monthly Archives: December 2007

The Peoria Chronicle

Closing the book on 2007

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As another year draws to a close, this is a good time to say thanks. Thanks for reading, for commenting, for discussing. I really enjoy the conversations in this virtual living room where we gather and talk about the issues of the day. I’m looking forward to more of that in 2008. Stop by often and join in the dialogue. I learn a lot from you, and so do all the other readers.

I sincerely wish you a happy new year… and I sincerely hope you have a life and aren’t reading this at 11:52 on New Year’s Eve when I’m typing it.

Television

WTVP crisis a mystery

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WTVP logoI was talking with my father-in-law recently and we got on the subject of WTVP. I asked him if he was going to pledge any money to help “Save Our Station.” No, he said. He likes public television, but since he subscribes to cable, he’s confident he’ll continue to get PBS programming even if WTVP goes dark. They’ll probably just pipe in a PBS station from Champaign or Chicago to complete their lineup.

What bothers him about WTVP’s plight is that he feels like we’re not getting the whole story. Somewhere, there’s a missing piece, because what we do know just doesn’t add up.

He goes through the numbers. They owe nearly $8 million, and they’ve been making all their payments — they’re merely in “technical” default of their loan because they didn’t reach predetermined pledge quotas. If the bank forecloses and liquidates WTVP’s assets, the bank will get a fraction of that — my father-in-law thought he heard them say somewhere in the neighborhood of $2 million. That means the bank would be losing roughly $6 million.

I used to work at CEFCU, and I can tell you that financial institutions have no desire to repossess cars or foreclose on houses. That’s the last thing they want, in fact. First of all, they won’t get all the interest you would have paid if you had kept making payments on the loan. Secondly, they have to unload the repossessed property. In doing so, they have to try to get enough out of the car/house to pay off the loan. Hopefully they’ll get that, but often they take a loss on part of it.

So here’s Bank of America — if they foreclose on WTVP, they’re not even going to get the principal of the loan recovered. They’re not going to get $8 million for a 30,000-square-foot commercial building in the warehouse district, plus equipment that was worth about $1.7 million when it was new two to three years ago. Not even close. So, if WTVP is making their payments on time, foreclosing over a technicality would appear to be an incredibly stupid idea. There has to be more to the story. There just has to be.

My father-in-law can’t figure out what the missing piece is. He speculates that it could be a number of things. Perhaps the bank has a willing buyer — someone who wants to acquire a TV license in Peoria. Maybe the bank knows some financial or management information the public doesn’t know about the station — information that gives them no confidence the loan will continue to be repaid no matter what happens.

Whatever the secret is, we probably won’t find out until after January 15, 2008 — the date WTVP’s loan comes due and Bank of America decides whether or not to shut down the station.

General News

Trib predicts Cubs in ’08 WS

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The Chicago Tribune has released its predictions for 2008. Here’s what they’re predicting for the Cubs’ 100th anniversary of their last World Series win:

Hoping to end a 100-year championship drought, the Cubs will head into September with a six-game lead in the Central Division — before a downward spiral that will conjure up memories of 1969. Still, they will manage to stumble into the postseason with an extra-inning win in the final game in Milwaukee, as road-tripping Cubs fans tear up the Miller Park turf in a riotous celebration. The Cubs will then sweep San Diego in the first round and shock the New York Mets in six games to earn their first World Series appearance since 1945. But Detroit Tigers owner Michael Ilitch will bring a goat into his luxury box for Games 1 and 2 at Comerica Park. Ron Santo will strangle the goat, but it’s too late. The die is cast and the Cubs go down meekly in five games.

— Paul Sullivan, Cubs reporter

City of Peoria

Randy Oliver tried to get a city manager job in Texas

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Randy OliverI just read over at Jonathan Ahl’s blog that Randy Oliver is definitely looking for another job, although he and his wife deny it.

Jonathan doesn’t link to it, but here’s the article from The Dallas Morning News which reports that McKinney, Texas, has hired a new city manager. The new manager isn’t Randy Oliver — but it could have been:

Mr. Ragan was one of three finalists in a national search conducted by Arcus Public of Harrisburg, Pa. The others were Charles Oliver, city manager of Peoria, Ill., a city of 113,000; and Robert Person, assistant city manager of Azusa, Calif., which has 47,000 residents.

For those of you who don’t know, Oliver’s first name is Charles, but he goes by his middle name, Randy. Here’s another report from the McKinney Courier-Gazette. Sounds like, despite his protestations to the contrary, Oliver is pounding the pavement looking for a new job.

Kudos to Jonathan Ahl on another great scoop.

State Legislation

Another creative loophole for smoking ban

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Nasir Salim has found a creative way around the smoking ban. The Chicago Tribune reports that Salim “owns four Dhuwan hookah [Middle Eastern water pipe] lounges in Chicago and the suburbs that all opened within the last two years.”

He said that all four would serve only prepackaged food and soft drinks after the ban goes into effect. One lounge, in Lisle, had a kitchen, but Salim is closing the kitchen and opening a restaurant next door to the hookah lounge. “It’s fully compliant,” Salim said. “People can go eat at the restaurant, and after they’re done, come next door and smoke hookah.”

One can buy 3 Vapes at 180Smoke.ca and enjoy it in the open as smoking will still be permitted in retail tobacco stores, defined in the Smoke Free Illinois Act as, “a retail establishment that derives more than 80% of its gross revenue from the sale of loose tobacco, plants, or herbs and cigars, cigarettes, handmade glass pipe, and other smoking devices for burning tobacco and related smoking accessories and in which the sale of other products is merely incidental.” It can’t just be a section of the restaurant, but would have to be a freestanding store. Still, if you think about places where many bars are, it would not be difficult to have a restaurant/bar right next door to a freestanding tobacco store.

Since the mere consumption of food and drink doesn’t have any effect on the gross revenue of a tobacco shop, I wonder if Salim’s idea could be taken a step further. Can food or beverages be taken from one establishment to the other? Of course, you can’t take alcoholic beverages off the premises of the licensed establishment, but is there any prohibition on patrons buying food and/or non-alcoholic beverages in a restaurant, then voluntarily taking them next door to the tobacco shop to eat them while having a cigarette or cigar?

General News

Upcoming events

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  • Christmas Broadcast: If you’d like to see what I’ve been working on this month, just watch WEEK-TV on Christmas Eve at 10:30 p.m. or Christmas Day at noon to see the annual Grace Family Christmas broadcast.
  • JammSammich Reunion: As some of you know, I used to be the keyboard player in the local band JammSammich (1998-2002). The band is celebrating its tenth anniversary on Saturday, February 2, at Crusens on War Memorial Drive. All current and former band members have agreed to appear. It promises to be a good time — hope you can all make it. You’ll be happy to know that my gig clothes are long gone, so you won’t have to suffer seeing me in a shiny shirt, tight pants, and platform shoes. Not that I could fit into any of that anymore, anyway. Not that I could fit into any of that then, either. 😛
  • Election Night Coverage: I’ll be joining Jonathan Ahl in the WCBU studios on Tuesday, February 5, as election results start rolling in to provide updates and commentary throughout the evening. Hopefully I won’t still be hoarse from the ‘Sammich gig.
Kellar Branch

Rail/trail committee being formed

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City Manager Randy Oliver updated city council members this week on plans to form a committee to look at the feasibility of building a trail alongside the Kellar Branch rail line:

Representatives of the City, Park District, Peoria Heights, and TriCounty Regional Planning met with Central Illinois Rail and Pioneer Rail in separate meetings as requested by the Mayor and Council. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the possibility of side-by-side rail and trail for the Kellar Branch. The result of these meetings is a recommendation that a task force be formed by the Village of Peoria Heights and the City of Peoria, with each community nominating three members, to determine by April 1, 2008, whether side-by-side rail and trail is feasible or not. The feasibility is intended to consider both engineering feasibility and financial feasibility. The Committee has suggested that three members each be appointed by the Mayor of Peoria and Peoria Heights. The meetings will be noticed and opened to the public. It is proposed that the Committee draw up the railroads, the Park District, City staff and outside technical resources if necessary to make a recommendation to the two cities.

Journal Star city beat reporter John Sharp has been following up on this story and found out some interesting info:

  • The City hasn’t chosen their representatives yet. “Oliver said the Peoria City Council could decide by its Jan. 8 meeting if this is the direction the city wants to go and, if so, who should serve on the committee.”
  • Peoria Heights has. “Peoria Heights Mayor Mark Allen said he plans to have his Village Board vote on his three recommendations by Jan. 2. Allen said he will recommend Peoria Heights residents Vern Kimberlin and Sherryl Carter serve on the committee along with Junction City owner Alexis Khazzam.”
  • It’s estimated to take “about $10,000” for the committee “to be able to go out and get their technical questions answered by someone this committee feels is unbiased.”
  • Hopefully, if everyone agrees, the cost will be distributed among the entities on the committee. “The city of Peoria plans to contribute $2,500, and various other parties – including Peoria Heights [and Pioneer Railcorp] – will also be asked to contribute.”

One of the proposed Peoria Heights participants, Alexis Khazzam, was interviewed recently on WEEK-TV. He feels the city should take a “tougher stance” and should charge the rail carriers rent to use the line. His strategy is, “By charging the rail companies rent, it’ll make them say, ‘if we only make $50,000 operating or serving the customer that exists on it, it might not be worth it for us to pay $180,000 for rent a year,’ or it might spur them to say, ‘okay, we know what we need to pay; we need to increase revenue.’ At least it’ll be out of the city’s hands and in the trail advocates’ hands and the rail advocates’ hands and let that be a fair fight.”

First of all, the underlying assumption here is that keeping the line open for one customer is not justified. Unfortunately for trail advocates, the Surface Transportation Board (STB) ruled just the opposite — keeping the line open for even one customer is justified in this case. Thus, any effort by the Cities, as rail owners, to force closure by charging excessive rent will similarly be struck down by the STB.

Secondly, as was stated in the WEEK report, Pioneer maintains that its contract with the City is still in force, and the City claims that it expired under its own terms in 2004. That contract called for the city to charge the rail carrier $1 per year in rent to operate the line. The city also has a signed land use agreement with the Park District that charges them the same amount — $1 per year — to rent the land if it’s able to be used for a recreational trail.

I would consider this rail/trail committee to be the first real progress we’ve seen in over a decade on the Kellar Branch controversy. Hopefully the committee will come up with a solution that works for all parties involved.