Daily Archives: November 19, 2008

City of Peoria, Streets

The Main Street circle game

29 Comments

The Journal Star has article today on why Councilmember Van Auken is abandoning plans to improve Main Street:

“We don’t have anything in the budget this year because it’s a ‘maintenance budget,’ ” 2nd District City Councilwoman Barbara Van Auken said Tuesday.

Van Auken said she anticipates in 2009 for more discussions to occur among city officials and neighborhood leaders within the West Bluff Council on how to handle improvements along Main. She said it could be several years before any physical changes along the busy street occur.

That should be “several more years.” This has been pursued ever since the Heart of Peoria Plan was completed in 2002, so we’re at six years, four consultants/studies and counting. But by all means, let’s spend another year discussing it. Maybe someone will say something different.

“I think our goal would be to have each of the neighborhoods in the West Bluff come forward with their ideas on what they would like to see in terms of traffic flow and patterns,” Van Auken said.

Again? How many times will we be going through this exercise? I would submit that the city has gotten more public/neighborhood input on this project than any other road project in the history of Peoria. We’ve had charrettes, we’ve had public meetings, we’ve talked as neighborhood associations and submitted the results of our discussions to the West Bluff Council, and on and on and on. How many more times (years?) are we going to rehash this thing?

The council on Dec. 9 will simply be asked to vote on whether to receive and file the Hanson study, which was completed several months ago.

By 2010 when this is reconsidered, we’ll of course need to do another study with another consultant, which will then get received and filed, and we’ll go round and round and round in the circle game….

City of Peoria, Peoria Park District, Peoria Public Library, Peoria Public Schools

School board member suggests some “horse trading of civic assets”

46 Comments

Jim StowellPeoria School Board member Jim Stowell believes the new northern branch of the library is misplaced, and would be better located by Expo Gardens and Richwoods High School. He doesn’t think it’s too late to change locations, either, since no construction has begun yet. A little over a week ago, he sent this letter to Peoria Public Library Director Ed Szynaka, Peoria Park District Director Bonnie Noble, Peoria Public Schools Superintendent Ken Hinton, and City of Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis:

Congratulations to the Peoria Public Library for the much deserved recognition from the Alliance Library Systems for their work in, as PJS described 10/30 “nudging a plan through a laborious process” that ended with 72% supporting a $35 million referendum to upgrade the present system. Full disclosure, I did not support the referendum.

Since the passage of that advisory referendum, however, much has changed economically. While some might think the $1 million spent for 6 acres behind Menards is a worthy investment, I’d suggest that with the pace of growth slowing and no shovel of dirt yet turned on this project, that the leadership of the Library would be prudent stewards of community assets if they re-assessed where to allocate precious resources. Much as city leaders have started to address issues within the heart of our city through Impact Zones, I believe we need to construct a new library where it can serve the greatest good for our community. Councilman Spears offered an idea that was not given adequate evaluation. With ICC, Mid-State College, St. Vincent’s and several public schools within walking distance, a facility near Expo could serve as a catalyst for a north-end transformation that might head off diminished real estate values likely to occur.

While I write only as an individual and not on behalf of the school board, what would be the possibility if the Library could acquire land near Richwoods free? Add the possibility that the school district would consider titling the properties acquired on Prospect to the Park District. The ultimate end would be for the Park District to acquire, over time, other parcels and square off Glen Oak Park from McClure down to Frye. This would open up green space and eyes to what many don’t realize is there.

A caveat to the agreement would need to provide for housing the District 150 Chinese teachers. Given the financial challenges facing municipal entities, it would likely take many years for the Park District to acquire the entire frontage along Prospect and our Chinese teachers could remain good neighbors of the Park.

In exchange for those assets, the School District could take possession of the Lakeview Branch, with a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU for up to 30 years) that, through collaboration, the Public Library would remain open and a reading lab for students might also be established. Mentors for the reading lab could be sought from patrons. Usage could be monitored and a new “model collaborative library” might even develop.

In the end, the Library retains land where growth might occur in the next 30 years, and a “new” facility is more centrally located to serve multiple age groups and demographics. The siting could set off positive revitalization efforts throughout Exposition Gardens, with walking trails, etc. Lakeview would be enhanced and the District would have built-in mentor magnet.

In working together, the cost for the horse trading of civic assets – zero. The knowledge that the Library Board led other government entities and acted for the greater good: priceless.

Jim Stowell