Daily Archives: July 23, 2010

City Council, City of Peoria

Firefly bankruptcy may cost taxpayers “only” $2.5 million

8 Comments

I received this press release from the City of Peoria this afternoon:

Peoria, Illinois, (July 23, 2010) – We have placed on the City Council Agenda for July 27, 2010, a request for approval to satisfy the City/County obligation to PNC Bank by jointly paying $500,000 to the Firefly Bankruptcy Estate and jointly paying $2 Million to PNC Bank. We believe that this course of action will result in considerable savings to the taxpayers of the City and County of Peoria.

We would like to point out that the $500,000 settlement with the Bankruptcy Estate remains subject to approval from the Bankruptcy Court. The proposed agreement with PNC Bank and a third-party buyer also remains contingent to sensitive negotiations which are on-going. We are optimistic that those negotiations will be successful and that the Firefly matter may be resolved quickly, and that the City and County will have to pay substantially less than the $6.6 Million that had been at risk.

So, we’ll be losing $2.5 million instead of $6.6 million. I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, yes, I’m glad our losses appear to have been greatly mitigated. But on the other hand, we’re losing $2.5 million! I wonder what the City will do to make up their $1.25 million share of the loss….

Still no word from David Leitch.

City Council, City of Peoria, Comcast, Television

City to temporarily extend Comcast franchise agreement … again

9 Comments

Comcast’s 20-year cable franchise agreement with the City of Peoria expired in April 2006. Since then, that franchise agreement has been extended temporarily numerous times while the City and Comcast have been negotiating a new agreement. Tuesday, the council will consider a request to extend it once again — this time until November 30, 2010. The reason is so we can see what kind of agreement Comcast makes with other communities in Illinois (Rockford, Champaign, and Urbana). City staff believes this will somehow be advantageous to Peoria.

Meanwhile, Comcast has jettisoned oversight and execution of public access (technically known as “PEG”) programming, off-loading it to the City, which has in turn outsourced it to a third-party organization. Comcast has also closed their local customer service center. And Comcast can, at any time, get a franchise agreement from the State of Illinois, thanks to legislation pushed through by AT&T.

Comcast, thanks to the complicity of the State, has the City over a barrel. So, all these extensions appear to be only delaying the inevitable: a franchise agreement on Comcast’s terms. It’s hard to see what good these temporary extensions are doing.

City of Peoria, General News

Fresh Market plans to open August 25

2 Comments

The new Fresh Market grocery store in Westlake Shopping Center recently told the City’s Liquor Commission that they intent to open August 25. The store will be 23,000 square feet, with 500 to 800 feet (approx. 2-4%) dedicated to liquor sales. There will be no requirement that they hire an off-duty police officer to act as a security guard from 2:30 to closing, like the liquor commission and City Council requires for south side grocery stores. Surprisingly, this question did come up at the commission meeting: “Liquor Investigator Jordan stated [the security guard was required on the south side] because of neighborhood group requests and there had been no such requests with this [Fresh Market] application.”

City Council, City of Peoria, Elections

City to comply with HB3785

3 Comments

You may recall that the State passed HB3785, which says political signs can be displayed on residential property at any time. The law takes effect January 1, 2011, but the City of Peoria will be bringing it sign ordinance into compliance this coming Tuesday. The text amendment leaves intact size restrictions for all political signs, as well as the requirement they be removed from public property and commercial property within seven days after an election. Residential properties are excepted from the post-election removal requirement.