Monthly Archives: February 2012

City Council, City of Peoria

Chronicle prediction comes true

56 Comments

Back in January, when the Peoria City Council agreed to extend the Wonderful Development deadline until the end of February, I predicted that “Long about February 21, you can reasonably expect the council agenda to include another deadline extension.” Well, it’s February 22, and guess what? The council agenda for next Tuesday includes a request to extend the deadline until the end of March now.

I feel confident in predicting that, if this is approved, the new deadline won’t be met either. At the end of March will be another deadline extension request. This may happen every month in perpetuity, or at least as long as the majority of this council is allowed to remain in office, and Gary Matthews is never held to a real deadline.

Just for those council people who are unaware of the definition of “deadline,” here it is: “The time by which something must be finished or submitted; the latest time for finishing something.” That’s not how the Council has been defining it, obviously.

Amtrak, Illinois Dept. of Transportation

Direct passenger rail route to Chicago denied; Peorians told to ride the bus

12 Comments

Right about the time I stopped blogging last year, the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) released its “Feasibility Report of Proposed Amtrak Service” between Chicago and Peoria. So I’m five months late with my analysis. But then, IDOT was about three years late releasing the study.

All you need to read to know that this feasibility report is a sham is this paragraph from the introduction:

With the successful application by the State of Illinois for federal stimulus funding to upgrade the Chicago-St. Louis corridor (hereinafter referred to as “corridor”) to a maximum speed of 110 mph, the study request was modified to one route that would provide the Peoria area with connectivity to certain Amtrak corridor trains. After an initial review of the various routes, it became apparent that instead of a complete route feasibility study between Chicago and Peoria, either a rail or bus shuttle between the Peoria area and Normal, Illinois, utilizing the new multi-modal station currently under construction at Normal, would be the most expedient way to meet the State’s goal. A decision was made by IDOT that no through-train frequencies between Peoria and Chicago were to be considered.

And there you have it. The feasibility study — first requested in March 2007 — was aborted before it ever began.

You see, the original request to study direct service between Peoria and Chicago. There was no request for this to be a high-speed train or to connect to a high-speed corridor. But then the request was inexplicably modified. Instead of simply looking at direct service, the request was changed to look at service that would connect with the new “high speed” corridor between Chicago and St. Louis that passes through Normal.

Well, that screwed up everything. Now the only routes they can consider are the shortest routes to the “high speed” corridor, and how to get the train up to 110 mph once it gets there. Based on this new criteria, IDOT decided they weren’t even going to consider direct service to Chicago from the State’s third-largest metropolitan statistical area.

Instead, they spent four and a half years researching the best rail and bus routes from here to Normal. It doesn’t take a member of Mensa to figure out that rail service between Peoria and Normal is idiotic. But they did the math anyway and determined that it would cost $134 million in infrastructure and capital costs, plus an operating subsidy of $2,211,000 per year. Bus service? No infrastructure or capital costs, and an annual operating subsidy of $273,000.

So, thanks to a mysteriously modified request, we have a “feasibility report” that says, “drive to Normal if you want to go to Chicago.” In other words: status quo. No rail service for you.

The first question I want answered is, who modified the request? Was it IDOT? The Tri-County Regional Planning Commission? Ray LaHood? Who? And my next question is, of course, why?

Why was a study of a direct route to Chicago aborted? Included at the end of the report (starting on page 19) is what I can only assume is their “initial review of various routes.” And “Route B” looks very attractive, and feasible. It would travel south from Chicago through Joliet and Pontiac to Chenoa, then head west to East Peoria over the Toledo, Peoria and Western Railroad (TP&W), which they say has “relatively light” traffic — only three trains a day on average.

Furthermore, the cost to upgrade the TP&W infrastructure so that passenger trains could travel at 79 mph (not “high speed”) is only $52 million — less than half the $106 million they estimate it would cost to improve the tracks between Peoria and Normal to the same speed. Heck, even if they upgraded Route B to 110 mph (“high speed”), it would still cost $6 million less than upgrading tracks between Peoria and Normal to 79 mph speeds. And since Route B would be a through-train from Peoria all the way to Chicago, it would have higher ridership and thus higher revenue, which would reduce its annual operating subsidy.

But IDOT didn’t consider this option because, apparently, it wasn’t “the most expedient way to meet the State’s goal.” Why wasn’t it?

Who spiked the IDOT-Amtrak feasibility study and why? That’s the question that demands an answer.

Beth Akeson

Not a head shot you’ll see on any campaign literature

4 Comments

“Have you seen the picture of my head?” Councilwoman Beth Akeson asked me recently.

Before I could answer, I was confronted with a picture on her iPhone that looked like an autopsy photo you’d see on TV. There was the back of her head with a large, bloody gash in it.

“I was in the neuro ward for two days,” she continued.

What could have caused such a serious injury? A car accident? A disgruntled city resident? A mugging?
If you or your family member has been injured in a serious big rig accident, and there were catastrophic injuries or death as a result, you need the best truck accident lawyer in Houston who has experience litigating against truck transportation companies and their highly specialized and experienced insurance defense lawyers.

None of the above. She slipped on the ice while out for a walk a couple of weeks ago. But what a slip!

It was one of those situations where there was some ice that was covered with a dusting of snow, so it didn’t look particularly slick or treacherous. But it was. “One minute I was walking, and then a second later I was looking up at the sky and everything looked like it was swirling.” She never lost consciousness, but was afraid to move, so she called her husband, Jeff. And in turn, Jeff immediately called a personal injury lawyer from www.itsaboutjustice.law/personal-injury-attorney/ right after calling an ambulance.

Jeff said that when he arrived on the scene, she was lying on her back in her bright yellow coat with a large pool of blood around her head. “It looked like a scene out of C. S. I.,” he told me. He’s an orthopedic surgeon, so he’s no stranger to the effects of bodily harm caused by accidents. He immediately took her to the hospital himself, though in retrospect admits he probably should have called an ambulance. Contact a personal injury today using the simple online contact form on https://www.georgiainjurylawyer.com/truck-accidents/ for a free consultation.

At first, the emergency room personnel were not particularly worried. Minor head wounds can produce a lot of blood, so they expected a small cut for which Beth could be treated and released. But once they started cleaning it up, they discovered that it was much larger and deeper than they anticipated. To know more about Tiffany Fina Law visit us here get more info on legal separation.

A CT scan revealed she had a subdural hematoma, so she was admitted to the hospital where the injury could be constantly monitored. Fortunately, she made good progress and didn’t require surgery. She was released after two days. Three days later she attended a City Council meeting — Gary Sandberg jokingly suggested that’s a sign that her head injury is not fully healed yet.

Akeson is thankful she had her phone with her when the accident happened, as she doesn’t believe she could have walked back home for help. “Always take a phone with you when you walk,” she now advises everyone to whom she shows the picture of her head injury. “You never know when something like that is going to happen.”


Aaron Schock

Schock unopposed thanks to “ruthless tactics” he once decried

17 Comments

Eleven years ago, Aaron Schock was nineteen, just out of high school, and a candidate for the Peoria Public Schools Board of Education. At the time, 200 signatures were required to get on the ballot, and he filed 220.

Attorney Bob Hall, a close friend of Schock’s opponent (board president Rhonda Hunt), contested the signatures and found a number of irregularities. One of the petitions wasn’t signed by the person who circulated it. Several of the signers were not registered voters. Some of them didn’t put their addresses on the petitions.

“You might say it’s picky,” Hall told the Journal Star. “But pickiness is exactly what the Legislature expected.”

Hall prevailed and Schock was thrown off the ballot. Everyone remembers what happened next: Schock mounted a write-in campaign and beat Hunt for the school board seat anyway. It’s a real David vs. Goliath story.

Not so well remembered is Schock’s initial reaction to getting booted from the ballot.

“I think its ridiculous,” Schock was quoted as saying by the Journal Star on February 2, 2001 — eleven years ago today. “It shows Rhonda Hunt’s true character, that she is willing to use ruthless tactics and try to keep me off the ballot, and to stop the people of Peoria from having a choice of who they want to represent them on the School Board.”

According to the paper, “[Schock] said these were small mistakes, and he doesn’t think it jeopardizes the integrity of his ballots. ‘It was not intentional in any way. I am new to the political process. The technicality they have got me on was human error. I think it’s ridiculous. This is why people don’t get involved in politics. I think it is a disgrace in American politics.'”

Fast-forward to February 2, 2012. Schock is now the incumbent U.S. Representative from the 18th Congressional District, and he is being challenged in the primary by Darrel Miller. Some friends of Schock contested Miller’s petitions, and today Miller was tossed from the ballot:

Last month, Central Illinois Republican officials Michael Bigger of Wyoming, Ill., and Katherine Coyle of Peoria filed official challenges to Miller’s candidacy with the State Board of Elections. Bigger said he pursued the objection independently, not at the request of Schock’s campaign, after noticing several signatures collected by Miller came from Schock’s “close, personal friends.” He said that made him suspicious.

Miller had expressed confidence that enough of his 730 signatures would survive to give him the required 600. But a records exam and subsequent review found Miller’s petition contained only 583 valid signatures, 17 short of the minimum requirement. […]

Miller told WJBC on Thursday that he was certain his signatures were from registered voters who live in the 18th District. But Miller said the board’s questions centered on the “genuineness” of his signatures – specifically the 80 or so that were printed names, not traditional signatures. He said he lost around 50 signatures only because they were printed. […]

Miller represented himself during Thursday’s session in Springfield, and he admitted he was in “over his head.” His advice to anyone else looking to run for Congress: get three times the number of required signatures, to be safe.

Technicalities. Small mistakes. Someone new to the political process and in “over his head.” Sound familiar?

Miller was a gracious loser by all accounts. It could be that he’s older, wiser, and more circumspect in his speech than a 19-year-old kid. Or maybe he’s just accepted the fact that politics is a dirty business.

But what does Schock think about this? Surely his friends told him they were going to do this. Why didn’t he stop them from disgracing American politics? Doesn’t he think this stops the people of the 18th Congressional District from having a choice of who they want to represent them? Doesn’t he think this keeps good people from running for office? Doesn’t he think his tacit approval of these “ruthless tactics” reveal his “true character”? Or has he changed his mind over the past 11 years?

“Schock’s campaign declined to comment on the state board’s decision.” (Journal Star)

My suggestion to Miler: Run as a write-in.художник на икониИкони на светци