Monthly Archives: October 2012

Museum Block

Museum attendance projections revised downward

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PEORIA — Peoria Riverfront Museum attendance projections apparently have been lowered 25 percent, based on figures from a museum official quoted by a local newspaper.

Toni Tripp, vice president of marketing and communications at the Peoria Riverfront Museum, told the Peoria Journal Star that “about 180,000 people are expected to visit the museum over the course of the year; which assumes about 500 people walk through daily.” That marks a significant decrease in the number of patrons that museum officials have heretofore predicted.

When the museum’s operating budget was being put together in 2007, Lakeview Museum, consultant White Oak Associates, and Caterpillar, Inc., predicted the museum would see 240,000 visitors per year, or 667 visitors per day. A detailed report showing these figures is still available on Peoria County’s website. The latest projections cut those original numbers by a fourth.

The decrease in attendance means lower revenues for the museum, which means a much larger endowment would be needed to sustain the operating budget. The 2007 budget projections said that a $6.75 million endowment was needed if the museum met its projections at 100%. At 90% of projections, a $13.5 million endowment would be needed. No scenario was given for the museum potentially meeting only 75% of projections, but the endowment needed under that scenario would clearly be more than the museum’s current $10 million target.

A big part of the discussion leading up to the successful passage of a .25% sales tax increase to help build the museum centered on whether the operating budget of the museum would be sustainable. At that time, museum officials touted the large, regional draw of an IMAX theater showing first-run movies at night and museum gallery attendance that was on par with other museums nationwide used as benchmarks. Since that time, the museum abandoned the IMAX brand to go with little-known giant-screen cinema company Global Immersion, decided that showing first-run movies did not fit with their mission, and now have lowered their overall attendance projections.

A request for comment from Toni Tripp went unanswered.

2013 Election, City Council, City of Peoria

No, I’m not running this time

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I’ve had several people ask me if I’ll be running for the second district Peoria City Council seat in 2013. The answer is no. I’d once again like to thank all of those who supported me the last time I ran. I may consider another run in the future. But after evaluating my obligations at home and work, I believe this just isn’t the right time for me.

So far, in the second district, Chuck Grayeb has announced he’s running and incumbent Barbara Van Auken hasn’t said one way or the other if she’s running. Assuming she does run, and assuming no one else enters the race, I’ll be supporting Grayeb. If you’ve followed my blog from the beginning when Grayeb was still on the council as an at-large representative, you know that I don’t see eye-to-eye with him. But there’s no doubt in my mind that he would be a better representative of the second district than the incumbent. Van Auken has been instrumental in dismantling the Historic Preservation efforts of the city and eviscerating the Heart of Peoria Plan in principle and in practice. She has been complicit in squandering our tax money and public resources on baubles and trinkets. Crime around Bradley University has increased, and the Bradley top brass has responded by increasing patrols by Bradley police officers; yet I’ve heard nothing and seen no action from our city council representative on the matter.

Grayeb came in sixth, very close behind the fifth-place finisher in the at-large election. He’s been on the council before and obviously has a great deal of support. He’s susceptible to being suckered into bad deals for city taxpayers (e.g., he voted for MidTown Plaza), so we’ll have to hold his feet to the fire on those things. But no one can doubt his commitment to public safety and historic preservation. Grayeb is by far the better candidate in the second district at this time.