All posts by C. J. Summers

I am a fourth-generation Peorian, married with three children.
Blogosphere, Peoria Disposal Company, Peoria Park District, Uncategorized

PDC and PPD: The plot thickens

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Remember when I called up Bonnie Noble because I was surprised that the Park District came out in favor of the proposed PDC landfill expansion?  Well, apparently, I wasn’t the only one who was surprised by that — so was the Park Board.

The Journal Star today reports that Noble’s letter, even though it was on Park District letterhead, did not reflect the park district’s view:

The Park Board voted at its Feb. 22 meeting not to take a position on the proposed landfill expansion. Trustee Jim Cummings said then that Noble’s letter doesn’t represent the official position of the park district.

That actually makes me feel better about the park district as a whole. If Noble wants to express her own opinion, that’s fine — she made some interesting points.  However, to print her personal feelings on park district letterhead misrepresents the Park Board to Peoria County.

I hope county board members are aware that Noble’s letter is not a park district endorsement of the landfill expansion.

(P.S. In the category of “things that may be of interest to other bloggers,” my blog was actually quoted in this Journal Star story.   If they’re reading my little opinion columns, you can bet they’re reading other Peoria bloggers, and it’s gratifying to know they’re listening to us.)

City Council

Council Roundup: Mulligans settlement

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The city of Peoria settled their lawsuit with Mulligans tonight for $163,000 with very little comment.  The lawsuit stemmed from the city prohibiting Mulligans from holding wet t-shirt contests.  Sandberg mentioned that the amount of money in the settlement would pay for three firefighters — to which someone (couldn’t tell who) added “with their clothes on.”  That was a pretty funny line.

City Council, Homelessness

Council Roundup: 10-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness

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Emily Cahill of the Heart of Illinois Homeless Continuum of Care (HOIHCOC) presented their 10-year plan to end chronic homelessness tonight. Why do we have an HOIHCOC and a 10-year plan?

In 2001, President George W. Bush set a national goal to end chronic homelessness within 10 years. In response to that goal, and a mandate from Congress, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued direction to all recipients of HUD grants, including local jurisdictions and all Continua of Care, to develop a local plan to end chronic homelessness.

In other words, it’s a federal requirement. This was a long, but interesting presentation and discussion with the council. Some of the interesting facts they presented:

  • Families are the fastest growing segment of the homeless population
  • 30% of homeless persons are homeless with their families—one-third are children
  • At least 20% of homeless children do not attend school
  • Over half of the homeless people in Illinois live outside of Chicago
  • 41% of homeless are single men
  • One third of homeless persons experience a mental illness
  • Less than one-third are addicted to drugs or alcohol

To combat chronic homelessness*, they want to see 250 more safe and affordable housing units by 2016, implement a data-collection system so they can track their progress, improve the emergency shelter system, increase public awareness of the 10-year plan, and most importantly, focus on prevention.

They request that the community do three things:

  • Review the Plan
  • Share your comments, suggestions, and concerns in writing (by March 15 — e-mail comments to the Continuum at hoihmis@mtco.com – Subject: 10-Year Plan, OR mail comments to HOIHCOC, c/o Emily Cahill, P.O. Box 3855, Peoria, IL 61612.
  • Attend March 23 Homeless Breakfast (sorry, I have no further info on this event)

Continue reading Council Roundup: 10-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness →

City Council

Council Roundup: Savoie honored

Olympic figure skater Matt Savoie was honored tonight by the City Council.  The entire council chambers gave Matt a standing ovation, and Gary Sandberg — a family friend of the Savoies — read the proclamation.  It was a very nice gesture of the city, and I think the council spoke for all of us when they told Matt how proud we Peorians are of him.

Kellar Branch

Did you see my letter to the editor?

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Just in case you missed it, you can read it here.  It was, of course, about the Kellar Branch.  There have been several pro-trail letters to the editor lately, and I just couldn’t stand reading all the misinformation anymore.  I hope my letter will cause some people to reevaluate their support for turning a viable rail line into a trail.

One interesting fact:  the publishing of my letter is the first time the Journal Star has disclosed the amount of money Carver Lumber has lost (over $25,000) due to the city’s pursuit of this rails-to-trail debacle.

Heart of Peoria Plan, Renaissance Park

Renaissance Park gets new website

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If you haven’t seen the new website for Renaissance Park, formerly the Med-Tech District, click here.

It looks pretty nice, actually. I notice there are a lot of stylized drawings and artists’ renditions of things, and very few real pictures of what the area looks like. I suppose that’s because, (a) right now there’s a big hole in the ground where the Innovation Center will be built, and (b) they’re trying to sell the vision for the area, not the current “look.”

Renaissance Park is part of the larger Heart of Peoria Plan, so it’s encouraging to see this part of the Plan progressing. Some may say what’s happened so far is all fluff, but I think good marketing is a key component of revitalizing that area, so this is definitely progress.

Click on “Read the rest of this entry” below to read the official press release:

Continue reading Renaissance Park gets new website →

St. Louis Cardinals

Ankiel’s place on Cards’ roster a mystery

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The St. Louis Cardinals are reporting that Rick Ankiel is injured:

In making the transition from pitching to playing the outfield, talent has scarcely been an issue for Rick Ankiel. A balky body, however, keeps protesting. On Monday, Ankiel sustained his third injury in the 12 months since he made the switch, suffering a strained left patellar tendon in an intrasquad game. He underwent an MRI at Jupiter Medical Center on Tuesday, and he will be held out for at least 10-14 days. The injury was characterized as a Grade 2 strain, the middle of three levels.

Here’s my question: why the heck is Ankiel still on the Cardinals’ roster? This kid imploded in the post-season six years ago and has never recovered. Yet they don’t send him to the minor leagues, but keep him on the 40-man roster and try to convert him to an outfielder.

Why? Is his dad on the board of directors or something? I’ve never heard of a team keeping a dead weight like this for more than half a decade. It’s time to cut the kid loose so he can pursue other interests while he’s still young.

City Council

Times-Observer suggests Friedan tribute

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At the city council meeting last night, Barbara Van Auken requested that the publisher of the Peoria Times-Observer be allowed to present his suggestion for a tribute to Betty Friedan.  He suggested renaming Pioneer Parkway “Betty Friedan Parkway” because it’s a major thoroughfare and Friedan was a “pioneer” in the women’s rights movement.

I’m not really a proponent of renaming streets.  It used to be that you honored a person by putting up a statue to them in a prominent place.  Peoria has several statues; to name a few:  Abraham Lincoln (Peoria County Courthouse), Robert Ingersoll (Glen Oak Park), and Christopher Columbus (Uplands neighborhood).  Why not put up a statue to Friedan and leave the street names alone?

City Council, City of Peoria, Social Justice

Random act of kindness . . . from the city

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I found something almost heartwarming in Tuesday night’s city council agenda.

First, a little background:  There are some sewers in older parts of Peoria known as “wildcat” sewers.  These are sewers that were developed privately and do not conform to city code.  The city has a program, known as the Wildcat Sewer Program, that helps residents abandon their wildcat sewers and connect to the city’s sewer system by paying half the cost of connection.

Well, some Peoria residents on North Machin were connected to a wildcat sewer that had collapsed and was completely useless.  But these people were unable to afford even half the cost of connecting to the city’s sewer system, and had resigned themselves to living with the consequences. The city decided to go ahead and connect them to city sewers anyway and pay the whole cost of connection.  You can read a more detailed version of the story here.

I’m impressed that the city has been willing to treat this as an emergency repair and help these residents out.  Kudos to the city for their random act of kindness!

City of Peoria, Insight Communications

Cable franchise agreement update

I decided to go straight to the source and ask City Attorney Randy Ray what the status is of the cable franchise agreement. He was kind enough to write me back this evening:

We have a meeting scheduled with Insight next week. We hope to have an agreement by April 15. Our biggest local concern is to end the payments by the City for televising Council meetings live. Thank you for the question.

One of the pitfalls of using sarcasm as I occasionally do is that you always have to qualify when you’re being serious. This is one of those times. So, seriously, thanks to Randy Ray for responding to my e-mail and providing this update. Some may complain it wasn’t that newsy, but I know there isn’t a lot he can share while the city and Insight are still negotiating.  Hope the negotiations turn out well and in the city’s best interests.