On the consent agenda, a portion of the agenda that is believed to be items of little controversy but consistently has items removed from it each council meeting, there was an item to approve a special use permit to allow a new car wash in the 3100 block of Sterling.
At-large councilman Chuck Grayeb was indignant that it was included in the consent agenda. When he asked why it wasn’t a separate item, City Manager Randy Oliver replied that in staff meeting he was told no one on the council objected to it and there was no public opposition. Apparently Grayeb missed that meeting.
He turned out to be the only one who was against it. His concern was that the car wash would be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but would only be supervised from 9-5 each day. He believes that, based on other car washes he’s approved in the past, loud music and other detriments to nearby residents will result.
The City Council this evening unanimously declared that this week is Peoria Bradley Week in honor of the Braves’ advance to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen.
Mayor Ardis also issued a friendly challenge to the mayor of Memphis that we’ll be hearing more about tomorrow. Instead of betting Memphis a pizza in Peoria that Bradley will win Thursday, Ardis wants to set up a competition between Peoria and Memphis to see who can raise the most money for St. Jude. The more money that can be raised for charity, the better. I like the way Ardis looks for these kinds of opportunities.
I’ll have more to say about this issue later, but I wanted to say a couple of things now.
First of all, thank you to my council representative Barbara Van Auken for taking the time to voice her opposition to the landfill expansion on behalf of the second district. Also thanks to at-large councilman Gary Sandberg for voicing his concerns as well. I don’t know if any other council members spoke, but I didn’t see any mention of it in this Journal Star article if they did.
Secondly, I’m not buying this argument from Les Bergsten:
But Les Bergsten, chairman of the Peoria City/County Landfill Committee which has taken no stand on the expansion, argued the county cannot afford to lose the business connected with the PDC landfill. American companies without convenient waste disposal will move elsewhere, he said.
If that’s true, then Peoria should be booming with new business, especially industrial business. I mean, PDC is one of only 15 such toxic waste dumps in the country. Why haven’t companies been knocking down our door the last fifteen years so they can be close to our coveted toxic waste dump? PDC is accepting toxic waste from several other states — why haven’t the companies in those states moved to Peoria to be nearer the landfill? That argument just doesn’t wash.
A new 88-room Country Inn & Suites will be built close to TGI Friday’s on War Memorial Drive near the Grand Prairie mall if the council approves the rezoning request tonight. Doug Currier got unanimous approval from the zoning board, and his request is part of the consent agenda for tonight’s meeting. The hotel will include banquet facilities and meeting rooms and, amazingly, is not requiring any city funds to be built.
Tonight’s council meeting includes an item to allow piano teachers (and other music instructors) to work out of their homes without having to pay $90 for a home occupation permit, but they can’t have more than four students at their house at the same time, and they can’t amplify their equipment. Other home businesses that are not required to have a permit: “computer operation, . . . sewing machine operation, telephone operation, typing, and writing.” I could think of a few other occupations that shouldn’t require a permit, but at least they’re finally exempting musical instruction. I hope this passes unanimously.
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.
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.
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)
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.
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?
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!
