Category Archives: Dunlap

Cults, Dunlap, Gary Sandberg

The Gary V. Sandberg Project

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Gary V. Sandberg ProjectFile this one under “Cults.”

Dunlap High School recently had a Battle of the Bands competition. The winner? “The Gary V. Sandberg Project.”

Really. I’m not making this up. I couldn’t possibly ever, in a million years, make this up.

The Gary V. Sandberg Project is a bluegrass band, and they even have their own MySpace page (who doesn’t?). Apparently, there’s a group of kids at Dunlap High who watch every Peoria City Council meeting, then get together to discuss them. And Gary is their hero.

They even wrote a song about him called, “Our Friend.” You can hear a recording of it on their page, and here’s a live version:

If you can’t make out the lyrics, they are:

Who’s the man on the TV with the smiling face?
Who’s the man with the filled up trophy case?
Who’s the man who eats all his greens?
Who’s the man with a parrot named Jellybeans?

He’s our friend, he’s our friend
But he doesn’t even know it, he’s our friend
He’s our friend, he’s our friend
Won’t you be his friend too?

Sand is on the beach, ice is on the berg
But it doesn’t even matter because we’re friends

Who’s the man with the black bow tie?
Who’s the man who will tell no lie?
Who’s the man with the poofed up hair?
Who’s the man you cannot scare?

He’s our friend, he’s our friend
But he doesn’t even know it, he’s our friend
He’s our friend, he’s our friend
Won’t you be his friend too?

Sand is on the beach, ice is on the berg
But it doens’t even matter because we’re friends

Gary was invited to the Battle of the Bands competition to introduce the group that bears his name. He obliged. It was the first time he had heard them, and he was truly moved by their homage to his work on the council.

Wow. I think if I were Gary, I’d be flattered, but would probably take out an order of protection just to be on the safe side….

How long do you think it will be before Markley and Luciano are playing this song regularly on their WMBD afternoon show?

Dunlap, Peoria Journal Star, Radio

Problem in Dunlap flap is with Journal Star, not library

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The Journal Star has been reporting lately on some controversy surrounding a referendum for the Dunlap library to issue bonds to build a larger library. Today’s paper has this summary:

Since the November election, controversy has surfaced over the referendum. Unofficial results first showed it had passed, but a later tally showed it had failed by 42 votes. However, absentee ballots counted in the two weeks following election day confirmed it actually had passed, with 1,185 people voting in favor of issuing bonds and 1,176 voting against them.

Despite that turnaround, no one in the media was told or reported the final results, leaving some residents to believe they were kept in the dark and, therefore, missed a deadline to seek a “petition for discovery” – essentially, a possible re-count.

However, Jonathan Ahl, news director of WCBU 89.9 FM in Peoria, says that description of the situation doesn’t jibe with his experience:

WCBU obtained the vote total of the referendum from then County Clerk JoAnn Thomas on November 8th, the day after the election. We reported at the time the yes votes outnumbered the no votes by six. Thomas said in an interview that all votes had been counted except for the provisional ballots and absentee ballots that were postmarked by November 5 that had not yet arrived in the mail. The early votes HAD been counted at that time.

We reported again on November 15th that unless there was a challenge, the referendum would pass with the yes position winning by nine votes. In addition to Ms. Thomas willingness to answer our questions on the results, all of this information was available on the Peoria County Clerk’s web site.

With that in mind, it is baffling to me to read sentences in Journal Star reports claiming the numbers were never released to the media, and that the apparent win by the yes votes was not discovered until “a few weeks later.”

Most disturbing is the Journal Star’s sweeping statement that “no one in the media was told or reported the final results.” I guess it depends on what they mean by “final.” If they mean that only certified totals are “final,” then no, probably no one in the media reported on them at that point.

But there’s a reason for that. The “unofficial” tally, which was posted on the county’s website on 11/15/06 and reported on WCBU is identical to the tally that was certified and posted on 11/28/06:

QUESTION TO ISSUE $2,500,000 LIBRARY BONDS, Vote For 1

Early/Absentee Election Total
YES 148 (66.67%) 1,037 (48.48%) 1,185 (50.19%)
NO 74 (33.33%) 1,102 (51.52%) 1,176 (49.81%)

So, why would anyone need to re-report something when the tallies didn’t change? It sounds to me like WCBU reported on the vote totals on the county website, but the Journal Star was evidently sitting around waiting for someone to call up and tell them about it. I thought reporters were supposed to go out and get information, not sit around waiting for news to come to them.

Are they now trying to cover their failure by claiming “no one in the media was told” and blaming the whole thing on the library board?