On the Peoria County Facilities Committee agenda for Tuesday is a resolution to secure federal funding to build a nearly $7 million (completely unnecessary and wasteful) parking deck on the so-called museum block downtown. There are two problems with this plan, as I see it:
- The county doesn’t own the land on which they want to build. The City of Peoria still owns the former Sears block. The agreement the County wants to approve is just between the County and the Federal government, although it does include a commitment that the County will acquire “in its name…all right-of-way necessary for this project.” Last I heard, there hadn’t been much dialog with the City about transferring title to the land.
- The museum project doesn’t have all its money raised yet. During last year’s run up to the referendum vote, the County stated on numerous occasions that they wouldn’t start construction until all the money for the museum project was raised. The money hasn’t been raised yet, so why would the County consider starting construction yet?
If this resolution is passed by the Facilities Committee, it should be rejected by the full Board. It puts the cart before the horse, twice.
the county of peoria is just like the city spend, spend and spend more debt to these people means nothing . All they want to do is get reelected and spend . When is peoria gonig to stop kissing caterpiller’s ass all the time.
Careful Michael, you will be accused of being anti-Peoria or worse…… Ah well……..
C.J. seems to forget one very important fact, the ‘PEOPLE’ voted for this museum! What can we do?!? It is odd that the ‘plan’ the people voted for, and the current ‘proposal[s]’ on the table, are completely different; not that they ever made sense anyway.
New voice
“What can we do?!?”
Buy outside Peoria county, thats what the taxpayers can do.
What can you do about it? Read up on 20 or so factual blogs about the museum and attend the Facilities Meeting this Tuesday at 2 PM in Rm 402 of the Courthouse.
Or the full board meeting on March 11, 6 PM, Rm 403, County Court House. To find my blog site just enter my name on your search bar. 1100 blogs published to date and all on my sidebar archives that you can find if you search.
Merle, you know full well that having a full house address the Peoria County board in protest won’t mean crapola to any but a handful of them. Then to add insult to injury, the citizen can expect a smart-alecky smirk and smackdown from Alan Mayer. Please don’t mislead CJ’s readers into thinking that citizen taxpayers have any relevance as far as the county board is concerned.
“. . . why would the County consider starting construction yet?”
because from day one, they have continued to jam this thing down our throats no matter what.
and i agree with anon. their response is simply going to be “the majority of the people voted yes for it. and you people are?”
Arrive at 5:45, fill in card with your name, etc., and you will be able to address the board BEFORE we get into our agenda. Two radio stations representatives are on hand and everything you say usually is broadcast. Usually one TV station is there.
Your comments are at least heard and recorded.