Suppose someone wanted to move out of Peoria County. Where would be the best place to relocate, while still staying near enough to work in Peoria? Take into consideration taxes, schools, etc.
Suppose someone wanted to move out of Peoria County. Where would be the best place to relocate, while still staying near enough to work in Peoria? Take into consideration taxes, schools, etc.
Are you thinking of moving?
I think Tremont is a place to check out. It is only 20 minutes from downtown Peoria. Houses and taxes are moderately priced (although housing prices are not as low as you would think, due to the performance of the schools). Sun Times ranks the elementary school 39th in the State and the high school 42nd. The positives or negatives of the community, depending on your prospective, are that it is rather homogenous and religiously conservative. The popluation is less than 3000. Morton and Pekin are close by for shopping needs.
Woodford County
Washington.
West Des Moines is lovely, but the commute would be a real bitch.
Where is there to work in Peoria?
MAWB: I’m not sure how much more I can take. With the recent actions of the school board, city, and county, I’m starting to think that perhaps it’s time to flee a sinking ship. Haven’t made up my mind yet, though.
And C.J. becomes another cog in the suburbanization of the city 🙂
More seriously though, this is a reason why many do leave central cities. When the majority feel that the community is not being run well, with a guiding vision, with a goal towards improvement for the community (all members not just some), and judicious spending of tax dollars (we can all disagree on certain spending elements – but I’m referring to an overall view of smart spending), the decision between staying and fighting the good fight and leaving to improve your personal quality of life makes it harder to remain.
Well people…………………….
Now that I know Peoria City [and former mayor “Bud”] are pushing to pool the ‘resources’ of both city and county, I am thinking CJ may be right……
What exactly do ‘they’ mean by ‘resources’?
The J Star, and the usual Peoria City ‘gang’ are spending a great deal of ink and time telling the world what a great idea that would be!!!!!
Waiting to hear just what the benefits to the entire county would be [still waiting to hear how the ENTIRE county will benefit from the museum].
NO…..I am not still bitter……….
J Star also thinks the rest of Illinois should pony-up and settle accounts with PACVB!
Is it me, or is Peoria [City] beginning to wonder how its going to get out of the ‘hole’?
NV… just wait til Peoria gets the bill over this 150 whistle blower case. (If there isn’t a ton of pressure from the city for the district to settle, I will be VERRRRRRY surprised.)
I took the leap and moved out to Eureka. The drive gets old. That is really the only negative. The schools are great. The town is safe. For me what I like most is being able to let my children out of the house on their own. They can go to the park, the grocery store, a scout meeting, to the library, ect, ect, all on their own. I drive farther to get to work, but around town I don’t drive at all. Tell me where can one live in Peoria where it is still safe to send a 9 year old on his own to the store to get a gallon of milk? My children are anxious for summer when they ride their bikes to Eureka College for open swim (cost $1.00 each), or to the lake to go fishing. We enjoy walking to Eureka High school football games. The kids walk to karate lessons. When my son badly cut his arm, we even walked the short distance to the hospital ER as it was easier to hold the bandage and walk, then to try to hold the bandage and drive. When I look at the life my children have living in a town like Eureka, I wonder why anyone would choose to raise their children in Peoria.
Okay, breaking the rule here, because it’s within Peoria County, just not the city, and I must say Princeville is lovely. It has it’s own library, post office, museum, grocery store, gas station, grade school and high school. Plus, it’s only 20 minutes to the north side of Peoria, so depending on where you work, the drive isn’t too bad.
Definitely Washington.
Remember $5 a gallon gas….
Jennifer,
Princeville has a museum?!?!
The rest of the people who post here may be blind [deaf and dumb?], but I read you like a dime-store novel………….
If YOU think the rest of Peoria County is going to get nailed with ANOTHER sales tax to support YOUR museum…you are sadly mistaken!
HAH!
Washington is where it’s at. After a year of house shopping in and around areas of Morton, Washington, and Peoria, I found that housing was more affordable here. Especially considering the quality of life in Washington, it’s by far the best option in Central Illinois.
I encourage you to check it out for yourself.
Elmwood (though it’s still in PIA county, barely)…
remember, CJ, once the last lifeboat leaves, it gets pretty hairy. don’t wait too long.
Yeah, remember the Titanic?
Morton, Tremont, Washington, and Eureka would be excellent choices.
Each have their pluses and minuses.
We chose Morton School District but chose to live outside the city limits – taxes are much lower outside the city.
Goofy Ridge and Creve Coeur are beautiful this time of year…
CJ: I would suggest Eureka for you because you can carpool with all of the people from Eureka who attend Grace Presbyterian and whose children attend Peoria Christian.
Mahkno, did you miss the fact that one does not use gas running kids here and there if you move out of the city to a town like Eureka. I do not use any more gas now then I did living in Peoria. How much gas does the average Peoria family use running children everywhere they need to go. My kids walk or ride their bike. That fact more then makes up for the bit more I use driving into the city.
small town,
I am assuming… that
1) CJ would probably be staying in his current job and thus commuting daily.
2) That he probably plans to stay with his current church, commuting.
3) While Eureka has a fair amount to offer… mind you I like Eureka, it doesn’t have nearly everything Peoria has, so commuting for shopping to either Peoria or Bloomington-Normal will happen with some frequency.
4) Knowing where CJ currently lives, which has everything one might need in close proximity, the whole walking around argument is largely a wash.
This can all add up when gas rockets back up…. which it will.
Eureka still has a very pronounced small town character to it. Morton does too but is threatened imo. Washington has ceased to resemble a small town beyond its square, clearly moving into the suburban sprawl and it isn’t particularly well laid out even for that.
Elmwood is a very nice small town. Grocery store, restaurants, golf, pool, movie theater, MUSEUM.
Brimfield is good too. I can get to downtown Peoria in 20 minutes. I think that is the same as it takes to drive down Knoxville most mornings. No museum in Brimfield though.
The schools in both towns are pretty good, but small. Taxes are pretty reasonable.
Vinron: Elmwood and Brimfield are in Peoria County.
Seriously though CJ, what about Lacon? It’s a nice drive down 29 along the river on the way to Peoria.
Washington has been great for us.
I lived in Peoria for about five years. I did not own a house there, but did look for one in Peoria, however ended up in Washington.
It’s not a bad drive to work in Peoria. Honesty, I drove 10 minutes through Peoria for years to get to work from my Peoria apartment, and when I moved to Washington it added about 5 minutes to the drive and was less congested.
I don’t consider the taxes bad (and we did just vote down a tax increase) but I never paid property taxes in Peoria County.
Excape to Wisconsin
Unfortunately, Morton is too oriented toward interstate-highway-connected development.
So I failed reading comprehension — I was thinking City of Peoria v. County of Peoria. My bad. Taxes in the county aren’t too bad IMO.
I’ll throw Farmington into the mix then. Nice new school, nice town. Commute is a little longer. How about Stark County?
Texas is starting to look good to me. The whole state of Illinois is screwed up.
If you want to work for Cat, Texas would be a good choice… it is just a short hop over the Rio Grande to “good jobs”.
There are plenty of great areas in Peoria. Sorry, I am staying in our centrally located neighborhood. 10-15 minutes to anywhere in town.
I would be miserable if I lived in a little town with small, closed minded thinking and a Caseys General Store was the only place to buy milk.
I had a good friend who use to live in Yates City , one bar at the time [ years ago]. It was way to quiet for me .. Ilove Peoria, i have lived here all my life .. Yes we have crime , etc , but all places have trouble , its all in what you want .. Good luck C.J. I do understand … But its better here. For me .