The City of Peoria’s liquor commission can’t even get information on what’s happening with Big Al’s plans to move, resulting in a “no decision” Monday on whether to grant them a liquor license. Via 1470 WMBD radio:
[A] NO recommendation was forwarded to the City Council concerning a change in liquor class for the former EuroJacks and an application for a liquor license at 414 Hamilton Boulevard by the owner’s of Big Al’s. The Commission cited the owners could not produce enough information at this time on specific plans for the properties.
But apparently some city officials know what’s going on, as evidenced by these quotes from a recent Journal Star article:
“They are basically moving to make way for what could be a wonderful development,” city attorney Randy Ray said, declining to discuss specifics. “At this point, it’s just a tremendous opportunity to develop the Downtown.”
Added 1st District City Councilman Clyde Gulley Jr., who represents the Downtown, “we need to move (Big Al’s) because of another project.”
Others involved at City Hall and Zuccarini remained tight-lipped about what they have planned.
The city attorney, first district councilman, and unspecified “others involved at City Hall” all know what this “tremendous opportunity” and “wonderful development” is all about. The rest of us, however, will just have to wait to find out — probably until after it’s a done deal.
Secrecy fever has found its way into the budget process as well. At a special City Council meeting Monday night, it was announced that staff had cut the budget deficit from $2.2 million to half a million dollars. When Councilman Gary Sandberg asked how they accomplished that, he was told he’d have to come in tomorrow and talk to interim City Manager Holling in private to find out. In other words, they weren’t going to divulge that information on the council floor where citizens might hear.
Of course, the sad truth is that most citizens wouldn’t have heard since the meeting was on a Monday when there’s no radio or television coverage like on Tuesday nights. Interestingly, some council members (Van Auken, Manning, Nichting, Mayor Ardis) seemed to know what was going on, while the rest of the council was in the dark about this budgeting miracle.
And it was only a few months ago that the Journal Star reported, “City officials decided in June that this year, the budget process would be more open to the public, transparent, and easily communicated between city staff members and the council.” So much for that plan.
What a joke.
The more I hear about Mayor Ardis, the less I like him.
Talk about same old, same old…….
Thanks for posting this observation. I had the same one when I read the paper this a.m. Please vote for this liquor license but I’m not going to tell you what it’s for…….oh, and we’ve cut the budget deficit down but we’re not going to disclose what we cut until we have private meetings to determine whether we counted the votes correctly in our head when we were determining which services to cut.
I mean come on….this is getting to be a very sorry group.
Vote them all out including Sandberg. I am tired of the counc bullshit.
It is not unusual for the details of a pending commercial real estate transaction to be kept confidential, for various reasons. Public discussion and debate can be a deal killer. The Mayor and other officials have an obligation to uphold any assurances of confidentiality they gave to the parties to the transaction.
True Diana…but I would think then that the liquor license request should not be processed until the applicant was willing to indicate what it was going to do with the license. Are we planning to have a bar with a few grumpy old men sitting there nursing their beers….or dance poles with “nurses” cavorting on them for grumpy old men.
There is a big difference in these business models and neighbors of the property in question have a right to know what the plans are.
Diane — If this were simply a real estate transaction, that would be acceptable. But here, one of the parties is asking for liquor licenses which require a public hearing. The public deserves more information so the liquor commission can make a decision that is in the public’s interest. They can’t hide behind a pending real estate transaction to keep the public in the dark about liquor license use.
Is this the same Mayor that is supporting Schock?
Perhaps, just perhaps, could it be that Mr. Zuccarini and his attorney got out ahead of their headlights, and in their haste to get something wrapped up with the liquor liscenes etc, were way to premature in this application. Could that be why no one else is willing to divulge any information, because it’s still all so tentative that nothing is for sure and therefore to make any statements could actually be misleading. And we sure wouldn’t want that from any public officials.
Word on the street is that they are planning on tearing down the entire block where Big Al’s sits and allow the construction of a hotel with a skywalk to the Civic Center. Everyone downtown seems to already know this. It’s a shame that those historic old buildings will be destroyed.
Half that block is not old. The building to the right of Al’s was built about twenty years ago to look old.
Regardless of what happens to Al’s tearing those buildings down and gettting a slick new hotel or add on to the Pere’ would make alot of sense. That would help the Pere’ and give the Civic Center the hotel they are looking for. It would really help that whole area on Main St.
Now, Just what to do with Al’s??………..
“Is this the same Mayor that is supporting Schock?”
KCDad – in just a few short hours you will be out of your misery 🙂
Those of us that know cannot tell and those of you that do not know do not need to know.