Tag Archives: Brad McMillan

Museum Block

New fiction section added to InterBusiness Issues

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I enjoyed reading Brad McMillan’s article in InterBusiness Issues this month. It was quite entertaining. I had no idea he was such a good fiction writer, or that IBI had added a fiction section. Check out some of these knee-slapping lines:

The notion that this [museum] project was elitist and was forced on the community from the top down is simply false. Instead, this grass-roots initiative included nine museum groups and hundreds of volunteers…

Grass-roots initiative? Yes, this little “grassroots initiative” was pushed along by common, everyday people like various CEOs of Caterpillar and other large corporations, U.S. Congressmen, State Senators, and local mayors — all of whom are chronicled in Mr. McMillan’s article, by the way. And that “grassroots” marketing campaign that cost almost a million dollars? It was nothing short of miraculous the way the common folks were able to come up with that kind of money. The whole project was a modern-day “Little Engine That Could” story.

Our legacy Build the Block project is funded 55 percent private and 45 percent public….

And if you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell you. The County alone is pumping over $59 million (including bond interest) into the project, the City’s contribution is roughly $17 million (land, TIF proceeds through 2021, improvements to Water Street), we’re getting $9 million in public funds for the parking deck ($4 million in federal highway administration funds and $5 million in state capital funds) — what are we up to now? $85 million? That’s already over 60% of the $140 million project.

…it was the broad-based collaboration between labor groups, museum collaborators, families and business that helped pass a sales tax referendum during the worst part of our economic recession.

…by promising to build an IMAX theater, use 100% local union labor, not bond out more than $40 million, and not bond out until all the private funds were raised — all promises on which they’ve now reneged.

Mike Everett, president of the West Central Illinois Building Trades, tirelessly raised money and put up signs for the Build the Block campaign, knowing that it would provide 250 local construction jobs for his men and women over 25 months.

Except that, since this is a public project now, those construction jobs will have to go to the lowest bidder, and that’s not necessarily going to end up being local laborers. I’m sure the museum supporters are hoping it will end up being local labor, since they promised in their TV ads it would be built with “100% local union labor.”

Through the efforts of so many, the 15-year hole in the heart of Peoria will now be filled with one of the single most important cultural and economic developments in our region’s history.

Fifteen years ago was 1995. Sears was still open and doing business on the block then. They didn’t close the store and move to Northwoods until 1998, so the block hasn’t been a “15-year hole in the heart of Peoria.” But I’m quibbling. Why let facts get in the way of a good story, right?

State of Illinois

Ethics Commission wages outrageous

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Brad McMillan — the guy who, at a public meeting, falsely accused me of spreading misinformation — has been appointed to the Illinois Executive Ethics Commission. As a commissioner, he will get $36,000 of our tax money. That’s a typical full-time annual salary for working men and women across Illinois. What do you think he’ll have to do to acquire that much of our hard-earned money?

Answer: Attend twelve meetings per year. That’s right. “Ethics” commissioners get $36,000 a year for the punishing job of attending one meeting a month to conduct hearings, prepare information materials, provide guidance, and receive reports — you know, the kinds of things that local planning and zoning commissioners do for free.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in Illinois is 10%, and state funding for schools is second to last in the nation. But we have $36,000 to hand over to the politically connected to judge the ethics of others.

Paying a state commissioner a year’s salary for a few hours of work is an outrage. Making such expenditures to the already employed in the middle of a recession/depression is downright immoral. But evidently, it’s ethical… at least, according to Illinois.

Museum Block

Museum presenter accuses me of spreading misinformation

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Thursday night was a strange night for the museum presenters. During the question and answer time, museum representative Brad McMillan was explaining what the admission price might be for the proposed IMAX, which was something like $30 for a family of four. Then he said — to my surprise — that it wouldn’t be $60 “like C. J. Summers has suggested.” Brad went on to say he was “tired” of opponents “spreading misinformation” about the project.

“Misinformation”? Why is he mentioning my name in his answer to the question? And where did I say it was going to be $60 for a family of four to visit the Peoria Riverfront Museum’s IMAX? I did have a post about my family’s trip to the IMAX at the Putnam Museum. In it, I said:

The [Putnam] IMAX was not showing any big Hollywood shows, but they did have some short educational films. We took in the double-feature of “Mystery of the Nile” and “Under the Sea 3D.” Admission price for the two approximately 45-minute films was $14 for adults and $10 for children. So for my family — two adults and three children — the total admission cost was $58. And of course no movie is complete without some popcorn and soft drinks. That set us back another $20 or so.

So, first I’d like to point out that my family is not a family of four, but a family of five. Secondly, I clearly stated that we saw a double-feature of educational films that were approximately 45-minutes each. And third, I said they weren’t showing any big Hollywood shows. And the price came to $58. Here’s the receipt:

putnam-receipt

You’ll have to take my word for the price of the popcorn and soft drinks; I didn’t get a receipt for that.

Later in the post, I said, “What the $17 [average annual cost per resident of the sales tax] doesn’t include is the price of actually patronizing the museum, which can be costly, especially if you have a large family. Just going to a couple of educational movies cost my family nearly $80. If we had wanted to visit the museum’s galleries, it would have cost even more.”

Now, if I had a family of four, and if we had only gone to see one educational film, and if we hadn’t gotten any concessions, then yes, the price would have been $30 (2 adults x $8.50 = $17, 2 kids x $6.50 = $13, $17+$13=$30), according to the Putnam museum website. I’ve never suggested otherwise. I was simply recounting my experience. For my family of five, seeing a double feature with concessions, it was nearly $80. Fact.

I think it was completely inappropriate for McMillan to call me out by name in a public meeting and imply that I was spreading misinformation about the cost of attending an IMAX theater, especially when that allegation itself was misinformation!

It’s pretty sad that the museum folks think reports of my family’s day trip might negatively affect their campaign — especially after they’ve spent over $600,000 on signs, literature, and advertising to get out their message.

Museum Block, Peoria County

Museum looks to meet private shortfall with public funds

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The latest town hall meeting on the county sales tax referendum took place tonight at Dunlap Valley Middle School. The presenters were Brad McMillan for the museum, Erik Bush for the county, and Karrie Alms for Citizens for Responsible Spending. I was pleased to see that tonight’s meeting was a balanced presentation, pro and con. Kudos to the county for now allowing both sides a seat at the table.

While most of the evening was filled with no new information, there was one significant development. As you may know, the museum has set separate goals for private and public funding. The sales tax is supposed to plug the gap in public funding, but there is still an $11 million shortfall on the private funding side. At just about every meeting, the question is raised as to how the museum group plans to close that $11 million private funding gap. And the answer has always been that they’ve gotten a commitment from the CEO Roundtable to raise $8 million of it, and that they’re confident that people will come out of the wings to support the project once they know the public funding is in place. Sounds far-fetched to me for various reasons, but I don’t want to digress on that right now.

What we learned tonight is that they are also trying to plug that gap with (perhaps not surprisingly) more public money from state and federal sources. Mr. McMillan said the group is working with state senators Risinger and Koehler, as well as Congressman Schock to get grants, stimulus money, and any other funds the government might have lying around that could go toward the museum.

This indicates a bit of a shift in strategy on the museum’s part. It would appear that they are now changing their public/private funding goals. Why might they be doing this? Could it be because they don’t really believe they can make up that $11 million shortfall with private donations after all?

(P.S. On a side note, do you remember a comment on another post from “kcdad” where he said today’s schools are set up to teach children consumerism? Well, after seeing the brand new, state-of-the-art Dunlap Valley Middle School tonight, I’m inclined to agree with him. The building looks like a shopping mall inside and out, not an educational institution. Architecture and environment teach you something about what a community values; clearly the value here is consumerism.)

Museum Block, Peoria County

Museum referendum: Why you should vote “No”

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By now, you all know that Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed the bill that will allow Peoria County to ask voters to voluntarily raise their sales taxes to help pay for the Peoria Regional Museum. He might as well have; the legislature would have overridden his veto anyway, just like they did on SB2477 that allowed the school district to access Public Building Commission funds without a referendum.

There’s only one good thing about this turn of events: it does require a referendum. If the vote fails, there will be no tax increase, and likely no museum in its current form. This is probably the only way the citizens of Peoria can send a clear signal to the Museum Collaboration Group that, while we would like a Peoria history museum, the current plan is unacceptable; go back to the drawing board and try again.

The Journal Star gives us a little insight into the media blitz that will be coming our way to try to convince us that this museum plan is the best thing since sliced bread:

“Now it’s our job to reach out to the community and get a successful vote, something I think we can accomplish with hard work,” said Brad McMillan, the spokesman for the museum collaborative group that’s hoping to partner with Caterpillar to develop the old Sears block Downtown. “We need to show a majority of voters what a really great thing this project is for the future of this region for education, for quality of life and for its economic impact.”

So, there are the three things they’re going to try to push: education, quality of life, and economic impact. Let’s look at those.

  • Education. Any museum worth its salt will be educational, so that’s an easy value to sell to the public. But it misses the point. The question is, could we get just as educational of a museum without a sales tax increase? And the answer is yes. The reasons why this project is so expensive are:
    1. Design. The current design is inefficient and expensive. They want a whole city block to site an 80,000-square-foot one-story building. They want to put a parking deck underground for this building; not only is the parking deck completely unnecessary (there is plenty of parking surrounding the block), but the shape of the deck is different than the shape of the building that sits on top, which adds tremendous expense to the construction process. The waste inherent in this design is formidable.
    2. Scope. They are moving Lakeview Museum to the riverfront as part of this project. That’s unnecessary. Lakeview Museum already has a building and is self-sufficient. If the art and science museum were left where it’s currently located, the remaining history and achievement portions would be less expensive to house. They could be housed in a new building on a portion of the Sears block, or an old building could be renovated so the history museum could be in an actual historic building.

  • Quality of Life. What is “quality of life”? One definition is, “Those aspects of the economic, social and physical environment that make a community a desirable place in which to live or do business.” So let’s look at those items.
    1. Economic. Economically, a sales tax increase is certainly not a quality-of-life enhancement, but rather a detraction. It means that whenever you go out to eat, instead of paying 10% tax on your meal — already higher than all surrounding communities — you’ll be paying 10.25% or 10.5%, depending on how much money the museum needs. It means that whenever you go shopping for clothes or appliances or other retail items, you’re going to be paying higher taxes.
    2. Social. I would point out again that we already have Lakeview Museum which is self-sufficient and contributing to Peoria’s quality of life. It’s unclear how moving that museum four and a half miles southeast is going to improve the quality of life socially for Peorians. A Peoria history museum would add to the social quality-of-life aspects, but it can arguably be done without a sales tax increase.
    3. Physical. Physically, the museum is a travesty. Its architecture, siting, and size are all regrettable. It’s a suburban design right in the heart of an urban setting. It’s not big enough to house the museum collections that are not on display. In the 1970s, the city hired a city planner for advice on what to do downtown; on this block specifically, Demetriou advised dense, mixed-use development with residential and retail components. In 2002, the city again hired an urban planner for advice on what to do downtown; after holding numerous charrettes to solicit public input on what they’d like to see downtown (and specifically on this block), Duany advised dense, mixed-use development with residential and retail components. One would think that listening to the public and heeding the advice of urban planners would be the best way to enhance quality of life. Yet the Museum Collaboration Group has decided to do the antithesis — a single-use, nine-to-five, suburban-style development.

  • Economic Impact. We have two city blocks that will be bringing in no tax revenue to the community, but will instead be subsidized by a sales tax increase, and they want us to believe that it will have positive economic impact? It will not. Are they hoping for subsidiary development around the museum block? Where would it go? In the new office building they want to build on the Riverfront Village stilts? And if civic projects with this type of design are surefire economic engines, where is all the subsidiary development around the Civic Center and Chiefs ballpark? They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results; by that definition, expecting positive economic impact from the museum project as currently proposed is insane. Mr. McMillan did provide one example of economic impact in an earlier Journal Star article:

    “This project would bring hundreds of construction jobs to the region at the exact time there is talk of national economic stimulus and infrastructure improvements designed to keep people working,” McMillan said.

    In other words, make-work jobs at taxpayer expense. Only the government could say with a straight face that taking your tax dollars to pay construction workers for 18 months or so is a positive economic impact on the city. Also, consider the economic impact of higher sales taxes. How many people will continue shopping and eating out in Peoria if surrounding communities (read: East Peoria) have considerably lower taxes? Won’t that make things worse for businesses in Peoria?

We don’t need to raise sales taxes or any other taxes. There’s another solution. The solution is to go back to the Heart of Peoria Plan and develop the block the right way. The solution is to leave Lakeview Museum where it is and establish a history and achievement museum downtown, either in a new building on a small part of the Sears block with an efficient and affordable design, or in a renovated historic building elsewhere downtown. That way, the city and county can collect tax revenue from the mixed-use development on the Sears block, and a self-sufficient history museum can be established. All of these things will raise the quality of life in Peoria, without having to raise taxes to do it.

The Museum Collaboration doesn’t need sales tax revenue, they need a new plan. You can send them that message by voting “no” on the museum tax referendum.

Museum Block

Museum showcases plans for “The Street”

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From a press release:

Peoria Riverfront Museum’s “The Street” to Innovatively Capture the Region’s Colorful History

Peoria – The Peoria area’s history will surprise, educate and entertain you. Peoria Riverfront Museum collaborators proved that point today as they revealed details of The Street, a major, ever-changing gallery designed to bring to life the Peoria area’s long and colorful history—from its Native American roots through the initial French settlements to its place as the All-American bellwether of U.S. taste and beyond.

Collaborators playing a key role in planning The Street, including the Peoria Historical Society (PHS), Peoria Regional Museum Society (PRMS) and African American Hall of Fame Museum (AAHFM), spoke to supporters gathered at the Hotel Pere Marquette in downtown Peoria, a few blocks away from the seven-acre site of the proposed development.

State Sen. David Koehler, a long-time proponent of the museum block, said, “I’m excited to see the groundswell of support around The Block. I know this project will bring great educational, cultural, entertainment and economic opportunities to our region.” Koehler added he’s “looking forward to visiting The Street to explore more about the Peoria area’s early years and all the people and companies who have helped to make it what it is today.”

“We’ve talked previously about the features of the Riverfront Museum, including the IMAX Theatre and the planetarium,” said Museum Collaboration Group co-Chairperson Brad McMillan. “Today, we focus on the exhibit galleries planned for the Washington Wing of the museum, particularly The Street historical galleries showcasing the region’s history and the Oral History Center, where visitors of all ages can tell their stories for generations to come.”

The collaborators unveiled specific plans for The Street, including The Square, a nearly life-size streetscape integrating real objects from the region’s past, oversize graphics, text and interactive opportunities. The Square will feature an interpretive timeline of the area’s past, as well as fascinating stories unique to Peoria—some legendary, some little known. Anchoring The Square will be a massive video projection and large-scale artifacts supporting the current theme.

PHS Board President Marilyn Leyland said The Street will be a rotating exhibit with themed portions continually changing, starting with “Pride of Peoria: Innovation and Entrepreneurship.” Focusing on Peoria as a hardworking town, this inaugural theme will highlight the businesses and industries that brought wealth to the community and continue to flourish today, as well as showcase examples of that ingenuity—from bicycles and early automobiles to distilled spirits and earthmoving equipment, plus the advertising that promoted them.

A future theme of The Street is called “Will It Play in Peoria?” It will explore the importance of Peoria audiences, from riverboat and vaudeville patrons to coveted targets of modern market research. The region’s rich history provides an endless source of engaging themes and interesting stories to tell in the future.

“And on any given day, you might run into important people from the past,” said Leyland, introducing John Parks of the PRMS. Parks came in character as inventor Charles Duryea to announce the society would donate to The Street a Duryea automobile invented 110 years ago in a garage on West Barker Avenue, along with $40,000 for maintenance and exhibits explaining the vehicle’s history. “That gas-powered vehicle started people thinking in new ways,” Parks said. “It inspired Henry Ford—and we all know what happened next.”

Another important element of The Street will be an Oral History Center with a Story Booth to feature individual stories of Peoria-area residents. “Oral history has been an especially important tradition in the African-American community,” said Margie White, representing the AAHFM. “The Oral History Center will allow visitors to capture their own history, leaving with a DVD of their recording.” Selected recordings of general interest will be used by the museum in future exhibits.

The current African American Hall of Fame exhibit would be integrated into a Wall of Fame inside the Living History Center. This exhibit will honor individuals inducted into the Hall of Fame each year for having made an outstanding contribution to the Peoria African-American community.

In addition, the Caterpillar African American Network, an affinity group within Caterpillar that supports African-American employees, will donate $12,500 to the museum on behalf of AAHFM.

McMillan announced other Washington Wing exhibits will include an International Feature Gallery for special traveling exhibits—including the best exhibits the Smithsonian Institution has to offer—and traditional exhibits of fine art and folk art based on the extensive collections of Museum Collaboration Group partners. Announcements about exhibits to be included in the Liberty Wing of the museum will be made in the coming weeks, he added.

The multifaceted Riverfront Museum will join the Caterpillar Experience as key components of a planned downtown center for the arts, education and entertainment known as The Block. The $136 million project already has garnered $90 million in commitments to date, including 86 percent of the private funding and 40 percent of the public funding needed, said Michael Bryant, chairman of the CEO Roundtable, a group of prominent business leaders working to raise $8 million and the public awareness needed to help build the Riverfront Museum.

The Journal Star’s story includes pictures and diagrams.