Tag Archives: City of Peoria

City of Peoria

City Manager Moore a finalist for Texas job (UPDATED)

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Peoria’s City Manager Scott Moore has been announced as a finalist for the city manager position in San Marcos, Texas, according to the San Marcos Daily Record:

The San Marcos City Council has announced three finalists for the position of City Manager following two days of interviews.

They are Jeffrey Howell, city manager of Kilgore, Scott Moore, city manager of Peoria, Ill [emphasis added], and Jim Nuse, city manager of Round Rock.

They will be invited back for a second round of interviews with the City Council and a public meet and greet to be held on Wednesday, Sept. 22 from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the City of San Marcos Conference Center, 3101 S. IH 35.

San Marcos is located about halfway between Austin and San Antonio in south central Texas and has a population of about 35,000. The City Manager job description for San Marcos is available here. Scott Moore started as Peoria City Manager in August 2009.

UPDATE: The City of Peoria has released a statement from City Manager, Scott Moore:

City Manager Scott Moore is a finalist for the position of City Manager in St. Marcos, Texas. As a young professional, Scott has been sought out by other communities; however, this particular location would provide him with the opportunity to be closer to family. “I enjoy the challenges that we are working through in the City of Peoria, and it is also humbling to be approached by other communities who believe you possess the qualities that could be an asset to their organization,” said Moore.

City Council, City of Peoria

City Council meetings now available online

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From a City of Peoria press release:

Peoria – (September 14, 2010) – Within one week after each meeting of the Peoria City Council, citizens can go on-line to view streaming video of the meetings.

The video can be accessed by going to www.peoriacitycouncilmeetings.com and selecting a meeting from the playlist, then click play. Specific parts of the meeting can be viewed by highlighting the tool bar at the bottom of the screen. The toolbar appears when the mouse hovers over the screen. The site does require a flash enabled web browser to view the meetings.

This new feature is provided by Focal Point Video, the company awarded the contract to record the Council meetings. The Council meetings were previously recorded by Comcast.

Council meetings are televised live on Comcast cable channel 22, and are rebroadcast Wednesdays at Noon. Dvd’s are also available for purchase through the City Manager’s Office. The Peoria City Council meets on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at 6:15 p.m.

City of Peoria

New construction projects on the rise in Peoria

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From the recent “Issues Update”:

The Building Division of the Inspections Department continues to see strong growth in new construction projects in the City of Peoria. With four months remaining in 2010, permit revenue has already surpassed the total amount collected in 2009.

Illustrated in the table below is a comparison of Building Permits/Permit Revenue through August of the last five years. Permit revenue is up 62% in 2010 compared to this time last year. In addition, new construction is up 27% in 2010 compared to this time last year.

YTD 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
New Residential
Total Residential

New Commercial
Total Commercial		 238
578

44
202		 216
601

44
189		 167
556

29
172		 86
409

14
151		 100
430

27
170
Residential Fees
Commercial Fees
Other – Mechanical Fees		 $229,954
$153,842
$134,738		 $351,436
$1,150,629
$175,594		 $260,492
$584,426
$227,855		 $131,827
$213,419
$150,430		 $162,416
$514,342
$127,870
Total Fees $518,535 $1,677,659 $1,072,773 $495,676 $804,628
City of Peoria, Peoria County

Firefly bankruptcy hearing date set for Sept. 9

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Last week’s “Issues Update” from the City Manager’s office has the latest on how things are progressing with the Firefly bankruptcy:

The Bankruptcy Court has set a hearing on the City’s and County’s settlement with the Bankruptcy Trustee for September 9, 2010. Negotiations continue with Electrotherm, the company from India who has expressed interest in acquiring Firefly’s assets. In order to move that negotiation forward, the City Manager and the County Administrator have executed an agreement that the City and County will not market the assets of Firefly to any other party than Electrotherm until September 14, 2010. It is anticipated that a purchase agreement will be on the City Council Agenda on September 14, 2010.

In related news, one market for the batteries in India would be to power two-wheeled scooters:

The electric two-wheeler industry in the country is struggling for survival, as manufacturers are making huge losses. …[T]he fledgling e-scooter segment has failed to join the bandwagon of the Indian automobile industry, which is on a high growth trajectory. From 60 players in the electric two-wheeler business, including small time assemblers, only 10 remain in contention now….

The dependence on imports for key components such as battery, motor and charger also pose a challenge for the industry. Major players such as Hero Electric and Electrotherm are looking at developing local battery manufacturing capabilities. [emphasis added]

How’s Electrotherm doing these days? Here’s a recent report:

Electrotherm (India) disclosed a steep drop in standalone net profit for the quarter ended June 2010. During the quarter, the profit of the company declined 27.28% to Rs 123.43 million [US$2,633,460] from Rs 169.74 million [US$3,621,514] in the same quarter previous year.

The City and County of Peoria guaranteed a bank loan of $6.6 million for Firefly Energy in 2007; the company went bankrupt in March of this year. The municipalities have been trying to mitigate their losses by selling the company’s assets.

City Council, City of Peoria

Liveblogging the City Council 8-24-2010

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Hello everyone, and welcome to the Peoria City Council meeting. I haven’t been able to attend the last couple of meetings, but I’m back tonight, liveblogging the event for your entertainment. You can join the fun at City Hall, fourth floor, Council Chambers. You can also watch live on Comcast cable channel 22, or listen live on 89.9 FM, WCBU.

The hyperlinked agenda is here, if you want to see supporting documentation. Otherwise, I’ll list the agenda items below and give a play-by-play on each of them as the council discusses them. This post will be updated frequently throughout the evening, so be sure to refresh your browser. It’s now 6:15 p.m. and time to get started. Without any further ado, here’s tonight’s agenda (it’s a long one!):

Continue reading Liveblogging the City Council 8-24-2010 →

City Council, City of Peoria, TIF

City to study feasibility of “East Village” TIF

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The City Council wants to see if all or part of the East Bluff recently dubbed “East Village” qualifies as a redevelopment area and tax increment financing (TIF) district. The council will vote tonight on whether to pursue a feasibility and housing impact study of the area that stretches from Arcadia to Adams, spanning three council districts. It surrounds, but does not include, the existing MidTown Plaza TIF. Since OSF St. Francis Medical Center is paying for the consultant, this item will pass easily.

City Council, City of Peoria, Traffic

Traffic Commission to get new appointee

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It’s been a long time coming, but Pat Sullivan is finally being replaced on the Traffic Commission. He resigned in October 2009, ten months ago. Taking his place will be Patrick McNamara, a retiree of Caterpillar and past president of the Uplands Residential Association. He’s since moved out of the West Bluff.

I know Mr. McNamara; he lived down the street from me when he lived in the Uplands, and I got to interact with him at Uplands Residential Association meetings. He was always well-prepared, well-spoken, and reasonable — a really nice guy. I think he’s a great choice for the Traffic Commission.

However, I have to wonder if he’ll ever get a chance to serve, considering the frequency of Traffic Commission meeting cancellations and the rather low view our Public Works Director has of the commission’s role. If the commission is not going to be utilized or supported, or if it is not seen as valuable, perhaps the better solution would be to disband it (ala the Heart of Peoria Commission) instead of wasting these fine citizens’ time.

City Council, City of Peoria

Walgreens liquor license goes before council tonight

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Walgreens wants to sell liquor in all its Peoria stores, but only three of them come before the City Council tonight. The Walgreens locations at 4814 N. Sheridan Rd., 1919 W. Pioneer Parkway, and 2324 W. War Memorial Dr. are requesting approval to sell package liquor. Earlier this month, the City’s Liquor Commission voted 3-1 to recommend approval.

Two Walgreen’s stores at 2515 N. Knoxville Ave. and 3524 N. University St. are not included yet because, according to the Liquor Commission minutes, “the District 2 Councilperson wanted to hold neighborhood association meetings in that District before those site applications were submitted.” In March 2008, the City Council denied (on an 8-2 vote) a package liquor license for Wal-Mart, just down the street from Walgreens on University. The reasons given were neighborhood opposition, concern over potential crime, and concern over expansion of liquor sales.

Walgreens wants to sell liquor “because of customer demand for their convenience, so they can make one stop on their way home as opposed to having to stop at another store,” the Liquor Commission minutes stated.

City Council, City of Peoria, Museum Block, Peoria Journal Star

Journal Star says it’s too late to turn back now… I believe they’ve fallen in love

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As I read Sunday’s Journal Star editorial, “Our View: Too late to turn back now on museum project,” I couldn’t help but think of that old Cornelius Bros and Sister Rose song — perhaps that was the intention of the headline writer:

The Journal Star has fallen in love with the museum project. And you know what they say about love: it’s blind. Those in love overlook all the flaws (even major ones) in the object of their desire. Such is the case with the Journal Star overlooking the major problems with the museum project, apologizing for them, justifying them, or just plain refusing to believe them in some cases. One can almost see them gazing at a framed picture of the museum rendering with a dreamy, far-away look in their eyes, wrapping their Caterpillar class ring with angora.

The starry-eyed Journal Star editors are wrong. In fact, it’s not too late to stop the madness. Not a spade of dirt has been turned yet. The museum plans only exist on paper. Yes, a lot of money has been expended, but that’s no justification for spending millions more on a flawed, doomed-to-fail plan that has gone from bad to worse since the referendum. As C. S. Lewis famously said, “We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.”

The City Council should send the museum folks back to the drawing board Tuesday night by voting against the design concepts and the redevelopment agreement.