Tag Archives: fire

Crime, North Valley

Fire destroys what may have been oldest standing house in Peoria

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The house that burned down Monday in the North Valley wasn’t any ordinary house, a reader tells me:

517 Green street was torched early [Monday] morning by some cowardly arsonists. Everyone should know that this wasn’t just any random abandoned house. It was believed by many to have been the oldest standing house in Peoria, dating back to 1837 and challenged in that claim only by the Flanigan house on Glen Oak. It has been passed down generation to generation through the same Peoria family since the late 1800s. It was left un-attended last year (temporarily) because the owner had some medical issues to deal with and has been staying with family out of state. In the time since he left, it has been raided by hooligans and bums, squatting there and wreaking havoc with no regard to the age and historic value of the structure. In recent months, with the help of the owner’s family, Councilman Weaver, the Peoria Historic Society, Northside Housing Services and some local preservationists, I’ve been working on getting it preserved and turned into a public museum for everyone in Peoria to enjoy. I guess that wasn’t meant to be. I just wanted you to know that there was more to the story of this house than the PJStar knew to report today.

The house will likely be demolished because it now poses a safety hazard, according to published reports.

General News

Sad start to 2011: Haddad’s burns down (Updated 3x)

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I awoke on New Year’s Day to the shocking news that our neighborhood grocery store, Haddad’s Supermarket, burned down overnight. The building is a total loss. None of the news reports that I’ve read so far say what caused the fire. I would imagine that’s yet to be determined by fire investigators. You can read all about the fire and see the devastating pictures at both pjstar.com and week.com.

I was very glad to see this in WEEK’s report:

[Store owner Mark] Wrhel says the building is insured and he will rebuild.

Mr. Wrhel lives in my neighborhood. My condolences to him and all the employees of Haddad’s on the loss of the store. I’m glad to hear it will be rebuilt and look forward to going there again.

UPDATE: Here’s a short and shaky video of the fire that was posted to YouTube:

UPDATE 2: 1470 WMBD is now reporting that “[West Peoria Fire Chief Bob] Stecher says the State Fire Marshall will be here Monday to sift through the remains to determine a cause of the fire.” Also, another amateur video — this one is longer and steadier — has been uploaded to YouTube. I recommend watching it with the sound turned off:

UPDATE 3: More stories are coming out. 1470 WMBD reports that Haddad’s home delivery is going to continue even while there is no building. “‘We’re just going to shop it out of another store,’ explains Wrhel.” The fire investigator examined the site Monday and, according to the Journal Star, ruled out arson. The cause of the fire is still undetermined, however. And loyalty to the store is very strong, by all accounts — here’s WEEK’s report. Here’s a picture I took of the store on New Year’s Day close to sunset:

Peoria Public Schools

Thomas Jefferson school damaged by fire

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As one of my alert readers mentioned in a comment to another post, Thomas Jefferson School was damaged by fire today. Fortunately, there’s a fire station literally across the street — Fire Station 11. Nevertheless, about $250,000 worth of damage was done according to the Journal Star. Classes will be canceled tomorrow and relocated to Loucks after that. Here’s more info from a District 150 press release:

Sunday Fire Causes School Cancellation for Students At Thomas Jefferson Primary

Students at Thomas Jefferson Primary School will not have school Monday, November 3 due to a Sunday morning fire at the school building. As to not disrupt the learning process and to help our many working families who are inconvenienced by school cancellations, District crews will be working non-stop to prepare the vacant Loucks-Edison building for the Thomas Jefferson students to return to classes on Tuesday, November 4. Classes will continue there until further notice.

Some of our special education students will be relocated to Jamieson and the Developmental Center. Contact with these families will be made on Monday to provide more details.

Starting Tuesday morning, a shuttle bus will be available for students who normally walk to Thomas Jefferson. These students need to be at the front of Thomas Jefferson School until 8:30 a.m. Students will be dropped off at the same location at the end of school, approximately 3:30 p.m. There will be supervision at the bus stop in the morning and afternoon. Parents who normally drop off and pick up are asked to take their student(s) to the Loucks building if possible. All regular bus riders will follow their normal schedules.

Thomas Jefferson staff will need to report to the Loucks-Edison library at 8:30 a.m. on Monday. Staff need to dress casual. Following an informational meeting, they will be setting up classrooms and preparing for the students’ return on Tuesday.

The District notified parents of Monday’s cancellation via the emergency phone system. On Monday, the District Administration will establish a hotline for parent questions and will make frequent updates to the District website, www.psd150.org.

There are currently 470 students enrolled at Thomas Jefferson, including 55 who are part of the special education programs.

City Council, City of Peoria

1 out of 4 City employees don’t live in the City

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Tucked away in the agenda for next week’s City Council meeting is a report on city employee residency. Overall, 73% (580 out of 795) of the city’s permanent, full-time staff lives inside the city, which means that over a quarter of the staff chooses not to live in the city.

The report breaks the data down by department. Several departments have all their employees living in the city: Council, City Clerk, City Manager, EEO, Legal, HR, Treasurer, Economic Development, and Workforce, and there are many employees in here or independent contractors so the use of an online 1099-misc maker can be helpful to manage the payments of these workers.

The lowest percentage of City residents comes from the police department. Statistics from Labor Law Compliance websites say only 58% (168 out of 288) of police officers live within the City limits. Second lowest is “ECC,” which I assume is the Emergency Communications Center: 65% (24 out of 37). And third lowest is the fire department: 77% (163 out of 213).

By now, you’re probably thinking, “so what?” I don’t know. Councilman Jacob requested the report, but I’m not sure why. Perhaps we’ll find out Tuesday night.

At first blush, it’s easy to think that, if our own employees don’t want to live in the city, why would anyone else want to move here? But take a look at those numbers again. Most of those employees who live outside of the city are public safety employees, and there are reasonable arguments for why police and other public safety officers would want to live outside of the city they protect (e.g., for their family’s and their own protection and privacy while off-duty). It doesn’t appear from this report that any residency requirements are being violated. Learn about labor poster requirements here to check your Labor law compliance.

The important thing is that all our elected officials, of course, live within the city and have a personal stake in the outcome of any policy directives (e.g., new taxes, fees, land use issues).