Friends have informed me that at the Town Forum held this eveing an announcement was made that former Peru resident and Major League Baseball Player J.A. Happ will be donating $100,000 for a baseball themed splash pad to be located in the Washington School space.
This is such good news for the residents of this city. It will be landscaped so that adults will also be able to use the land not occupied by a splash pad. Hopefully a lovely green space that will fit in with the residential areas around it.
34 comments:
What is the total up front cost as well as the annual cost to maintain? Like all things in Peru, the devil is in the details. Will the facility have a line item on the budget for maintenance? Or will it be just another "thing" that the city spends money on now and then or on an emergency basis.
There was talk of the invisible "grant". I for one don't want the State of Illinois to spend that money. We need to start spending our tax dollars wisely and not on frivolous bits of entertainment. It is not the purpose of government. We need to get back to basics before our entire economy is in ruins.
This is exactly the idea I had for the former school property. It's too bad the city leaders did not have the courage and forethought to fund this project themselves. But we are grateful for the generous donation none the less. Personally I think Harl should have donated thousands in cash from his campaign fund.
yawn
Don't criticize the city on this one. They don't even own the property yet according to the paper, they held a public meeting for input and the Happs WANTED to make a donation and work with the city. This was all a positive. Half of the population will agree and half will disagree with whatever is done. I personally appreciate the city taking its time. There is no rush and this time waiting paid off.
When it is all said and done it is a great use of the space. We are fortunate to have the new school buildings and now a great space at the former site to allow something like this to happen. I do agree that it will be interesting to see where the remainder of the funds come from but this is a huge step in the right direction.
Its impossible to find anyway to be critical of this project. To those looking for conspiracy, you have to dig real deep with your imagination.
There is no conspiracy here. There is only poor leadership on the part of Peru's elected officials. They should have approved funding for a Splashpad immediately after the demolition of the municipal pool and they should have built the Splashpad near the old pool location. They spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each and every year on unnecessary items as well as unnecessary wages and salaries for assistants and part-time patronage employees.
They should be ashamed for not having the courage to spend money to provide summer recreation for little children and families. They could build the finest Splashpad in the history of Splashpads with the money they waste on just one season of patronage summer help hiring. Shame on them for playing politics with the pool and Splashpad issues. Not one of those spineless cowards had ever spoken up in favor of a Splashpad until now when half the money is given to them in the form of a donation. That speaks volumes about the lack of character, decency, and vision of these Peru mopes. Shameful!
12:10 PM, July 07, 2016 - two wrongs don't make a right. We need to stop wasting tax money on all unnecessary items. Not just the ones we don't like. Government should not be involved in entertainment.
We should also put up a memorial of some sort on that property. I believe it was part of the pauper's cemetery that was moved out when the original People's Hospital purchased all of that land. They sold some off to the city for the "race track" which became Washington Park and to the school.
Supposedly, they dug up all the bodies and moved them to the new cemetery. But, knowing how things are done here, I bet they only moved the headstones. Good chance that there are still some bodies buried in the Park and on land around the old school building foundations.
4:15 PM
There is a legitimate gripe to make about the lack of any move by the city of Peru to get involved in putting up a splash pad years ago. Many of us can vouch for that and many of us talked to officials about putting some type of splashpad up for the youth and they always had excuses and did not want to put money into the community. Remember all the bucks that was spent on several concerts at the airport, it could have easily been spent in funding this splashpad. That is only one thing and if I and several of the proponents of the splashpad sat down together I assure we would find many more.
4:46 made a sick comment? You think people on here are doing something to help Peru? You are not helping Peru. All you do is criticize people. The evil that comes through here runs deep. The way you talk about people and lump all of them together is sick. Not all of the aldermen were against the splash pad, but just like public opinion, different people have different opinions. I am a positive, proactive community person. I live and breathe a better Peru. It is not perfect, but you do absolutely nothing to better anything for anyone. You spread hate and lies and deceit while living in 1955. Are some things true? Probably, but what you do here is so wrong. Not because of criticism but because of the intentions and what you let through and what you don't. Sick is right. Absolutely unbelievable.
We as a community are getting a bit tired of the same old complaints that people who try to improve this city are called Peru haters so from now on any comments with that phrase in them will automaticalybe deleted. It causes extreme angry and angst and it totally unnecessary to people trying to carry on an intelligent conversation. Don't wonder where your comments have gone, just know they have been deleted.
Mostly Iwant to know where the money for the Peru pool ended up. Were any of those donations returned, or repurposed?
the truth hurts, doesn't it 5:22. What you see here is not just related to Peru. It is a snapshot of a significant portion, possibly a majority, of the population that has lost faith in government... and the problem is not the government structure... it is the individuals that have embedded themselves into the "Government Industry" for personal gain. There is no more "public service." EVERYONE working for the government is trying to get all they can.
After reading the Splashpad story in the Daily Disappointment last night I just had to wonder what the aldermen must have thought of Harl's obvious grandstanding by keeping the donation a big secret from other elected officials and the public. I hope the aldermen ripped Harl a new one after that meeting for playing them and the public for fools. Focusing the credit upon himself by falsely suggesting HE was the facilitator of the donation illustrates just how full of himself Harl is. He is an embarrassment as a public official. Mostly becuase he refused to promote the construction of a Splashpad years ago. Ask yourself this people. Did the city wait for donations to city coffers before they decided to approve several million dollars to build a new Public Works complex? Did the city wait for private donations to come in before they hired not one, but two lobbyists with taxpayer dollars? Did they wait for private donations to come in before they provided Bob Vickrey's private company with an expense account and a fully equipped office complete with a city emplyee as an administrative assistant? I see a city that bleeds from a thousand wasteful spending wounds that easily could have built a Splashpad and a new Municipal Pool five years ago. The only justice the people of Peru could ever receive would be if Harl's salary and expense account for traveling about the country playing "bigshot" as mayor was based solely on citizen donations. NO donations, NO expense account, and NO salary!
Putting money into the community? The City of Peru has many, many infrastructure projects that they are putting into the community. I agree that those projects are the requirements of the City. To make critical comments that Peru is not putting money in the city is totally wrong. Do you remember the referendum that Peru residents voted not to build a pool? Not to place their money on a pool. Lois, you may have a distaste for all Peru's elected but to say money isn't going toward the city is a reach!
8:21 Typically, a city doesn't ask or receive donations for infrastructure items that are required to operate a city. What would residents think if a Mayor would ask for donations to fix a road? That is the purpose of taxes! Generally, a city doesn't ask for donations to hire a economic developer, although many of those positions are supported by business donations that help expand the economic base of a city or community. And if you are really progressive your city like many in the Illinois Valley will spend additional funds for economic advantages. I don't know what a municipal pool would cost. And I'm sure that there are different opinions on what should be supported by a city. The Peru taxpayers voted a few years ago not to support a public pool.
You have stated that you don't want the Mayor to have a expense account and you are opposed to having a economic person. That's ok and it would be unusual not to pay a Mayor for his out of pocket work and unusual not to have some economic recruitment. My advice would be to take your platform and run for office. I have a funny feeling that you have already tried and failed with the negative route.
9:42 Yes the money is going toward the city but not toward the citizens that make up the city. How is the new public works building helping the citizens? How are all the gas guzzling SUV's that our highly paid supervisors drive helping the citizens? How did the city spending a great deal of money in support of Noonan's concerts help the citizens? How does having so many vehicles that we need to rent a building to store them help the citizens (especially since supposedly our working numbers are way down}? And why are these things kept secret until they are pretty much a done deal? It is after all tax payer money that is used for these projects. Just food for thought!
Amen 10:55. Put up or shut up, but I think that person has tried and failed.
11:33 the concerts are over, but we are not the only city who helped put on a concert or shot off fireworks. Time to move on there.
How many "gas guzzling" SUVs do we have?
How has any of this been a secret? The project has been talked about for a long time and it is under way. I'm not a big government spender, but it is probably a good idea in the long run.
I like our low taxes. I like our schools. I like that we are a town where progress can be debated and people complain because we get new stores that they don't like when most towns can't get a damn Dollar General.
I don't know. We aren't perfect, but like was said earlier if you don't like it go ahead and run for office and let's go back to the old PW building, the old schools, the old vehicles and you can show us how much better off we would be.
10:55 AM, July 08, 2016 - typically the Mayor of a Podunk little town of 10,000 doesn't ask city contractors and vendors to donate to his campaign fund. Oh, wait... this is Dog Patch. We are "Progressive" when it comes to stuff like that.
I believe when the citizens were asked about a pool, the question put before them was, do you want your property taxes increased to build a pool. why didn't they ask...should the city of peru have a pool? Does anyone else remember the question?
11:47
Ill move on when I know if that "donation" made for the pool ended up back in someones pocket.
We are one of the few cities in the country that donated manpower and services to a for profit activity. You say get over it, but I say stop comparing for profit activities to public concerts, festivals, and fireworks.
Looks like the EX Alderman is jumping back on the Splash pad wagon.!!!!
12:34 there are more than one EX aldermen in the city of Peru
Can anyone verify how much is now in the "splash pad" fund? Is the city matching the $100,000 donation by the Happ's and the $100,000 from the friends for peru pool's donation and the $10,000 from Schweickert's donation? So, do we have a starting balance of $210,000 or $420,000? Or, is the city only matching donations starting today? There seems to be some question with regards to this.
Come on! Someone in our government has an answer to 9:17 July 13th's question. It's a legitimate, honest question. There seems to be a lot of confusion with regards to the splashpad/pool situation.
8:45. First things first. We will need an environmental impact study. This will take about 6 to 8 months and cost around $100K. Since our staff engineering can't perform this task, it will be contracted out without a bid to our long term engineering partner in Peru. The rate to manage the impact study will be approximately $250 per hour. It is impossible to tell exactly how many hours will be required to manage the impact study. After the impact study is complete, we will need to hire an architect to design the facility. Since the Council has expressed a desire to "make it look good" we will be hiring the best. We don't actually have a budget "written in stone" - but we figure $100K should get us something that we can brag about. A new water main will be required. That will cost around $100K plus all the streets between the Washington School site and Peoria Street will need to be opened up to run that pipe. We are talking in the neighborhood of $750K. The actual construction of the PAD facility will be largely based on how much a firm is willing to give to the cause. The more they give that larger the cost. I suppose it will be in the neighborhood of $300K. Then we will need to train some public works employees to maintain the facility. That will cost about $25K per employee and we will need to give them a raise to take on that monumental task. Finally, our Insurance Consultant has yet to weigh in. The liability policy will need to be updated and we don't know what that will cost. So we are looking at $1,350,000 plus the cost of managing the impact study, extra insurance, and employee raises.
8:45 AM, July 14, 2016 - you obviously don't know how our local government works. They don't answer to anyone.
Holy Shazam Peru public Schools, LP High School, and IVCC Government bodies all want to increase Peru residents taxes for next year. Is that why the mayor is after the Peru Township? I know an election year is coming up. U all think he and the alderman will squawk about those increases from the local schools governments!
Our local schools are actually "construction companies" with a secondary purpose of pretending to teach children a thing or two. This is how it works. Local "connected contractor" needs a revenue injection. He calls up his buddy on the school board and they create a problem that needs to be fixed with multiple millions of dollars worth of work that could have been taken care by simple maintenance. The other tried and true method that the "education industry" uses is to push through a feel good project like a multi-million dollar "sports complex," promising that it won't cost "local" taxpayers a dime. Then - whit the coffers empty, they "suddenly" realize that "mandatory" upgrades are necessary to the facilities used for the actual mission of the "education industry." Finally we have the "my school is better than your school" syndrome. All of this is happening at LP right now. I will vote NO on any tax increase that they have the guts to put on the ballot. I will vote AGAINST any school board member that votes to increase taxes IF they actually get a challenger.
7:24, you are not only completely clueless, you are also completely crazy. You actually think the local school construction has happened or is happening because a local contractor called someone at the school or school board because they needed an infusion of money? Really?
People like you are the reason no one even comments here anymore. I know for a fact that everything you said is a lie, but since when does that matter in social media? Just say whatever makes you feel good.
Why does LP High School have a contract with Coca Cola for over $25,000? Are they a school, or a soda shop?
12:03 PM, July 22, 2016 - The same reason they hired a pip organ repair man to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a worthless relic. They think the local tax base is a printing press to fund their endless spending desires.
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