What else would you like to see along with the fireworks? Would it be fun to extend the celebration to 2 or maybe 3 days at different locations in town?
Friday, July 29, 2011
News Tribune - News - Local - Baker Lake might host Peru fireworks in two years
News Tribune - News - Local - Baker Lake might host Peru fireworks in two years
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Peru aldermanic ward boundaries will be re-configured
The concept of "One voter / One vote" was lost on at least a couple of aldermen at last nights council meeting. Several aldermen were reluctant to accept the fact that federal law and Illinois state statute says that re-districting must ensure equal representation to all residents and that boundaries be arranged to limit population variation to no more than 10% between voting districts. Currently the wards in Peru are heavily unbalanced by at least 30% in some cases.
In anticipation of the changes that will need to be made, Clerk Bartley has contacted a consultant who is currently working with LaSalle County on the county wide re-districting effort. Bartley explained to the council the importance of proper planning on this issue. Cost to the city for consulting services would be from $7,000 to $14,000. Several aldermen were unimpressed with the idea of hiring a consultant for these services and at least two aldermen needed to be reminded by the city attorney that the re-districting is not something they should just ignore. Aldermen Ferrari and Ankiewicz could not quite grasp the whole concept.
On the other hand, Aldermen Radtke and Lukosus were quick to recognize the importance of the situation by citing what provides the foundation for our democracy, "One voter / One vote". Alderman Lukosus also pointed out the likelihood of civil lawsuits if the city chooses not to comply with re-districting.
I have witnessed on more than a few occasions in recent years some of the "more senior" members on the council tend to resist any situation they will not have the ability to manipulate or control. They take great offense to being instructed by the state, let alone the federal government on how to proceed on an issue.
The re-shaping of Peru's ward structure should not become another polarizing political issue. Hire the consultant so that he process will be done fairly and accurately. The council should not drag their feet on this matter as they typically tend to do when they are given a mandate.
Hire the consultant and get out of the way. The less input(interference) form elected officials, the better.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Veterans Park Peru's Newest Neglected and Pool Equipment
Fir trees that were donated to the city for Veterans Park north of the Peru City Cemetery. They were planted and not taken care of until this year it was brought up by residents how bad they looked. Just recently a mulch was put around the base of all of them but it looks like neglect has taken its toll and some are surely going to die completely. Do you know who the generous donor was? You don't buy trees of this size for $2.00. What a waste!While in the area take a look at the Peru City Cemetery. I can't say I have ever seen it so neglected.
CC Minutes June 1 re: Proposed Tax
This was taken from the City Council minutes from June 1 and at that meeting several of the council members expressed their opinion on the tax.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Dyersburg State Gazette: Local News: Drug sting hits stores selling bath salts (07/22/11)
Dyersburg State Gazette: Local News: Drug sting hits stores selling bath salts (07/22/11)
This is from Tennessee but an excellent article. Illinois recently signed a law against the sale of "bath salts" but it will most likely still be brought into the area from states that have not declared it to be illegal. Video is good and so is the article. Some of the southern states have been fighting this longer that our city and enacted laws sooner.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
State of Illinois passes major tax hike on citizens – its the Chicago way | FinanceComments.com
State of Illinois passes major tax hike on citizens – its the Chicago way | FinanceComments.com
And of course this is where we live, taxes and more taxes!!!
"Fire Works, Sales tax increase, Parks, smelly neighbors.. What ever you would like to chat about feel free to stop by City Hall this Saturday from 3:00-4:00
Myself along with newly appointed Sherry Mayszak will meet in the council chambers to talk about what ever is on your mind.
Although we represent the 2nd ward, anyone is welcome.
Hope to see you there!!
Rodney Perez
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Lets Think Outside the Box
Mayor Harl announced that he was consulting with the company that mapped La Salle County to look at Peru and to give us some options on how to divide up the city wards to be proportionate.
First lets look at the city with a approximate pop. of 10 thousand give or take a few. Does anyone know how long we have been 2 aldermen to each of 4 wards?. Probably since before telephones and when most people walked if they were going somewhere. If true that meant that the representative of the people needed to walk or go by bicycle to see what was going on in their ward, so it had to be a pretty small area.
Now we travel and communicate with each other in multiple ways and can even Instant Message by telephone or computer. As our populations slowly grew, so did our way of travel and the aldermen could now represent a larger area.
I would like to propose that the city eliminate the 3rd ward and divide it up between the second and fourth ward and add a couple of aldermen at large. With a properly functioning city, anyone can call into city hall and get your message to the proper department to get your problem taken care of. If that doesn't work, you contact your alderman or one of the alderman at large depending on the situation. If the problem is severe, call the police.
If the problem is persistent and unsolved, you can attend a city council meeting and point out the problem to everyone, even the news media. Remember Peru City Council still meets EVERY week and there is always a public comment time.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Our Children's Cities: The Logic & Beauty of a Child-Centered Civilization by Jason McLennan
Our Children's Cities: The Logic & Beauty of a Child-Centered Civilization by Jason McLennanLp:
A rather lengthy article but I found many of the ideas very interesting. This is about bringing back the neighborhood, maybe not practical for all.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Peru is Growing
We always hear from the Mayor and the Council about growth and I have been thinking about that. Our population has mostly been in the 9 to 10 thousand range for many many years. If and when a major industry leaves, we go down and then a replacement comes in but probably not as good as the one that left and we get a few more people.
As I look at the layout of the town, we know we cannot grow to the south because of the river and east is La Salle. Commercial property lies to the north and I don't know that much in the way of residential growth will go that way. That leaves west for future parks and subdivisions and that is not allowing us much.
Considering we are located at the intersection of major highways and there is an airport,i f we attract industry, where would people build homes? If you wanted to build a new home, what would you be looking at? Should the city plan for more green space? We have never been very good at planning our city, so maybe it is too late to change much now. Is anyone in our government in a planning mode?
We didn't do a very good job when the subdivision of Marquette Manor 2 was built as now you have heavily traveled Marquette Rd. going right through the middle and N. Pulaski has a fairly large amount of traffic because of Baker Lake. Who is our city planner now?
Friday, July 15, 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
"New ideas" make old guard very uncomfortable
Bob Ankiewicz was visibly aggravated by the continuing discussion of changes to the way Peru celebrates Independence Day. Ankiewicz has always been the driving force behind the heavy handed tactics the Peru CSO has used for years to maintain control of the Water Street festivities. As the number of CSO members on the city council has diminished, so too has Bob's stranglehold on everything 4th of July in Peru. With new council members asking questions about the the actual cost to the city as well as asking if there may be other options worth looking into.
Ankiewicz was not pleased at the council meeting last night when Rodney Perez informed the council that he and fellow council members Lukosus and Mayszak attended a recent Recreation Commission meeting to discuss moving forward with researching other options for the celebration that would be cost effective as well as more family oriented. Alderman Perez indicated the Rec Commission was very receptive to looking into "new ideas".
True to form, Alderman Ankiewicz did what he so often does when an issue outside his control arises in open meeting. He made a poorly veiled insult aimed at those who would challenge the status quo by saying "new ideas not well thought out may not actually be good ideas".
While there may be some truth to what Ankiewicz says, the most encouraging aspect of the entire situation is the simple fact that there are now challenges to the long-standing attitude that there are no other ways to do things other than the way they have always been done in Peru.
Bob Ankiewicz and a few other current aldermen will continue to think that their way is the only way, but a window of opportunity has been forced open and fresh air is pouring in to city hall.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
News Tribune - News - Local - EPA investigating asbestos issues with Peru powerhouse demolition
News Tribune - News - Local - EPA investigating asbestos issues with Peru powerhouse demolitionMp<
I guess this is a worse deal than most of us thought!!
Monday, July 11, 2011
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Saturday, July 09, 2011
Reports by Chamlin and TEST
AGENDA
PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE MEETING
WATER & SEWER
MONDAY, JULY 11, 2011
TIME: 10:00 A.M. PLACE: 1901 4TH STREET, PERU, IL ROLL CALL: Alderman Waldorf & Alderman Lukosus I. APPROVE MINUTES OF JUNE 20, 2011
II. REPORT FROM TOTAL ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICE TECHNOLOGIES, INC. ONOPERATIONS OF WASTEWATER PLANTS
III. CHAMLIN REPORTS
IV. NEW BUSINESS
V. OLD
And I bet you thought that the committee selected of Waldorf and Lukosis were in charge of this committee. No, it is Chamlin Engineering and TEST that have been contracted to serve our city.
Now why is it that La Salle has their own water treatment plant and their own city engineer and we contract this work out at a huge expense.! Who is doing the right thing for its residents at a lower cost?
Making a Difference in our City
Picking up trash along 251 Alderman Perez helping to clean up our city. Lets all do our bit!
Economics 101 in Peru City Government
There are residents in Peru who support the proposed tax increase advocated by Mayor Harl and those who consider it a bad decision. I am posting a reader post in regard to that.
-
What fun politics in Peru was only a few years ago when we played with chump change and handed Chamlin & Associates Inc. (Peru's engineering consultants for the last 60+ years) the MEASLY sum of $3,000.00 for 16 dots on a telephone book map and called it a bicycle path. A bike trail which ended where it started - NOWHERE.
Less than 2 years later we have become quite sophisticated, completely forgot the bike path and decided to update $7,000,000.00 of streets immediately.
In the time span between the bike path and Tiger I (the street plan for which a grant was applied for and refused by the federal government) we spent some spare cash on wind turbines but due to the fact that realization set in that this is not a good investment to make this late in the wind turbine game it has been recently dropped before more good money chases bad ideas.
Looking forward to seeing our long forgotten battery operated truck being driven over the redone Interstate May Road with s City Toll Booth collecting for our right now program. Remember the old days when we lived under a pay as you go system and everything was paid for.
The financial ideas which the Peru Administration is presently trying to adopt are the exact reason this country is in the money problems it has been experiencing and is having a horrible time of pulling out of.
Remember it was poor banking practices by overpaid bank executives and their self serving bonus programs giving out easy and inflated loans, and creative financing which put us where we are at today. Get out your microscopes and take a slow, through look at our present Peru administration. - 9:20 PM, July 08, 2011
Friday, July 08, 2011
Thursday, July 07, 2011
Time to Clear the Air About the Peru Fireworks Event
-
I will hope to clear the air here.
I'm an ex- CSO member and a grandfather of 8 children. Alderman Perez is absolutely on the right page. My family no longer attends the water street fire works and I personally would not take my grandchildren there.
The water street festivities is not ran by the city park and rec board, it is ran by the CSO. The city pays for the fireworks and not even the park and rec is even welcomed to have booths or fun events without going through the CSO. every booth or vendor including the water street bars pay a fee to us, Yes the city pays for police and clean up etc. where really that expense should really fall into the pockets of the CSO being we are the only one's that can, and will make the revenue down there.
I heard that Alderman Perez made the comment that the city can save employee holiday doubletime wages by having the boy scouts and volunteers clean up the following day, if there were no beer glasses it would be an easy task. Sounds brilliant to me. who pays the police overtime etc. when there are concerts at the airport? not the city.. the host has to pay that cost, so.. If this is a CSO ran event on waterstreet then Cso should have to pay the overtime security since they are the only one's that make any revenue down there.
Again; waterstreet as it stands is not a city event it's a CSO event that is now out of grred and not out of the best interest of families and fun. Sorry Tony!!!
- 10:58 PM, July 07, 2011
Price of Gas Will Be Going Up in Peru?
Gasoline is considered general merchandise, will we be paying more for gasoline if the Mayor gets his sales tax increase?
News Tribune - News - NCI - Meth lab chemicals cause Bureau County scare
News Tribune - News - NCI - Meth lab chemicals cause Bureau County scare
Again time to stress the need to be aware of the dangers on and in property and even roadways or vacant properties. People are making meth in cars and could be throwing used items out on the ground near highways.
Tuesday, July 05, 2011
Monday, July 04, 2011
Water Street Fireworks, I Didn't Go. What did you see?
Our daughter and I spent the afternoon at Washington Park and thoroughly enjoyed it. Kind of brought back some of the memories of what it used to be like years ago before everything was transported to Water Street. Thanks to all who made in possible.
We did see hundreds of people lined up in parking lots, overpasses, in yards and along roadways in the early evening, all waiting to see the aerial displays on this beautiful warm July 3 night. My understanding is that this year, there were no ground displays, only aerials, so people could see from a long distance away.
My eye witness said that most people on Water Street were in the 18 to 30 age group. Some with their families including children. And as to be expected not all were supervised. The beer tent which I believe is manned by the CSO was probably the money maker there but because some people don't know when enough is enough, there were numerous complaints of people who had too much to drink which the police were called upon to handle.
There were fireworks in all surrounding cities throughout the weekend and my question is how many of them were more than fireworks. It seems that we are truly missing something when the only thing we can provide for the young people is a beer tent. If they wanted to drink alcohol, there are several establishments who exist to service food and alcohol that could have provided that on Water Street.
I hope in the coming years, we can improve upon what we now have and perhaps offer continued events at Washington Park, music and food for those who do not want to be a part of the type of events on Water Street.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)