It is All About Power and a Recreation Commission

All municipalities have parks, even the smallest villages have some piece of land they call a park. We here in Peru are fortunate to have numerous parks for numerous purposes

In Peru at one time it was Washington Park which hosted everything from our yearly July 4 fireworks to the all summer long swimming pool. Both are now a thing of the past and the foreseeable future. Washington Park is many times an empty park unless there is a game on one of the 3 baseball diamonds in the park. We still use it for the Memorial Day event on a yearly basis which lasts about 45 minutes. Some of the summer craft events will be held there because of its central location. It has 3 tennis courts that are in use occasionally. On occasion you might see a child using the playground equipment. In other words, it is a lot of land that is unused most of the year. This piece of property has a long history and it seems that it needs some new life and replanning of what we would like it to be for future generation

On the other side of the coin, one of our newest parks is the 28 th street park which is in my opinion another park that really needs to be looked at for lack of a better word by a "park planner". Although there is playground equipment, there is not much organization and definitely not much oversite by the city. Benches break and unless it is called to the attention of the city, they remain broken. All of the equipment is located at the south end. This was set up as a local park for the new subdivision, not large but adequate for its intent which was a place for children in that subdivision to play. Initially the large area to the north end was a place to play baseball but that did not last long because baseballs happen to go a long distance when hit with a bat and it resulted in unhappy neighbors. The city has not stepped forward to improve this park in that north end with trees, plants, benches or picnic areas. I believe it could be a lovely oasis in the middle of a large subdivision, a place for children to play on more equipment and for people to relax in and perhaps picnic. Also located in this park is one tennis court and 2 baseketball courts. It has also become an area of much controversy because some people in the area want to use the park for what they want and that is pickle ball on the tennis courts. And because one of the people involved also sits on the Peru Recreation Commission, this was easily pushed through the group of long time associates who are the members of this commission. And it now appears that the aldermen whom we elect to run our city have become POWERLESS. I can come to no other conclusion as at least most of them say we cannot control this commission, look at the ordnance, the city at one time gave them this POWER and it has become like one of the Ten Commandments, forever cast in stone and never to be removed. If it is the Mayor who can make the change, he is not going to do it and he should be putting his 2 cents in because this is an election year and all those people who are unhappy that a couple of people who have influence and one happens to be on this POWER commission will certainly remember how they were run over by this NON ELECTED POWERFUL COMMISSION that the aldermen cannot control or take away some of their authority.

Beware your park in your neighborhood could be next!

One alderman has openly expressed what needs to be done and I apologize if any of this is offensive to them.