Point of Entry and of Exit for Proposed Traffic According to the News Report

#sandterminal

#silicasand

#sandhauling

#fracking

#sandhaulingtrucks

#sandairquality

#IEPA

Peru Planning Commission Approves Sand Terminal in North Industrial Park Off The Plank Road

It was suggested I open this topic up on the blog as residents might be interested in offering their opinions. An article is in tonights News Tribune, our local paper, and there is a good writeup on what we can expect if this business is allowed to develop. Location seems questionable as there are nice motels and shopping just adjacent to the area. And also this is near the location of the TIF currently in dispute with Dimmick. Sounds like there will be a great amount of heavy truck traffic transporting the sand in for transport on the Plank Road. I don't believe they stated where the sand will be coming from and do we assume travel will be along I-80..

After unloading sand the trucks would travel east on E. First Road, trucks would then travel 1.5 miles on Unytite Drive and Route 251 back to I-80.

Nearby RTE 251 already has more than its share of local traffic and yes local accidents in the area just north of I-80. After reading the report, I still have questions about exactly what the impact on the area would be.

There Will Be Music at the Music Powell Sculpture

If you have read the minutes of previous Public Service meetings you will have seen a request from Ald. Sapienza to restore music to the Maud Powell Sculpture in downtown Peru. He brought this up at Finance yesterday and for a cost of app. $1000 a timed program will be placed in back of the sculpture. It is unknown at this time the type of music and time it will be played. So maybe you all could help him with suggestions.

I remember before the old music player broke that people would laugh at John Phillip Sousa marching band music coming out of a figure dedicated to classical violin by a world famous artist.

If you have to spend the "pork" money, please make it appropriate to the artist Maud was and play her music.

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Anything less is certainly not appropriate to the lovely piece of art and don't insult her memory.

If you have suggestions please place a call to Alderman Sapienza, third ward alderman.

Municipal conference attendees spend more than $1k to learn tight budget techniques – Illinois News Network

Municipal conference attendees spend more than $1k to learn tight budget techniques – Illinois News Network

Illinois’ true unemployment rate: 18.1 percent

Illinois’ true unemployment rate: 18.1 percent

A pause for concern or a great exaggeration.

Washington Fire Chief Mike Vaughn resigns - News - Journal Star - Peoria, IL

Washington Fire Chief Mike Vaughn resigns - News - Journal Star - Peoria, IL


This should be one position to watch for a city bigger than Peru with a population of 15,000 plus. The reasons for the drastic cut in pay was not explained.

Regional dispatch center planned for La Salle, Peru and Oglesby

The $1.5 million investment, funded by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO), will be used to build the Illinois Valley 911 regional dispatch center. LaSalle, Peru and Oglesby currently operate local 911 dispatch centers, which will be consolidated into a single regional public safety center. The new dispatch center, located in Oglesby, will provide dispatch services to regional police, fire and EMS agencies. The centralization is intended to improve 911-dispatch services, emergency response times, public safety and the cost-effectiveness of services. From IGNN press release.

#911
#regionaldispatch
#911dispatch
#regionalpublicsafety
#OglesbyIL
#PeruIL
#LaSalleIL

Its All About Google

I was amazed that Google would be making demands upon the freedom of speech in this blogspot. The captcha requirement is theirs and not mine and I am looking for ways to get around it. So for the time being please if you have something you think is important comply and post.

#google
#commentcaptcha
#googleblogspot
#captcha

Why Does the City of Peru Continue to Make a Farce of the Committee of a Whole Meetings?

If you do your research and check for Minutes for the Committee of a Whole conducted during the past year in Peru, you will find 2 listed. I have requested the minutes from the City Clerk as they are not available online in any manner that can be easily researched by any resident. I was told the minutes are in some file and that he would request that Connecting Point make the correction. It looks like there is no one on either the payroll of the city or of Connecting Point that is able to figure this out.

Whomever is setting up the agendas for the Committee of a whole meeting is performing a scam upon those interested in attending. A for instance take the meeting last night, there was an agenda which was not followed and the entire Committee Meeting of a Whole actually consisted of a closed session that lasted so long it went into council meeting time, I was told.
So why was a closed session not held prior to or after the regular meeting? And call it what it is.

My example from past minutes of the COW are from the minutes of Oct. 6, 2014. Meeting scheduled to begin at 6:30 PM.

Closed session began at 6:38 p.m. ended 7:23 p.m. Regular council meeting starts at 7:30 PM. Why be so deceitful, call it what it is and stop playing childrens games.

Since Mayor Harl likes to talk suburbs, I suggest he go to You Tube and look up the Committee of a Whole meetings held by Wood Dale IL, a city of 13,000. It looks like they have held real COW meetings, once each month for the past year.


And did Ald. Radtke say. what difference did it make as no one attended the Committee of a Whole meetings. Do you think anyone on the council wonders why

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There appeared to have been a problem at last nights meeting regarding a residential problem with flooding. An area where there had been a sinkhole and this is the same problem that caused Ald. Waldorf to be in dispute with the residents about the cities lack of restitution last week in the parking lot. The problem erupted last night and it was said that our city atty. told the people to go ahead and sue the city. Well the minutes to the Public Service minutes were online yesterday because I read them and today they are gone and all that comes up is Error 404. Why would the city take down minutes that had been approved and placed on line?

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Now that all of the minutes of the Committee of a Whole have been posted, please take a few minutes to read through them. I can see they are mostly an excuse to have a "closed session" even if it lasts only 13 minutes and why would have have the same mini closed session embedded into each and every COW meeting. The city calls them CAW meetings. Who is getting their instructions before each regular meeting. The committee reports shown on the minutes are merely what looks like a rehearsal for the same thing to be repeated minutes later at the regular City Council Meeting. Something is not right with this.

Harlem Ambassadors Fundraiser - City of Peru, Illinois 61354

Harlem Ambassadors Fundraiser - City of Peru, Illinois 61354

I was checking the city web site for Halloween information and found done but did find this activity taking place tomorrow here in Peru. Might be an entertaining afternoon. You must click on the link to bring up the information.

Starved Rock Country Alliance visits Galesburg incubator - The Times: Local

Starved Rock Country Alliance visits Galesburg incubator - The Times: Local

I hope someone else from the LP area was present beside Janko to see what can happen with cooperation and it must happen between the numerous local cities.

IDOT spends $143,000 on zombie-themed seat belt ad

IDOT spends $143,000 on zombie-themed seat belt ad

We are broke in Illinois and Idot is wasting money on useless filming.  The video is at the bottom of the article, you need to view to get the total impact of the craziness of this expenditure.

Please Share Your Sources for Reading Local News

Last couple of weeks have been very busy for us and this morning I was trying to catch up on local news and along with that I read the Births, Obits and Police Reports occasionally if I have time. From habit, I look online through WLPO, News Tribune and Ottawa Times as my sources and rarely to the BCR.

Much to my amazement today, almost all of the police reports were about Ottawa and a couple of La Salle, Marseilles, Spring Valley and Depue. None that I saw from Peru. A little from the county and the state law enforcement.

So either the local paper is skewing the news or we really do live in the city of milk and honey. Perhaps all the real news is only put in the published paper and if you don't subscribe, tough luck.

Reading Between the News of the Peru City Council Meeting Last Night

This heading is a starter and will be filled in as the news filters thru the Illinois Valley. Little was locally reported in the morning after news sources today.

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Everyone knows that Public Comment in Peru has definite rules and among the first is that if you wish to make a Public Comment at the beginning of the City Council Mtg, you must fill out a 3 x 5 card with name, address and topic written clearly on it. Of course if you are the mayor and have favored friends, you don't have to follow the rules enacted by the City Council. Early in the mtg the person who set up the BB gun program in Peru was asked if he wished to make a comment. We were then told that the mayor has the discretion to break the rules that we all have to follow that is first submitting the 3 x 5 card. Mayor Harl it might be a good idea to set a good example and follow the same rules the rest of the city residents must follow. Just looks like you are playing favorites and I am sure you don't want the residents to think that, do you?

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I just attempted to listen to the video of the city council meeting from 9/8//14 and it is so annoying to have speakers not press the button on their mike so it can be heard. First it was the mayor who had to repeat his comment and now it is the city atty. If these microphones are too complicated for our officials, please invest in something simpler in nature.

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10/8/14
This issue of relatives working for the city is and has been an issue with the majority of the people living in Peru for a long time and as long as we have the type of government of Mayor-city Council here in Peru, this issue will not go away because it becomes a buddy system. In other words, Ald. A has a son, daughter, nephew or neighbor etc that he would like to impress and he mentions it to whomever oks the hiring and he will be favored over your children or mine. In return The other 7 aldermen and other officials give an unofficial OK by not saying anything against this policy knowing they might want to take advantage of it at another time.
Until the people of this city are ready to take the bull by the horns and insist upon professional management, this will not
change.

The ottawa Times has had several good articles lately. One was about the mayors of LaSalle county working on regional and state issues together and specifically mentioned was the Mayor of Ottawa and of Streator, along with Mayor Harl of Peru.
Today I read about a very extensive bicycling venture the city of Streator is attempting to get underway. Both I don't believe were covered by our local paper but if they were feel free to correct my comment. They don't allow non subscribers to read online but Ottawa does, so that is what I read.

#aldermen
@mayor
@neepotism
#publiccomment

U.S. recovery jumps forward, Illinois falls back 03 Oct 2014 | Michael Lucci -

Illinois’ recovery has been dramatically slower than the national recovery, which itself has been unimpressive. Even though a record number of Americans are now out of the workforce, the U.S. recovery has left Illinois in the rearview mirror.

Without serious economic reform, Illinois likely has several years to go before the number of people working matches the count of January 2008 – nearly seven years ago.

The number of people working is one measure of recovery. Another measure of recovery the monthly BLS report captures is the number of payroll jobs.

U.S. nonfarm payrolls added 248,000 jobs in September, against consensus expectations of 215,000. This was a strong month for payroll jobs, and propels the U.S. recovery far beyond the Illinois recovery.

For the U.S. as a whole, the number of jobs lost during the recession has been regained, according to BLS’s business establishment survey. The U.S. has 1 million more jobs today than in January 2008, the pre-recession peak.

Illinois, on the other hand, is far from recovery by this measure as well. The Prairie State is still down 157,000 jobs from pre-recession levels, the biggest jobs gap in the entire country. At the current pace of job creation, Illinois is still several years from recovery.

- See more at: http://www.illinoispolicy.org/u-s-recovery-jumps-forward-illinois-falls-back/#sthash.aF3RIFrx.dpuf


Entire article can be seen at http://www.illinoispolicy.org/u-s-recovery-jumps-forward-illinois-falls-back/

Homecoming Parade with LP Band

Post by 815 Life.

Peru Finance and Safety Meeting October 1

AGENDA
FINANCE & SAFETY SERVICES MEETING
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2014
TIME: 4:00 P.M
PLACE: 1901 4TH STREET, PERU, IL
ROLL CALL: ALDERMAN POTTHOFF CHAIRMAN, ALDERMEN FERRARI, RADTKE
AND PEREZ, MAYOR HARL
I. APPROVE THE MINUTES OF THE FINANCE & SAFETY SERVICES
COMMITTEE MEETING OF SEPTEMBER 17, 2014
II. REVIEW AND APPROVE THE PROPOSED DISBURSALS
III. PRESENTATION
IV. UNFINISHED BUSINESS
V. NEW BUSINESS
Approve new fiber customer 5 year contract $275.00 per month-Bernabei/Bartley
Approve donation to Illinois Valley Animal Rescue
Discuss Building Permit Report reporting
VI. PUBLIC COMMENT
VII. CLOSED SESSION
VIII. ADJOURNMENT