This blog is maintained for the sole purpose of allowing the people of Peru and those interested in the cities of the Illinois Valley to express their views.
“It doesn’t take a majority to win, just a tireless minority that will keep starting brush fires in the mind and hearts of their fellow men.” Samuel Adams
He would like us to be able to record officials before and after public meetings among other things. Sounds like a good start for this suburban State Rep.
43 comments:
Anonymous
said...
I agree Lois. I think he has some very good ideas for the general public and citizens of a community.
This post doesn't belong under this heading but I think it needs to be brought to blog readers attention. During tonight's council meeting they will be voting on an ordinance to establish a committee to make recommendations regarding the possible hiring of an "administrator". Upon reading the ordinance it does not appear to allow the discussion or possible hiring of a "city manager" rather than an "administrator". I know that several of the aldermen have questioned our mayor on the possibility that a "manager" would be the better solution. I hope some member of our council will question this ordinance because it appears that if approved as "written and read" it will only allow the newly established committee to consider an administrator and not a manager.
Mayor Harl does not want to change the government to the Council Manager format. This is because much of the Mayor's power will be removed. That form of government also removes the ability of the Mayor and the Council from interfering in day to day operations of the City. Additionally, the change requires a referendum. So what we will end up with is another highly paid employee that works at will and has no statutory power. We will pay this individual at least $150,000 but we will be lucky to attract anyone with any talent simply because it is not a council-manager system. Most likely, we will get a semi-retired business man from the local area or possibly a former department head from a larger city.
Since the election is around the corner, I was thinks to switch it up a bit on this forum. Give each candidate their own heading to comment their objectives to issues and what their plans are if they won the election as Alderman. Bet not many would take the opportunity to do so. Because they might say one thing to get votes, but wouldn't follow through with their promises. AND IT WOULD BE ON BACK AND WITH PRINT. Would be interesting if one would follow through with their promises.
You are correct 11:15 AM, and that is by design. The majority of aldermen in Peru are scared to death of the idea of switching to Council/Manager and hiring a bonafide "City Manager". They would rather see Peru run into the ground than give up what they see as their "grip on power" to a City Manager. To limit the scope of the task force to consider only a city administrator will corrupt the process before it even begins. Harl and the aldermen know it too.
11:37 AM, February 23, 2015 I think that you will find many of the current councilmembers don't like to "use the 'puter" and still think a cell phone is high technology and use it exclusively for voice calls. Many of them also don't like to attach their name to anything just in case it might be used against them in the future.
I like how the NT expressed their opinion "not likely" that LaSalle and Peru can merge. They did this while but did not give any reasons whey it was "not likely."
I for one can envision a day when we are one city and have more economic and political power than Ottawa.
As an election topic - we need to discuss the future of Peru's fireworks event. I've been hearing things through the grapevine that the bars on Water Street are not doing well. Same goes for Fourth Street. In fact - I've heard that most of the bars in Peru are not doing well. I think it is time to refocus the fireworks event. Throw in with LaSalle and have it at their new park - if they will allow it. Make it DRY except for a specific beer garden area away from the main viewing area. No sense in having a separate event for LaSalle and one for Peru. We will be one city some day. need to start thinking like one.
11:25 And we as citizens have no option other than to sit back and let this happen? We're okay with using our tax dollars to pay our lawyer to write up an ordinance that only offers limited choices? We get to either hire the mayors choice for a "city administrator" or leave the mayor himself in charge? Seems like a win/win situation for our current administration.
12:47, that topic about merging together has been coffee shop talk for decades, you will be long gone as I will and there will be two separate cities , so don't get your hopes up. One reason alone will never allow this to happen, City Pride, LaSalle people as well as Peru people love our towns as is, so don't hold your breath.
2:22 - the younger generation does not share your point of view. They look at things a little more pragmatically. Little by little - viewpoints are changing and new points of view are being considered. People are more connected now and information is readily available. Twenty years ago - how many people do you think ever looked something up in the Illinois Municipal Code? I'd say nobody unless they worked for government. Now it is at your fingertips and more people are looking up things for themselves instead of taking what some Alderman tells them is the truth. I'd say we are within a decade of a unified L-P - including the school districts.
3:00 , it won't happen just for the reason 2:22 explained, yes it's your generation now, but it was the younger generations that talked about it in the past and didn't not happen. Your argument that your better informed just goes with the time, we were better informed than our predecessors, and the next generation will have better information than you, it's all relevant. 2:22 hit it on the head as far as the two cities joining together, now as far as consolidating the schools that very well could happen.
How can Peru claim city Pride when it has a ward (25% of a recently redistricted town)that only has 1 person running for 1 office and 2 people running for 2 offices in the last election? A city with a lot of pride would have at least 2 running for 1 office if not 3,4 or 5.
6:22, how many of you who post all the terrible things about Peru pulled a petition and are running for office, don't talk about pride when your not showing any.
Anon6:22, pride has nothing to do with running for office, it's living in a town with a lot of heritage, ancestry , the hard working people, I could go on and on. It's where I was born and raised and will be where I die, you can always move from here, but don't say we don't have pride in our city.
7:07, part of the problem with Peru is that it does not welcome new people. Oh, we will take your sales tax money. We will even let you buy a house here. But show up at a meeting - any meeting from CSO to City Council and you are looked at like you have two heads. You can see it on their faces - "you are not supposed to be here, go away, we don't want you here."
Peru is also a very closed society. People have tried to get involved with everything from the library to the CSO club - only to be shut out. Unless of course they are specifically recruited by those that already pull the strings. "Official" Peru turns away volunteers. This makes it difficult to build community spirit. After a while, people stop caring. Very few people even bother showing up to the remaining community events anymore - unless there is beer for sale. Nope - "Official" Peru needs a drastic change in attitude.
Anon 7:07 What reasons do you have pride in Peru. Anymore in most standards of ratings of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest I would grade Peru in the lower 5. The one exception would be education where Peru is at the very high end.
10:33, I disagree on your low number, I would except an 7-8 because there is always room for improvement, but we have the things other towns are envious of us, good tax base, road improvements every year, electric that has very little disruption, great places to shop, manufacturing, our sewer system getting finished up where other towns are struggling withe the cost, improvements of a water system, lower property taxes than any other town, beautiful parks, proud of this town , you betcha!!!
10:33 - I would not consider Peru high in the area of education. Granted, we have a nice school building and a relatively low tax rate. Other than that - school performance is "as expected."
So, here is my evaluation of Peru, scale is one to ten - ten being the best. All things being equal:
Parks & Recreation: 5 Education: 7 Shopping: 8 Overall Taxes: 5 Night Life: 2 Transportation: 2 Healthcare: 4 Public Safety: 7 Housing: 7 Walkability: 2 Diversity: 1 Culture: 2
low property taxes are made up for with high sales tax. So instead of taxing the people that can afford it - those with the big houses in the new part of town - they tax the poor person in the small house living in the old part of town. Every time they buy a new pair of shoes or something, the poor are contributing a greater percentage of their income to the school and city than the rich are. And to top it off - if your are 65 or older your assessment is frozen AND you are no longer buying stuff like a young family does. So the old people love this low property tax and high sales tax thing the most.
Sorry to point it out but we do NOT have a high sales tax rate either. We have HUGE infrastructure needs because we are the regional shopping and retail hub and the sales tax acts as a user tax. This is very fair and you cannot compare it to spring valley or lasalle or little towns around the area. We are very fortunate to have this and a low rate relatively speaking. EVERY town in a large radius would give anything to have what we do here in terms of our tax base. Just saying....
I feel very blessed to live in Peru. Our town is not perfect but it saddens me to see the comments posted on here. We have many good people in our community and quite a few amenities for a town our size. Why people cannot comment about elected people without saying such hideous things is something I will never understand. We are not perfect but thankfully some of the armchair comments on here do not reflect how most people think.
What I will never understand is if you think it is so bad then why don't you pick up a petition and run? What's stopping you? Or if LaSalle and Ottawa are such amazing places to live then why don't you sell your overtaxed home and move there?
Has anyone ever questioned why Peru has a low tax base? Do you think that it could be associated with the low average earnings that Peru is saddled with. Raise the taxes to whatever please you and see how much someone in retail making $8 to $10.25/hour can't afford to pay them. Also you do not get much back for the taxes you pay unless you are employed by the city. The average annual earnings of a city worker is the highest in the state for a town under 10,000 population.
From an overall tax point of view - and that is how we really need to look at it because we pay so many different taxes - it is better, in my opinion, to have a higher property tax and a bare minimum sales tax. For most people - property taxes can be recouped as a deduction on income tax without effecting the standard deduction. In order to recoup sales tax, you need a very large purchase like an automobile. So most people end up taking only the standard deduction. Property taxes can be also be deducted in this scenario. So - low property taxes - in all actuality - only benefit the very rich or those that only have retirement income such as social security or a pension. The retirement income advantage afforded to Illinois residents allows 100% of retirement income to be excluded from State Income Tax. So when you don't have to pay State Income tax - the advantage of very low property taxes compounds - making it lucrative for retired people to support low property taxes and higher sales tax. My point of view - we really need to reevaluate the retirement income exemption and the assessment freeze. Especially since the population is getting very old for the next 25 to 30 years.
Anon 4:44 PM You are so full of little goodies that one starts to believe that a reality check will send you into shock. Take a Monday evening and attend a council meeting at the zoo and you will understand why people say what they say about elected people. Yes the armchair comments on the blog do reflect how people think. Many people of Peru are thinking of moving from Peru because of the fact they have no future here and it is best to leave before their job leaves them and they are working for minimum wage. Than there is the draining of the think tank the young who don't leave they just never come back.
We don't have HUGE infrastructure needs. We have infrastructure that has been neglected over many years. It will take many years to get it back into shape and keep it from deteriorating again. Slow and steady wins the race. Boss Harl blew the wad on streets right before his last election. We need an actual plan to upgrade the storm sewers, streets, curbs, sidewalks, water distribution, electrical distribution, etc. over time - keeping it up to date and not letting is fall behind again. But, in Peru that doesn't get you many votes when their are beer gardens to put on, fireworks to shoot off, concerts to promote, and movie theaters to buy.
Just did a search on cyberdrive and noticed that access llc has quite a few janko names associated with this company. Are jankos the ones that backed out of their verbal commitment to the st. Bede project? Are they going to fulfill this deal in peru?
Anon 8:42, if you would inquire down at city hall or with the engineer you would know there is a plan in place. The sewers are being separated and upgraded, you yourself noticed the roads getting improved, water lines are slowly getting replaced, electric is always improving, and there is a sidewalk program in place, yes it's slow because we only have so much money, but it is an ongoing thing.
10:55 - yup. slow and steady wins the race.. but we spent to much on street resurfacing and not enough on storm water sewers. The separation projects are mandated by law - their purpose is to keep runoff out of the wastewater plants not necessarily improve storm runoff. Did we take possession of the sewer sucker yet? I'll be keeping my eyes open for that one - my gut is telling me it will get just as much use as the street sweeper.
10:55 AM, There is no long-term plan in place. The mayor and aldermen have allowed themselves to become dependent upon the recommendations of Chamlin and that means Chamlin determines what gets done and when it gets done. Chamlin charges what it wants when it wants and Peru's elected officials as well as the city engineer do nothing to hold Chamlin accountable for the fees they charge or the quality of the work provided. How do you think the Chamlin gravy-train of billable hours feels about the idea of a bonafide City Manager who will look long and hard at the self-serving influence that Chamlin has over the mayor and aldermen. Now that would be interesting.
We've spent and spent and spent. We've written check after check after check. Now, we may have to tighten our belt because the state will be holding back funds. It's a joke and somebody needs to take control.
I'd like to know at when I can expect the water main that runs underneath 13th Street between Church Street and Peoria Street will be replaced. It was installed in 1966 - so it should be on the Infrastructure plan - right? I'd also like to know when the sidewalks on the west side of Calhoun Street from 7th Street to 10th Street will be replaced. That should also be on the master plan right?
I think you will find there is no master plan and we are living day to day.
I understand a plan doesn't prevent emergencies - but a plan can drive budgets and timelines and give people an idea of what is going on.
1:58, did you talk to the engineer, did you talk to your alderman , I expect you didn't, can tell you how the sidewalk plan works, you get a hold of your alderman, he turns it in with every other ward, the engineer decides who gets their sidewalk replaced within the sidewalk program budget. You think you know these answers without finding out how the program works, that is the biggest problem. I found this out when I wanted my sidewalk replaced.
Most of the sidewalks in Peru that need replacement were caused by damage done to them when curb and gutter work was being done. Shouldn't the property owner pay for the 1st sidewalk and the city pay for all replacements. This is another situation where the city never has any money to fulfill its obligations. maybe if the citizen came 1st the sidewalks would be taken care of before purchasing a Vactor, block long line of fire trucks including vehicles for the Chief and one for his assistant, more squad SUV's than number of police in the city, and giving a million to Hollywood and this is only a start. What determines how the city is to purchase gas for its vehicles and have they ever contacted the person who knew how to turn the lights off in the public works building or should the city let them burn for another 15 years?
ISN'T THERE ESDA VEHICLE SUV ALSO? DO THE SUPERINTENDANT CHIEFS HEAD UP ESDA? Who are committee member? Are they appointed? By who? Do they need to know anything about emergencies or safety?
6:13 - the point is that it should be written down in a master plan that is available for the pubic to review. The annual ritual of Alderman turning in their wish list for infrastructure projects like curbs and sidewalks is a joke. I should be able to look at a list and see that fifteen years ago - this stretch of sidewalk was replaced, its present condition, and when it can be expected to be replaced again. That is called planning - something that is not done in Peru.
43 comments:
I agree Lois. I think he has some very good ideas for the general public and citizens of a community.
Someone with common sense got elected in Illinois? Is this a weird Twilight Zone dimension we've entered!?
This post doesn't belong under this heading but I think it needs to be brought to blog readers attention. During tonight's council meeting they will be voting on an ordinance to establish a committee to make recommendations regarding the possible hiring of an "administrator". Upon reading the ordinance it does not appear to allow the discussion or possible hiring of a "city manager" rather than an "administrator". I know that several of the aldermen have questioned our mayor on the possibility that a "manager" would be the better solution. I hope some member of our council will question this ordinance because it appears that if approved as "written and read" it will only allow the newly established committee to consider an administrator and not a manager.
Mayor Harl does not want to change the government to the Council Manager format. This is because much of the Mayor's power will be removed. That form of government also removes the ability of the Mayor and the Council from interfering in day to day operations of the City. Additionally, the change requires a referendum.
So what we will end up with is another highly paid employee that works at will and has no statutory power. We will pay this individual at least $150,000 but we will be lucky to attract anyone with any talent simply because it is not a council-manager system. Most likely, we will get a semi-retired business man from the local area or possibly a former department head from a larger city.
Since the election is around the corner, I was thinks to switch it up a bit on this forum. Give each candidate their own heading to comment their objectives to issues and what their plans are if they won the election as Alderman. Bet not many would take the opportunity to do so. Because they might say one thing to get votes, but wouldn't follow through with their promises. AND IT WOULD BE ON BACK AND WITH PRINT. Would be interesting if one would follow through with their promises.
You are correct 11:15 AM, and that is by design. The majority of aldermen in Peru are scared to death of the idea of switching to Council/Manager and hiring a bonafide "City Manager". They would rather see Peru run into the ground than give up what they see as their "grip on power" to a City Manager. To limit the scope of the task force to consider only a city administrator will corrupt the process before it even begins. Harl and the aldermen know it too.
11:37 AM, February 23, 2015
I think that you will find many of the current councilmembers don't like to "use the 'puter" and still think a cell phone is high technology and use it exclusively for voice calls. Many of them also don't like to attach their name to anything just in case it might be used against them in the future.
I like how the NT expressed their opinion "not likely" that LaSalle and Peru can merge. They did this while but did not give any reasons whey it was "not likely."
I for one can envision a day when we are one city and have more economic and political power than Ottawa.
As an election topic - we need to discuss the future of Peru's fireworks event. I've been hearing things through the grapevine that the bars on Water Street are not doing well. Same goes for Fourth Street. In fact - I've heard that most of the bars in Peru are not doing well.
I think it is time to refocus the fireworks event. Throw in with LaSalle and have it at their new park - if they will allow it. Make it DRY except for a specific beer garden area away from the main viewing area.
No sense in having a separate event for LaSalle and one for Peru. We will be one city some day. need to start thinking like one.
11:25 And we as citizens have no option other than to sit back and let this happen? We're okay with using our tax dollars to pay our lawyer to write up an ordinance that only offers limited choices? We get to either hire the mayors choice for a "city administrator" or leave the mayor himself in charge? Seems like a win/win situation for our current administration.
12:47, that topic about merging together has been coffee shop talk for decades, you will be long gone as I will and there will be two separate cities , so don't get your hopes up. One reason alone will never allow this to happen, City Pride, LaSalle people as well as Peru people love our towns as is, so don't hold your breath.
2:22 - the younger generation does not share your point of view. They look at things a little more pragmatically. Little by little - viewpoints are changing and new points of view are being considered. People are more connected now and information is readily available. Twenty years ago - how many people do you think ever looked something up in the Illinois Municipal Code? I'd say nobody unless they worked for government. Now it is at your fingertips and more people are looking up things for themselves instead of taking what some Alderman tells them is the truth.
I'd say we are within a decade of a unified L-P - including the school districts.
3:00 , it won't happen just for the reason 2:22 explained, yes it's your generation now, but it was the younger generations that talked about it in the past and didn't not happen. Your argument that your better informed just goes with the time, we were better informed than our predecessors, and the next generation will have better information than you, it's all relevant. 2:22 hit it on the head as far as the two cities joining together, now as far as consolidating the schools that very well could happen.
I see very little city pride in LaSalle or Peru.
How can Peru claim city Pride when it has a ward (25% of a recently redistricted town)that only has 1 person running for 1 office and 2 people running for 2 offices in the last election? A city with a lot of pride would have at least 2 running for 1 office if not 3,4 or 5.
6:22, did you throw your hat in the ring??
6:22, how many of you who post all the terrible things about Peru pulled a petition and are running for office, don't talk about pride when your not showing any.
Anon6:22, pride has nothing to do with running for office, it's living in a town with a lot of heritage, ancestry , the hard working people, I could go on and on. It's where I was born and raised and will be where I die, you can always move from here, but don't say we don't have pride in our city.
7:07, part of the problem with Peru is that it does not welcome new people. Oh, we will take your sales tax money. We will even let you buy a house here. But show up at a meeting - any meeting from CSO to City Council and you are looked at like you have two heads. You can see it on their faces - "you are not supposed to be here, go away, we don't want you here."
Peru is also a very closed society. People have tried to get involved with everything from the library to the CSO club - only to be shut out. Unless of course they are specifically recruited by those that already pull the strings.
"Official" Peru turns away volunteers. This makes it difficult to build community spirit. After a while, people stop caring. Very few people even bother showing up to the remaining community events anymore - unless there is beer for sale.
Nope - "Official" Peru needs a drastic change in attitude.
Anon 7:07 What reasons do you have pride in Peru. Anymore in most standards of ratings of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest I would grade Peru in the lower 5. The one exception would be education where Peru is at the very high end.
10:33, I disagree on your low number, I would except an 7-8 because there is always room for improvement, but we have the things other towns are envious of us, good tax base, road improvements every year, electric that has very little disruption, great places to shop, manufacturing, our sewer system getting finished up where other towns are struggling withe the cost, improvements of a water system, lower property taxes than any other town, beautiful parks, proud of this town , you betcha!!!
10:33 - I would not consider Peru high in the area of education. Granted, we have a nice school building and a relatively low tax rate. Other than that - school performance is "as expected."
So, here is my evaluation of Peru, scale is one to ten - ten being the best. All things being equal:
Parks & Recreation: 5
Education: 7
Shopping: 8
Overall Taxes: 5
Night Life: 2
Transportation: 2
Healthcare: 4
Public Safety: 7
Housing: 7
Walkability: 2
Diversity: 1
Culture: 2
Overall Rating: 4.3
low property taxes are made up for with high sales tax. So instead of taxing the people that can afford it - those with the big houses in the new part of town - they tax the poor person in the small house living in the old part of town.
Every time they buy a new pair of shoes or something, the poor are contributing a greater percentage of their income to the school and city than the rich are.
And to top it off - if your are 65 or older your assessment is frozen AND you are no longer buying stuff like a young family does. So the old people love this low property tax and high sales tax thing the most.
1:36 PM
I was surprised at the winners of the spelling bee and where they were in school.
Sorry to point it out but we do NOT have a high sales tax rate either. We have HUGE infrastructure needs because we are the regional shopping and retail hub and the sales tax acts as a user tax. This is very fair and you cannot compare it to spring valley or lasalle or little towns around the area. We are very fortunate to have this and a low rate relatively speaking. EVERY town in a large radius would give anything to have what we do here in terms of our tax base. Just saying....
I feel very blessed to live in Peru. Our town is not perfect but it saddens me to see the comments posted on here. We have many good people in our community and quite a few amenities for a town our size. Why people cannot comment about elected people without saying such hideous things is something I will never understand. We are not perfect but thankfully some of the armchair comments on here do not reflect how most people think.
What I will never understand is if you think it is so bad then why don't you pick up a petition and run? What's stopping you? Or if LaSalle and Ottawa are such amazing places to live then why don't you sell your overtaxed home and move there?
Has anyone ever questioned why Peru has a low tax base? Do you think that it could be associated with the low average earnings that Peru is saddled with. Raise the taxes to whatever please you and see how much someone in retail making $8 to $10.25/hour can't afford to pay them.
Also you do not get much back for the taxes you pay unless you are employed by the city. The average annual earnings of a city worker is the highest in the state for a town under 10,000 population.
From an overall tax point of view - and that is how we really need to look at it because we pay so many different taxes - it is better, in my opinion, to have a higher property tax and a bare minimum sales tax.
For most people - property taxes can be recouped as a deduction on income tax without effecting the standard deduction. In order to recoup sales tax, you need a very large purchase like an automobile. So most people end up taking only the standard deduction. Property taxes can be also be deducted in this scenario.
So - low property taxes - in all actuality - only benefit the very rich or those that only have retirement income such as social security or a pension. The retirement income advantage afforded to Illinois residents allows 100% of retirement income to be excluded from State Income Tax. So when you don't have to pay State Income tax - the advantage of very low property taxes compounds - making it lucrative for retired people to support low property taxes and higher sales tax.
My point of view - we really need to reevaluate the retirement income exemption and the assessment freeze. Especially since the population is getting very old for the next 25 to 30 years.
Anon 4:44 PM You are so full of little goodies that one starts to believe that a reality check will send you into shock. Take a Monday evening and attend a council meeting at the zoo and you will understand why people say what they say about elected people.
Yes the armchair comments on the blog do reflect how people think.
Many people of Peru are thinking of moving from Peru because of the fact they have no future here and it is best to leave before their job leaves them and they are working for minimum wage.
Than there is the draining of the think tank the young who don't leave they just never come back.
We don't have HUGE infrastructure needs. We have infrastructure that has been neglected over many years. It will take many years to get it back into shape and keep it from deteriorating again. Slow and steady wins the race.
Boss Harl blew the wad on streets right before his last election. We need an actual plan to upgrade the storm sewers, streets, curbs, sidewalks, water distribution, electrical distribution, etc. over time - keeping it up to date and not letting is fall behind again.
But, in Peru that doesn't get you many votes when their are beer gardens to put on, fireworks to shoot off, concerts to promote, and movie theaters to buy.
Just did a search on cyberdrive and noticed that access llc has quite a few janko names associated with this company. Are jankos the ones that backed out of their verbal commitment to the st. Bede project? Are they going to fulfill this deal in peru?
Anon 8:42, if you would inquire down at city hall or with the engineer you would know there is a plan in place. The sewers are being separated and upgraded, you yourself noticed the roads getting improved, water lines are slowly getting replaced, electric is always improving, and there is a sidewalk program in place, yes it's slow because we only have so much money, but it is an ongoing thing.
10:55 - yup. slow and steady wins the race.. but we spent to much on street resurfacing and not enough on storm water sewers. The separation projects are mandated by law - their purpose is to keep runoff out of the wastewater plants not necessarily improve storm runoff.
Did we take possession of the sewer sucker yet? I'll be keeping my eyes open for that one - my gut is telling me it will get just as much use as the street sweeper.
10:55 AM, There is no long-term plan in place. The mayor and aldermen have allowed themselves to become dependent upon the recommendations of Chamlin and that means Chamlin determines what gets done and when it gets done. Chamlin charges what it wants when it wants and Peru's elected officials as well as the city engineer do nothing to hold Chamlin accountable for the fees they charge or the quality of the work provided. How do you think the Chamlin gravy-train of billable hours feels about the idea of a bonafide City Manager who will look long and hard at the self-serving influence that Chamlin has over the mayor and aldermen. Now that would be interesting.
We've spent and spent and spent. We've written check after check after check. Now, we may have to tighten our belt because the state will be holding back funds. It's a joke and somebody needs to take control.
I'd like to know at when I can expect the water main that runs underneath 13th Street between Church Street and Peoria Street will be replaced. It was installed in 1966 - so it should be on the Infrastructure plan - right?
I'd also like to know when the sidewalks on the west side of Calhoun Street from 7th Street to 10th Street will be replaced. That should also be on the master plan right?
I think you will find there is no master plan and we are living day to day.
I understand a plan doesn't prevent emergencies - but a plan can drive budgets and timelines and give people an idea of what is going on.
1:58, did you talk to the engineer, did you talk to your alderman , I expect you didn't, can tell you how the sidewalk plan works, you get a hold of your alderman, he turns it in with every other ward, the engineer decides who gets their sidewalk replaced within the sidewalk program budget. You think you know these answers without finding out how the program works, that is the biggest problem. I found this out when I wanted my sidewalk replaced.
Most of the sidewalks in Peru that need replacement were caused by damage done to them when curb and gutter work was being done.
Shouldn't the property owner pay for the 1st sidewalk and the city pay for all replacements.
This is another situation where the city never has any money to fulfill its obligations. maybe if the citizen came 1st the sidewalks would be taken care of before purchasing a Vactor, block long line of fire trucks including vehicles for the Chief and one for his assistant, more squad SUV's than number of police in the city, and giving a million to Hollywood and this is only a start. What determines how the city is to purchase gas for its vehicles and have they ever contacted the person who knew how to turn the lights off in the public works building or should the city let them burn for another 15 years?
ISN'T THERE ESDA VEHICLE SUV ALSO? DO THE SUPERINTENDANT CHIEFS HEAD UP ESDA? Who are committee member? Are they appointed? By who? Do they need to know anything about emergencies or safety?
6:13 - the point is that it should be written down in a master plan that is available for the pubic to review. The annual ritual of Alderman turning in their wish list for infrastructure projects like curbs and sidewalks is a joke. I should be able to look at a list and see that fifteen years ago - this stretch of sidewalk was replaced, its present condition, and when it can be expected to be replaced again. That is called planning - something that is not done in Peru.
9:58 - all these answers have been published. Look and you shall see.
1;56
just hope it doesn't break because the city will screw you over!
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