Ottawa in the running for national landscape honor - LaSalle News Tribune - LaSalle, IL
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. While I realize we can't be like Ottawa, we might try and take a few hints. I am not comparing but what I am saying is "Looks this is possible, this city has done it". And when I posted about Princeton a few days ago and what they have done for recreation, again I say look and think about what could be in our city beside another big box store or restaurant that most residents won't shop at or eat at.
I was reading comments on FB for the last few days and it is people remembering the best place ever for an ice cream cone or an event the city hosted or stores you actually shopped at. I'm glad Peru is working on our economy but we are the victim of a poorly run state and we can't change that in the NOW so let's make the best of what we have and give people something to enjoy also. And Peru officials listen to your residents, it is their town too.
14 comments:
Things like this cost Peru sales tax revenue.
I just found out a good way to save money at WalMart. Just order and pay for your stuff on line and go to the Peru store and pick it up. You only have to pay the regular state sales tax and you can avoid the two Peru home rule kickers for the school and the roads.
The short ride to Ottawa is well worth the money for an opportunity to see downtown's Washington Park and its local history and simple beautification of a park for the enjoyment of its citizens. The Lincoln-Douglas statues and surrounding fountain, shaded sitting benches and just plain old activity in this park area plus the flowers and other plants strategically placed throughout makes it a welcome place to visit. There is also a Veterans Monument in this Park. The Appellate Court and Reddick Mansion can both be seen from Washington Park.
Upon leaving Washington Park you will be driving South on LaSalle Street and will be observing the "role model" for city's between 16-20,000 population. Each hanging basket is in full bloom and the sidewalk flowers are breath taking. The South end of downtown supports the joining of the Fox and Illinois rivers with great views of the homes overlooking the river and Allen Park.
At this point I have not even talked about the multitude of murals adorning the downtown buildings. Yes some would say a great expense but add all these things together and you have a city that is drawing tourist AS WELL AS THEIR OWN CITIZENS. Ottawa again is supporting pride in being a resident of this historic and yet growing city. Just a few short years ago its downtown had about 1/2 of its business building unoccupied. Today the majority of business buildings are occupied, updated and active in this thriving environment. Downtown has been created and maintained by active city representatives and local volunteer citizens. Volunteer groups from master gardeners, church group volunteers, Marquette student clubs, Ottawa student clubs, women's clubs, Rotary, etc have played an important part in the Ottawa of today. I have to add that although these improvement have been done by the volunteers - even more has to be said for the hours of grant writing and submissions which funded these efforts. Go Ottawa!
I believe Ottawa downtown is being judged in the "American In Bloom" contest this week. (See the Ottawa Times for judging rules and expectations.) I wish them success. Mayor Eshbach, the City Officials and those volunteer citizens should be applauded for not only their vision but also for the efforts they took and continue to take in making this vision a reality.
I agree with you Lois. What Ottawa has done to their downtown is amazing. It's beautiful and done solely by volunteers. While Rodney Perez tried to organize a group of people to do this in Peru, he got no help from the mayor or council to really move this group forward. I was told some of the people who volunteered the first year quit because they were told volunteers were not wanted and were frowned upon. I'd like to see one of the aldermen ask for volunteers to really get Peru residents involved in making the downtown pretty. I was driving thru the downtown last night, and the only flags I saw in addition to IVCH were for one other business. So they decided to get rid of the hanging flower baskets because they were going to put up flags, but it seems the other Peru businesses were not interested. I believe the hanging baskets failed because some people wanted Rodney Perez to look like a failure, so they ordered the city workers to stop watering the hanging baskets. Just my opinion, but I believe it to be true.
10:17 Don't know anything about this. But it reads like you have some bad feelings about the last election. I do believe that the city did purchase the flowers, provided baskets and had help from Peru departments. I don't think anybody gave orders to not water or help.
I also don't think it was all Rodney Perez, there were many others that were involved. The plants look great and many compliments to those who helped. Ottawa has a special large long-standing group that heads up the city wide landscaping work, they put a lot of money into plantings and landscaping. Peru got rid of the full-time employee in charge of landscaping and decided to go with a part time effort of volunteers. You can make your own choice of what you want to do with your tax-dollars. The difference is obvious, Ottawa has made a big splash with big money. Most cities just don't have the resources or the commitment.
11:41 With the way Peru is spending money they definitely have the resources. They also had the start of a volunteer group however, the first year they didn't even get so much as a thank you from the mayor. And, not only did that happen they got no city cooperation as Rodney had to spend many hours watering the hanging baskets and planters by himself.
Volunteer landscaping is a great bonus to any downtown setting, but it only goes so far. Ottawa had a great initiative for downtown development, which included talking to business owners and applying for grants to make facade improvements. Peru needs to do much of the same and actually make an effort towards their own development program. Many of the buildings downtown such as JT pools and Art's tavern are covered with metal sheets or pebbledashing, respectively. What is under those temporary walls are historic, ornate facades that can be treated and restored. Other facade improvements could be made to the Helmig building or Peru's travel agency for example. This will bring back historic value, business interest, pride back to the area. Ottawa downtown district looked like Peru's a decade ago, but after a lot of work look at the result today. Does anyone know if there is any interest from downtown business owners in their building restoration?
Peru paid to have the roof on a new building fixed. Oh, and they bought the Freemason Lodge and awning - they don't have a front door, so you need to be in the parking log to see it.
They also paid for a portion of Debo's new awnings ($2500).
Who is in charge of determining if the business is to receive money from the city? I thought that this money was to improve the appearance of the building facing the road. I cannot believe that someone would even ask for money to redo their roof or a awning facing a parking lot. If I was a participant in such a unethical act I could not look fellow Peruvians eye to eye.This proves that you can be so smart, so rich but eventually your business practices will catch up to you resulting in a total loss of respect. Such acts make it hard for anyone to sell a good program. Why doesn't the city attempt to get its money back? If all that is being said is true they should. Even if they know they can't get it back they should go as far as they can. I have heard that years ago much of the money for downtown redevelopment went towards paying for the concrete parking lots for certain businesses. Put 2 and 2 together and you can see that certain parties have a previous training.
11:57, some of these programs are written so poorly that it makes it easy to take advantage of them. Sometimes this is on purpose. Other times the council just doesn't read them. Take the sign ordinance. They all voted for it, but nobody knew about the restrictions. Now there is a law that nobody wants to or is capable of enforcing.
I'm sure the program was "intended" to improve the appearance of downtown. But it might be written that any building improvement is eligible. More buttering of the bread.
9:19 AM Louis Armstrong had a great song in "Wonderful World". I have never read the entire sign ordinance or the ordinance to improve the appearance of downtown but without reading either I darn sure bet that I understand their intentions and I wager that those who have done more than stretch the gray matter understand them as well. Most likely a 3d grader would understand them if handed the ordinance upside down.
Best said is that you don't have to be honest to be educated nor do you have to be educated to be honest.
Acts such as this ruin it for others who need them. Years ago Peru gave a tremendous helping hand to most of the businesses that are in new building to obtain prime land, build their buildings and get started on 4th street. Now it appears that some of these people, not all, do not realize that the time has come that this freebee had a sunset.
Approximately 2 years ago Peru City Council sold the ESDA Building to private sources for $16,000 with the stipulation that the building was to be serving gourmet hamburgers within 6 months. What progress has been made to reach this goal? It was a very hush hush push fast contract for city property.
12:55, oh, don't worry. The city will get it back. I've heard that taxes haven't been paid in two years. It will cost us five times as much to condemn it and tear it down - with asbestos abatement to boot. An uneducated guess - we will spend $100K to tear that building down, most of the money going to our lawyers to condemn the property.
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