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
Sunday, January 31, 2016
Volunteering In Our Community - No Longer Welcome
38 comments:
Anonymous
said...
This has been the case in Peru for many years. This city is all about distributing tax dollars.
Your problem is you think "volunteers" somehow should be managed through the local government. Peru has the most wonderful volunteers who are very active and giving through a wide range of community service organizations. Quit whining about the city, which has nothing to do with this and instead try getting involved. Great people do great things every day and seek no recognition and no publicity. Just good people doing good things for their community.
No, 3:26 PM, January 31, 2016. Peru prevents volunteers from doing anything. They would rather have tax dollars to spend and votes to buy than any kind of volunteer activity.
No. they don't. You are missing the point. The volunteers in a community are not found at city hall. They are found in community organizations, churches and other areas. There are no shortage of volunteers in Peru and no one at city hall is stopping anyone. You are going to the wrong place.
Give us some examples. Sports does not count because that is Little Leaque or Girls Softball or Soccer, all independent organizations. What churches do does not impact on the community or living in a city.
I guess it does not matter because Peru has little to offer in the way of community effort.
There was an article in the News Tribune about some volunteers cleaning up a park / fishing pond in Spring Valley. They basically cleared out some timber and overgrown brush to make the pond more accessible. Now lets see how this would have played out in Peru under our current Mayor and Council.
1. Have Chamllins conduct a survey of the park and prepare a bid package to get the timber and brush cleared. Cost, $5,000. 2. Apply for a grant from the DNR. - Cost, $1,000 3. After six months with no chance of a grant in sight, start talking about doing the work. 4. Put it out for bids to local landscapers. Since the Chamlin report already indicates what the city is willing to pay, no bids come in under that amount. The low bid, $10,000 plus overruns. 5. Council meeting in which the Mayor asks the Treasurer is we have the money. The answer: "We can write a check." 6. Authorize the work to commence. However, time has lapsed and it is the busy season for the contractor. Government work gets put on back burner. 7. Landscaper finally gets around to it. But, they find out that Chamlins did not specify the job correctly and it will cost more. A $5,000 kicker is added to the bill. 8. Work complete. Big ribbon cutting ceremony with councilmen and the mayor patting each other on the back on how they where able to reopen the recreation area for all to use.
8:15 Well lets see Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts of America, every church in Peru will gladly accept you volunteering. How about helping at Pads or Ivar. The Pantry could use some help.
The Flower pots on Rt. 6 I believe Mr. Perez does that in the spring. I don't know about planting flowers in the park but I wouldn't think the city fathers would care.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong but didn't a group of volunteers plant hanging baskets in Peru along Route 6? This group not only planted the baskets, I believe they purchased the flowers, filled the pots with soil, and hung the baskets. The first year this was done they even had to water the baskets themselves. They also weeded and planted the planters along Route 6 and on Water Street. After several years the hanging baskets were eliminated and the city replaced them with banners that they (the city) purchased and hung. The planters were against again filled by these volunteers however, the summer flowers were replaced by mums and the volunteers were not included in this process. The volunteers also started working in some of the parks and the city went out and hired a landscaping business to replace them. So, it does appear but in certain situations volunteers are not welcome in Peru.
6:38 AM, February 01, 2016 - you forgot about the part where the Laborer's Union sets up the big inflatable rat because the landscaper does not use union labor - hi workers preferring to keep as much of their wages as possible.
6:38 AM, You are spot on. I have seen so many other things in Peru play out just as you describe. The first reaction from Peru's elected officials will always be "how can we manipulate a situation to help enrich our friends and create a false impression that we have a clue". What a bunch of Phonies.
You don't understand! Government keeps the economy going by doing things like this. If the local government used volunteers for things like this, then a worker is out of a job. The people in Spring Valley that did that work should be ashamed of themselves. They took food out of a baby's mouth!
Every dollar our local government spends generates hundreds of dollars to the local economy. We need the our cities spending much more than they do. Raise taxes on the greedy Baker's Lake people if you have to. But the children need to eat and we can do this by spending money.
Government doesn't use real money anyway. It is just taxes spread across everyone. They actually give me money every year, so I don't care how much tax they spend. I'm getting a big TV this year as soon as I get that new insurance form in the mail.
6:38 AM - you are right. Leave it to government and this type of job ends up costing tens of thousands of dollars. A few guys with some borrowed tools did something in Spring Valley for free.
The volunteer post is silly. Peru has many volunteers and they are utilized across many aspects of the city. Those who have made this into a negative topic are for doing it for the shear sake of getting publicity for the few hours they hang flowers on city light poles. There was big deal at city hall with formal presentations, plaques, facebook postings and more for a few hours of labor. Please stop the whining. Many volunteers do wonderful jobs in our community and they do it without political fanfare. And they do it without the fanfare that the flower family needs. There was a very involved person that bought flowers, planted the flowers and weeded many. She did it without fanfare and without letting everybody know she was involved, that was a true Peruvian that volunteers without complaining. She never has run for office, keeps her office building looking great and has no family members running or formally in office. She doesn't expect the key to the city or her name in lights. That is the definition of a quality volunteer. Quite, frankly this hero worship of a few former office holders hanging a plant on 4th street is comical.
Volunteering is bad for the economy. Do you realize how many people are put out of work every time somebody volunteers at a hospital, homeless shelter, park, or school? AFSCME has the right idea! Make volunteers pay union dues!
Did you know.... "[Illinois} state government has seen AFSCME file grievances against volunteer campground hosts for educating visitors about a state park; against volunteers at a Veterans home who answered calls in the reception area; against a supervisor who pitched in to eliminate a backlog of tax returns." - Illinois Department of Labor.
I find these blogs humorous. Oh, they are so true if a person has common sense and understands them. Mr./ Mrs./Ms./Miss who stated we are all pathetic must be a city employee or a person who stands to gain off our tax dollars.
3:28 PM, February 01, 2016 - government makes it illegal to volunteer. AFSCME would put an inflatable rat in front of a church soup kitchen to get more union dues.
8:15 PM 1/31/16 All involved with Little League, girls softball and soccer should be included as city volunteers because they are associated with the children of Peru and 2 of them are supported by the towers in Washington Park which create city funds and their activities are on Peru city property. A true volunteer,paid or unpaid is one who does a act for others to gain by, not for publicity. Youth football and the BB Gun Club also should be involved as Peru volunteers. I am sorry if I have not recognized anyone but if there is a activity which you could help Peru organize I am sure they would consider it. Bicycle races and the creation of a Peru Band would be great and a Red Socking Fund for childrens gifts and a family Xmas dinner would be great. Are there any amateur photographers out there to take family Xmas pictures for those who cannot afford it. A easy to do activity and one worthwhile would be agricultural days where Peru children could be taken to near by farms to work with the animals and crops with a capable supervisor for a day a week etc. Another activity could be to have a retired journeyman take a group to a construction site to explain a building project and the tools utilized to build the. site
Modern Labor Unions are all about increasing the cash they get from dues. They transfer this cash to high salaries for the union leadership and bribes (pardon me, donations) to campaign funds.
Exactly 4:00 pm. There is nothing worse than people who have to parade their "good deeds" and self promote shamelessly. Why is this necessary? May good people volunteer and avoid personal recognition or could not care less about getting it. In fact the people I do many things with don't even use the word "volunteer." We are just involved and seek nothing in return. I have lived a lot of places though and I have never heard of or thought about people going to city hall to "volunteer." Wrong place folks.
An example is the Rotary Clubs. LaSalle-Peru has three clubs and no one cares about city boundaries, politics or any city council or mayor aside from those who are involved. Again no one is stopping volunteers from doing good things in their community. Flower planting? Who cares. There are many things that you can be involved with. You just have to look in the right places. In the time it takes to cry on the blog you could already be doing something.
4:00 Feb. 1st Your post is the reason people give up volunteering for Peru. Those who hung the "few" baskets, as you state, expected nothing in return except maybe a "thanks" for making Route 6 more appealing. They did it at no cost to the city except for the purchase of the flowers. Did the banners that now adorn Route 6 come at such a cheap cost and were they voluntarily hung? What I don't understand is why can other towns get so much done to make their towns beautiful but Peru seems to have an adversity to outside interference. By outside interference I mean anyone whose is not a part of our governing body (i.e. volunteers who are not a part of the "in" crowd).
9:17 They got a thanks, formal recognition, certificate, facebook applause, many posts, photos. They just didn't get elected to office. I think the city provided flowers, shed, ladders, truck transportation, dirt and the planters. The group did a great job. What more do you want? Not sure what or who the in crowd is? This isn't class warfare, it is hanging flowers.
But the Rec Board, Zoning Board, and Downtown Development board all funnel tax money to contractors in one way or another.
To hone in on the point of this conversation, lets look at this panels favorite discussion, Fireworks.
Would the City of Peru allow a fireworks event that was coordinated, paid for, and presented 100% by volunteers, with the possible exception of police for security and fire department for safety.
What I mean is no government officials (appointed or elected) or tax dollars being used.
Lois, I was correct that you would not have posted my comment about the two former elected officials. Just shows how bias your blog is. As it is you don't have to many people understand my point. have a good evening.
Just want the bloggers to know that the 4:26 PM comment was in regard to former aldermen who are now private citizens. You could criticize them when they were in office but they are no longer and have not been for some years. And beside that your comment was not true and very prejudicial.
11:04, what has that got to do with the fact that they volunteer their time away from families, getting put down by people like you, when was the last time you volunteered for something to make our city better?
Lois My statement was not prejudicial it was correct and I can remember you blasting the city council for not acknowledging them more in the paper and at the meetings.
You just get upset when your cronies get called out. I don't care if you post this. I know that, I have said my piece and, that I am correct.
It's irrelevant about the volunteers that few are posting about. It was a campaign promotion prior to the last upcoming election. Everybody in town was well aware of these tactics. A few others were also involved and they generally were supporting those that were involved running for office. Nothing more than that.
38 comments:
This has been the case in Peru for many years. This city is all about distributing tax dollars.
Your problem is you think "volunteers" somehow should be managed through the local government. Peru has the most wonderful volunteers who are very active and giving through a wide range of community service organizations. Quit whining about the city, which has nothing to do with this and instead try getting involved. Great people do great things every day and seek no recognition and no publicity. Just good people doing good things for their community.
No, 3:26 PM, January 31, 2016. Peru prevents volunteers from doing anything. They would rather have tax dollars to spend and votes to buy than any kind of volunteer activity.
No. they don't. You are missing the point. The volunteers in a community are not found at city hall. They are found in community organizations, churches and other areas. There are no shortage of volunteers in Peru and no one at city hall is stopping anyone. You are going to the wrong place.
7:36 PM
Give us some examples. Sports does not count because that is Little Leaque or Girls Softball or Soccer, all independent organizations. What churches do does not impact on the community or living in a city.
I guess it does not matter because Peru has little to offer in the way of community effort.
The city actively worked to prevent volunteers from planting flowers in parks.
There was an article in the News Tribune about some volunteers cleaning up a park / fishing pond in Spring Valley. They basically cleared out some timber and overgrown brush to make the pond more accessible. Now lets see how this would have played out in Peru under our current Mayor and Council.
1. Have Chamllins conduct a survey of the park and prepare a bid package to get the timber and brush cleared. Cost, $5,000.
2. Apply for a grant from the DNR. - Cost, $1,000
3. After six months with no chance of a grant in sight, start talking about doing the work.
4. Put it out for bids to local landscapers. Since the Chamlin report already indicates what the city is willing to pay, no bids come in under that amount. The low bid, $10,000 plus overruns.
5. Council meeting in which the Mayor asks the Treasurer is we have the money. The answer: "We can write a check."
6. Authorize the work to commence. However, time has lapsed and it is the busy season for the contractor. Government work gets put on back burner.
7. Landscaper finally gets around to it. But, they find out that Chamlins did not specify the job correctly and it will cost more. A $5,000 kicker is added to the bill.
8. Work complete. Big ribbon cutting ceremony with councilmen and the mayor patting each other on the back on how they where able to reopen the recreation area for all to use.
8:15
Well lets see Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts of America, every church in Peru will gladly accept you volunteering.
How about helping at Pads or Ivar. The Pantry could use some help.
The Flower pots on Rt. 6 I believe Mr. Perez does that in the spring.
I don't know about planting flowers in the park but I wouldn't think the city fathers would care.
Volunteer all the time
Someone correct me if I'm wrong but didn't a group of volunteers plant hanging baskets in Peru along Route 6? This group not only planted the baskets, I believe they purchased the flowers, filled the pots with soil, and hung the baskets. The first year this was done they even had to water the baskets themselves. They also weeded and planted the planters along Route 6 and on Water Street. After several years the hanging baskets were eliminated and the city replaced them with banners that they (the city) purchased and hung. The planters were against again filled by these volunteers however, the summer flowers were replaced by mums and the volunteers were not included in this process. The volunteers also started working in some of the parks and the city went out and hired a landscaping business to replace them. So, it does appear but in certain situations volunteers are not welcome in Peru.
6:38 AM, February 01, 2016 - you forgot about the part where the Laborer's Union sets up the big inflatable rat because the landscaper does not use union labor - hi workers preferring to keep as much of their wages as possible.
6:38 AM, You are spot on. I have seen so many other things in Peru play out just as you describe. The first reaction from Peru's elected officials will always be "how can we manipulate a situation to help enrich our friends and create a false impression that we have a clue".
What a bunch of Phonies.
You don't understand! Government keeps the economy going by doing things like this. If the local government used volunteers for things like this, then a worker is out of a job. The people in Spring Valley that did that work should be ashamed of themselves. They took food out of a baby's mouth!
Every dollar our local government spends generates hundreds of dollars to the local economy. We need the our cities spending much more than they do. Raise taxes on the greedy Baker's Lake people if you have to. But the children need to eat and we can do this by spending money.
Government doesn't use real money anyway. It is just taxes spread across everyone. They actually give me money every year, so I don't care how much tax they spend. I'm getting a big TV this year as soon as I get that new insurance form in the mail.
You all are pathetic I would guess that none of you ever volunteered for anything!!!!!\
So disappointed in all the hate!
6:38 AM - you are right. Leave it to government and this type of job ends up costing tens of thousands of dollars. A few guys with some borrowed tools did something in Spring Valley for free.
The volunteer post is silly. Peru has many volunteers and they are utilized across many aspects of the city. Those who have made this into a negative topic are for doing it for the shear sake of getting publicity for the few hours they hang flowers on city light poles. There was big deal at city hall with formal presentations, plaques, facebook postings and more for a few hours of labor. Please stop the whining. Many volunteers do wonderful jobs in our community and they do it without political fanfare. And they do it without the fanfare that the flower family needs. There was a very involved person that bought flowers, planted the flowers and weeded many. She did it without fanfare and without letting everybody know she was involved, that was a true Peruvian that volunteers without complaining. She never has run for office, keeps her office building looking great and has no family members running or formally in office. She doesn't expect the key to the city or her name in lights. That is the definition of a quality volunteer. Quite, frankly this hero worship of a few former office holders hanging a plant on 4th street is comical.
Volunteering is bad for the economy. Do you realize how many people are put out of work every time somebody volunteers at a hospital, homeless shelter, park, or school? AFSCME has the right idea! Make volunteers pay union dues!
Did you know.... "[Illinois} state government has seen AFSCME file grievances against volunteer campground hosts for educating visitors about a state park; against volunteers at a Veterans home who answered calls in the reception area; against a supervisor who pitched in to eliminate a backlog of tax returns." - Illinois Department of Labor.
I find these blogs humorous. Oh, they are so true if a person has common sense and understands them. Mr./ Mrs./Ms./Miss who stated we are all pathetic must be a city employee or a person who stands to gain off our tax dollars.
3:28 PM, February 01, 2016 - government makes it illegal to volunteer. AFSCME would put an inflatable rat in front of a church soup kitchen to get more union dues.
8:15 PM 1/31/16 All involved with Little League, girls softball and soccer should be included as city volunteers because they are associated with the children of Peru and 2 of them are supported by the towers in Washington Park which create city funds and their activities are on Peru city property.
A true volunteer,paid or unpaid is one who does a act for others to gain by, not for publicity.
Youth football and the BB Gun Club also should be involved as Peru volunteers. I am sorry if I have not recognized anyone but if there is a activity which you could help Peru organize I am sure they would consider it. Bicycle races and the creation of a Peru Band would be great and a Red Socking Fund for childrens gifts and a family Xmas dinner would be great. Are there any amateur photographers out there to take family Xmas pictures for those who cannot afford it. A easy to do activity and one worthwhile would be agricultural days where Peru children could be taken to near by farms to work with the animals and crops with a capable supervisor for a day a week etc. Another activity could be to have a retired journeyman take a group to a construction site to explain a building project and the tools utilized to build the. site
As long as union dues and purchased votes are at stake, local governments will continue to put up road blocks for volunteers.
Modern Labor Unions are all about increasing the cash they get from dues. They transfer this cash to high salaries for the union leadership and bribes (pardon me, donations) to campaign funds.
Exactly 4:00 pm. There is nothing worse than people who have to parade their "good deeds" and self promote shamelessly. Why is this necessary? May good people volunteer and avoid personal recognition or could not care less about getting it. In fact the people I do many things with don't even use the word "volunteer." We are just involved and seek nothing in return. I have lived a lot of places though and I have never heard of or thought about people going to city hall to "volunteer." Wrong place folks.
An example is the Rotary Clubs. LaSalle-Peru has three clubs and no one cares about city boundaries, politics or any city council or mayor aside from those who are involved. Again no one is stopping volunteers from doing good things in their community. Flower planting? Who cares. There are many things that you can be involved with. You just have to look in the right places. In the time it takes to cry on the blog you could already be doing something.
4:00 Feb. 1st
Your post is the reason people give up volunteering for Peru. Those who hung the "few" baskets, as you state, expected nothing in return except maybe a "thanks" for making Route 6 more appealing. They did it at no cost to the city except for the purchase of the flowers. Did the banners that now adorn Route 6 come at such a cheap cost and were they voluntarily hung? What I don't understand is why can other towns get so much done to make their towns beautiful but Peru seems to have an adversity to outside interference. By outside interference I mean anyone whose is not a part of our governing body (i.e. volunteers who are not a part of the "in" crowd).
Do you all realize the Rec Board, Zoming board, and Downtown development board are all volunteers ?
9:17 They got a thanks, formal recognition, certificate, facebook applause, many posts, photos. They just didn't get elected to office. I think the city provided flowers, shed, ladders, truck transportation, dirt and the planters. The group did a great job. What more do you want? Not sure what or who the in crowd is? This isn't class warfare, it is hanging flowers.
9:47 They volunteer to be on the committees but they are chosen by the mayor and approved by the aldermen.
But the Rec Board, Zoning Board, and Downtown Development board all funnel tax money to contractors in one way or another.
To hone in on the point of this conversation, lets look at this panels favorite discussion, Fireworks.
Would the City of Peru allow a fireworks event that was coordinated, paid for, and presented 100% by volunteers, with the possible exception of police for security and fire department for safety.
What I mean is no government officials (appointed or elected) or tax dollars being used.
9:47
So they can help their buddies and themselves !
11:27 AM, February 02, 2016 - absolutely not, because they would loose control and could not funnel tax money to friends.
11:27 Sure they would if you have trustworthy people running the event and raising money. Ottawa does it.
Lois, I was correct that you would not have posted my comment about the two former elected officials. Just shows how bias your blog is.
As it is you don't have to many people understand my point. have a good evening.
Just want the bloggers to know that the 4:26 PM comment was in regard to former aldermen who are now private citizens. You could criticize them when they were in office but they are no longer and have not been for some years. And beside that your comment was not true and very prejudicial.
11:04, what has that got to do with the fact that they volunteer their time away from families, getting put down by people like you, when was the last time you volunteered for something to make our city better?
Lois
My statement was not prejudicial it was correct and I can remember you blasting the city council for not acknowledging them more in the paper and at the meetings.
You just get upset when your cronies get called out.
I don't care if you post this. I know that, I have said my piece and, that I am correct.
It's irrelevant about the volunteers that few are posting about. It was a campaign promotion prior to the last upcoming election. Everybody in town was well aware of these tactics. A few others were also involved and they generally were supporting those that were involved running for office. Nothing more than that.
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