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You might notice a little sand on the streets While winter
is nearly over, the end is not close enough. The snow and ice have
just kept coming. Round after round of plowing and laying down salt
has left the city low on salt late in the season.
"The city of Peoria is out," Alderman Dave Armbrust said. We've
been looking into it, but more salt may not be available, he said.
So, the city has a load of sand that will be mixed with the
remaining salt, if need be, he said.
The streets are peeling
Alderman Buzz Busby said that the slurry coat that was put down
on city streets last fall is now coming up.
Tremont Street's bad, Neitzel said.
They're all bad, Busby said. He said he first thought it was from
the snowplows, but he sees now that it isn't.
City engineer Mark Mathon said that he was not sure what, if any,
recourse the city might have to change the situation. A lot of what
is being seen now is some stripping away, but the intended purpose
of the slurry is to seal cracks and prevent roads from further
deterioration from freezing and thawing, and it has done that, he
said.
Alderman Rohlfs said, "It is not what we expected."
Mathon said, "I am disappointed that the surface has not held
uniformly." When asked, he said that typically you expect to see a
five- to seven-year lifespan before another maintenance procedure
would be done.
New head of development partnership begins familiarity with city
Alderman Kathy Horn introduced Joel Smiley, the new executive
director of the Lincoln & Logan County Development Partnership.
Smiley said that he plans to be meeting people here for the next
two months. He was looking forward to meeting with each of the
aldermen personally and spending a half-hour to an hour with each
one to discuss their thoughts on the future of economic development
in their area. He said that he would be back on Monday to discuss
more on what he would be doing.
On the issue of new developments
Alderman Buzz Busby had a bone to throw out for aldermen to chew
on. He suggested that the city consider adding a special fee to new
businesses building in enterprise zones.
The enterprise zone is a state program that provides various
forms of tax relief and incentives for businesses that either expand
or build new. Currently, the city's share of the offerings includes
property tax relief plus waivers on estimate permits, building
permits and sewer tap fees.
"It is not necessary under the state statute to waive sewer
taps," Busby said, "I think we should change our ordinance, charge
them the sewer taps, unless it is needed as an incentive, and that
should strictly be done on a case-by-case basis."
City attorney Bill Bates advised that, in his opinion, that could
not be changed for as long as the latest enterprise zone agreement
is in effect. I don't think you can backtrack on what you've already
agreed to in the enterprise zone agreement, he said.
With the extension that went to Elkhart and the Formosa plant in
Illiopolis a few years ago, Formosa agreed to handle and pay for the
next 10-year renewal, which lasts from 2007 to 2017.
Busby gave as a recent example, that with Starbucks alone, the
city will miss out on $10,000 to $12,000 in sewer tap fee. This
happens anytime a new business (builds) comes into the enterprise
zone, Busby said.
Busby said that the reason for his proposal is that the new
businesses to the west are using up the capacity of the wastewater
treatment plant expansion that the city did just a few years ago,
and the city is "not getting paid for any of those!" The expansion
cost $10 million.
Bates agreed that it may be possible to add a new sewer
improvement or repair fee that isn't covered by the enterprise zone
agreement.
Busby said that he would check with Phil Mahler, the Logan County
zoning director, before bringing it up again, adding, if he
did bring it up again.
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Property to be vacated to city
Prior to the meeting there was a public hearing. Lincoln property
owner Ted Presswood petitioned the city to vacate portions of 21st
and North College streets.
Bates said that the Lincoln Planning Commission met and approved
the request last week.
There were no objections or comments during the five minutes that
it took to open and close the hearing. The matter was placed on the
council's agenda to vote on next week.
Solid waste collection set
Alderman Benny Huskins announced that a white-goods (appliances)
collection is set to take place at the Logan County Fairgrounds on
April 22.
New fiscal year approaching
Budget talks begin on March 15. The new fiscal year starts on May
1.
Alderman Busby said, as a member of the finance committee: "May I
suggest that the CPI is 2.2. So I don't expect any line to be more
than 2.2, except perhaps the fuel line." His check on the futures
projected that oil is going to $120 a barrel, which would probably
increase the costs of gasoline to an average of $3.50 a gallon.
The city's fire, police and street department budgets would be
most affected.
A lot of emergency calls made on cells
Alderman Jonie Tibbs commented on some figures she saw in the 911
communications report. She observed that there were 1,869 calls in
the month of December and that 1,248 of those calls were from cell
phones.
Kudos
Alderman Huskins said that Bobbi Abbott, the Lincoln/Logan County
Chamber of Commerce executive director, who has announced her
pending resignation, should be recognized for all her efforts. "She
does a lot more behind-the-scenes work than people know," he said.
*
Alderman Neitzel wanted to note that wastewater treatment manager
Dave Kitzmiller wrote a letter to the EPA explaining the conditions
at the plant on specific dates as due to the high amount of
rainfall. His initiative could spare the city from having fines
assessed for being out of compliance during recent heavy rains.
*
Neitzel also credited the clerk's office for their work on sewer
bill collections. They turned over $11,202 to the collection agency.
They were able to collect $5,600 on non-foreclosures and $1,200 on
foreclosure properties. They're out there getting more tax dollars
to work for us, Neitzel said. "Your girls are doing a good job," she
told Melanie Riggs, city clerk.
*
Alderman Rohlfs sends her thanks to the street department for
taking the Christmas decorations down. With all the weather that
we've just had, it was really good of them to do that.
"That's a good crew we have there. They've been out quite a bit,"
Mayor Davis-Kavelman said.
*
Alderman Melody Anderson motioned for the council close its
public session and go into executive session to discuss employee
hiring and compensation, collective bargaining matters, and
performance of a public official.
Other matters already reported on
that were discussed on Tuesday:
[By JAN YOUNGQUIST]
Past related
articles:
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