4/3/2017: Observer Report Peoria Heights Board of Trustees, May 02, 2017
Mayor Allen started the meeting at 6:31.
Announcements: Mayor Allen presented a plaque to long time village attorney Tom Trager for his service.
Trustees report on specific areas. Nothing to report for: Economic Development/Village Improvements; Police, Building/Property Maintenance; Fire; Public Works. Administration/Personnel, Trustee Cumming reported Peoria Heights Tower Park is now open Friday-Sunday 11am-7pm. It will open 11am - 9pm starting May 31.
The following were approved 6-0:

• moving departmental meetings to Wed. instead of Tues. in June, July and August
• purchased a John Deere Utility Vehicle for $7833.16
• approved Peoria Heights Congregational Church using tower park for their Worship in the Park events on June 4 and Sept 20.
• approved bid from RA Cullinan for sealcoating in the city for $118,936.80
• approved bid from Midstate Asphalt Repair for Spray Patching in the city for $36,372.50
• approved bills

The following were approved 5-1:

• purchased Holmatro Rescue add-ons for fire department for $15,499. (Mariscal voted nay)
• purchased Bullard Eclipse LDx Bundle for $14,590 (Mariscal voted nay)

 Mayor Allen presented the first and second winners of the now annual Mary Reiter Love of Community award. The 2016 winner was Rob Matheson, and the 2017 winner was Roger Larson.
Mayor Allen presented awards of appreciation to all board members retiring: Trustee Cumming, Trustee Fuller, and Village Clerk Musselman.
Charles Schneider, Class of 2018 President at Peoria Heights High School, presented a thank you to Mayor Allen on behalf of the Peoria Heights High School Student Body. Mayor Allen was given a plaque.
The Board of Trustees thanked and presented to Mayor Allen for his service to the Peoria Heights community.
Meeting adjourned at 7:35.
 
All new board members were sworn in, including Mayor Phelan, Trustee Goetz, and Trustee Mariscal.
 
 Observer Charles Schneider, Peoria Heights High School, Class of 2018, President
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information:  Cheryl Budzinski 309/253-9594; c_budzinski@hotmail.com
 
Greater Peoria League of Women Voters Event, Sustainable Neighborhoods
6 – 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 6, 2017   

3/25/2017: The terms of the Board members will be adjusted so that there will be four ending each year. The department will look at how repeal and replacement of the ACA will affect people is this area and how state funding or lack of funding of Public Aid will affect recipients in Peoria County.

​--- Elliott Murray (meeting date: 2/13/17)

10/12/2017:            All members of the Election Commission were present at this meeting.  In going over the month's bills, they discussed the excessive water bill.  The September bill was for 30,000 gallons of water!  It seems they have been paying for the utilities for the whole building, even though they are leasing only a percentage.  Director Tom Bride will be talking with the County who is working with the owner.  The Election Commission should get a credit back from the owner.
            The budget which will be presented to the County Board has six full time employees and one vacancy.  Tom asked for another full time person, but was granted .6 (24 hrs/wk).  The County will give a raise of 1.04% to all unrepresented staff.  Mr. Bartolo felt that this was too low for the hard-working staff and recommended a 2% raise.  This was passed as a budget amendment.  Tom Bride believes more money could be given the staff within the budget.  The Commission's attorney says they are researching how much discretion there is.  Elected officials have more discretion.  The attorneys are looking into how much commissions have.

​4/14/2017: Local Study
League of Women Voters of Greater Peoria, IL
 
LWVGP studied ownership of the water distribution system beginning in early 2016 and determined its position in 2017.
​

3/13/2017
​FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information:  Cheryl Budzinski 309/253-9594; c_budzinski@hotmail.com
 
Greater Peoria League of Women Voters March 15, 2017 event,
Do you have questions about Charter Schools? The League has a position.

​​8/19/2017: Spotlight: Higher city taxes? Fewer services? Buy water company instead?

By Gale Thetford
Peoria Journal Star Letter to Editor
  
The Peoria City Council is facing dire budgetary challenges. From my time as a council member, I empathize with the difficult choices facing the Council, especially with the city budget being squeezed from many sides — a bankrupt state, an uncertain local economy, uncontrolled pension costs, declining reserves, and already high local taxes.
I remember agonizing over how to maintain operations and city services even when there was no budget deficit. Now City Hall has a $7.9 million shortfall.
The Journal Star editorial of Aug. 10 outlined the city’s financial troubles accurately. There aren’t any good choices for a city also facing increasing demands for police protection, road repairs and other important services.
In looking for a way out of this budgetary morass, the Council should avoid higher taxes on Peoria homeowners, shoppers and businesses. The Council must be creative. The city’s financial future depends on it.

​3/18/2017
​Spotlight: Publicly owned water company makes sense

 
By Cynthia Hsieh
Peoria Journal Star Letter to the Edior
Mar 18, 2017 
  
For the past several years, Illinois-American Water Co. has added ammonia to chlorine, forming chloramines, as our water disinfectant.

On Illinois-American’s website, it states that water with chloramines is safe to drink, though it is not to be used in fish tanks or for dialysis patients. If chloramines kill fish, would people ingest it knowingly, even at very low levels?
​
Without getting into which is more mutagenic, unlike chlorine, chloramines are significantly harder to remove by the consumer. Chloramines in water cannot be removed by boiling, aerating or reverse osmosis alone, but rather need sufficient contact time with a high-quality granular activated carbon filter. Some may choose to neutralize chloramines with Vitamin C tablets for bathing or citrus fruits for drinking water.

Letter: What do other communities know about protecting their water source?

 Peoria Journal Star Oct 22, 2017 
  
More than 85 percent of the U.S. population is served by publicly owned water systems. Area communities that own their water systems are Morton, East Peoria, Peoria Heights, Washington, Creve Coeur and Springfield.

​On Aug. 24, the League of Women Voters sponsored a forum at which Tim Jeffers, East Peoria councilman and water commissioner, Springfield Mayor James Langfelder, and Ted Meckes, that city’s water division manager, spoke on how their publicly owned water systems are managed.

​June 13, 2017 - ​ The Peoria County Board of Election Commissioners met for their regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, June 13.  For the first time, Chief Judge Paul Gilfillin sat in on the meeting.  The Board approved training for both Director Tom Bride and his assistant Elizabeth Gannon.  Tom will be attending an Annual Conference where he will gain recertification.  Elizabeth will receive four days of training on new software.
   The Governor has indicated that he will sign automatic registration into law (he had not yet as of this writing).  Tom Bride is looking forward to receiving registrations electronically instead of on paper.  This will lead to cheaper processing and fewer errors, omissions, etc.

May 16, 2017 - The annual audit report was reviewed with nothing extraordinary of note.

• The manager reports improved sales volume & inquiries for lots with a very slow start this year, with remarkable progress recently. 
• He reported serious erosion issues as the result of recent rain events. The City of Peoria has help evaluate storm drains and staff has indicated the need to re-engineer many on the site.