Peoria County Board Observer Report

The Peoria County Board held its regular meeting May 12th with all present but Member Pastucha and two members participating via phone-Members Elsasser and Rieker.  
   A proclamation recognizing the 36th Annual Gerald Brookhart Arts in Education Spring Celebration began the meeting. Monica Hendrickson, Peoria City County Health Department Administrator’s tenth anniversary with the department was also recognized.
    There were no Citizen’s Remarks.  
   The Consent Agenda passed on a vote of 17-0 without discussion.  Items approved included:

• An intergovernmental agreement with the City of Peoria and the Health Department establishing the Peoria Health Equity Fund.  The county and city commit to providing $600,000 each for four fiscal years to address health inequities and the social determinants of health.  Federal ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds will be utilized.
• Acceptance of two grants to support PCAPS activities.
• Land surveying contract.
• Infrastructure, road improvement, or matching funds for projects on Sheridan Road and Cedar Hills Drive.
• Courthouse fire alarm inspection contract.
• County jail HVAC improvements.

     The regular agenda consisted of several items and all were approved following questions and discussion.

• A special use request for a private landing strip in Kickapoo Township.
• One-time ARPA funded bonuses for county employees.
• Pay increases for the County Clerk, Treasurer, Sheriff, County board members, committee chairs and the board chair.  Increases were small and will not again increase for multiple years.
• A resolution recommending the construction of a new Health and Human Services Campus on the property currently occupied by the City/County Health Department. The Health Committee reviewed more than thirty potential sites and chose the current site.  All committee meeting notes and scoring information on the potential sites can be found here.
• Suspension of the Rules to permit extension of the Declaration of Emergency due to COVID-19 in the county.

   Two items of note during Miscellaneous and Announcements:

• Member Sharon Williams reported that activity continues to reinvigorate the currently stalled Hanna City Rail-to-Trail effort.
• County Administrator Scott Sorrell reported on anticipated significant electricity rate increases this summer. Chairman Rand requested that appropriate experts in this area be asked to update the board at the June meeting.

 Jim Runyon, Observer
   Link to the meeting agenda and video are here:
   Agenda
   Video