Editor’s Note: Do you ever find yourself craving truly fresh produce for your meals and snacks? There’s nothing quite like a fresh tomato or fresh green beans to put on your dinner table. Did you ever consider that perhaps local restaurants and chefs might also like to have access to fresh produce to serve to you at their restaurants? Wouldn’t it be a good IDEA to find a way to connect area restaurants with local small farmers? Well, speaking of IDEAs, Peoria County Extension’s Director, Roger Larson has plenty to tell us about their IDEA Program and their upcoming conference.

The Peoria Chapter of IDEA (Initiative for the Development of Entrepreneurs in Agriculture) is beginning its third year of addressing the needs of those in Peoria County who are involved in an alternative agricultural enterprise. During those two years, lives have been impacted: nutritionally and economically. Read the rest of this entry »

With the holiday season fast approaching, there will be lots of opportunities to attend parties that offer alcoholic beverages. Many partygoers who decide to drink may then decide to drive a car afterwards, even though it is no secret that the roads are heavily policed around the holidays to nab intoxicated drivers. The Secretary of State’s office recorded more than 50,100 DUI arrests in 2005, and the Peoria police department has made 341 DUI arrests this year alone. Read the rest of this entry »

The City of Peoria’s Clean River Committee recently released sampling results from their River Study. The city is trying to develop a long-term plan to control sewer overflows and to protect the Illinois River. The study revealed that sewer overflows are only part of the problem. In their recent press release, City of Peoria Public Works Director David Barber said, “While the bacteria load from Peoria’s sewers will vary from one rainstorm to another, it’s clear from the sampling results that other sources account for most of the bacteria problem in the Illinois River.” He went on to say, “… reducing Peoria’s sewer overflows will reduce bacteria loads to the river. However, even if we eliminate sewer overflows, the Illinois River will not meet water quality standards for safe swimming.”

Key findings of the study:

1. Dissolved oxygen levels in the river appear adequate to support healthy fish and other aquatic life, even after sewer overflows.

2. High levels of bacteria that exceed the state’s stand for safe swimming are found in the Illinois River during both dry weather and storms that cause sewer overflows.

3. Smaller creeks that drain into the river and stormwater runoff also carry high bacteria levels that contribute to bacteria problems in the Illinois River.

4. During a June rainstorm, Peoria sewer overflows contributed approximately 5% of the fecal coliform bacteria load.

The Clean River Committee was formed in May 2007 to provide advice and recommend to the Peoria Department of Public Works as it develops a long-term plan to control combined sewer overflows and protect the Illinois River.

When I was on the Peoria County Board everyone agreed that it was very important to develop and maintain positive intergovernmental relationships. Matter of fact, it was an annual goal. The recent agreement for the Peoria County Sheriff’s Department to take over one aspect of security at the Greater Peoria Airport is a good example of intergovernmental cooperation.

Congratulations to Sheriff Mike McCoy and Director of Airports, Ken Spirito. The six year agreement is a win-win deal for the airport, the county and the Air National Guard.

The National Guard now assumes total responsibility for fire fighting and rescue operations.

You would think the agreement would be greeted with applause by everyone. Not so by reporter Dave Haney and the Journal. One of the sub-heads in the newspaper story said, “Safety officers may lose jobs after board approves agreement with police.” Not so, says Sheriff Mike McCoy who was obviously annoyed with the negative spin on a positive story by Haney. “No one is losing their jobs,” McCoy told me emphatically. The sheriff said he worked closely with the airport and the two unions involved to work out a smooth transition. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s a new vision for some public policy, and the country cries out for it. It doesn’t matter whether those cries come with tears of frustration, tears of sorrow, tears of joy, or tears from pollution.

Jobs can be created by promoting smart energy solutions to global warming. The planet can be helped without sacrificing people’s livelihoods.

Finding common ground for mutually beneficial results isn’t new, of course, but in a political climate made volatile – venomous — since Bill Clinton defeated the first President Bush in 1992, it’s refreshing.

Finding common ground for mutually beneficial results is effective, in downstate Illinois as well as nationwide.

Finding common ground for mutually beneficial results is accelerating – hopefully in the nick of time.

As the sign said at the mass demonstrations against the World Trade Organization in Seattle in 1999: “Teamsters and Turtles, Together at Last.” Read the rest of this entry »

n spite of the deluge, our twenty plus year old tent held up fairly well. Never mind that there were little drips of water occasionally making their way onto our sleeping bags. For the previous two days we could hardly believe how nice and warm and sunny it had been, for October. Not any more.

Breaking camp would be interesting. Rain beat down steadily and insistently, starting just before daybreak. Daybreak? The dawn could only manage to shift the leaden sky to a slightly less oppressive shade of gloomy. Breakfast and gear packing took place inside the tent. The monsoon intensified.

My wife’s Dad had served in the Army in the European theater in WW2. He used to say (with a chuckle) that since he’d spent a good part of the war sleeping in a tent, he’d pretty much had his fill of camping. I tried to explain that I never considered my military experience to be quite the same as “camping.” Her mother wasn’t quite sure what to make of it either. “What do you do out there? Do you fish?” Read the rest of this entry »

”A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Macbeth, 5. 5

That’s it? That’s all there is to this?

It was quite a let down at Peoria Police HQ last week. I was looking forward to months of increasingly bitter acrimony and accusations of racism as the city tried to prosecute a bunch of high school age kids for obstructing traffic. And by prosecute, I mean, “try to get them to pay the tickets.” Instead, the city is letting the Manual 22 (and Woodruff 10) avoid punishment for the egregious sin of walking down the road. Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to the penultimate month of a year that slipped right through our grasp! Thankfully, November ushers in a time of gathering and feasting on the fruit of our labor – a time when joy and cheer are, at the very least, manufactured. I guess you could say that’s a good thing – it’s a respite nonetheless. Read the rest of this entry »

According to my younger sources, phone books and dictionaries are passé. Information they provide is now checked online. I refute that claim, realizing no matter how eloquent my argument, it can’t be proven true or false. To explain further, “younger” is a relative term at best, depending on the age of the person doing the comparison. For me, younger refers to anyone younger than my children. I realize that standard of measurement must change eventually. Should I live long enough to have a 50 year old “child,” I must concede their age is moving right up the longevity ladder. But for now, anyone 34 years of age or less is younger. Read the rest of this entry »