ROGER MONROE
The heated confrontation between Peoria Rivermen fans and the Civic Center Authority Board is over — for now. A short-term, one-year lease agreement with a second year option was reached and all God’s children said “Amen.”
Not everyone praised Ric Edgar, General Manager, for his leadership, or lack thereof. I do commend WMBD’s morning co-host, Greg Batton. He was on “thin ice” covering the controversy because his wife, Yvonne, chairs the Authority board. Trying to be neutral and objective had to be a challenge. While I’m not a listener to the WMBD morning program for obvious reasons, I’m told he was fair, for the most part, with his opinions and remarks.
While that controversy has been put to rest for at least one year, the failure to sell naming rights to the Arena remains. For 41 years, the Authority and the management firms for the Civic Center have been unable to get a sponsor. It seems strange that the Peoria Chiefs have sold naming rights to O’Brien Field and now to Caterpillar for Dozer Park, but still no name for the Civic Center. In Normal, Illinois State University sold naming rights to its Redbird Arena with Peoria-based CEFCU for $3.1 million over 10 years. State Farm has a 30-year agreement with the University of Illinois for naming rights to the Assembly Hall for $60 million.
Is it reasonable to assume the Peoria Civic Center has lost at least $10 million, if not more, by failing to sell naming rights for the past 41 years? Why hasn’t the Authority board held Ric Edgar accountable? Why hasn’t the City Council held the Authority board accountable for this financial scandal/failure? Every organization — governmental and non-governmental — typically holds annual meetings to set and review goals and objectives. At the top of the list of priorities should be the sale of naming rights.
The Civic Center survives in large measure by HRA taxes and the recent $20 million bond approved by the council. The council needs to flex its fiduciary responsibilities and demand action from ASM Global, the company that manages the Civic Center. If Bloomington can sell its arena to Grossinger Motors, and the Mark in Moline to Vibrant, and Dozer Park to Cat, why is Ric Edgar of ASM Global unable to sell the Peoria Civic Center?
EVERETT DIRKSEN ISN’T SMILING
Ask any student in the Peoria area who was Everett Dirksen and you’ll probably get the response, “Who?” Come to think about it, probably 90% of adults would say the same thing.
As a student of U.S. history, I was a big fan of the Pekin native. I loved to listen to the former U.S. Senator speak. Dirksen was an elocutionary style speaker. In 1959 he won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album, an album I own.
Dirksen was elected eight times as U.S. Representative and defeated the powerful Democrat Scott Lucas to become U.S. Senator in 1950. He was named minority leader of the Senate in 1959, a position held until his death in 1969. Dirksen, a Republican, was highly respected by the press and the public because of his personality, charm, wisdom and love of providing anecdotes and stories. He launched weekly press conferences with House Republican leader, Charles Halleck, called “The Ev and Charlie Show.” He was one of the leaders of the fight for passage of the “Civil Rights Act of 1964.” Dirksen declared that racial integration “was an idea whose time had come.” He supported cloture to end the filibuster allowing for final passage of the bill. His name, his life, his history, are best remembered at the Everett Dirksen Congressional Center on Broadway, not in New York, but in Pekin.
The Center includes collections of notable people like Bob Michel, Ray LaHood, and Harold Velde. All good Republicans.
Along comes former Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Kankakee. He’s known as the Clyde of “Bonnie (Liz Cheney) and Clyde” of the Republican Party. Kinzinger was a rising star in the Republican Party until he became an anti-Trumper regular on the radical left-wing cable channels. His downfall left him only with Liz and the Jan. 6 House Democrat hearings. Unlike Cheney who took a drubbing for re-election to virtual unknown Harriet Hageman of Wyoming, Kinzinger knew he had no chance against Peoria’s Darin LaHood, and chose to end his go-no-where political career. Today, he spends time entertaining himself on CNN.
They like him at the Dirksen Congressional Center. They accepted the donation of his “papers,” and $25,000. I doubt that would’ve been approved by Dirksen. I can hear him saying to Kinzinger, “Son, you embarrassed yourself, your Republican Party, and the 75 million Americans who voted for President Trump by the disgraceful things you said about your Commander-in-Chief as a member of the military service, including your effort to impeach him.”
As a member of the Air National Guard, Kinzinger swore to “obey the orders of the President of the United States,” as I did when I entered the U.S. Army. He didn’t. I did and so did Everett Dirksen. I don’t think the Senator in Heaven is smiling about his Congressional Center’s decision to accept the “papers” and donation.
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
In remembrance of my Mother and my late wife, Nancy, Mother of our children, and for all the Mothers of the world, past and present: “A Mother’s hug lasts long after she let’s go.” — Unknown
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!