When I decided to complete my education at Eastern Illinois University, I based that decision on three criteria:

1. EIU had a good journalism program.

2. Many of my friends were going there.

3. And, it had a reputation for being a party school.

Well, my friends and I got a good education. And, we drank. We drank a lot. And we didn’t confine our alcoholic shenanigans to the insides of our dorm rooms and apartments.

I found myself thinking of my college days this past week as I read and commented on the events outside the Sigma Nu fraternity on the night of September 19. I’ll recap for those few Community Word readers who spent the latter half of September hiding under rocks: Read the rest of this entry »

About a month ago, I wrote about a change in Illinois law that would lessen the likelihood that municipalities would have to hold primary elections. Here’s how it works:

Under the rules in effect for the two previous city elections, a primary was needed when there were three candidates for mayor and/or district council seats and when at least 11 people were running for at-large council positions. The way things stand now, five candidates for mayor or district council seats triggers the need for a primary election. Only when 21 people file petitions for at-large seats is a primary required.

As it turns out, Peoria’s home rule powers makes it possible to retain the previous system by referendum. The issue of placing the question on the November 4 ballot will be made by the time this column is appears in print. Read the rest of this entry »

Listen to talk radio these days, and one gets the impression that the Republican Party is the party of the working class. It is the Democratic Party that caters to the whims of the rich, liberal elites, they say.

Listen to it long enough, and you might begin to believe it.

But if you saw the spectacle in Peoria last month when President Bush stopped by to visit, all such notions vanish.
Read the rest of this entry »

I loathe payday loan joints.

The people who own them are the scum of the Earth. They prey on those in need. And I am sick of looking at them.

I am sick of seeing them pop up, like malignant warts, all over Peoria, especially in the older sections of town, populated often where the most financially vulnerable live.

And now, the Peoria City Council has considered a 180-day moratorium on any new establishments of this sort. The details, from the Peoria City Hall: Read the rest of this entry »

You know, for a moment there last month, I had hope.

The administrators who run Peoria School District 150 wanted to cut 45 minutes out of the schedule at all of Peoria’s primary schools. They also wanted to fire part-time teachers of music and art. The savings is about $650,000. They rushed to get the change on the agenda for the May 5 school board meeting.

Thanks to a lack of media coverage at that time, it looked like it was going to be approved.

Then I ran into some friends, who were livid. I wrote about it on PeoriaPundit.com. Then other bloggers wrote about it. Then WHOI picked up the story. Some school board members showed up at a meeting of concerned parents.

And for a while it looked like the stink being raised would prompt the school board to wise up and find some other way to make the cuts they needed (the Edison Schools contract project and the bloated administration itself come to mind).

And that’s how things stood when I submitted last month’s City Beat column. Read the rest of this entry »

According to an article that was carried by the Associated Press, Moody’s Investors Services doesn’t think much of the future of GateHouse Media stock. The agency cut GateHouse’s corporate family rating to “B2” from “B1.” Moody’s also “reduced its probability of default rating one notch” (whatever that means) to “B3” from “B2.” Both ratings remain at the non-investment grade, or “junk” level.

In other words, if you now own stock in GateHouse Media Inc., you own junk bonds.

Nice. Real nice.

At this point, I’d rather own a wad of Confederate States of America cash. At least some collector might want to pay me something for it. Read the rest of this entry »

I listened to a hour or so of Sean Hannity on 1470 WMBD this afternoon as I ran errands before work. And as usual, I had to scratch my head at the man’s ability to pass off pure race-baiting as investigate political reporting.

Good Lord.

Were it not for the fact that I knew better, I would assume that Barack Obama was an armed militant who wanted to round up all the white people and put them into camps. Read the rest of this entry »

Try to contain your grief, Community Word readers. Red Zin, the upscale eatery in the Twin Tower’s building in downtown Peoria, is going to close. I know. I was stunned too. I think I’ve eaten there, oh, I dunno, three times in my life. The last time was some sort of political function. I liked the place, kinda. The food was top notch, and the place was swimming with muckety-mucks. A couple of them remain good sources for inside information to this day. I also fondly recall suit-and-tie-guy who couldn’t keep his eyes averted from my platonic dining companion’s cleavage. Hey, we’re all human.

The newspaper article on the closure implied that the joint just couldn’t compete with all those new restaurants opening up on the other side of the river next to Super Wal-Mart. It’s nonsense, of course. If you are inclined to dine at Red Zin, you ain’t gonna be lured away by the corporate-style rustic charm of Corky’s Ribs & BBQ.

The sad fact is that restaurants open and close all the time. A lot of times, they are not well capitalized, which means they ran out of money. Sometimes the owners just get burned out because it is damned hard work. Sometimes, the owners are crooks. Other times, the owners just don’t know what the hell they are doing. Some eateries close because they no longer serve their purpose as tax write-offs.

The result is that most people have fond memories of their favorite joints.

The Red Zin story got me thinking of places I’ve eaten in days gone by.

Heritage House: Of course, there are a lot of chain eateries that lay out a big buffet. But the Heritage House — located on North Knoxville just north of Pioneer Parkway — was called a smorgasbord. I grew up thinking that this was fine dining, probably because my folks were especially concerned that my siblings and I dressed nice and were on our best behavior. And we were, because we didn’t want our parents to turn the car around and take us home. The food was great, and there was lots of it. The place had two levels, and a lot of wood. I remember that the guy who played Salty Sam on afternoon television was the host. I thought that was just the neatest thing in the world. When I got older I realized it wasn’t an upward career move for him. They even had a GIFT SHOP, and we drove Mom and Dad nuts trying to get them to waste money on the junk in there.

Leonardo’s Pizza: Yeah, I had to mention this place, and I am speaking of the location at the corner of War Memorial Drive and Wisconsin. Leonardo’s was cool. Not only did it serve the best friggin’ pizza in Peoria, there was a tree in the middle of the poorly lit joint. And fake grapes hanging from the walls. More than one after-school function ended at Leo’s. And here’s a bit of local history for the record: One of their cooks was a friend of the family. And we would call to see if she was on duty before we ordered carry out, because she always loaded up our pizzas with extra ingredients.

Lums: To be truthful, Lums’ food never really moved me. Nothing wrong with it. It was … OK. The Ollie Burgers were tasty. But that’s it. What was cool about Lums — and I am speaking of the location on North Knoxville south of Nebraska — was that it was open all night, and it was a blast to watch the drunks and druggies. Another Lums’ claim to fame — it was one of the last sit-down, family eateries that hired union workers.

Pizza De-Lite: I’m not sure I’m spelling that name correctly. It was located on Abington Hill just north of Woodruff High School. Sometimes on a Friday night, Dad would call in a carry-out order and return with a huge pie, covered with wrapping paper. Dad and I would get mushrooms on our half. We ate it as we tried to stay awake to watch “Creature Feature” at midnight on WRAU (those used to be the call letters form Channel 19) To this very day, I compare carry out pizza to the wonderful taste of Pizza De-Lite. I don’t remember exactly when it closed. The store ended up moving to Sunnyland, breaking my heart.

Famous Recipe Fried Chicken: Chicken joints come and go here in Peoria. I fondly remember this one for one reason: Chicken BBQ sandwiches. Oh, sweet mama, these were good. Obviously homemade and smothered in a BBQ sauce that was distinctly different than the BBQ sauce that usually smothered chicken. There were two locations. The first was a sit-down joint located at the corner of West Nebraska and North Knoxville, in the same oft-remodeled building that now houses a second-rate Chinese take-out joint and one of those stupid title loan places. The other place was on Wisconsin and Forrest Hill, across the street from Von Steuben School. Once, feeling myself deprived of BBQ chicken for far too long, I gathered my allowance and walked from my house at the corner of Frye and Maryland to the Famous Recipe on Knoxville. I plopped down a handful of coins and ordered a sandwich and a water, knowing I would have to do without comic books that week.

Jimbo’s Jumbo: Oddly enough, I was a college graduate — actually several years out of college — before I tasted the best sandwich that Peoria has ever produced, the Italian Steak Sandwich from Jimbo’s. To this day, I regret those years in which I could have enjoyed the occasional Jimbo’s Jumbo, but never did. This place was located inside an impossibly tiny brick building at the corner of West Richmond and Knoxville. It was actually located in the tiny corner of the Burger King parking lot there. I used to stop there and stand at the counter and watch the cook/counter-person make these great sandwiches. In addition to the juiciest, most savory Italian beef, they made a meatball sandwich that they actually put on the grill, then covered with a tasty marinara sauce. They also has a great sausage sandwich. And they could make a half and half sandwich that combined multiple tastes. Jimbo’s abandoned Peoria, for reasons I never learned. I found myself in Pekin one day and passed a new Jimbo’s Jumbo while trying to make a quick getaway out of there. I literally made a U-turn and was late to my next appointment because I HAD to buy a combo. What a gross disappointment. It wasn’t fresh, it wasn’t juicy and it wasn’t spicy. Feh. Bland. Like everything else in Pekin. How fitting.

Pepe Taco’s: I grew up at this restaurant. This place had two locations, one on Western Avenue and the other on North University, a half-block south of Pioneer Parkway. Which one we ate at depended on exactly where one specific employee was working. They had the one manager, and it seemed like the location he wasn’t working at the time was the one with the worst service. Apparently, the owner kept moving the guy back and forth depending on the emergency. Anyway, the food was great. It was just standard Americanized Mexican Food, but very well made. Dad was fond of the chili, which was unlike chili you could get anywhere in Peoria. My brother Eric gorged on tacos. I usually ordered the combination plate. When the last Pepe Taco closed, he had a card in his pocket that would have given him a free taco if he had ordered just one more. He swears that he will one day find the last owner and make him give him that one free taco.

A&W Root Beer: This is the one and only true national chain restaurant on this list. I am adding it because it was the coolest thing, as a kid, to actually sit in the car and order your food. And then they brought it to you, served in this nifty silver-colored tray that hung onto your car window. I grew to love the chili dog with half chili and half onion. But I really, really loved the frosty mug of root beer. Back in the day, a fountain mug of A&W was a thick and foamy and delicious. Not at all like that stuff that’s posing as A&W in the plastic bottles at the grocery store. There were two of ‘em here in Peoria. One was located on North Prospect near East Tripp, I believe. The other was on Meadowbrook, just off of War Memorial Drive. The Prospect located seemed to employ cute girls from Woodruff High School, a deliberate hiring decision on the part of the boss, I think. Of course, the girls at the Meadowbrook were pretty neat, too. And this one was open year-round, and their walls opened up like a garage door during the summer months. Of course the corporate culture came along and destroyed little root beer stands like this.

Much like baseball managers, city managers are hired to be fired. But unlike baseball managers, who often lose their jobs when expensive free agents hired by the owners, city managers are dismissed for reasons that often are not apparent. If the team’s losing and their play is stinking up the place, there’s no hiding that fact. In city government, however, there are conflicts behind the scenes that sometimes don’t play out on the public access cameras. This is the case here in Peoria. Peoria City Manager Randy Oliver has tendered his resignation, but is going to stick around a month to provide some guidance to the interim city manager, whoever that is. As of this writing, the council took a straw vote in an executive session and decided to make an offer to someone who is, apparently, outside city government. The name of this person will be revealed only after details of the contract are agreed upon by all parties. The council will have to schedule a vote in an special meeting before it’s official.

There’s been some squawking on blogs and the Journal Star Website about why Oliver is getting about $132.000 in severance pay. Apparently, this is appropriate under his contract, which says he’s due severance if he resigns after being asked to by a majority of the council.
Did that happen?

I do not know. And THAT is what makes this an unusual event. Officially, employment decisions are supposed to be kept confidential. But in the recent past, these discussions usually showed up in the media a day later. One of the council members — or perhaps a city employee — would go the media and try to derail consensus decisions with their one-sided account of events. It is a testament to this current council under Mayor Jim Ardis’ leadership that this isn’t happening.

Because of this silence, I have no idea which six or more of the eleven council members no longer support him. It needs to be stated that the city manager of a city the size of Peoria is essentially the CEO of a multi-million corporation with hundreds of employees. This is NOT a 9-5 job, and anyone willing to take the job without protection in the form of a decent severance package is no one you would want to hire anyway.

I’ve heard comments comparing Oliver to Kay Royster, who continued to collect her $184,800 annual salary for the 11 months remaining on her contract after she was ousted as superintendent of Peoria School District 150. For one thing, Oliver’s severance is spelled out in his contract. Oliver didn’t openly disrespect board members by encouraging members of the community to disrupt city council meetings. Oliver isn’t leaving the city in financial tatters. If anything, he argued most recently for less spending that the council ended up putting in the budget. And Royster waited out all 11 months on her contract before she took a new job. Oliver is a finalist for a county administrator job in Florida, and if he doesn’t get that job, I’m willing to bet it won’t take him 11 months to find a new one. And he’s not going to sue the city for discrimination.
I’ve always found Randy Oliver to be a very personable man who did his job in a very professional manner. Unlike with previous managers, I never got the idea that the fix was in, namely that items were brought before the council with knowledge beforehand that there were six votes in favor. Oliver presented the council with what he or his staff thought the best course of action. While he argued in favor of that action, he presented multiple sides to issues, and adapted as best as possible when directed to do otherwise. From his pained facial expressions, I sometimes got the idea he wished council members would just hush up and take his advice. I have sometimes shared that sentiment.

He was a fast learner. I was often impressed with the knowledge the non-Illinois native had about policies and policies and procedures here in Illinois.
On a personal level, I’ll miss having him around. Oliver went out of his way to make sure I and other “citizen journalists” got the answers to the questions we asked. When a suggestion was made that wireless Internet access in the council chambers would help all members of the press file our stories, Oliver took charge and made sure access was available.

One knock against Oliver is that he didn’t direct staff very well, and was slow to recognize problems with their work. The recent health insurance contracts are examples. Most members of the council were shocked that staff recommended contracts that would have cost the city $1.2 million a year over the next three years. Council members had to pry bits and pieces of information from Parsons and a consultant to get the figures that essentially confirmed their suspicions that the staff was overlooking key details so that the council would approve the health plan the employees preferred, not the one that saved taxpayers the most money. Parsons resigned under pressure, and there were those on the council grumbling that Oliver bore some of the blame.

I think whatever community ends up hiring Oliver will be glad they did. But that’s not to say I’m critical of the decision to ask him to leave. It’s the job of the city manager to live up to the expectations of the city council. If that wasn’t happening, it was time for Randy Oliver to leave. As a professional public servant, Oliver knows this very well.

Victory on the East Bluff

Peoria School District 150 will build a new East Bluff “birth-through-8th-grade” school on the site of the current Glen Oak School. The exact configuration has not been determined.

It is, obviously, a huge victory for the people who live in and near the East Bluff who fought for this outcome from the very instant years ago when District 150 announced it had made a deals with the Peoria Park District and the Peoria Housing Authority that would lead to building this school inside Glen Oak Park.

Residents correctly recognized that by moving the neighborhood school onto the other side of Prospect and essentially out of the neighborhood, the entire East Bluff would be destabilized. It would create vacant shell of a building in the heart of the East Bluff, to both symbolize and perpetuate the decay.

Instead, the East Bluff is getting a brand new school that can serve as a center of activity for everyone.

I’m waiting to find out how much the City of Peoria had to kick in to sweeten the pot for District 150 to make what should have been a no-brainer of a decision. It matters not. Whether it’s federal dollars or city-generated property taxes, it’s ALL taxpayer money, and building a school is as essential a government service as it gets.

But the East Bluff residents cannot let up on District 150. The exact design of this new site has not been determined. Vigilance is needed to ensure that accommodations are made within the design to make sure this is building is available for use by the community year round and after classes are dismissed. Policies MUST be put into place to make sure the doors are not locked when neighbors want to use the facilities for events that promote healthy neighborhoods. Vague assurances and good intentions are NOT enough.

Moving on up

I’m the Peoria Pundit again. Actually, “Peoria Pundit” is the name of my blog, not me. And there were those who questioned my right to use that name when I moved out of the city several years ago. My defense was that I still had a Peoria mailing address and that I was a still a resident of Peoria County. The words were hollow to me even then. I knew that I lost the moral right to complain about the state if the city was I wasn’t a resident. But I put on a straight face and kept at it.

Well, I’m back. I’ve rented a nice apartment in a historic home on North East Randolph. Not only am I a resident of the city, I’m a resident of the West Bluff, and even more specifically, I’m a resident of what is one of the most politically active neighborhoods in Peoria. Technically, as a renter, I do not quality for membership in the Randolph-Roanoke Residential Association, And even if I did qualify, I probably couldn’t afford the dues. But I’ve been told that I am welcome at meetings, as long as I understand my role would be to “work” on behalf of the neighborhood.

Yeah. Sure. Considering some of the legendary posts I’ve made about some of my new neighbors, I wonder how welcome I would be.

I already have a few gripes. I have to pay $10 per year for the right to park on my own street. I gather this is to keep the riff-raff out and make sure that only the people who live here have access to limited parking spaces. It also puts the kibosh on the bacchania I had planned for ever other Saturday (NOTE TO LANDLORD: Just kidding).

With the start of the new year, I thought it appropriate to take a look back as some of the news that caught my eye during 2007:

The race to replace Congressman Ray: First, U.S. Representative Ray LaHood’s decision to retire caught everyone by surprise. He was one of the first GOP members of the House to call it quits this election cycle because, as LaHood himself says, it’s no fun to be a member of a minority party. It threw re-election plans for a loop throughout the 18th District. State Rep. Aaron Schock essentially blew off LaHood’s suggestion that everyone wait before endorsing anyone. But Schock sprung into action. Behaving like he was following a pre-planned strategy, Schock worked the phones and contacted all party leaders and got their endorsements.

From the moment he decided to run, Schock has gone out of his way to make it appear that he’s the inevitable nominee. The other two guys in the race - former Peoria City Council member John Morris and Heartland Partnership CEO Jim McConoughey aren’t playing along with this scheme, however. They both have put up viable campaigns. And Aaron hasn’t helped his own cause with numerous foot-in-mouth incidents. Yes, it’s true: He really did suggest selling nuclear weapons to Taiwan. Yes, he really did get kicked out of county party headquarters for running a national campaign out it (it’s a campaign spending violation). Yes, he really did send out literature suggesting LaHood as endorsing him, when LaHood isn’t. It’s really making Schock look out to be too immature for the job.

There wasn’t a shortage of folks considering seeking the Democratic nomination. But in the end, it was as hard getting a viable Democratic candidate as it usually is in the 18th. Dick Versace - the guy who coached B.U. more than two decades ago - tossed his hat in the ring. But he took his hat out of the ring a few months later, too late for anyone to get into the primary. There are some folks reconsidering their decision to not be considered.

A big gulp of racism: Black people weren’t getting inside the 4 a.m. bars in downtown Peoria. In fact, there were often very large numbers of them hanging outside the bars. Some complained the bars’ rather silly dress codes were keeping them out. Some have suggested that occupancy rules were keeping them out. Sure. Whatever. In any case, large groups of black people loitering in Peoria isn’t exactly conducive to promoting convention trade. Eventually, the Peoria City Council added one bar to the 4 a.m. liquor zone. It’s owned by a black person and caters to black people. This is supposed to lure some of the loiterers there.

The whole mess made Peoria look bad, but I can’t really call it racism when the city gives a minority business owner a coveted 4 a.m. license. Of course, the puritans in Peoria were aghast. If the latest a bar could stay open in Peoria was 2 a.m., they would complain that any bar was allowed to stay open past midnight. Hell, these folks are upset that grocery stores can stay open on Sunday. In my humble opinion, the city’s decision works, even if it is inelegant, and codifies what I think is a form of racism being practiced by some of these bars. But I don’t want the city putting itself in a position of trying to decide where and when some business is discriminating. Let the state and federal courts do their jobs for a change.

A study in contrast: A passenger in a car on Interstate 74 is killed by a brick tossed from an overpass. A Bradley University student died in a fire started by his roommates. These two stories are related, in that they happened at approximately the same time frame, and the public linked them. As soon as news of Katrina Kelly’s death hit the streets on July 14, people were calling it cold-blooded and calculated murder. This was the general public’s conclusion before anyone knew anything about how or why this happened. But when Danny Dahlquist died on Aug. 12 in a fire set by his roommates, the public almost immediately seemed to clamor for forgiveness and mercy. Rakiem Campbell pleaded guilty in Peoria County Circuit Court to vehicular endangerment in exchange for a 15-year sentence - the maximum under law - for tossing the concrete block that killed Kelly. As part of the deal, a murder charge was dismissed. Much of the public considers the sentence too lenient.

Nicholas Mentgen, Ryan Johnson, David Crady, Daniel Cox are still awaiting trial on relatively minor arson and fireworks possession charges for their lethal, drunken prank. Their sentences, even if they go to trial, will almost certainly not approach the ten years that Campbell is likely to serve. I’m guessing if these people serve any time in prison at all, it will be condemned by some for not being lenient enough.

So what are the differences? Well, the roommates knew their victim and tried to save his life when their realized their prank went wrong. In Campbell’s case, this was just the last in a long list of violent behavior. He didn’t know his victim, and there’s no evidence he expected anything other than harm to come to someone.

But there’s another difference: Campbell is black. The BU students were white. Only a fool would think these cases are identical. But only a fool would think that race played no role in the differing reactions by the public and the Peoria County State’s Attorney’s office.

Kellar Branch re-opens to Pioneer Rail Corp: It’s over folks. The Keller Branch rail line - which runs from the river to waaaaaaay out in North Peoria beyond Pioneer Parkway, is NOT coming down. Period. End of story. The Surface Transportation board has had its the final say. Pioneer Rail Corp (who the City of Peoria wanted to kick off the line) and Central Illinois Railroad (who the city hired to oversee the line until it’s demolished) has long since turned on the city and wants to be the lone provider. The folks who wanted to rip out this line and replace it with - I kid you not, a walking/biking trail - are flabbergasted they aren’t getting their way. They are just soooooo used to the fact that developers usually get what they want in Peoria.
Manual 22: Twenty two students at Manual and ten at Woodruff High School were given jaywalking tickets. And it was a huge story for about a month. Community activist Rita Ali, who witnessed the incident, said students were not walking down middle of the street. Police Chief Steve Settingsgaard stood by his officers, who reported they were jaywalking. The whole thing collapsed, and the tickets were dismissed after the students attended assemblies. The vehemence at which white people wanted these kids punished surprised me, as did as the insistence by black people that the police are targeting them in a deliberate effort to keep black people down. I don’t buy the conspiracy theories. And I am also fairly certain that black drivers are more likely to be stopped that white drivers. But I’ve also talked to whites and blacks who have encountered the aggressive, confrontational style of jaywalking that so frightens people.

GateHouse Media buys the Journal Star, other central Illinois Newspapers: It took them little time to offer buyout agreements to veteran staffers. They’ve refused to replace reporters who quit to take other jobs or those who were promoted to fill vacancies. They laid off support personnel. I’ve lost track of the number of lost positions. In my humble opinion, I’ve noticed a decline in enterprise reporting, shorter articles and bylined articles that seem more like press releases. I think it’s due to having an overworked staff. GateHouse Media has also bought out newspapers in Galesburg, Springfield, Lincoln, not to mention local weeklies in the Times Newspapers chain. This includes my old stomping grounds, the Peoria Times-Observer. If this continues, Peorians can forget about being able to get quality print journalism from their one and only newspaper of record. Putting out a quality newspaper requires people with enough time and resources to do the job. GateHouse seems intent on gutting the paper to nothingness.

District 150 caves: Last year, District 150, the Peoria Park District and the Peoria Housing Authority made a behind-closed-doors agreement that would have shuttered Glen Oak School and led to the construction of a huge new school on land adjacent to Glen Oak Park. Essentially, the park would become the school’s de facto playground. The nearby community freaked, because they didn’t want their kids walking that far and across Prospect Avenue; they didn’t want to lose any more park land to development; and they didn’t want to see GOS shuttered, as it would continue to destabilize the neighborhood. After a long and bitter fight, the park board declined to participate, but not before the allegedly cash-strapped school district paid top dollar prices to buy some property on Prospect. THIS YEAR, the district did it right. Rather than have no public input, they had public input on steroids. They held a series of public hearings, moderated by an outsider, and ended up deciding to follow the advice they were given consistently at these hearings: Build TWO schools to replace the total of four schools that will be closed. The only question that remains is where the East Bluff School will be built.

Predictions:

1. There will be new taxes coming into Peoria City Hall’s coffers to pay for additional firefighters, additional police officers and other projects. City Council members are sick of saying “no” to reasonable requests for sidewalks and lighting projects (among other things). This new tax revenue might come from taxes on liquor and on drive-thru fast food (it’s an idea I heard once proposed to pay for litter cleanup). There might, perhaps, be some sort of public service fee attached to utility bills, one based on usage, that might get institutions like BU and the hospitals to pay their fair share for the services they receive.

2. There will be BIG changes proposed for Peoria School District 150. At least, there will be if they don’t get their heads out of the clouds and apply some common sense to their decision making.

3. Peoria School District 150 will pick the current Glen Oak School site as the location for its new East Bluff school.