According to an affidavit filed on behalf of the Detweiller Playground Trust, five parcels affected by the proposed change and sale of properties to O’Brien Steel, whose land is between Adams Street and the Detweiller Playground’s. Between Grant Street and Spring Street, the parcels are owned by the Illinois Waterway Project (3.61 acres), and Detweiller holdings (16.12, 3.75, 3.67 acres), and the small triangle (0.32 acres).
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The Peoria Park District Board unanimously approved North Valley residents’ request for further discussion on the proposed sale of Detweiller Playground property to O’Brien Steel, and the Illinois Attorney General’s office may revisit its position on the Court’s decision to change the terms of Thomas Detweiller’s will establishing the land “for such public recreation playground purposes for the Peoria community.”

The AG’s Charitable Trust Bureau had “no objection” to the proposal as decided in November by Circuit Judge James Mack (although records show the case remains open). However, area residents say the bureau’s Pat Esposito was given incomplete or inaccurate information, and at a teleconference with residents, Esposito said “he will follow up with the Park District  and Detweiller Playground Trust and meet with us again,” said Tim Herold of the Detweiller Marine Neighborhood Association.

Still to be clarified:

• O’Brien said it will buy about 8 acres, and the Trust said it will retain 11 acres, but the Trust’s December affidavit detailing its proposed purchase lists five parcels to be affected totaling 27.47 acres with no “carve out” exceptions.
• The same document twice notes the “vacated Caroline Street,” but that street — the neighborhood’s only remaining street with access and a view of the river from the bluff above Glendale Avenue to the water – can only be vacated by the City. Did the City agree to do so without input from the City Council, much less the public input?
• The Trust’s board of six trustees includes J.R. O’Brien, executive vice president of the family-owned business headquartered in Peoria with four other locations in Illinois and two in Wisconsin, a top-50 service center company, according to Metal Center News, with 2023 revenue of $235 million.

The Trust and O’Brien say he didn’t take part in negotiations for the proposed purchase, and recused himself from voting, but did his presence influence the other trustees? Also, none of the trustees seem to live in the North Valley, whose residents were not part of the discussion.

“When Komatsu was making changes on their campus, including vacating a portion of Grant Street, they had enough respect for the neighbors to invite us to the table beforehand,” Herold told The Community Word. “Why does a Japanese company show more respect than O’Brien Steel?”

WCBU reports O’Brien Steel vows to protect riverfront; neighbors alarmed by land sale

Financials: Did management actions or inactions lead to a purported cash crunch — what Joyce Blumenshine, a volunteer with the group, called “years of failures [by] the Trust to maintain the property”?

The affidavit claimed the marina became unsustainable with “declining public use,” but Illinois had 183,689 registered watercraft in 2024, according to the state Department of Natural Resources. Surely hundreds must be within 30 miles of the marina. Apart from the marina, the Trust’s most recent tax filing, submitted last summer, reported what seem to be substantial holdings: $1,422,507 in fair market value of all assets, including land and $327,502 in stocks and bonds

For now, “more complaints [to the Illinois Attorney General’s office] are expected to be filed,” Herold said.

And concerns aren’t limited to one neighborhood group. Blair Gambill of the Central Illinois Landmarks Foundation said the sale “isn’t going to do anything for our area.”