Business as usual includes 2026 budgets and infrastructure improvements — millions of dollars of your money. Take a look.

Peoria County Board

Peoria County Board met Sept. 11 with all members present, and unanimously approved a six-week paid paternal leave benefit for all qualifying county employees. Zoning requests were approved in Kickapoo, Rosefield and Hollis townships.

Highlights of the unanimously approved consent agenda included:

• Renaming County Courthouse Plaza as Peoria County Bicentennial Park.
• Amending ordinances related to administration of Courthouse and Courthouse square.
• Approving a contract with Maurer Stutz, Inc. for engineering work ahead of the Vorhees Road bridge replacement in Radnor Township.
• Approving a contract with Bishop Brothers, Inc. to renovate the existing garage structure on the Health and Human Service campus on Sheridan Road.
• Appropriating $3 million for the highway department to undertake regular maintenance of county roadways.

Election Commission

Peoria County Election Commissioners met Oct. 14 with all members present.

The brief meeting included unanimous approval of a contract with Hoops Painting Inc. to complete the drywall work and painting in the final section of the building. Approval was received to move the polling place at Trinity Lutheran Church to the Peoria Township building on Main St.

Executive Director Elizabeth Gannon reported a dropbox will be in place at Neighborhood House for upcoming elections and a surveillance camera was recently installed.

NHS Property Management will now assist the commission with any issues at their leased office location.

The filing date for District 2 and 3 seats for the Peoria Public Schools Board has passed and two candidates have filed for each seat.  To date there have been no filed objections.  The filing dates for established parties for the March primary will be from Oct. 27 to Nov. 3, with objections due by Nov. 11.

Peoria City Council

The Peoria City Council met Sept. 9 with quorum present.

Proclamations were presented for National Preparedness Month, Peoria Reads, National Senior Center Month and National Co-Responder and Crisis Responder Week. Minutes of Aug. 26 City Council proceedings were approved. The consent agenda was approved without discussion.

Council approved agreement with HR Green for combined sewer overflow reduction storage project not to exceed
$2.7 million. Public Works Director Rick Powers discussed shift from green to grey plan with offline storage. Finance Director Kyle Cratty discussed July’s financial report stating revenue up 1.7 % and expenses down 1.9 % year-to-date. He reminded council members that a draft of the 2026 Budget would be presented at next meeting.

Council went into executive session to discuss purchase of real property. There were no requests to address the council. Meeting adjourned at 7:37 p.m.

Dunlap District 323

The District 323 school board met Sept. 22 with seven members present. Superintendent Dr. Scott Dearman reported they are working on nine Freedom of Information Act requests this month, in addition to a few previous ones.

The training center road is progressing well and should be accessible. Plans are underway for the new Wilder Waite school gymnasium.

Dearman congratulated Dr. Matt Andrews, assistant superintendent, for receiving the Administrator of the Year Award from the Association of School Library Educators.

Dearman presented an overall analysis of the district’s financial situation. The district is currently in the 95th percentile in expenditures and 96th in operational budget. However, projections show future expenditures will be more than revenue.

He cited numbers showing future enrollment will not change much. Solutions to the funding problem might be cuts in personnel, use of working cash fund bonds, or a 30-cent tax increase. Dearman wants the board to be aware of the situation, but does not recommend any decisions or action now.

The board approved the 2026 budget.

With one “no” vote the board approved a resolution providing for the issue and sale of up to $44 million of debt certificates to build and equip a new elementary school building, equip and renovate school facilities and improve school sites.

After discussion the board approved the purchase of a pool filtration system not to exceed $200,000.

Sanitary District

On Sept. 16, Greater Peoria Sanitary District trustees were told the district continues to follow the housing, development, and economic growth in Peoria and Dunlap. The District will consider establishing a satellite treatment facility in the future based on capacity and demand. A detailed update on the sewer capacity in the North Peoria area was provided to aid in understanding the current status and support potential future needs.

GPSD’s future focus will include upgrading the treatment plant, enhancing various systems and meeting strict National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit requirements to handle aging infrastructure and new regulations.

Trustees accepted a bid from Hoerr Construction, Inc. for $661,440 for sewer cleaning and inspection. The project will clean and inspect approximately 37,000 feet of pipe.

Utilities expenses have been higher than usual due to market conditions. GPSD management is monitoring these costs closely, while it continues to pursue opportunities to reduce expenses where feasible. Utility expenses are anticipated to normalize in the coming months.

The annual audit was completed by Phillips, Salmi & Associates, LLC. The report on fiscal year ending April 30 showed no financial issues and no disagreements with management: GPSD financial statements are “clean with no material misstatements.” GPSD will adopt the recommendations related to asset and liability changes and shift how compensated absences (like unused vacation) are recognized to a “more likely than not” standard, which may adjust liability figures.

Airport Authority

The Metropolitan Airport Authority of Peoria met Sept. 24, with seven of the nine commissioners attending. Commissioners Dean Heinzmann and Karen Jensen were absent. The board approved the consent agenda which included meeting minutes for the board on Aug. 27, and the Marketing/Air Service Committee and Projects/Finance Committee on Sept. 15.

Director of Finance and Administration Steve Perrone reported staff had a lunch meeting with members of the Illinois Legislature including Sen. David Koehler and Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth.

Director of Operations and Maintenance Randy Hurst reported coordinating with Ameren to prepare for upgrades and switching transformers. The airport has two electrical feeds plus generator backup and will be getting an additional feed.

Perrone noted Chromebooks will replace the paper packets prepared for members of the Board of Commissioners for each meeting. This will provide paper use savings. Perrone also noted there is an estimated increase to the airports in the 2025 county tax levy.

LWVGP observers attend and report on local government meetings. For more information, check out lwvgp.org