[0:25] JAMES DILLON: We'll get to- I'm going to receive and file 3.1 to 3.4 unless there's

[0:31] any questions on presentations for the sake of timeliness. Seeing none,

[0:39] we're going to kind of take these a little bit out of order. Mr. Setti, welcome.

[0:53] CHRIS SETTI: Thank you. Uh thank you so much uh for the opportunity. You are lucky in that you

[0:58] don't get to listen to me talk for very long but uh Chris Setti, the CEO of the Greater Peoria Economic

[1:01] Development Council, and about a year or so ago the county board asked us via uh some money

[1:08] I believe you had in your CEJA energy transition, uh, energy communities transition uh funds, uh to

[1:16] work on an economic development strategy. I think it was part of your larger strategic plan as a

[1:20] board to develop an economic development strategy. The timing was great in that you already had

[1:26] engaged a team for your comprehensive plan that included an economic development

[1:32] partner. So we kind of came alongside that particular um contract and contracted with

[1:40] their economic development partner because a lot of the work that was being done on that

[1:44] comp plan of having community conversations could then fuel, versus bringing in a completely separate

[1:50] consultant who was going to have to do everything, you know, on their own. Uh so it's my pleasure uh

[1:55] to introduce Kevin Hively from Ninegret Partners. And really uh and Kevin's going to go over

[2:02] the process that he went through and we all went through. Um this was a really great team effort.

[2:07] Your um, your staff, Melissa, and uh Scott and Andrew and others on the Peoria County staff,

[2:16] um were really great to work with. You know, my staff was engaged, the city of Peoria economic

[2:22] development staff was engaged, and then all of the citizens who talked during the comprehensive plan

[2:28] outreach also were a part of this conversation. So I'm going to turn this over to Kevin. I

[2:33] assume Tim when he's ready for a slide, he'll just give you a thumbs up. So uh thank you so much.

[2:41] KEVIN HIVELY: Thank you. I appreciate it. Um just quickly, as uh Chris said, we spent a lot of time actually

[2:48] in Peoria, um which was really great. I've gotten to know the community pretty well and I appreciate

[2:52] the opportunity and it's a, it's a, it's a great place. I want to start with some observations.

[2:57] The next one, please. So, there are a series of issues that I want to get to,

[3:02] but I want to make sure that everybody's clear. This is not an economic plan for the county per

[3:07] se. It's for an economic plan for the county government specifically. So, that's a different

[3:11] kind of way to look at this. There's some issues with the economic growth and tax base. I'll

[3:16] touch on that. You're trying to move to a talent driven economy and there are some issues related

[3:21] to recruitment. there's some housing questions um and bringing talent into Peoria. One of the

[3:29] things that I talked we learned during our process, our public process was there is

[3:34] some frustration with the sustainability of initiatives. A lot of them are short-term funded

[3:39] and some of these things take 5, 10, 20 years to actually pull off. and then economic

[3:45] infrastructure issues, everything from tools to actual, literal infrastructure and then finally kind

[3:51] of profile and image questions. I actually think that Peoria is harder on Peoria than the rest

[3:57] of America is for what that's worth, uh, but there are some distinct issues that permeate

[4:04] kind of leadership in the community. Next. So the first thing is um and this is the most important

[4:10] thing, and I know that you had a finance committee meeting before this. One of the issues right now is

[4:15] that Peoria is the county itself is lagging what's happened in other comparative regions. We

[4:21] looked at a series of competitive metro areas and counties and host counties and um other

[4:27] than the exception of Cedar Falls, you're lagging behind. Next, the other thing is you're not as

[4:33] economically dynamic as as the state of Illinois overall and I live in Massachusetts. Um, I don't

[4:42] think, not to be rude, but Illinois is generally not considered one of the fastest growing states

[4:46] in the country in terms of economic activity and you're actually even lagging the state. And this

[4:52] has issues. This has fiscal issue ramifications for you. Next. So, as an example, your sales tax

[4:58] base is growing slower than the state. Um, next. And you have an issue with population forecast,

[5:06] which is if this forecast holds there's two very, very important things to recall here.

[5:11] It's the gold gap and the green gap. The gold gap well and, actually, the blue gap. The blue gap is

[5:18] your future workers. The gold gap is your current workers and the green gap is the people who are

[5:25] retiring. And eventually life takes over and they will not be as retired as they once were for various

[5:34] reasons. But as you can see what's happening right now and this is really, really important

[5:37] because it has all kinds of implications for workforce dynamics, your ability to recruit and

[5:41] attract companies. Consumer spending shrinks as you get older. You just don't spend as much.

[5:49] And this is- and then on top of that, you have a lot of housing stock that's in the 65 plus

[5:53] age group that probably has not been kept up in the same degree that you would keep it up when you

[5:59] bought the house in your 30s. Next. So, I think overall there needs to be a growth agenda for the

[6:05] county and I don't mean the county government and I think it has four elements and I think it has to

[6:09] be a growth agenda like you must grow and that's sustained focus on investment, get building a

[6:16] homegrown pipeline of talent and businesses, build the brand through quality experience. You can't

[6:22] advertise your way out of this, and right sites for businesses and great places for talent to

[6:27] live. Those are the elements of it. So what can the county do in this regard? Next. So why should

[6:33] you be more involved? A couple reasons. Go ahead. First is 70% of the property value in the county

[6:41] is in the urbanized areas. And when you see those dark areas, that's where all the land that's where

[6:46] actually all the property value is in the county. All the dark. Next, you're also more dependent

[6:53] upon residential property tax and the base is growing slower than the other parts of Illinois.

[6:58] So this is basically Peoria, the rest of the state, which means not Chicago, and then statewide. So you

[7:05] can see that you're more dependent on property tax and you're simply growing slower. Their value is

[7:09] next. The other thing that's very interesting here is this is where STEM workers live. This is the

[7:14] thing that everybody wants and this is something that's very, very important to consider where the

[7:18] STEM workers live which is on the left hand in the green versus where the housing's built since

[7:23] 2000 which is in that kind of orange. they live in the newer housing stock. So, it's very, very

[7:30] important that you continue to develop quality housing stock if you want to keep attracting

[7:35] um and a lot of them live in the outside in the villages also. So, there's this very, very

[7:41] important between housing creation and livability that has to get addressed in the county. Next,

[7:48] and the other thing is the comp plans and vision plans across all of it. We looked at every one of them

[7:53] across the community. We documented every single recommendation. There were more than 300 and

[8:00] they've created all of these special districts and other things to kind of do things, but they can't

[8:03] execute. There's no resources to do it. Next. So what can you do next? So we basically separated

[8:13] things into two different buckets. One is where the county can act directly and where the county

[8:18] can lead and or initiate but they're things within local control but the county doesn't

[8:23] control it completely. So in this first one, uh let's start with the read. Let's go to the next

[8:27] one, please. So you need to resign your county's economic development digital presence. It's the

[8:33] first thing that anybody sees when they're looking up what about Peoria County. This is your website

[8:38] for economic development. The links don't work. It's a program that ties to another program.

[8:44] It doesn't actually tie to programs inside Peoria County, inside the county and the city.

[8:48] So you need to m- and also the visuals don't match what's going on with other branding efforts across

[8:54] the community. Next, this is a hard one to read, but you have you have some money. You have $7 to 9

[9:02] million in lending capacity. You have this thing, the Government Assistance Program. I think it

[9:07] needs to be completely revisited. There are issues around what you could potentially do with it.

[9:12] Small contractor support, retail launch funds, um closing, basically deal closing funds,

[9:20] but also thinking hard about what are the goals and things that you want to actually accomplish

[9:24] with this money because it's a lot of money relatively speaking, but the small business

[9:30] community is also borrows like $500 million a year. So, it's not a huge amount of money

[9:34] relative to the total. Next, you should think about pursuing 100% enterprise tax abatement to

[9:42] help drive redevelopment. If you see all of those orange dots, that is all the places in the county

[9:49] where the land is worth more than what's sitting on top of it. And it's actually quite a bit. Um,

[9:57] and there's about 15,000 acres. Uh and there are other examples in Illinois where people have

[10:04] done this and some of them have gone all the way and have actually like a basically an algorithm

[10:10] um about how we make a decision on when we're when we're going to do this and how they work

[10:13] together with the schools and everything else. Next, I think you need to think about what I'm

[10:19] going to call a Great Places fund where you're going use the windfall from the renewable energy

[10:25] developments when they come online, because the land taxation becomes

[10:31] different once you put a wind farm or a solar farm or even energy storage on top of it, it creates

[10:37] an increment that didn't exist before. That increment's not there. Think of it as like, think

[10:42] of it as a TIF that you can then use to fund the smaller communities who don't have resources to

[10:48] do the 300 plus things that they want to do. What that- I would- I wouldn't do it until the money

[10:54] actually started coming in, but it's, I think it's something that you all should think about. Next,

[11:00] you need to think about an ag sector development fund. There's a lot of talk about ag tech and

[11:05] um ag and what's happening in the future of farming in the community. There's a lot of

[11:09] different ways to cut this. I will be honest with you, it's, I understand what you're trying to do.

[11:13] It's not completely clear to me the execution of it because of, again, resources. Um and the

[11:20] frankly, again, living in New England there's a lot of people chasing the blue economy. There's

[11:24] a lot of people chasing ag tech and they're investing major resources into trying to build

[11:29] out ag tech and those are just some examples. So some of that windfall money could come in

[11:34] to help fund this. There might be other ways to do this as well. Next, um I think you need

[11:43] a nonprofit development corporation to fill in where the market isn't doing projects. And that's

[11:51] everything from small-scale commercial development to missing middle housing to potential certain

[11:56] industrial development. Um you need I think you're in a situation where you need to prove the market

[12:03] here. And the only way to do that is through some kind of partnership where the risks are

[12:08] shared to get this, to get momentum built. And there's all part of it's an appraisal issue,

[12:15] part of it's a lending risk issue, part of it is there's no growth as you look at the

[12:20] demographics. And all the numbers look the wrong way, but there need to find a way to jump

[12:25] start this. Next, um, another thing I think you need to do is to invest in yourselves in a very,

[12:34] uh, strong way. So, figuring out a way to create a capital stack, including bond and options,

[12:40] to basically what I would call Rebuild Peoria. Um, like I said, there's a lot of needs. There

[12:45] are not a lot of resources, there are not a lot of patient resources. We identified more than

[12:51] 300 plus improvements across all of the county. Um, and there are examples of this. The South,

[12:58] frankly, is very, very good at doing this. They have a series of different mechanisms that they

[13:03] can do this through bond issues and other things. But particularly everything that's

[13:07] going on and where we are with, frankly, at the federal budget level with the deficit,

[13:11] I think it's time the communities begin thinking about how to reinvest in themselves. And some

[13:15] people call it the new localism, but that money is getting very competitive.

[13:21] Having local dollars that can match or commit some of that money makes you more competitive

[13:26] for what's becoming an increasingly competitive grant as opposed to um uh what's the word I'm

[13:33] looking for? Entitlement type money going forward. Next, that's it. Questions? I know you got a lot

[13:42] on your agenda, so I went through really fast. It's a New England thing. I'm from Ohio. DILLON: Anyone

[14:02] else?

[14:16] STEVE RIEKER: Are we good now? Maybe. All right. It's a good overview of the situation that we're in. And I

[14:24] I think you've captured the essence of our challenges. And there's a few things that

[14:31] come to mind as you present, is we really need to understand 'who do we want to be?'

[14:38] What do we want Peoria County in this area to be known for? I mean we got some things here

[14:44] but to draw the incentive and the excitement around it um we really need to understand and

[14:53] have a common agreement not just with the county but the villages and the other

[14:58] um centers here in the county is what's our focus so we can have a common message. You hit the

[15:04] website, but branding, image. We're sitting in a building here that has an awesome branding

[15:12] and image experience. And I won't talk too much because someone else will talk about that after a

[15:18] bit. Uh but we really need to figure out what that image is and then start a plan because there's a

[15:25] lot of cost in addressing housing and needs and in order to get the funds we really need

[15:33] to understand what we want to be and who wants to invest in it. It's going to take some more

[15:37] investment dollars than what even the windfall so so to speak dollars. HIVELY: Absolutely. Yeah.

[15:44] RIEKER: S o I think the county quite frankly should be the leader in this. I think we should lead this

[15:50] effort, bring other parties because we're not the experts, but we should be behind it saying,

[15:55] "Let's put this together and run with it." And as you said, it's not a one or two or five year

[16:01] plan. It's a 25-year plan. Where do you want to be? Where do you want to go? It might be good

[16:06] if you give us some examples. You had Garland, Texas, I think down, but there's a lot in

[16:11] the southeast that have done great. Uh I think of Asheville, North Carolina is one that I personally

[16:17] have followed for many years. They've done a great development. They're about the same size as we

[16:22] are. But some guidance and direction, I think, is what we need. And so, thanks for the overview,

[16:29] but now the work really needs to be put in place. How do we go ahead? HIVELY: Yeah, I would say to um like

[16:35] I said, we reviewed all of the plans of the villages, the other municipalities, the city,

[16:40] um the county comp plan, and there's a lot of great thought. The the biggest issue,

[16:45] the problem is not A, the problem is getting to C. It's not even getting to B, it's actually

[16:52] getting to C. It's actually taking an idea and scaling it up and actually having to have

[16:56] an impact. And the frustration is that it never gets past B. Like you never see it take hold.

[17:02] and actually kind of create that momentum or pivot the way you all want it to. RIEKER: Yes.

[17:12] HIVELY: Exactly. And it fuels cynicism and all that other stuff.

[17:20] EDEN BLAIR: Uh, um, conversation today about one program that we have helped support that just didn't have the

[17:28] people bandwidth to keep it going and make sure it's happening. And that's definitely something

[17:32] we need to look at. I think also as a board we look at the Keystone fund is something I've taken

[17:39] a lot of interest in. Um and a lot of the reason we haven't spent it is a um um unwillingness to

[17:46] take risks and I think that's something that we need to decide what our risk appetite is and

[17:52] understanding that a low risk appetite probably will not help us get very far. SETTI: Right. Sure.

[18:01] Uh I think that, and as you see in the full report uh and and even the there's

[18:10] links in the in the PowerPoint presentation that that I think is one of the keys. You as a county

[18:15] have a tool that most counties don't have. And right, $7 to 9 million is not a lot in the grand

[18:21] scheme of things but it is more than almost any other county in Illinois would have. So,

[18:26] how and some of the suggestions that Kevin and we are making in this plan is how might

[18:32] you deploy those funds? How might you look at your your um your low-income I'm sorry, your

[18:38] revolving loan fund, right? How does it stand up against some of the competition that's out there?

[18:42] Advantage Illinois, 504 loans from the SBA so that what you're offering isn't a duplication of

[18:49] something else but is a complement uh to what's being offered or or really helps to

[18:55] um you know address something, a gap in the marketplace. Uh and so I would agree with you

[19:01] that it's something that you have a chance as a board to kind of look around say how are we

[19:07] really going to deploy these funds uh you know in different ways through through granting through

[19:12] seed, you know seed funds for things, uh like a like the idea of a uh a CDC um, or through different

[19:20] types of lending programs uh but it's exactly because you have something that most most counties

[19:25] just wouldn't even be in this conversation because they don't have the resources to do that.

[19:32] TERRY RUHLAND: Full disclosure, I'm a retired home builder and developer still involved on a part-time basis,

[19:39] and I'm currently working on a house that happened to fall on an enterprise zone lot. That is a real

[19:47] impact to the price of a house. This is a $600,000 home that generates uh between sales tax and

[19:54] property tax abatement over $35,000 in value to that buyer. I also happen to own a number of lots

[20:03] that are have been on the market for years. You know, it's been a slow grind trying to trying to

[20:09] move new projects since COVID, the price of building is exorbitant. We also have some lots that do have

[20:19] enterprise zone that aren't built yet. This is just land. It's not- We don't have streets on it at

[20:28] $1,000 a lineal foot to build a city street today. Why should I take a risk to do that and sell those

[20:36] lots at 85 or $90,000 each when the right thing to do would be to incentivize the lots that have

[20:44] been on the market for 5, 10 years. Pick a number. Somebody's got to be an expert. Pick a number. Get

[20:51] those lots cleared up and we won't have a choice but to build at the new rate, the $1,000 a lineal

[20:59] foot. But it's it it seems counterproductive. We're building I think, you know, we're building

[21:04] a steady number of houses. I think Andrew is in the room. He can tell you where we are

[21:10] permit-wise. But compared to a 40-year career, it feels to me onesy twoosy. We're getting one here,

[21:17] one there. Mostly older families, cash customers, um not dependent upon their income level,

[21:28] but their retirement savings. So I think from the standpoint of the enterprise zone,

[21:34] we're doing it wrong. We should enter, we should incentivize every lot that's been on the market

[21:41] for eight years or more. Again, I don't know that number, but until that inventory clears,

[21:50] nobody's going to build a single street. It's just cost prohibitive. So, I am intrigued a great

[21:58] deal. In fact, I've been, you know, making some of the same kind of conversations um with legislators

[22:05] um with uh, officials at the hospital. I'd like to talk to you guys more about that separately, but

[22:13] um but I think there is an incredible potential for that. And if you talk to the people at in

[22:21] recruiting at the hospital, that's the biggest barrier to their success. I can hire a doctor.

[22:28] I just don't have any place for them to live. So, you know, we need to work together in that respect

[22:35] and find again where where would this money come from uh to to maybe underwrite interest

[22:42] rate either to the buyer or to the developer. There's a million things. The list is long,

[22:48] but um unfortunately this isn't the place. But I'd like to talk to you guys a little further

[22:53] about where this comes from. SETTI: I would just say in, as a broad statement, there's, I think there's

[22:58] a lot of opportunity. We are underutilizing our opportunity, our enterprise zones. There are some

[23:03] constrictions. You can't just say every lot can you know should be in because of just some of the

[23:08] the boundary issues that the that the legislation has. But within the legislation we are allowed to

[23:14] have full property tax abatement for a number of years. Currently it's it's uh three years uh 100%

[23:23] of the abatement of the increase in property taxes for three years and two uh two more years at 50%

[23:29] but only to the participating taxing bodies and almost all of our school districts do not

[23:35] participate um and and it really is something where I think all of you as county board

[23:40] leaders could help us and this is something that GPEDC could take on in in helping to articulate the

[23:45] value of the enterprise zone and participating in the enterprise zone. that you might be giving up

[23:50] three years of something, but you're going to then get 30 years of that something. Um, and and really

[23:55] working to educate mostly our school districts who uh which are 50 to 60% of any given property

[24:03] tax bill. So, the incentive isn't as powerful as it could be and it's just about convincing um

[24:08] those but having that kind of political backbone. uh and I don't mean that in terms of cowardice or

[24:14] not cowardice, but having the some infrastructure behind us going out and and making those asks that

[24:20] that local elected officials are also part of that and we have, speak some common language. So I

[24:24] would agree with you that enterprise zone there's something where the county can lead. It's going

[24:28] to be a a series of local decisions, but that can help increase development in the community.

[24:39] RUHLAND: business my business does. That's how we get $35,000 in tax relief to our homeowners.

[24:55] BLAIR: I would ask uh Mr. Setti, could you also send this report to the

[25:00] um advisory committee on small business and entrepreneurship? SETTI: Certainly. BLAIR: Be meeting soon. So,

[25:16] thank you.

[25:20] DILLON: Next up, uh speaking of economic development,

[25:24] Chris Waible with Downtown Development Corporation had asked uh to speak at his budget season. We

[25:32] have historically had in our plan asking what we can do to invest in downtown or

[25:39] uh be part of that conversation but there never really any clear vision. Some been around for a

[25:45] while it was a topic conversation when they created it but it never happened for a multitude

[25:53] of reasons so I asked Chris to come and give a presentation of the work that they are doing

[26:06] CHRIS WAIBLE: Let's see if this works.

[26:10] Well, thank you for having me, Jimmy. I'm Scott. Uh, as as Jimmy said, I'm Chris Waible.

[26:15] I'm the president CEO of the DDC, the Downtown Development Corporation. and I'm here to just

[26:21] give you a little bit of an idea of what we're doing to build a great downtown and where the

[26:26] DDC has been over its life of now 12 years. Um, boy, that's light. Uh, so around 2014, there was

[26:38] a group of individuals here in the community that decided that uh we needed to be like

[26:42] other cities who had an organization dedicated to the growth of its downtown. And so a group,

[26:50] part of the CEO Council formed the DDC and since that time uh up until about two years

[26:58] ago there was one CEO, Michael Freilinger, who you may have met along the way and a small team

[27:05] uh with him really laying the groundwork for DDC and growth downtown. So the early work included

[27:12] things like creating a historic- if you back up. Yeah. Uh creating a historic tax credit

[27:18] uh status here part of the Rivers Edge Redevelopment Zone um here in the state

[27:22] of Illinois that has been utilized by a lot of developers particularly in the Warehouse District,

[27:28] creating the uh warehouse renovation to residential conversions. And so there were

[27:38] some tools like that early on that got got some things started in downtown, we'll call it 2.0. Um,

[27:46] and from like the '15 to- 2015 to 2017, we saw a number of smaller apartment buildings come online,

[27:54] some early adopters who decided to give downtown a chance as a place to live.

[27:59] And DDC continued to to support that through efforts like housing studies, which we continue

[28:05] today to try to quantify the demand for downtown living. And I'm happy to report that despite

[28:13] really great absorption rates, there still shows to be strong demand for housing downtown.

[28:19] So what's been developed today is is typically about 95% occupied across the entire inventory.

[28:27] Early on, there was some acquisition uh and development work too that was done in terms of

[28:33] assembling pieces of property to be made available for larger scale redevelopment. So DDC was part of

[28:39] that, sometimes commanding closer to a fair market value for the value of those properties to then

[28:46] work with developers to get them developed. On the laying the groundwork side of things,

[28:50] there was also work to be done to make some of this conversion work possible in terms of creating

[28:57] air rights and uh mechanisms within the building code that would allow for buildings that uh

[29:03] typically had a building right next to them to then be opened up with windows to be used for

[29:08] residential use. So that leads us to uh 2022ish and um the growth since that time. So the last

[29:17] five years and again, I've been uh here at the DDC for the last two years. We look forward to some

[29:22] of that growth and if you go to the next slide we can start to see in the next slide after this.

[29:28] Test your vision here. Some of the progress that we've made since then. So we've we've

[29:36] seen about 140 million plus dollars in private investment in the last 5 years. A lot of that's

[29:42] on the residential side. Nine new multifamily buildings have come online and with that about

[29:48] 550 units. In addition, we've also seen 10ish new uh activated storefronts which creates vitality at

[29:58] the street level. The the type of activity that we associate with the bustling and vibrant downtown.

[30:07] Couple quick ones here moving forward.

[30:14] just see that cumulative investment over the last five years from 2022 on the left to

[30:19] uh more present day on the right. Um again reaching 140 millionish plus dollars and then

[30:28] as I said nine new multifamily buildings and 550 residential units. The big chunk

[30:33] of that is in warehouse conversions. We do have a couple of new construction projects.

[30:39] One that's just opened in the Chic Apartments, but a lot of that inventory is

[30:45] converted warehouse space. And then over the years, seeing a couple of new

[30:52] storefronts at a time activated again, gradually starting to reestablish downtown as a place

[30:57] for destination retail and retail oriented businesses, which a lot of us associate with

[31:03] uh a destination downtown places that we visit and think of as successful downtowns.

[31:11] And we've seen pretty good um leverage on the the public investment in downtown over 5x

[31:19] ratio of public dollars to the total investment within downtown. So we are

[31:25] seeing good participation on the private side to actually see these projects come to life.

[31:33] And so a lot of that groundwork was laid, as I said, over the last 10 plus years. And

[31:38] we could cover a lot of different separate topics, and I'm happy to answer questions,

[31:41] but I wanted to give you a sense of where our focus is today in terms of what is the

[31:46] next step needed to make downtown uh a really great place. And that starts in

[31:51] our minds at DDC with core density and really building that, as it's the engine

[31:56] that drives this term vibrancy that we talk so frequently about. That's foot traffic.

[32:01] That's the perceptions of safety. That's visitors from near and far coming and thinking of it as a

[32:07] place that they want to be. So the question we ask people that we interact with at the

[32:13] DDC is tell us about your favorite downtown. And I'm going to share some of those today

[32:17] just to give you a sense of some of the answers that we hear and what those places look like.

[32:26] So we have places like Boulder, Colorado and Pearl Street. And I'll go through these semi-

[32:31] quickly, but um Cincinnati. Kevin had mentioned Cincinnati earlier. This is

[32:38] uh an image from there. This is a relatively new addition to the list and a good one. Asheville,

[32:43] North Carolina. And a great mix of public spaces as you see in the bottom right.

[32:49] Uh activity on the sidewalk and just a really uh concentrated area of activity.

[32:58] And it's led us to places like Lemont, Illinois, which was a shocker to me that somebody would say

[33:03] Lemont was their favorite downtown. But but lo and behold, Lemont is a favorite downtown

[33:08] of someone that we've worked closely with. And if you look at this image, you see why

[33:12] that would be. You see a a two-sided street with activity on both sides of the street, which makes

[33:17] for a gathering place where there can be events, festivals, and things where people come together.

[33:25] We all know Denver. And on the left is um is a nice image, but what I want to point out

[33:31] on this slide on the right is the proximity of the Rhino District, the River North Arts

[33:36] District of Denver on the right foreground to the central business district in the background.

[33:42] Uh Rhino is the fastest kind of growing area within downtown with a lot of activity and it

[33:48] has a similar relationship to what we have between the Warehouse District and the Central Business

[33:54] District, albeit much further away than what we have here. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Of course,

[34:02] the historic Third Ward Public Market on the left gets a lot of notoriety and um typically get a lot

[34:10] of people who talk about the cleanliness of it. The certainly the historic building stock and the

[34:16] conversions that you see on the right do have some similarities to Peoria as well. Madison, Wisconsin,

[34:27] and then Chicago. And you see there the again again the relationship between the

[34:34] loop in the background of the photo on the left and the West Loop Fulton Market area

[34:40] uh in the foreground resembling the Warehouse to Central Business District relationship that

[34:45] we have here. Peoria Heights we all know. Omaha's Old Market District.

[34:56] Nashville at a larger scale, but even in the photo on the left, you just see the

[35:00] density at Fifth and Broadway there. Um, just in that small development of all the

[35:06] layers of activity that are happening and bring excitement and people and

[35:10] um things going on just to that one corner. and Galena with attention on the pedestrian, making

[35:19] this very pedestrian friendly, walkable, a lot of storefronts, uh less reliance on the vehicle and

[35:25] a nice place that many of us locally have been to. So what we think about from there,

[35:34] what what I want to ask you is what has what's the commonality across all of those? Because when

[35:40] we ask people what it is that they they like about downtowns or their favorite downtowns,

[35:47] the answers are often the same. As you see, the cities are different. But the answers are usually

[35:53] things like we like the place where there's a lot going on, that's [a] place that's walkable,

[35:58] that has events on a regular basis, that has places to shop and eat and be entertained.

[36:06] And the driver of that really when you look at a lot of it is the core density. And so some of the

[36:14] cities that we just went through are in this peer group or aspirational group of cities but many of

[36:21] them aren't. Many of them are uh on the smaller side. Kevin had mentioned Chattanooga earlier.

[36:27] cities like Grand Rapids, Sioux Falls, um, and Peoria Heights closer to home. And the core of

[36:35] their downtowns, what we'll refer to the core of their downtown, their densest two blocks,

[36:39] on average, they would have 28 active storefronts. Peoria Heights has 27. Downtown Peoria right now,

[36:49] our densest two blocks hold roughly 10 active storefronts. We're at a third of a village the

[36:58] size of Peoria Heights. So if you look here, you can see from Kelly to Duryea, the densest two,

[37:05] there are 27 active storefronts. That's a little bit bigger than the densest two, but that's a the

[37:10] area around it. 27 places to come and go from that are bringing people just for that one specific

[37:16] business. and the activity that comes with that gets people who are maybe neutral on Peoria Heights

[37:22] to go there just because it's the place where there's activity. So, it's no surprise that we

[37:28] hear time and time again that people think of Peoria Heights as a great place to be in the Peoria area.

[37:37] So, what do we do from here? As we've gotten 10-ish years down the road in the DDC's efforts,

[37:45] it's time for us where we can be a little bit more intentional about how we move forward,

[37:51] about the strategy that we need to put in place and what types of things and projects we need to

[37:58] take on to move us closer to being the vibrant place that so many site as their their favorite.

[38:04] And so I just want to go through a quick couple quick things here. Really three types

[38:09] of categories to simplify this that we are looking at at DDC. In the left column, we're looking at

[38:16] excite and prepare for growth. This is how do we get the community engaged or the larger community

[38:21] engaged with downtown Peoria based on where it is today. How do we get more people to come down to

[38:28] give it a try, to work there, to live there, to bring their family for a night out. The next stage

[38:38] moving forward and this isn't totally linear so we kind of move between these categories, but the

[38:42] next category is how do we build the density to grow the users and the market. What are we

[38:49] doing to create the infrastructure that's going to bring an even bigger population downtown? And

[38:54] then finally, you know, how do we move towards large-scale redevelopment and investment and

[39:00] growth through downtown? So, a couple of quick projects to give you an example of of how we're

[39:05] kind of moving through some of these things. In the left hand column, last year we had a pop-up

[39:11] uh event, events through Thyme and Kelleher's that were incredibly well-received. We brought

[39:16] thousands of new people downtown during that time period over year-over-year to see something

[39:22] that was unique and exceptional for Peoria. We've worked to promote those that are doing

[39:29] business and their projects to get people to be more aware of them, educate them, and

[39:34] populate them. And we've continued to work on our policies and ordinances. So right now we're

[39:43] looking at the form-based code in the Warehouse District, making recommendations to the city on how

[39:47] to make this more developer ready, how to make it more the process more predictable and to provide

[39:53] options for developers and investors that lead to the kind of place that we want while still giving

[39:58] options. In the center column, we're working on placemaking projects like the string lights that

[40:05] we just wrapped up a couple of weeks ago over the 800 block of Southwest Adams, helping to bring

[40:10] together those individual retailers and make it read as a destination, feel like a destination.

[40:15] We have been in the process of launching our own revolving loan fund with generous terms,

[40:24] favorable terms, recognizing that these are high-risk loans to try to incentivize new

[40:30] retail storefront development and get more to get closer to that 28 active storefronts per block.

[40:37] And the on the bottom photo there, we're looking at how we work within our existing

[40:42] infrastructure downtown to create transportation modes that allow people to get around quickly and

[40:48] connect people from one destination to another one micro destination downtown that may be a

[40:55] number of blocks away and seem unwalkable, looking at how do we how do we move towards more diversity

[41:02] within our housing stock, incorporating more new construction options, looking at larger scale

[41:09] redevelopment in general to expedite the process and provide more continuity. And then finally,

[41:16] attracting national and regional retailers to provide more variety within our tenant mix.

[41:23] Creating the kind of place that people want to visit and spend their time and dollars. So,

[41:30] we are interest- we are very interested in and working more closely with Peoria County

[41:34] on this. Um the dollars in the community right now are are slanting more towards the

[41:42] left hand column which is more of a temporary column in terms of creating uh short-term wins,

[41:48] if you will. But as Kevin mentioned earlier, to really make long-term change, these are 25-year

[41:54] commitments with millions of dollars behind them in order to create the infrastructure that creates

[42:00] a different kind of environment that brings, attracts, and holds people over time. That's

[42:07] all I have. I'm happy to answer any questions that you have. And thank you again for having me.

[42:26] STEVE RIEKER: General comment I think you've hit a lot of key things here. One of the big hurdles

[42:33] that is I engage with people from outside of the city, I live at the edge of the city. But

[42:39] when I talk to folks that maybe live in Dunlap or Princeville or Chillicothe, or, you know, further out,

[42:47] the word safety- may be real, maybe perceived, it's oh, is an issue. Well, I don't want to go downtown

[42:55] because I saw in the news blah blah blah. So, we're our own worst enemy when it comes to safety.

[43:02] and I'll just, you know, we love to talk about one bad thing that may have happened and we blow

[43:10] it out of proportion. Now, you can't control that, but we need to start building the narrative around

[43:15] that. It's a good place. I think your column one over here getting people to come in, draw them in,

[43:23] attract them in and create a safe environment so they have a good experience and they go

[43:29] home and go, I don't know what the people that was really neat to go out and do the Christmas

[43:34] event or this or that. So you the mental thing is you've got to get that barrier out of their

[43:40] head. Part of it's real but more perceived. So, whatever you can do in column one to get that

[43:46] out of their head and get them to experience a wonderful experience will help you draw people

[43:51] here short-term and to live here. WAIBLE: Great, great points. DILLON: Member Blair. BLAIR: Um, I would also

[44:04] um be interested in in how we can use our new Bicentennial Park to support what you are doing.

[44:10] You know, we had some great events that were not greatly attended this summer. Mind you,

[44:14] it was crazy hot, but um I know it's a little bit a little bit north of what you're doing,

[44:20] but how can we help use that space to help support what's going on? I think of our

[44:28] um block bash. What was that called that we did last fall? That thing,

[44:33] the block party there. I don't know why I could not come up with party, but that might, uh,

[44:39] those are I thought that was a great event and I think anything we can do to help support. I

[44:43] think one of the best things we have is that brand new park, is that brand new courtyard. So

[44:48] um and with that, how can we support getting the the food trucks to come out as you know helping

[44:54] build those kind of interesting things even from from it as a pop-up experience might be useful.

[45:03] WAIBLE: It's a, it's a beautiful um plaza. The redesign is wonderful. And you know,

[45:08] as we look to grow downtown to address safety issues, uh one of the greatest things that we can

[45:15] do from an urban planning perspective is to put people on the streets, to create a an environment

[45:21] of a buddy system where you have people around you. There's nothing scarier than being face

[45:26] to face with somebody who looks suspicious and you're the only one on the street. So,

[45:30] uh, getting more people down there to provide the safety aspect, but also to

[45:35] populate a lot of our great spaces downtown, including places like the courthouse plaza,

[45:40] um, you know, goes beyond those that are currently using downtown. We have

[45:44] to continue to attract new people, not just those working or coming for whatever one-off

[45:49] reason that they might come for. So a big part of our push is to expand the population using

[45:54] downtown on a regular basis so that we can fill more of the spaces and fill them well.

[46:07] Okay. DANNY PHELAN: Excuse me. Kind of a two-part question. Um the first part as you went through the

[46:13] data and you talk about the two densest blocks in a storefront. if you could explain what qualifies

[46:20] a storefront, if that's something that's open 5 days a week, 8 hours a day, or um what you

[46:25] looked at when you put together uh that data. And then the second thing I would ask is um I think

[46:30] reading between the lines, Jimmy mentioning budget season, there's a financial ask here.

[46:36] I'm not asking for conversation about that, but what could a partnership look like from your

[46:44] perspective? How could um a partnership help you in your mission? WAIBLE: So, uh first first question in

[46:54] terms of the retail storefronts, what we're looking at is regular pedestrian activity in

[46:59] and out of the storefront. So, uh, there's no set number of days of the week, per se, but something

[47:05] that's regular invite regularly inviting the public into that space typically slants more

[47:11] towards retail, restaurant, entertainment uses versus office uses. However, there are some

[47:17] office uses that may qualify if you're bringing in clients or customers on a regular basis.

[47:23] Uh, as far as partnership goes, um, as I mentioned, the support that the DDC has had,

[47:30] uh, more easily access more easily accessed lately is in the short term outcome category,

[47:36] that first column. Those are, hey, can you turn around an event in 20 days for us to do

[47:43] something that gets people excited? Those types of activities aren't necessarily in and of themselves

[47:49] changing the narrative downtown or changing the environment downtown. They do contribute.

[47:54] We're looking for institutional uh support that's dedicated to long-term growth, large-scale growth,

[48:01] and that's where we see, you know, the county as being a good partner in that. someone who's going

[48:06] to help with all the infrastructure that it takes to create a great downtown. Just

[48:11] not just the one-off event that might bring a hundred people on a Thursday night.

[48:23] PHELAN: Thank you for that. The last um question I have for you is uh at Tri County Regional Planning

[48:30] uh through the help of Chris Setti with EDC and Kathie Brown there. We're getting ready to perform a

[48:37] housing assessment that's going to go out to RFP in I think October. Is that something you're aware

[48:42] of or have you had conversations about that? WAIBLE: Is that a regionwide study? PHELAN: Yes. WAIBLE: I'm not aware of

[48:48] that. PHELAN: I will ask um someone to to reach out to you, but if you don't mind sharing your content,

[48:54] I'm sure Jimmy's got it, but they're trying to do a regionwide study to address

[48:59] uh current housing stock. You talked about housing and housing downtown. So, want to make sure that

[49:03] you're part of that if you can participate. WAIBLE: I appreciate that. Thank you. PHELAN: Thank you. DILLON: Other

[49:10] questions or comments? So I'm not looking for a decision or directive today per se, but as the club

[49:17] said, budget season, as we've made significant investments in the courthouse. You have Market

[49:24] After Hours, GPLC is trying to attract people. The reason we were not part of this in the past were

[49:29] valid but I think we've come to turn to a time that we should address this conversation and

[49:35] continue instead of saying our strategic plan's, say what are we going to do to help we need to

[49:39] be in the game because right now we're standing outside saying what do we do? Um and I think this

[49:45] is the first step we've invested in JD and his organization Discover Peoria for our how we project

[49:52] ourselves and our image. It's our, as it was said multiple times, our image is not always of

[49:57] ourselves as good as the outside community views us. So that's part of it and this is a very big

[50:04] step and even in the negative context of you know they say across the river units going online but

[50:11] yet you forget how many units have gone online downtown Peoria we're pretty close to being, and

[50:16] Chris could say it, we'll have 5,000 residents in a tiny couple block area in itself in downtown so

[50:23] uh I don't know what that I have ideas of what that partnership will look from from a financial

[50:30] stake. I did ask Chris if that's something that the board wants, I would expect a board seat

[50:35] potentially on that board so that we are involved in that. So I'm not saying for a thumbs up,

[50:41] thumbs down right now, but I would say here in the next, as we work through the budget cycle,

[50:46] if you have strong objections, please let me know. Uh and if I or strong uh wanting to see

[50:55] this happen, please let us know. But ideally, we would be looking to present something that would

[51:00] be like all of our other agreements, one-year agreements, renewable for so many years. So,

[51:08] Chris, thank you for your time and presentation. WAIBLE: Thank you.

[51:14] DILLON: Last but not least. Andrew, are you taking part? Just cheerleading?

[51:38] SID RUCKRIEGEL: Is that coming through? There it go. Thank you for having us uh here today. My name is Sid Ruckriegel and

[51:43] I currently serve as the vice chair for the Peoria Riverfront Museum. And on behalf of our board of

[51:49] directors, our 600 visionary members, our 5,200 members, the citizens and taxpayers of Peoria

[51:57] County um who helped fund this beautiful program. Welcome back to your building and thank you for

[52:03] having your meeting here today. What started out as a wonderful relationship where we serve as

[52:10] a private organization and a public house has become not only a model to the rest of the not

[52:16] only the local community but to the nation not on how not on just how the how the project was

[52:22] done implemented but also on the outcomes that are happening right here on this very block that

[52:28] have a ripple effect throughout our community. um whether we go to the number of students that

[52:34] are touched by ESI having a visit here every year on a curriculum based through the museum or the

[52:42] uh lifelong learning that happens with such groups as the Fine Arts Society or having our wonderful

[52:47] speaker series that is uh just has been fantastic this year with even such notables as Dr. Elizabeth

[52:54] Pryor coming back and being able to join and talk to our group here and our members. There's

[53:00] a lot of wonderful things happening as you could probably hear the construction that was

[53:03] happening upstairs. That is another piece because we are implementing the first relationship of its

[53:10] kind that has ever happened with the 9/11 museum and memorial out in New York City. No museum has

[53:16] ever had the relationship that we're building up here and that's going to be opening here

[53:20] in just about a week. Um something very very spectacular. And so just want to thank you,

[53:26] thank the citizens of Peoria for what you do for the Peoria Riverfront Museum. And to tell you a little

[53:31] bit more about this exciting year, here's John Morris. JOHN MORRIS: Thank you, Mr. Vice Chairman and formerly,

[53:38] Mr. Chairman. Aren't we lucky to have Sid Ruckriegel serving voluntarily along with 21 board members I

[53:45] report to? They serve on an all volunteer basis and I propose doubling their salary every year.

[53:53] Uh we're very blessed to have tremendous leaders for this board and on this staff and around this

[54:03] table right here, my landlords. Thank you, my first order of business, for allowing us to

[54:11] live in the public house. This extraordinary museum is so much more than the traditional

[54:19] definition of that word. We have really become the community's gathering place. 250 events a year,

[54:28] not museum events, community events take place uh here at the at the Peoria Riverfront Museum

[54:35] and hundreds of other events and activities take place with 320 partners from education to business

[54:42] to arts uh to culture to history to agriculture to manufacturing on and on. It's a joy, nine and

[54:51] a half years on the job, Mr. Chairman. Um it's a joy to serve uh the this private organization

[55:00] living in a public house. And it is a reminder, I hope, to all of you that for the taxpayers,

[55:08] we're working hard to give the best deal possible because for nine and a half straight years,

[55:14] the Peoria Riverfront Museum's request for operating support for the Peoria Riverfront

[55:19] Museum is zero. You do not have to provide one dime to operate this museum because $7.2 million

[55:29] a year annual operating budget is paid for. 86% of it by philanthropy, 14% by earned revenue

[55:36] like ticket sales, which are all subsidized. Thanks to relationships like Alice Walton,

[55:42] the wealthiest woman on the planet in Bentonville, Arkansas, and a chief funder of our museum,

[55:48] we've been able to give Second Sundays for access for all for free, bringing 800 to a thousand people for

[55:55] free on second Sundays of the year. We have so many access programs now from the Every Student

[56:02] Initiative, which as Mr. vice chairman mentioned is a preeminent model for how to engage students,

[56:11] their families, and their teachers. Just a quick story. We started what was it? Two months on the

[56:18] job for me in May of 2017. And Sid Ruckriegel and I just out that door sat with a woman named

[56:29] Polly Barton who signed the pledge commitment for five years to help fund the Peoria Public Schools

[56:36] to come through our museum. Five years. that was not not we're entering our 10th year of the Every

[56:44] Student Initiative and the dream of a woman named Sally Snyder who many of you know who had been a

[56:51] former school board president years ago, had dreamt of bringing every student every year from the Peoria

[56:55] Public Schools from that time. We not only bring the students for free in the museum, we give the

[57:03] students passes to bring their entire families back. I'll never forget standing at the top of the

[57:09] stairs of up there and a little kid with a pass in his hands with 11 people with him bringing

[57:16] the entire gang in. Who knows whether they were all related? It doesn't matter. What matters is

[57:22] that kid had a sense of ownership, pride in this place. Now we as we enter the 10th year

[57:36] some very exciting things are going on in this in the 10th year of the Every Student Initiative

[57:43] program and this is what I want to conclude. We decided some three or four years ago that

[57:50] we would be the greatest celebration of America's semiquincentennial in America, the America 250. So,

[57:57] we put a little sticker on the side of the building. That was meant to be humorous cuz

[58:03] it is to the best of our knowledge the largest America 250 sticker in the world. I'll go ahead

[58:09] and say in the world because I don't know what other countries put are putting a huge

[58:13] sticker, but we have been told it is the largest. Eight different exhibitions on the theme of

[58:20] America 250. A musical performance commissioned originally commissioned paid for by Linda Beth and

[58:29] Ed Saddowski the donors of our museum plus program and a flagship exhibition called the Promise of

[58:38] Liberty for which we produced one of the greatest publications on the subject of and documents of

[58:44] liberty ever produced. And I'm pleased to tell you that each of you are getting a copy is

[58:50] getting a copy of this book today along with some other goodies that our staff has put together,

[58:56] the endowment of the Peoria Riverfront Museum, which Mr. Chairman, you may recall at the time we

[59:03] signed this agreement for me to give you a dollar a year to lease this great facility was required

[59:13] to be $10 million after a certain period of time. The endowment is just north of $20 million now

[59:22] generating 5% of a five-year rolling average that helps support and give the bottom line to the the

[59:28] health of this organization every year. So, um, and I am pleased to say that a former member of

[59:34] this body and a guy who used to sit right there in that chair, Mr. Chairman, Andrew Rand, uh,

[59:41] is a new newly elected, unanimously elected member of the Peoria Riverfront Museum Foundation Board, a

[59:48] separate 11 member board that manages and keeps an eye on the growth of that endowment. Our grow our

[59:54] goal is to get to $50 million by 2034. And we're we're revved up, engine revved up and on the way.

[1:00:01] Again, private dollars. It's nice. It's nice. So, in the presence of the elected officials and our

[1:00:12] landlord, I will thank you for representing the taxpayers to live in your house. But I also thank

[1:00:20] the private donors in front of you because they are the ones who help us continue to grow this

[1:00:28] incredible array of inspiring talent unleashing mission that we have. So that is my report and I'm

[1:00:38] sticking to it. Now as is has become tradition, Mr. Chairman, when you conclude this meeting,

[1:00:48] uh, I have some goodies for everybody, but I'd like to get you into the galleries upstairs to

[1:00:55] take a picture of you in front of the Declaration of Independence, the printing of which we have

[1:01:02] just acquired for the permanent collection of the Peoria Riverfront Museum on this America 250 year.

[1:01:08] So, those of you who have the time, let's wander upstairs and we'll celebrate America 250 with

[1:01:17] the Peoria County Board. Thank you very much. RUCKRIEGEL: One last thing that John failed to mention because I

[1:01:25] know he he doesn't like to take credit for this. Um, but it's because of the relationships that

[1:01:30] he built throughout this country that really have brought a spotlight right here to Peoria, Illinois

[1:01:35] that we always talk about that that is making a difference. One of the relationships that I think

[1:01:41] um many of you may know the name Ken Burns. He chose

[1:01:45] one exhibit this whole year on 250 to be able to put his name and to partner with to be able

[1:01:52] to see happen. And that's what you're going to be seeing upstairs. MORRIS: Yeah. Thank you. Thank you all.

[1:02:07] BLAIR: I offered extra credit to my students um in the spring and I will continue to do that um

[1:02:13] for to go visit the um America 250 exhibit and they are required in order to get the extra credit

[1:02:20] to write me a little paper about what they saw. And they loved it. And my researcher's heart

[1:02:25] loved seeing Betty Friedan's actual research, her surveys that the Smith graduates had filled out

[1:02:34] that helped write the Feminine Mystique. That was amazing to see. Um thank you as a Bradley

[1:02:40] um employee for helping provide those free memberships to both um staff and students at

[1:02:47] Bradley. That has been a great boon to us and helps connect our the bubble up on the Hilltop.

[1:02:54] Yeah. Down here. MORRIS: Brilliant. As we as we build this sort of corridor, Bradley to the museum. President

[1:03:00] Shadid talks about that a lot. That corridor, Bradley to the museum. An anonymous donor gave

[1:03:04] us the money to pay for memberships for students, staff, and faculty at Bradley University. 1,500

[1:03:11] have signed up. and it's so gratifying to see the Bradley crowd making use of this national facility

[1:03:19] in their in their backyard. So, thank you. BLAIR: I heard they someone wanted us to have um those

[1:03:26] bird scooters to go from the hilltop down here. I'm not entirely sure that's the safest thing,

[1:03:32] but um uh anything that we could do to both connect those areas um both here as a county with

[1:03:40] the museum and everything else as we talked about um and make students again perceive that that's a

[1:03:45] safe thing to do would be just wonderful. MORRIS: Yeah, thank you. I should mention Phil Salzer is here.

[1:03:53] Does everybody know Phil? The legend. Phil sits on the Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame board

[1:03:59] as some of you may know and we have worked very closely with Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame

[1:04:05] to secure really 10 of the greatest stories of the greats of all time and display those uh in the

[1:04:12] lobby. And so it's been a real joy, Phil, to work with with that group and to bring the artifacts of

[1:04:18] some of these absolute national legends from uh Sean Livingston to uh Lorraine Ramsay uh and uh

[1:04:26] Tim Broe and on and on. So we're going to keep keep doing that. We've also correspondently brought

[1:04:34] three of the biggest legends uh of entertainment from uh Peoria in central Illinois. Gary Richrath

[1:04:42] of REO Speedwagon, which led us to actually have a reunion of REO Speedwagon upstairs. They made

[1:04:48] even more noise than the people made today moving things around. Dan Fogelberg, whose widow Jean lent

[1:04:56] tremendous number of things, including the baton with the leader of the band uh his father about

[1:05:03] whom there is a famous song. And coming up probably the biggest one we have done of any entertainer

[1:05:09] and the most famous person to come from Poria is Richard Pryor and we've been working closely with

[1:05:14] his family uh and uh with very limited number of collections out there his story is an enormous

[1:05:20] story and trying to help tell that in context of our mission to unleash the full talent and genius

[1:05:26] of every individual which I think is his story in many ways. Juliet Whitaker and the Carver Center

[1:05:32] getting him off the streets and onto the stage is a really remarkable story to tell. So, Phil,

[1:05:37] thank you for what uh Sports Hall of Fame's done with us. DILLON: Any other comments? John, Sid,

[1:05:47] thank you as always for joining this. I think the uh best piece of news I heard today is that uh

[1:05:54] 2034, that means you're not retiring anytime soon. MORRIS: No, I'm I mean that's it's in their

[1:06:00] hands. But we're going full speed and I think everybody knows this folks. This is no longer a

[1:06:08] local museum. It's no longer a regional museum. This has truly emerged as a national museum. I

[1:06:13] just got back from Winter Tour in Delaware. We work with New York City museums. Uh we made the

[1:06:19] Wall Street Journal and the New York Times top 10 list of best American 250 exhibitions this year.

[1:06:24] Our film society's growing, our planetarium is growing, our educational programs lead the

[1:06:29] nation. So we are very proud to represent central Illinois. And please when you have guests from out

[1:06:35] of town or when you want to come down here and I know Linda Daley, former board member of the museum

[1:06:40] as a matter of fact, uh does this but bring them here and let us know. We we'd be happy to comp

[1:06:48] you and your guest, your ambassadors for us. You are the landlords. Bring them in here to see what

[1:06:55] what is going on. So, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thanks to Sid and and uh our newly named member of

[1:07:03] the foundation board, my staff here, Kate Schureman, chief strategy officer, who works so closely with

[1:07:09] with all of you and does a lot of the work with our public officials. Matt Daughenbaugh,

[1:07:14] uh, our chief operating officer, is doing a great job and Jen Flaherty, my executive assistant. Pray

[1:07:20] for her. Um, thank you all, Mr. Chairman. See you up at the Declaration of Independence. DILLON: All right,

[1:07:31] that will bring us to discussion. Uh, standing committees, member Salzer, infrastructure

[1:07:50] PHIL SALZER: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And John's report was tremendous. And about six months ago, when my wife

[1:07:57] and I finally wrote our will, we we absolutely put in a donation of CAT, some of our Caterpillar stock,

[1:08:05] which has done pretty well, and um for the museum and a few other things that played an important

[1:08:15] role in our life. This museum to me of all the years that I've been on the board is one of our

[1:08:22] greatest contributions to our community. This museum is fantastic. I'm kind of a museum nut.

[1:08:30] In fact, the last major uh vacation that my wife and I took was in 2017 because that was

[1:08:38] the 100th anniversary of World War I and we went to Kansas City. Along with that,

[1:08:44] we saw about six museums out there in the St. Joe and um the uh Kansas City area.

[1:08:55] I know I know the kid used to always say, "What are you going to do for, you know, your vacation?"

[1:08:59] I say, "Go to a museum." "Oh, you're not going to go to the beach and swim." I said, "Guys, I can't

[1:09:04] swim." So, so I said that that's kind of out. But anyway, we had three resolutions that we

[1:09:13] uh had presented to us. Uh however uh two of them u were moved to the informational item and and

[1:09:25] Kyle made a report to us on each one of those two and and as a result we are going

[1:09:33] to have a special meeting right before our next county board meeting and and we'll deal with two

[1:09:40] two of those reports. The one resolution that we did adopt was the one that, everybody has

[1:09:47] um probably gone through the viaduct up there in Chillicothe because you shudder sometimes

[1:09:54] if there's a big truck coming uh in the other lane at you. But the resolution that was

[1:10:03] adopted was an intergovernmental resolution with the state of Illinois. Uh and our highway

[1:10:12] department is going to be very busy over the next few few months. Uh we are going to upfront

[1:10:20] the two railroad viaducts for the Burlington, uh Northern and Santa Fe railroads and

[1:10:31] it's going to be to the tune of a million dollars and and they're going to be awful busy because

[1:10:37] they're going to have to uh not only discuss a lot of things in that meeting for the million dollars

[1:10:45] which will come out of our county board. We will upfront county bridge uh fund and uh we will be

[1:10:55] reimbursed from the state of this million dollars. The state, they're extremely busy and they can't can't

[1:11:03] do it. So we are going to have the major part of the work to be done and and they will our uh

[1:11:11] people will be recommending to us the um adoption uh of the resolution in regard to

[1:11:20] the um hiring of the engineering firm for this uh phase first phase of of this particular project.

[1:11:34] Thank you.

[1:11:40] DILLON: Thanks, coach. Any questions for infrastructure? Seeing none,

[1:11:46] member Duncan. Ways and Means. DUNCAN: Okay. Is it on the ways and means it? Hello.

[1:12:01] It's on. Okay. The Ways and Means Committee had one resolution which was the um monthly

[1:12:08] delinquent taxes for the month of August 2026 with 18 items and the vote passed unanimously.

[1:12:17] And also we had the uh comm a committee action which was the assignment of tax sale certificate

[1:12:25] of purchase and it passed unanimously and that was it. Thank you. DILLON: Thank you member Duncan. Questions

[1:12:34] for member Duncan. I'd just like to um give notice to everybody. Talked to member Duncan previously

[1:12:42] before the meeting but um please keep on your uh agenda. We will probably have to have a special

[1:12:47] meeting regarding tax sales due to a recent piece of legislation. So right now we would be planning a 5:00 ways and

[1:12:56] means um committee to have something on the sales. Tax sales are in September. We have to have a sense

[1:13:03] of urgency here. So um if you do have questions, please reach out to Branden Martin. We can give

[1:13:09] you a little bit beforehand, myself, uh, Jennie or Scott if you want some questions beforehand. Uh,

[1:13:16] but we will have that and I would encourage the whole board to attend

[1:13:18] so that we can understand the complicated process. See next, Land Use. Member Rosenbohm.

[1:13:32] Thank you, Mr Chairman. We have one zoning piece, a land split. [unintelligible]

[1:13:53] A resolution for Peoria County comprehensive plan that we haven't done since I believe 2009 passed unanimously also.

[1:14:05] DILLON: Thank you. Member Rosenbohm. Questions? Seeing none, operations was cancelled. Health was canceled. Public Safety. Member Allison.

[1:14:18] JENNIFER GROVES ALLISON: They had one resolution and that was a a $13,000 request to PCAPS. Um Becky is planning to use

[1:14:26] that for uh future capital needs. DILLON: Perfect. Thank you. Questions? Seeing none that

[1:14:35] would bring us to Finance. Member Daley. LINDA DALEY: Um well for the sake of brevity which you know

[1:14:40] I love we started with two resolutions. One was withdrawn so we actually have one

[1:14:47] resolution revision of the pure county financial policies and that resolution passed 10 to two.

[1:14:56] DILLON: Thank you. Any questions? Seeing none, that would bring us to public comment from the public.

[1:15:04] None. Miscellaneous. Meeting adjourned. Thank you.

Executive Committee August 25, 2026

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