Fire Station 11 still dividing council
According to the Journal Star, Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis and the his brother Tony, president of the city’s firefighter union are feuding over the mayor’s hesitation to reopen Fire Station 11 because of budget concerns.
Didn’t the JS editorial page warn us against voting for Ardis because he would essentially be a tool of the firefighters’ union?
But I am more concerned over how much members of the new council are sniping at each other. Case in point:
At-large Councilmen Gary Sandberg and Chuck Grayeb have been staunch supporters of Fire Station 11. Sandberg said he will have his own alternatives that involve increasing public safety dollars.
“It’s all where do we want to spend the money. Apparently Mayor Ardis wants to spend it the way previous administrations have spent it,” Sandberg said.
I think it’s a way too early in his term to start calling Mayor Ardis another Dave Ransburg on budget issues. It’s a huge insult and unwarranted.
But let’s make no mistake: Reopening Fire Station 11 needs to be a priority. There is money in the budget going to non-essential junk (the Gateway building is a prime example) that can be dumped to free up at least some of the money needed. My beef against the garbage tax was that the city claimed it was to increase the numbers of cops on the streets, but they never used it for that purpose and spent years telling us afterwards that we didn’t need more police.
My guess is that Mayor Ardis knows that we need to reopen the fire station, but doesn’t want to prejudge or make it appear that he’s doing his brother’s bidding. Or perhaps he really is changing his mind on Fire Station 11 and the garbage tax. We’ll know after budget talks begin.
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
Jim and Tony shouldn’t even be TALKING about the issue. I knew this would happen.
Now let me see, Mayor Ardis, then Councilman Ardis diidn’t have ANY PROBLEM spending $65,000,000 on Civic Center expansion WITHOUT A BUSINESS PLAN or an ongoing revenue stream to pay for added operating costs after the “closure” of Station 11. The $65,000,000 Civic Center expansion now requires “selling off naming rights to certain prominent spaces” to pay for the increased operating costs, yet Jim Ardis remained and remains silent in his fiscal responsivness on revenue sources up to or until the issue is PUBLIC SAFETY??????? Me thinks his propensity to duplicity is noticeable while my comments are hardly “UNWARRANTED”. Hypocracy or duplicity no matter who won the title is not acceptable and is the real insult!
Warm and fuzzy fluff projects should be held to a higher standard than Basic Essential Services that citizens expect from their taxes, not the other way around.
After all the taxpayers of Peoria are subsidising parking decks for people who live in Morton, Germantown Hills to the tune of $1,800,000 each year but now we need continue a garbage tax for homeowners in Peoria collected by the water company that makes around $200,000 a year adding the garbage tax to it’s bill. Any more “revenue streams” like that Jim Ardis appears to be defending and I am sure I will get more insulting.
Huh. Someone is a ‘lil cranky! Gary, did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning or perhaps bitter about the way Ardis and Co. voted regarding the water company buyout?
Moma, Didn’t wake up on wrong side of bed today cause I made the statement yesterday and woke up fine then also. The only connection between my comments and Ardis and Co (and you are correct about that discription) is there was a proven identified revenue stream to re-purchase that asset and operate it, so you make a great point that I didn’t, Ardis and Co was duplicitist on that vote also. Now what side of the bed did you arise from?
If the shoe fits, Ardis needs to wear it. The City is like the gangbanger, who spends thousands of dollars on flashy rims and a paint job for a car that is supposed to grab attention. Only the city spends it on fancy buildings that look nice in photos at press conferences, but like the Hoopty, are inefficient and expensive to maintain.
Meanwhile the engines of the city, the reason houses and businesses are built and people stay there, are neglected. These engines are the public infrastructure, much of which cannot be seen (water, sewer) and what can be seen is utilitarian rather than entertaining by nature (sidewalks, streets and trash collection) vs. (Gateway, Zoo’s Rec Plex, Ballpark, Civic Center)
As much as Ardis has been around to hear Gary’s preaching, and observed the beefs against Ran$berg, Ardis needs to be true to his base. And I think his brother Tony will make that clear.
I have to agree. I like Jim Ardis, but he needs to be in favor ofwhat the voters obviously want the council to do: Reopen Fire Station 11. It’s not a budget issue, because the money IS THERE. It’s just being spent on non-essential, feel-good stuff. The voters rejected that approach when they picked Ardis,Manning and VanAuken instead of Ransburg, Teplitz and Thetford.
Gary. Hmm. I think I floated out of bed this morning. Light and happy on my feet, still relieved local government didn’t vote to sink the City into $400 Million into debt. Thanks for asking.
Did there even need to be a business plan for the Civic Center renovation? We all know thats it’s never going to make money just like before and is going to need to be subsidized. Or I guess you could say that was the business plan. And I’d have to agree with Gary on this. There is more evidence to show him going the route of prevous administrations than going the other way.
PS. They should have bought the water company.