Today’s news budget, 4/29/2006
April 29, 2006 in The Wire
Anytime a bunch of bones are found buried like those found Friday in a near South Side neighborhood, thoughts immediately turn toward missing person cases in the area. And even if these bones are found to be human, that doesn’t mean they necessarily can be identified.
Sterling Avenue hill may get street lights. Not a bad idea, especially after the bridge that takes Nebraska Avenue traffic over Interstate 74 opens this summer.
New concessions from Peoria Disposal Company — including that that would create a $6 billion maintenance fund — aren’t winning over the hearts and minds of Peoria County Board members opposed to expansion of the hazardous waste landfill. My two cents: So convinced that the landfill isn’t safe — despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary — opponents of its expansion have essentially covered their ears and started humming loudly so they can’t hear plans to make it safer. They just don’t want to hear evidence to the contrary. These people have convinced themselves they are performing a public service. They are wrong. They are behaving like frightened children who have seen too many movies about giant lizards and spiders terrorizing the countryside. I’m willing to bet that the human feces and urine that rushes into the Illinois River every time it rains had caused greater damage to the environment over the years than the PDC’s landfill.
The Peoria Public Library has a branch inside the RiverWest housing project. It’s the most underutilized branch in the district (not surprising since no one in their right mind would want to buy a house there in the first place, and who do want to do so, can’t afford to thanks to the moronic way in which the Peoria Housing Authority has been administering the place). The PHS — Peoria’s biggest slumlord — Peoria Housing Authority forgot to send the library a bill for the utilities. My two cents: Here’s an idea: Close the branch. Tell the occupants that they can just hoof it down the road to the main library. It’s not much more of a walk from RiverWest to the Main Branch than it was from Frye and Maryland to the McClure Branch when I was in the fourth grade. The problem here isn’t that the library isn’t paying their bills. It’s that the PHA would have the gall to send one. Is this library branch using a room that would go unheated and without electricity anyway? It seems the PHA is behaving like an ungrateful child and a burden on the taxpayers.
Braves win. Illini lose
Canton Daily Ledger — Here’s one reason to be wary of hiring consultants: Fire them, and they get POed.
The Pantagraph — Ya wanna talk about renewable resources? How about making oil from pig feces?
Register-Mail — I always knew that Galesburg was a little strange. Now, here’s written proof.
State Journal-Register – A girl abducted by a woman claiming to be her mother has been found safe.
Feed
May 1st, 2006 at 9:36 am
I am now quite confident that you haven’t read any of the evidence, including PDC’s latest submission of “concessions.” Seriously, you should read it. I have. There is not one “new” thing in it. They are only responding to the concessions the County Board demanded on April 6th - and not even fully meeting those.
Oh, excuse me, there is one new thing. A map showing how the expansion will look without any dumping over Cell C-1. A concession that the County Board and County Staff requested on April 6th. But isn’t it funny how the map is dated October 6, 2005. So did PDC anticipate one full month before even filing the application that County Staff and Board would ask them not to build over this problematic cell? This cell that is already leaking? Are they psychic? Or are they only being “good corporate stewards” when they are forced to be?
Landfill proponents are the ones with their hands over their ears chanting “we’ve gotta have this perpetual care fund, we’ve gotta have this perpetual care fund.” PDC’s latest submission details how PDC will manage the perpetual care fund. They will put their money into their escrow account which will then pay them (PDC) to manage the perpetual care. So they’re giving money to themselves - not the county - for the next 17 years, earning their own interest and all that escrow jazz. That’s right in line with the shady deals you are always pointing out in other areas (Glen Oak School, ie). Also, the concession that he COunty Board demanded on April 6th was for $5 per ton fees paid to the county, the latest document from PDC conceeds only $1.88 per ton - so they are in fact not conceeding anything per the board’s demands (oh, well actually .33 more than the original application, so if you’re splitting hairs…)
And read Tom Bucklar’s letter to the editor today for an analysis of the financials on this perpetual care fund. It would take some damn sunny economic times for the US for the next 30 years for this fund to reach $6 billion.
The EPA has and does and will continue to regulate this site - and PDC only needs this expansion so they can pay for the mess they’ve already made. At the expense of the health of everyone in the County, and really, Central IL.
I’ll make it easy for you:
The evidence in the record can be found at the county site: http://www.co.peoria.il.us/dis.....p;page=pdc - scroll down a ways.
Here’s Dr. G. Fred Lee’s link: http://www.gfredlee.com/plandfil2.htm#hazwaste - this will take you directly to the info he submitted on our behalf.
Seriously, Bill. You are embarrasing yourself. Your opinion, to anyone who’s truly knowledgeable on the current issue, is SO OBVIOUSLY based solely on what the Journal Star is writing. And the blather that Merle Widmer is blogging.
If you want to provide an informed “two cents” instead of a barely-baked, scuttlebutt-dependent, “is PDC or the Journal Star paying you to do this” lame company-fed line - I recommend you spend a few hours reading. Are you related to the Coulters? Do a bunch of your friends work for PDC? I’m honestly asking this question. Because I have read all the evidence. I have seen all of the documentation. I have listened to hours of the testimony from the February hearings. I have done HOURS and DAYS of research. Talked to County Board members. Talked with IL state officials, EPA and state’s attorney’s office. Attended every board and committee meeting.
You have little to no knowledge of the facts. So, I’m posting my own information. I will gladly educate anyone on this issue since I am knee-deep in it and not just blogging about what I hear.
Cara Rosson
cara@dougrosson.com