Today’s news: Clinging to bad ideas

All links via the Journal Star:

• Despite one adverse decision after another from the Surface Transportation Board, the Peoria City Council still seems to be clinging to the idea of closing the Kellar Branch rail line and replacing it with a hiking and biking trail.

  My two cents: I defer to C.J. Summers, who sums up the city’s options quite nicely. C.J. also dismisses claims the cost of repairing and re-opening the branch would be cost prohibitive, reminding us that the former operator, Pioneer Industrial Railway has offered to buy the Kellar Branch and lease land along side to the Peoria Park District for a trail.

  The solution to this mess is mind-numbingly easy to see, only elected politicians and stubborn bureaucrats cannot see it.

• The JS headline reads: “City Council puts of water study.” I’m not the only guy who makes typos, apparently. Heh.

  My two cents: I support the deferral. I want the city to make sure city staff didn’t cherry pick a consultant who would tell them what they want to hear. First, I want the city to clean up it’s mess. Second, even if I didn’t give a rat’s ass about the feces that’s flowing into the Illinois River every time it rains, I don’t want the federal government to come back later with huge fine because it hired a guy who told the city what it wanted to hear, rather than what it needed to hear. I want to know exactly what relationship the local firm MACTEC Engineering and Consulting Inc. has with the city how. It seems to me that it might be better to have this study done by a consultant that doesn’t have to worry about whether or not it’s going to get any more business from the city.

• Superintendent Ken Hinton has changed his mind. Now, he wants to keep Peoria School District’s contract with Edison Schools.

  My two cents: This is good news for those parents who like Edison. It’s bad news for the teacher’s unions. It’s a continued indictment of District 150 in that people are so desperate for something other than what is normally offered by the administration and its teaches. And it’s bad news for taxpayers, who shouldn’t have to pay extra so that some schools can get the quality education in a safe environment ALL schools should get right out of the box.

• F. Scott’s is closing its doors due to a dispute between the owner and the landlord over a sinking floor.

  My two cents: There are two sides to every dispute, and all I know is what I read in the paper. And one of the things I’m reading is that the landlord’s attorney is “Sluggo” Jack Teplitz. Beyond that, I have no comment.

• The guy who sells plots at Springdale Cemetery says he might resign. Seems he’s upset at being blamed for the cemetery’s financial problems, even though his sales are better than projections. He says the cemetery hired too many goundskeepers. Meanwhile, the cemetery manager — accused of driving away sculptor Nita Sunderland as a monument restoration volunteer — was given a merit pay increase.

  My two cents: Yep. This is looking more and more like a government-run cemetery.

• The Catholic Diocese of Peoria is being sued for negligence and fraud by a guy who says he was molested by a priest in the 1980s.

  My two cents: The priest is dead, so we don’t know his side of the case. Of course, seven other people have made similar allegations. And it’s hard to be sympathetic with the church, considering they let the guy continue being a priest long after they learned what he was up to.

Tags: Catholic Diocese of Peoria, CJ Summers, Edison Schools, eoria School District, F. Scott’s, illinois river, Kellar Branch, MACTEC Engineering and Consulting, Nita Sunderland, Peoria City Council, Peoria Park District