Two different notices from City Hall might give one pause about the city’s infrastructure:
There has been a cave-in in the Southbound lane of Wisconsin. Wisconsin from McClure to Arcadia will be closed from now until repairs are completed.
We are not aware what has caused the cave-in.
And this one:
Due to a water main leak downtown in [...]

Item 4: PRESENTATION by ILLINOIS AMERICAN WATER COMPANY.
Dean Faulkner on IAWC request for water rate increase. ICC will hold hearings with sworn testimony. Process will last 10 months. Showing slides of smiling employees with their awards. S, obviously, it would be WRONG to oppose their huge rate increase.
“Our customers are satisfied.”
“We did notice odor problems [...]

The mayors of Champaign and Urbana issued this joint press release:

It’s open thread time.
Here’s some possible topics:
1. Governor Blagojevich wants to let restaurant patrons play Keno, which is a quick-paced form of gambling that some critics say is as addictive as Bingo on crack. Furthermore, Blagojevich says existing law gives him all the authority he needs to allow this form of gambling without any [...]

Yesterday, the Journal Star reported on agreement between Peoria, Pekin, Champaign and Urbana to team-up to buy the Illinois American Water Company. I’ve read the same story before, last week.
journal star,water buyout,illinois american,rwe,pekin,champaign,urbana

Peoria is teaming up with Champaign, Urbana and Pekin to look into buying their water systems from the Illinois American Water Company:

Urbana Chief Administrative Officer Bruce Walden disclosed the effort at Monday night’s meeting of the Urbana City Council, saying the city managers and attorneys in the four communities have been talking on a regular [...]

I’m even more skeptical than I was before about the chances the City of Peoria can buy it’s water system at bargain prices. The company that owns the system says it isn’t selling off American Water Company in pieces:
“We see it as one single entity,” said Bill McAndrews, head of the German-based utility’s press department. [...]

The Peoria City Council might decide to seek a partner or two to to buy the suddenly for sale Illinois American Water Company.
I keep seeing paragraphs like this in the press:
On the open market, Peoria wouldn’t be constrained by the appraisers’ set price of $220 million - a strong factor that many council members noted [...]

C.J. Summers has a new template and title for his online magazine of news and opinion: The Peoria Chronicle.
It’s very permalink heavy, and very informative, even though he disagrees with me on the Illinois American Water Company buyout.
Folks, IAWCo will NOT be sold for less than what the owners could get from the city. [...]

The Journal Star posted it’s own article about the eventual sale of the Illinois American American Water Company. I was struck by this paragraph:
Ironically, the announcement of a sale came the same day as a celebratory dinner for local employees because they helped avoid a city buyout.
There’s nothing ironic about it. IW drafted its employees [...]

It’s bad enough these people tried to bribe the city. But to try to bribe us for so little money really ticks me off.
Chuck Grayeb is going to have to break out the thesarus to properly express his outrage.
Folks, any money that Illinois American Water Company pays city government to not seek a buy out [...]

In the end, the Randy Oliver came up with wording
that notified Illinois American that they weren’t going to try to buy the company that didn’t mention “due dilligence.” So Gary Sandberg was happy.
But don’t be surprised if the phrase pops up at least once or twice at every single council meeting for the next [...]

County Board member Merle Widmer, a pal and a Peoria Blogger, has some sharp advice for a member of the Peoria City Council:
City Council meetings would last about half as long as if their wasn’t Gary and Chuck (with Clyde trying to catch up), repeating themselves over and over again as if the rest of [...]

The Journal Star’s Jennifer Davis has some of the details about the latest plan to proceed with the buyout of the Illinois American Water Company system:

Via WEEK
Councilman Gary Sandberg wants the city of explore the idea of re-assigning the city’s option to buy the water company to another public body.
Those bodies might include the Peoria Public Building Commission or the Greater Peoria Sanitary District.
Illinois American,gary sandberg,water buyout,peoria