Thursday February 2, 2017 Vol. 4, No. 47
The Weekly Post
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Peoria County taxes buck trend by remaining static By BILL KNIGHT
The good news for Peoria County property owners is that real-estate tax rates haven’t increased in more than six years. The bad news is that prices have. That means that the County must continue to cut spending or services they’re legally obligated to fulfill, from keeping For The Weekly Post
records and prosecuting crimes to protecting public safety and maintaining programs the County administers, from elections to the health department. The County Board is advocating cutting more staff and juggling budget line-items instead of seriously addressing the need for more revenue to pay higher prices, according to an internal document distrib-
uted to Board members and administration. Already, there’s been a 9.6percent reduction in full-time employees since 2009, from 424 to 383, with the County Clerk and Recorder of Deeds losing 7 workers, Court administration losing 9 and the Sheriff losing 15. And in the County budget structure, Risk Management
fees – which annually set aside funds to pay legal fees to protect the County against lawsuits – have been shifted from its own separate line item into the General Fund, says the seven-page “Budget Information Report” prepared by the office of County Clerk Steve Sonnemaker. The report recommends restoring Risk Management
Progress made on Farmington disc golf course
By BILL KNIGHT
ELMWOOD – River City Construction on Jan. 26 presented a Guaranteed Maximum Price of $6,051,143 for District 322’s Phase II building project at a special meeting of the Board of Education. The board also heard at the meeting that the first bid package was scheduled to go out this week for return on Feb. 16. Three days before, the Board had unanimously approved $7.2 million in Inside bonds to fund the • Several new canproject, for which didates have turned construction costs in their names as alone were anticicandidates for uppated to be $6.1 coming local elecmillion. tions. Page 10. The Board in November discussed cost-saving moves through Value Engineering, and approved about $650,000 in savings from initial estimates. The savings were through adjustments, such as rearranging the auditorium to accommodate it within the entry/commons addition, modifying some façade and cosmetic facing surfaces, switching beam For The Weekly Post
By BILL KNIGHT For The Weekly Post
hills, timber and is already well taken care of.” The timing is right, too, he adds. “Disc golf is the fastestgrowing sport,” Howard says. “It’s doubled in the last 10 years.” The Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA)
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Elmwood max Phase II cost $6.05 million
DISC GOLF FUND RAISER
FARMINGTON – With goals of raising $14,000 and starting construction in the next few months, a disc golf course committee in Farmington is stepping up activity. Proposed as an 18-hole course on the west side of Township Park on the south side of town, the project is organizing by a local committee that wants to provide another activity for teens, increase use of a public park, and attract tourists. “Township Park is ideal,” says John Howard, the Farmington Public Library Director who’s spearheading the effort in cooperation with the Farmington Township Park Board. “The area we’re looking at has some
and its $776,400 to where its use is clearly noted instead of having it absorbed by the General Fund, which is how dayto-day operations are paid for. “I’d say the Board didn’t care,” Sonnemaker said about the report’s data. “And the Risk Management in particular is a problem, because the County gets sued a lot, and
Plans are already set for a possible disc golf course to be constructed for in Farmington’s Township Park once volunteers can raise $14,000.
says the sport has grown 12 percent annually for 10 years, and the number of courses has grown from about 2,000 a decade ago to more than 5,500 now. Area disc golf courses include Big Creek Park in Canton, Bradley Park in
Peoria, plus courses in Morton, Pekin and Washington. Regardless of course, disc golf is somewhat familiar. Like regular golf, players using plastic discs (derived from Wham-O’s Continued on Page 6
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