Greetings! Hard to believe but the dog days of August have passed and students are back to school. We have some interesting mural work at the Sunbeam Building, and this will be just the beginning. Entrepreneurs continue to be good neighbors, with the Muir Building getting a fresh coat of paint as well as the old Church Mouse building, now the site of an Anglican Communion. West Main Liquours will soon have to change its mode of operation and hopefully become an asset to the West Bluff.
We have recently brought back walking police patrols and will continue with them as needed. The patrol stretches from North Street to University. The City continues to take action on out of control properties in the Roanoke Street area and I will not rest until stability returns there. For the first time in decades, an arrest has been made for criminal housing management in the City of Peoria, pursuant to the recently enacted serial predatory (targeted offender) slumlord law. Heads up! Our neighborhoods will not accept predators who house the lawless and who do not maintain their properties. Several other landlords are being investigated now. Code enforcement has also been working on decrepit and nuisance properties on South University, which have been allowed to languish for many years.
I am happy to say that the Great Road Reconfiguration is mostly built out, with adjustments still to be made in the Uplands and University East and MBRA territories. Three million dollars have been spent in less than a year to refresh and renew our old decaying infrastructure. We are on the move! We are busy doing preconstruction and post construction count comparisons. Right now, the Sterling Road work in District Two will affect any count . It will take some time to really get a handle on numbers, as more drivers are learning to avoid the West Bluff as a cut through. I will have the engineers present at the September MBRA Meeting, and they will be all ears. With the new Montessori School beginning its operation in 2015 at 839 W. Moss, it is even more important to scrutinize the stretch of Moss east of University. A few of you have contacted me with great suggestions, and I have shared them with the engineers.
A new West Main Merchants Association has arisen phoenix-like and Renaissance Park Community Association continues its great work. Would we really want to live in any other place in Peoria? The Second District is truly the Heart of Peoria and is second to none. Continue to watch the transformation north of (one of our 9-12 high schools) Peoria High School. This too is a legacy project. What an exciting yet challenging time! See you on September 3.