Peoria Heights "Voice" & The Cost of Tower Park

Open posting to the Peoria Heights "Voice" person:

Your latest posting does not allow for responses, so I have to respond this way. Any time you want to come by Village Hall, and obtain a printout of the costs of the renovations and changes at Tower Park, please do so. I'll make sure the bookkeeper gives you a copy.

The overall costs of the changes to Tower Park totaled $1,062,897.00.

The donations, you stated, were $350,000.00. You're wrong.

The donations were actually $282,472.66. You must be including the "donation" from the two cell towers that former Mayor Carter somehow retrieved from very large, inanimate objects. That $75,000.00 "donation" from the cell towers was actually written on the tally board for keeping track of the donation money; but could not be listed on the actual donation print-out (legally), because you cannot earmark Village funds for specific projects. For a further clarification of this extraordinary "donation" from two cell towers, I refer to this part of a previous posting:

" American Tower Corporation

This is a good one. In his flier, Mr. Carter states that "the Village has already received $75,000.00" for the leases. And, guess what? Mr. Carter listed that $75,000.00 as a DONATION to the Tower Park changes. You know, the ones that cost us $780,000.00. Additionally, in order to do so, Mr. Carter agreed to accept $50,000.00 up front for the tower on Toledo for the first 10 years of the lease; and to accept $25,000.00 up front for the tower off of Gardner Lane, for the first 5 years of the lease.

The actual lease costs are $8,400.00 per year for the tower on Toledo. The lease payment is $7,500.00 per year for the tower off Gardner Lane. Again, using my Radio Shack calculator, that tells me that the lease payments over 10 years for the Toledo tower should have been $84,000.00, instead of the $50,000.00 that was accepted. The lease payments for the Gardner Lane tower should have been $38,500.00 for the first five years of that lease, instead of the $25,000.00 that was accepted.

Why did Mr. Carter insist on having the $75,000.00 up front, instead of taking the $122,500.00 that would have been paid out on the leases as originally conceived? Again, that $75,000.00 was listed as a donation for the Tower Park changes."

The cell towers weren't really able to make a "donation" to the changes at Tower Park, although I'm SURE they really wanted to, Voice. So, in actuality AND reality, the donations were $282,472.66, and that's that. It's a nice figure, but be aware that the vast, vast, VAST majority of those donations came from just a few sources: Caterpillar ($25,000.00); the Bielfeldt Foundation ($75,000.00); an "anonymous" donor ($75,000.00); and Pearl Insurance ($75,000.00). That's still a tidy sum, of course. Do I think Uncle Earl worked his magic for those monies? Not exactly... I have two words that better describe the ability to get those donations, and those words are "Wayne Baum."

And, again, I'll ask that you do the math.

The COSTS to the Village taxpayers were exactly $780,424.40. Period. End of story. As much as you don't want to believe that, and as much as Uncle Earl tells you otherwise, it is a fact. And, this much I'm pretty certain of, even though I've been "caught" at a mis-speak as of late, I have never said that there weren't donations made to the park. More than a few times over the course of this blog, I have stated the TOTAL cost of the park, and the money paid out from Village coffers. But, once again, I'm guessing you'll read into it whatever you want to read into it. End result is this... $780,420.40 was paid out from the Village GENERAL FUND for the work done in Tower Park. That's the money fund available for the Village to do all of the other work it wants done, other than water work and MFT funds. Still don't believe me? Like I said... c'mon by and you can hold the payout list in your hands, and even take it home.

Poplar Lane Park cost over $430,000.00 to put in. We received a $200,000.00 grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Again, you do the math.

Does that mean I'm against parks? Of course not. We're pursuing grants for a trailhead building at the piece of land at the corner of Marietta and Columbus, which even if we receive them, we will have to dip into the Village coffers to complete the work. But, you see, I'll be honest about what amount we have to put out.

My issues with Poplar Lane Park were that it was in a bad location (flooding, not many houses in the area for real access) and that Bielfeldt Park is just across Galena Road from it, and that park already offered everything that Poplar Lane Park did, except for basketball hoops, a river view, and flooding.

Do you really think I would have been bellyaching about the cost of Tower Park all of these years without the numbers to back me up? When have you ever come by Village Hall to check those numbers, instead of taking the "expert witness" stuff from the Peoples Party regarding the costs? Come on by and get the facts, please. The printout will have all of the checks that were paid out back in 2002-2003... verified and certified.