Hello, strangers!
I know it seems like ages since you received a notification of a new post. While admittedly, my goal is to lessen the number of times I clutter your inbox, I did not anticipate many months to pass without an update!
There are many reasons/excuses for the delay, but that is not important right now. What's important is bringing you up to speed on where things stand with the County Board.
1) In September, we heard our quarterly update from the Greater Peoria EDC. We were pleased to hear that employment rates for the County are up, compared to the state and federal averages. We also approved the various ordinances creating the Heritage Lake Special Service Area, which requires a separate Commission to oversee the expenditure of those funds raised from Heritage Lake taxpayers for their infrastructure upgrades.
2) In October, the Board appointed a new Coroner to serve out the remainder of Dr. Baldi's term (Brian Foley of Minier). October is also "final budget review month," and accordingly, passed the annual budget. I cannot thank our "Finance Team" and Department heads enough for all of their effort to try and put together the best budget possible. While not everyone voted for the budget that night, I did because I knew that even though we approved a budget with a deficit, our team is committed to investing in not only the current level of services our residents expect, but also planning for future infrastructure needs, despite the continued increase of unfunded mandates imposed on us by the state and federal governments. To try and ease the strain, the Board implemented a temporary hiring freeze, and established a Budget Deficit Committee which will meet regularly to monitor the status of income and expenditures, as well as open the floor to Board members and Department heads on short and long-term ideas for this and future budgets.
3) In November, the Board approved various contracts on necessary bridge and road contracts, as well as the purchase of a used vehicle for County Emergency Management. The Board also approved various intergovernmental agreements where the County will provide animal control services for numerous municipalities within our borders.
The Board did not meet in December (as is tradition), but all of our Committees are very active in anticipation of the January Board meeting this week.
As always, please contact me with any questions.
