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Board Also waives building permit fees for Elmwood

County Board Builds the Block

By Gina Ford
July 15, 2010 Updated Jul 8, 2010 at 10:10 PM CDT

The Peoria County Board took a big step tonight towards building the block in downtown Peoria.

County Board members approved both a Riverfront Museum standing committee and a construction committee for the project.

County Board Chairman Tom O'Neill said with the construction committee in place, a company will soon be awarded the contract to begin work on the museum parking deck.

"Next Month, shovels can go in the ground next month. That's what every body's hoping for. We want to get it started this year and Caterpillar wants to get it started this year, we all do," said O'Neill.

Also tonight, about 20 Elmwood residents showed up to the board meeting in hopes of getting help rebuilding.

The Elmwood city attorney and disaster recovery administrator said with 80 percent of downtown businesses declared inoperable, they- among other things- would like the county board to wave building permit fees for the downtown businesses. The board obliged but said they intend to do more for the residents.

"Having a comprehensive committee of the whole meeting I Elmwood where we'll move in Elmwood where we'll move the- Chairman O'Neill has decided to move county board meeting to Elmwood to talk about nothing but those issues," said County Board member, Andrew Rand. "I expect we'll bring another consultant in and a report from and economic development organization on what the long range impact is in Elmwood."

Rand said the special board meeting will be towards the end of this month.

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