EAST PEORIA, Ill. – The city of East Peoria’s infrastructure — and how to improve it — is on the mind of the city’s top elected official.
At his “State of East Peoria” speech Friday morning, Mayor John Kahl said spending on various capital improvements is three times more than last year, and among the areas getting big attention are streets.
“The largest portion of what we’re going to accomplish this year is $6.1 million in street improvements. That’s a big number for us…and we have a lot of streets,” said Kahl. “Sadly, we’ve just not invested in our streets as people expect and deserve.”
Kahl says this will be the first of at least five years in a long-term capital improvement plan.
“For the first time in a long time, we’re going to spend $2 million just on residential streets,” said Kahl. “I want to stress the importance of a capital plan. The city council, in the capital plan that we will be approving here this next month, you’ll see that — at minimum — we’re going to dedicate at least $2 million a year in residential street improvements moving forward.”
Kahl says that’s just part of a $70 million balanced budget the city has come up with. Adding turf, fencing, and other things to continue work at Eastside Center is also part of the plan, dredging Eastport Marina for the first time in years, and other things are also being worked on.
Administratively, Kahl says, the city will update its Comprehensive Plan for the first time in decades, and improve computer software that hasn’t really been touched since at least 1991.
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