John Kahl is running unopposed in his bid for a second term as mayor of East Peoria, and he's optimistic about the city's future.
Kahl says when he was first elected in 2019, a mostly new city council seized the opportunity to take a critical look at East Peoria's direction and approach things differently – with a focus on addressing infrastructure needs.
In the start of a new quarterly interview series, WCBU reporter Joe Deacon talks with Kahl about his top goals for East Peoria since taking office and where he sees the city heading in the future.
This transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
What do you see as East Peoria’s biggest problem or issue that you'd like to address or solve in the immediate future?
Mayor John Kahl: East Peoria, this (city) council here is wrapping up its first term together. Four years ago when it was a majority of the council was new at that time, it allowed us to look at things a little differently in East Peoria. One of the things that I thought, as a newly elected mayor, it was critical to take a look at what the goals were for this past four years, and it was clear in talking to the other officials that were newly elected in their positions that we really wanted to emphasize on infrastructure.
For a lot of years, anyone that's been to East Peoria can see that we've built out, done a phenomenal job building out the Levee District. With that being said, there's a lot of infrastructure that was not maintained for a number of decades. So that was our focus, whether it was streets, water and sewer main. We are just wrapping up the wastewater treatment plant upgrade, that's a $66 million project in itself. But there was a big emphasis on infrastructure, and that's going to continue. It absolutely has to.
Yes, in your State of the City address, you mentioned that there's $6 million for roads specifically this year, including $2 million for residential streets. Why is that such a big important issue right now?
Kahl: Because for years, many, many years, the city has not done its part to keep up on allocating the proper funds necessary to maintain the roadways. It's actually closer to $7 (million); we refined our budget since my State of the City address and we just recently approved that budget, so it's nearly $7 million. So you'll see a lot of road projects in East Peoria.
Typically, whatever motor fuel tax funds the city generated, they would allocate to residential streets or street maintenance projects so it just hasn't been enough for a number of years. But we incorporated a five-year capital plan four years ago – the city had never had one – and that included streets, and now you'll see over the course of this next four years a real emphasis on streets.
So the $2 million in for residential streets, is that going to be a continuing (commitment)?
Kahl: The hope is that we invest at least $2-3 million per year on residential street maintenance. So it's about roughly $2.2 million, is what it comes in at this year. So far, we've gone out to bid on a number of things; we got ahead of the curve this year, where in years past we always would wait and see what we could allocate. This year, we thought out of the box a little differently and to our benefit.
I thought a key comment in your speech was: “Without a strong Peoria, we do not have a strong East Peoria.” What do you see as East Peoria’s role in strengthening Peoria, and the region as a whole?
Kahl: I think it's absolutely – for anyone to ignore the fact that Peoria is the largest city in central Illinois, you'd be a fool. But by that, I mean we've not done a good job – I don't believe, this region – on working together, and I think over the last couple years you've seen a real, if you will, change on that.
I think that without a strong Peoria, you don't have a strong East Peoria; you don't have a strong Pekin or Morton or Washington. I think it's up to all of us leaders to work together, because let's face it: We have 23,000 residents in East Peoria. A lot of people work in Peoria, a lot of people shop and eat, do different things in Peoria, and vice versa. So I think from a regional standpoint, we're a lot stronger working together than apart.
You noted that part of that relates also to crime and public safety, and that East Peoria has installed license plate reader cameras at the urging of Peoria Police Chief Eric Echevarria. How are these cameras more helpful than intrusive?
Kahl: They've already paid for themselves, if you ask me. I mean, whether it be stolen vehicles… Obviously, you know, there was a big concern upfront from the public that we're being “Big Brother,” and that's not the case at all. But listen, we're a bridge away (from Peoria). Every community has its set of challenges, and I don't think the state has been very helpful lately, nonetheless, in regards to helping with the crime problem. So I think it's kind of left up to us, and I appreciate the Chief’s ask, in that looking at it from a regional standpoint once again, it's all of our problem. So I think we owe it to keep our community safe, and this is just one more tool in the toolbox to ensure that we do that. And it's used for the right reasons.
What can East Peoria do to encourage and facilitate more economic development to increase revenue?
Kahl: We have over 900 businesses and what people don't realize is how diversified that business community truly is. You have everything from Caterpillar manufacturing to Jtech (Industries), Roy Sorce with his new (Copi) operation that was recognized by Bradley; it's an award-winning operation, what he's done there with the Asian Carp.
But I look at everything from the mom-and-pop shops to the Par-A-Dice Casino, and I look at no different on the Peoria side of things. I think we owe it to the people to do our part to attract – for the right reasons – higher paying jobs; I think it's absolutely critical. It's one thing that we have a lot of retail jobs, but it's another thing that you have to diversify what that business looks like. I think it's very important to work together to ensure that we do that from a regional standpoint.
How do you do that, how do you diversify?
Kahl: Well, I think the biggest thing that I can see is coming up with a brand or a message as a region, really. I know there's some different entities currently working on that, but I think it's going to take everybody working together with one set of goals. In other words, if we can go out and look at a manufacturer that's not located here, what can we do to do our part, working together, to attract that – whether they land in Peoria or Pekin or Morton?
I look at things going on in Morton, that's a perfect example. You have Precision Planting (operations center); that's a big deal. I don't think people realize how many jobs are involved. Look at North Pekin with Amazon; just things of that sort. I think if people can set their differences aside – and say, “Hey, we want to fight just for East Peoria to have that,” that doesn't benefit the region. I think we need to work together to do that, and I think in the coming months you're going to see a larger emphasis on community leaders coming together for that reason.
In your speech, you mentioned that the city is working on updating and reviewing the city code, and it's been a long time coming. Can you tell me why that's needed right now?
Kahl: It's absolutely needed. It probably shouldn't surprise anybody, but I would gather (that) if you looked up state laws that are on the books, a lot of them aren’t applicable today. In talking with the city clerk, we haven't gone through that review and recodification of our code since 1975. That's a long time; things have certainly changed since then. So I think as you amend your codes to bring them up in line with current law and things of that sort, I think is just as important to go back and clean all that up.
Two projects you noted in your speech were the 501 Blutowne development and the Riverview Lofts. Where do those projects stand, and how will they benefit the city?
Kahl: The one is, it's a mixed-use development, which is the 501 Blutowne, and that one's just west of City Hall. I've talked about it for four years, but Ty (Livingston), our Director of Planning and Community Development, reminds me all the time: with these developments, you do need to have patience. COVID hit, nobody saw that one coming, and now you've got inflation mixed into that. But both those projects are due to close on the land here within the next couple of months. So we're actually going to see things go vertical; it should be – I'm guessing, if I had to guess – it'd be late summer at this point.
I think they're going to be a huge benefit, because with the Levee District down there – actually it was called “Downtown 2010,” was the original vision – but it not only had commercial space, it had residential as one of the components. So we've got the commercial side of things, and now the focus was bringing the residential components into that downtown area, and that's what this does.
You mentioned kind of building up, going vertical. With East Peoria basically landlocked and not having much annexation possibilities, how and where do you look internally for city growth?
Kahl: Well, for example, these two projects are certainly a perfect example of that. Then there's other areas of opportunity down there to do something similar after these are built out. But East Peoria has a very a difficult topography; it's “five fingers,” as we say. You have the bluffs, and then you have the valleys and things of that sort, so that certainly makes things difficult as far as where you can build things out.
But there are other areas of opportunity that I would like to see the city focus on, and one of them is certainly the Pinecrest area. We kind of started that, oh geez, a number of years ago, but there's opportunity out in that area as well.
What would you like to see done there?
Kahl: I would certainly like to see some more commercial space. I mean, we have – we are located in the perfect spot, East Peoria. That's why you see so many people coming through East Peoria on a daily basis; our population nearly doubles on a daily basis with just the way the state routes (direct traffic) and based on our location. So I think Pinecrest is certainly an area that I think we could focus on and see a lot more commercial growth out that way, and then there's areas of residential I think that can fit into that.
Do you anticipate any impact or negative impact, I should say, from the Bob Michel Bridge closure?
Kahl: Here's the blessing with the Peoria area that people don't realize, because that is a concern of course, especially with the businesses down there: We've already weathered that storm before. Now, granted, it was during COVID, when (Interstate) 74 was shut down. But the beautiful thing about our region is we have more than one bridge, and so when they close one, as the Bob Michel is now, there's other areas – whether it was Cedar Street, or 74 (the Murray Baker Bridge), or you have McClugage on the north end. So we're blessed in that regard; people will find a way, trust me.
An item that's been brought up in the past is the size of the city's public safety building on West Washington. Are there any plans in the works to renovate or replace that facility?
Kahl: Yes, I actually mentioned that a year ago in the State of the City address. We brought in a consultant that looked at, did a space needs study on that space, and ideally … We're moving forward with a new fire station at ICC (Illinois Central College); that had been talked about for well over 30 years, so it's actually coming to fruition. Ideally what you'd like to see – that public safety building (currently) houses both police and central fire station – the goal would be to relocate central fire station; whether it stays there, it really needs to be shifted long term.
But on the police side of things, what came out of that study was the true needs of that department. So the city council had basically stated a year ago that within the next five years, the next phase would be engineering and designing once we select the location. But there’s certainly plans to build a new police station, it's much needed.
You've touted numerous improvements at EastSide Centre. What's being done, and what more would you like to see?
Kahl: So currently, right now, we're wrapping up – we just completed the artificial turf of fields 1 and 7, (and) what the council decided in this next fiscal year budget is we're going to artificially turf softball fields 3 and 4 as well. They turned out nicely. Along those lines, there's two concession stands out there for those ball fields. Those are currently being renovated as we speak, so those should be wrapped up just in time to kick off the season next month. Then we just redid the gym floor in EastSide, the actual facility itself, then there are long-term plans to expand that building and add additional courts.
We recognize EastSide was something nobody else had when it was built twenty-some years ago – kind of ahead of its time, if you will – and this council recognizes the need to reinvest in that property due to its age. It's extremely well maintained and very popular; it's booked all year long. So we recognize the importance from an economic impact to the city as well.
You mentioned the concessions area. I understand you're pursuing a liquor license there?
Kahl: We did. We actually began selling alcohol there, probably about three weeks ago. And I need to remind people the IESA and IHSA (elementary and high school) sanctioned events that will be held up there, alcohol is not going to be served during that time.
Here’s what people don't really know: We host of tons of functions throughout the year, whether it's at the collegiate level or private groups, things of that sort. But there's certainly tournaments and things that allow us to do that. Other sports complexes, they've been built up (and) they serve alcohol. So we listened to what people would like to see up there, and that was certainly one of them.
What about the area where the water park used to be?
Kahl: That area is basically where I'm referring to when I say we plan to expand that current facility, and it would go out that side of the building,
What's the latest progress on development of Levee Park?
Kahl: So Levee Park, that's driven by the East Peoria Community Foundation. We actually do the (fundraiser) drawing for the Corvette; they sold all the tickets, which meant they raised a lot of money for that next phase of the park.
(EDITOR’S NOTE – The raffle drawing for the 70th anniversary limited edition 2023 Corvette was held last Friday, with Kaye Johnson winning the prize. The East Peoria Community Foundation reports the raffle raised $250,000.)
They're currently wrapping up Phase Two, and I know – I saw the stage canopy has arrived out there, so I think that's the next step is to get that stage completed, and then they're going to have to come in and re-sod that green space there. But the foundation, I think they were hoping to have that phase done and wrapped up, come April. Obviously, there's delays – just like with anything else – as far as getting the materials in. But I think you're going to see that really come together this spring.
You've also teased development of an “out of the box” family entertainment venue near Bass Pro Shops. Can you provide any additional information?
Kahl: I'll tell you what the hang-up there is: We're being respectful to the developer because they have things that they're working on on their end. They wanted to fine-tune a few things before we went public with, “Hey, this is what it is. This is the concept.” All I can say is there's nothing like it. Not everybody's going to be super excited when it's here, because that may not be their thing. But at the end of the day, I'm being told by the developer that they're going to allow us to speak to what that is either late April or first part of May, so stay tuned.
With development agreements, it was city land that we're talking about down near Bass Pro. It's important, just being fully transparent, that was laid on the table at the council floor with that land. But we were very tight-lipped as to what that development (is), and that's simply out of respect to the developer because they thought outside the box. They’re bringing something that's not here, and I think it's pretty exciting.
