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New Pekin fire station is off the table with the termination of a property sale

A sale of the property where Pekin Fire Station 2 is located was terminated Monday by the Pekin City Council.
Steve Stein
/
WCBU
A sale of the property where Pekin Fire Station 2 is located was terminated Monday by the Pekin City Council.

Pekin's plans to build a new fire station on the north side of town are on hold.

The City Council on Monday voted unanimously to terminate a 2022 agreement to sell the property at 1000 N. 14th Street, where Fire Station 2 is located, to David Milam.

Milam will receive $200,000, plus $25,000 for termination costs, from the city.

"We wanted to build the new fire station within five years. That's not going to happen," said Pekin City Manager John Dossey. "We don't want to rush the timeline. We were looking at a March 25 deadline to close on the 14th Street property sale."

Nearly three acres of property at 1104 Sheridan Road purchased by the city in 2022 from Milam for $657,000 was targeted for the new fire station.

The purchase agreement included selling the Fire Station 2 property to Milam for $200,000 after the city decommissioned the station, and using the $200,000 the city received from Milam to pay off a $200,000 mortgage on the Sheridan Road property.

While the vote to terminate the sale to Milam was unanimous, not every council member was happy about it.

"I'm going to vote for this because I don't want us renting one of our fire stations from a private land owner. But I don't like how this played out," said Rick Hilst.

Pekin has three fire stations, two built in 1962, including the station on 14th Street, and the other in 1976, and is looking to build new stations to improve service.

Realtors, city need more time to talk about registry of owners of foreclosed or vacant property

The creation of a registry of the owners of properties that have been or are in the process of being foreclosed and vacant properties was delayed Monday by the council until no later than its Dec. 9 meeting.

City staff is meeting with local realtors to address the realtors' concerns about the registry, and requested more time to complete that process.

"We want the realtors to have their say. Our goal is for them to publicly support the registry," Dossey said.

Nic Maquet, Pekin's chief building official, said the city is "often burdened with the costs to maintain or board up these properties when staff is unable to locate a contact for the property."

Revenue created by the registry would be used to offset the costs of registration and registration enforcement, code enforcement and the mitigation of issues with registerable properties.

First job for trench burner: burning about 100 doomed trees at the Pekin Municipal Airport

A trench burner purchased Monday by the city for $73,376, including shipping, from Florida-based AirBurners will be put to work quickly for a one-off project.

About 100 trees in a mile-long tree line on the south side of the Pekin Municipal Airport need to be taken down. That's an order from the Federal Aviation Administration following a regular airport inspection, said Airport Manager Mike Cruse.

BEB Excavating of Manito, which submitted the lowest of three estimates, will do the tree work, including removing stumps, for $18,810.

Pekin Public Works Director Dean Schneider said the cost of a trench burner from AirBurners has risen dramatically in past weeks because of the demand caused by two hurricanes that ravaged Florida.

Just last week, Schneider said, Pekin was quoted a cost of $65,468 for the purchase and delivery of a trench burner. He said he negotiated a reduction in the shipping cost from $4,800 to $3,600.

Pekin should have its trench burner in about two weeks, Schneider said.

Schneider said the rental cost for the trench burner from United Rentals is $6,000 per month. That's if one can be found to rent.

"So we'll pay for our burner in a year," Schneider said.

The vote to purchase the trench burner was 5-2, with Lloyd Orrick and Hilst dissenting. A motion to spend no more than $74,000 for the trench burner passed unanimously. The vote to award the contract to BEB Excavating was 6-1, with Nutter dissenting.

A trench burner, which meets U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requirements for burning materials, uses a trench dug into the ground as a burn chamber. A manifold that extends from a trailer provides a air curtain.

Pekin plans to rent its trench burner to area communities after storms or as needed.

Council approves police car leases, Lutticken surveyors, and sharing funding for Court Street project

In other action Monday, the council approved:

  • Leasing six new 2025 Ford Interceptor police vehicles for the Pekin Police Department for $67,596. Two of the marked squad cars will have full cages and four will have half cages. Police Chief Seth Ranney said the leases are part of a fleet program his department has with Enterprise Fleet Management that reduces the department's fleet costs. Equipment is removed from squad cars after their time is up with the police department and the cars are sold by Enterprise with the police department receiving credits from the sales. The vote for the leases was unanimous.
  • An agreement with Mohr & Kerr Engineering and Land Surveying of Peoria to do surveying and platting work at the Lutticken property for a cost not to exceed $100,000. The city bought the property in July for $14 million, which it will pay over four years. The approximately 1,000-acre property between Illinois Highway 98 and Sheridan Road was purchased by the city to connect Veterans Drive to Interstate 474 and offer land for residential and commercial development. The vote for the Mohr & Kerr agreement was 6-1, with Hilst dissenting.
  • An agreement with the Illinois Department of Transportation that commits the city to 30% of the funding for an improvement project on Court Street between 8th and 10th Streets so the city can receive a $3 million federal grant for the project. The estimated cost for the project is $4.3 million. IDOT will handle the bidding for the project, most likely in January. The vote for the agreement was unanimous.
  • Selling an additional 0.475 acres of city-owned land at the end of Brenkman Drive to Illinois American Water so the utility can construct a new water tower at the site. The previous city land purchase for the water tower was $37,104 for 1.9 acres. The city now will receive $46,380 from Illinois American Water. The vote for the sale was unanimous.
  • Purchasing a new 3/4 ton pick-up truck and plow for a total of $58,819 from Ray Dennison Chevrolet in Pekin and Koenig Body & Equipment in West Peoria. The vehicle replaces a 1997 3/4 ton truck that was originally used by the Pekin Fire Department and is no longer roadworthy, Schneider said. The vote for the purchase was 6-1, with Hilst dissenting.
  • Filing an invoice from Core & Main of Washington for $24,725. That was the cost for the city's Street Department to restock sewer supplies. The invoice exceeded the $15,000 procurement limit, so it needed council approval, which didn't happen. Schneider said he placed the item on the council meeting agenda so the council would be aware of the purchases. The vote to file the invoice was unanimous.
Steve Stein is an award-winning news and sports writer and editor. Most recently, he covered Tazewell County communities for the Peoria Journal Star for 18 years.