Standing alongside her father as she addressed the Peoria City Council, Lily Manson offered a pledge in requesting the donation of a retiring fire engine toward relief efforts in war-torn Ukraine.
“I promise you that if you do give it to us, it will go to a good cause and will save many lives,” said 10-year-old Lily, who sparked her dad Chris Manson in founding the volunteer effort U.S. Ambulances for Ukraine three years ago.
“My daughter, after seeing some stuff on the news and what was going on in Ukraine, some of the suffering, just kind of leaned over and said, ‘Hey, Dad, is there something we can do to help the people of Ukraine?’” said Manson, vice president of government relations for OSF HealthCare.
Manson said since that time, his not-for-profit organization delivered 90 ambulances, fire engines and SUVs to fire departments, hospitals and other agencies throughout Ukraine.
“What we do is we take these vehicles, they're ending their useful life in the United States,” said Manson, who says he’s been to Ukraine eight times. “We ship them over to Germany, then we get them into Poland. I'll usually take a team of Americans over and we'll drive them; we'll put that beautiful American flag on the back of a fire engine, and we'll drive those vehicles in across the border from Poland into Ukraine.”
During its meeting on Tuesday, the city council approved donating a 20-year old Peoria Fire Department engine that was set to be rotated out of service this spring.
“We worked on this with Chris and his organization, and this is what was brought forward,” said Fire Chief Shawn Sollberger. “This is a great effort from a humanitarian side for a fire engine that has no more useful life for the City of Peoria.”
But the donation didn’t come with a unanimous stamp of approval. Council members Kiran Velpula and Mike Vespa voted in opposition, citing concerns over possible political implications from any type of involvement in an international conflict.
“We are living in very different and difficult times. I am very worried about the second order effects,” said Velpula. “I'm not worried about donating. But the timing isn't right, according to me. I feel we don't want to be looked at in a different way.”
Similarly, Vespa voiced trepidation over how such a donation would be viewed by the Trump Administration.
“I don't like possibly putting a target on our backs by helping Ukraine, [even] when I do think they are deserving of help,” said Vespa. “It's certainly well-intentioned, and if it can help people, that's great. But I do have some heartburn because I know that there's a lot at stake right now between the federal government and the local government.”
Other actions
The council unanimously approved a six-tiered request from the public works department authorizing funding for Year 4 work on the Combined Sewer Overflow Control Project mandated by a consent decree.
The tiers included contracts totaling $18.7 million with Illinois Civil Contractors, Inc., a reimbursement of $282,000 from Illinois American Water, and related budget amendments.
Among items approved as part of the consent agenda were a $981,000 contract for drainage system improvements in the Golden Acres neighborhood, an $800,000 contract for an ADA self-evaluation and transition plan update, and a contract not to exceed $200,000 for concrete repairs.
Two items passed unanimously after being removed from the consent agenda for brief discussion: a previously discussed amendment to the Urban Decay Abatement Ordinance that adds home rehabilitations to the program; and a $2.4 million planned purchase of two fire engines in 2028.
