An automatic aid agreement between the Peoria and Peoria Heights fire departments is now in place.
Peoria Fire Chief Shawn Sollberger said the intergovernmental agreement will see city fire personnel respond to working structure fires, automobile extrications and cardiac arrest calls within the village.
“This isn’t displacing their fire department. This is no type of takeover of anything of that magnitude,” said Sollberger. “What we want to do is prop that fire department up.”
In October, a split Peoria Heights Village Board voted to move forward on the plan for a working agreement with the Peoria Fire Department. The Peoria City Council voted unanimously Tuesday in approving its side of the pact.
Last month, the Peoria Heights board unanimously approved a resolution to place an advisory public policy question regarding the automatic aid agreement on the ballot for November’s general election.
Sollberger said Peoria Heights will cover all costs for the automatic aid, and part of the agreement entails Peoria training and educating the village’s firefighters.
“Eventually, potentially, they can get into a capacity where they no longer need us,” he said, adding the three types of calls that will prompt the automatic assistance will not overburden the Peoria Fire Department.
“With these particular incident types, they’re high acuity calls, and what we mean by that is it requires a certain amount of manpower to be able to accomplish your goals, but they’re not high incident volume,” said Sollberger, adding that a review of five years of dispatch data showed Peoria Heights had single-digit calls annually for each of the three specified types of incidents.
Sheridan Road reconstruction
Funding plans for a major reconstruction of Sheridan Road moved forward as the council approved an agreement with Peoria County and amended the city’s 2026-27 budget to direct $250,000 in local motor fuel tax money to cover engineering costs.
The county won $10 million in state grant dollars to rebuild Sheridan between Glen Avenue and Northmoor Road. Once the road is brought up to city standards, jurisdiction will be transferred from the county to the city.
Design engineering will be completed over the next two years. The estimated cost for Phase II is $1 million, with the city responsible for half that amount.
Since the grant was not announced until after the city passed its budget, the Sheridan Road project was not included in Peoria’s spending plan, thus requiring the budget amendment.
Council member Tim Riggenbach applauded the project that will see Sheridan widened from two lanes to four north of Sherbrook Lane.
“It truly is one of those proverbial bottlenecks,” said Riggenbach. “So all the way from Glenn up to Knoxville, that whole section will be brought up to standard.”
Pop-Up Chicken liquor license
Following two previous denials over nearly two years, the Pop-Up Chicken Shop in the Warehouse District is again on track for a restaurant liquor license after the city council approved its site application as part of the consent agenda.
The site approval was recommended earlier this month in a 3-0 vote of the Liquor Commission. It’s the third time the council has given site approval for the eatery in the 800 block of SW Adams Street.
In December 2024, owner Aaron Francis had his first request for a liquor license vetoed by Mayor Ali, in her role as Liquor Commissioner, over a past criminal record. Last May, the business formed a new limited liability company with Shayla Talley seeking an adjacent liquor license at The Love Shack, but again Ali rejected the application.
Francis started the Pop-Up Chicken business in Bloomington in 2017 before opening the Warehouse District location in June 2024.
In a separate restaurant liquor license action on the consent agenda, the council also approved site approval for sales and on-site consumption for The Vault, located at 240 SW Adams in downtown Peoria.
In other business
Other items of regular business saw the council approve spending $100,000 for this year’s supply of pavement marking paint, and accept a $21,600 grant to purchase Axon Taser 10 energy weapons for the police department.
The council also heard finance director Kyle Cratty’s latest monthly financial report, and a first reading of a pending amendment to the development code relating to a requirement for street walls.
Additional items approved as part of a lengthy consent agenda include:
- an agreement with Peoria County to split remaining costs evenly on a reconstruction project of Radnor Road between Willow Knolls Road and Alta Lane, beyond any federal or state funding
- a service agreement not to exceed $200,000 with ClientFirst Consulting to provide technical support for the information systems department
- an extension of an agreement with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives [ATF] allowing a task force to use city-owned space in the Twin Towers Mall
- amending a redevelopment agreement with WD Community Investment to adjust funding rebates for a mixed-use project at 214 Pecan Street in the Warehouse District
- amending a master professionals service agreement with Thouvenot, Wade & Morchen to increase funding by $300,000 for public works consulting services
- supporting the public works department’s application for a $4 million federal BUILD Planning Grant for downtown “Complete Streets” connectivity improvements
- amending codes and regulations to allow Bradley University to move forward with plans for a gateway arch, campus entry signage, and wall sign art near the intersection of University and Main
- a special use allowance for expansion of an existing outdoor self-service mini storage facility on Pioneer Parkway
- three separate convenience store beer and wine liquor licenses for Shell stations on North Sterling Avenue, West Baring Trace, and West Detweiller Drive
- and, appointing Chris Setti to the Sister City Commission.
In one item pulled from the consent agenda, the council approved a rezoning and special use permissions for expansion of The Christian Center on Brandywine Drive after removing a condition requiring specific perimeter landscaping.
