The Tri-County Regional Planning Commission is hoping to boost transparency with local and state officials. Peoria Public Radio’s Alex Rusciano reports that’s according to interim executive director Dale Risinger.
The former state senator and I-DOT engineer took the post April 1st. Risinger and Tri-County commissioners met with officials from the Illinois Department of Transportation last week. Risinger says I-DOT staff were open to helping Tri-County meet its mission of regional planning:
“From that standpoint, I think that’s the most important thing we did. We opened up a lot of lines of communications. Pick up the phone, give me a call, one way or another us calling them, or them calling us. Some of the issues we had before are I think going to go away because of that.”
To that end Risinger says he wants I-DOT officials to occasionally attend full-commission meetings to update members and answer any questions. The Commission recently settled a long-standing payment owed to an economic development consultant that originally was going to rely on partial payment from state grants. Risinger says another focus is for the commission to make sure it only spends money it has on future projects, rather than spending potential income.