The Peoria County board passed three resolutions last night that allow a local agriculture company to operate a business in Trivoli Township. Akron Services Inc., plans to house chemicals, fertilizers and seeds on a site where an unused grain elevator stands.
The vote was 12-3 with one abstention. Before the vote, the board heard from more than a dozen members of the public -- both in favor and opposed to the development.
Organic farmers neighboring the site say it would hurt the biodiversity of their crops.
But Tim Wagenbach, vice president of Akron Services Inc., says the company is willing to make some accommodations:
“We’ve already made some modifications to help alleviate what problems could possibly come up,” Wagenbach said.
He says the company has changed the plans to move the site a few hundred feet away from the neighboring property, Sun Dappled Farms. He says he’ll also include buffers, like trees, to catch grain dust.
"In our over 50 years of business in Peoria County, we've never seen this kind of strangulation to try to expand and grow and spend millions of dollars in the community," Wagenbach said.
Board member Mary Ardapple opposed the zoning for Akron’s business. She says she wants to form an ad hoc committee focused on increasing sustainable agriculture in the county.
The board also voted to give $50,000 toward the creation of a Minority Business Development Center on the city’s South Side. City councilwoman Denise Moore is spearheading the project. She says more minority-owned business would bring economic benefit, and it would also result in less crime in the surrounding community.
“Poverty, crime and violence, in my opinion, is an outgrowth of people who have no hope. Who don’t see an opportunity for themselves to go beyond where they are,” Moore said.
Councilwoman Ardapple opposed funding the Center because she said it would be too "hasty," given the current economic situation and a $250,000 expenditure toward minority contractors last year.
Councilman Bobb Baietto was emphatic in his support of the project.
"This is a road out, I don't care how much money we have to throw at it, it has to succeed or the inner city is going to die," Baietto said, while pounding his fist on the table.
The Minority Business Development Center would be run by the Black Business Alliance Peoria Chapter, which Moore founded. The board voted 13 to two with one abstention to fund the Center. Two board members were absent.