Springfield’s alderpeople and various officials met on Tuesday, November 26, for a straightforward and expedient session of the City’s Committee of the Whole. With the Thanksgiving holiday two days away, and with a minimum of controversial items on the agenda for that meeting, the council chambers were – relative to previous weeks – quiet.
Among a number of ordinances considered covering City Water Light & Power, alderpeople tackled one seeking to declare the utility’s storage facility at 1401 Knotts Street surplus property, enabling it to be sold.
The Knotts Street property, formerly belonging to M.J. Kellner, was bought in 2008 for $1.1 million. The facility had been used to store spare parts for Dallman — that use is at an end, as CWLP has fully vacated the premises.
“We’ve removed all our stuff out of it. It took a while, but we got it done,” explained CWLP Chief Utility Engineer Doug Brown. “We had some previous interest in the building, so we thought we’d better move on it, see if we can get something done.”
The conversation prompted Alderman Shawn Gregory of Ward 2 to inquire about the Water Department’s 11th Street facilities: the complex at 401 N. 11th Street, which sits directly adjacent to the site of the 1908 Race Riot National Monument, had been the subject of a feud between CWLP and the NAACP last year over the utility’s attempts to expand its distribution complex into the national monument site. CWLP’s proposal in January of a new facility at a different location effectively ended the dispute.
A new, $40 million facility located at Clear Lake and shared with Public Works would replace the 11th Street complex.
“What’s our plans [for 11th Street], once we move to Clear Lake?” asked Ald. Gregory.
“That’s up to the Mayor, and the Council,” replied Brown. “The property would be available at that point — the Race Riot site’s right next to it, there could be expansion possibly in the future with that.”
Approvingly, Gregory said to Doug Brown, “I like the way you think.”
Contrast between Springfield & Peoria
Putting an epilogue on the City’s aborted attempt to ban “public camping,” Springfield journalist and government critic Ken Pacha stood before the horseshoe to thank Springfield’s alderpeople for eventually heeding community backlash. This, as he explained, stood in stark contrast to the city council of Peoria.
“I’m sure you guys saw the ordinance they just passed: an ordinance that involves jailtime and extreme fines for the unhoused,” reported Pacha. “They had a number of advocates that came out and spoke against it. Everybody’s pretty upset up there… it was a 6-5 vote, it was extremely close. We didn’t have that big of a disagreement down here; I think we all agree we’d like to see the unhoused be treated humanely, get the help they need and get them off the street.
“They reached out to us and I told them we actually had some decent people on our council.”
While Pacha leveled gratitude to the horseshoe for choosing to listen to the Springfield community, he did again press the City on how it has followed up on the retraction of the “public camping” ban ordinance.
“Since that unhoused ordinance has been removed, the City has made no move to fund any further efforts,” said Pacha, listing Continuum of Care as an example of a local aid organization languishing in the absence of funding.
“It’s freezing out there. While people did do some hard work last week, like Tiara and Ronetta from the Phoenix Center in helping get those unhoused in hotels, it shouldn’t just be them.
“The City can do more, and I think we can all agree on that, to get those people off the streets and in somewhere nice and warm and safe.”
