Monday, September 23, 2013

Water Company Buyout by City of Peoria and Potential Regionalization of Our Water Resources

To my knowledge, local public ownership of the private water company takes away the regulatory  power of the ICC and puts the power in the hands of local public entities or in this situation, possible  regional governments. Thus the strong interest by large rural property owners and developers like Cullinan (Oberhelman)and Kress, past members of the PAAG. Realize that "sprawl" (remember David Rusk, a man who the JS called the renowned urban planning specialist) probably most do not remember him when he came to Peoria to warn us against spraw; as most of the "movers and shakers" here would like to forget him. Rusk said,"you must not let growth occur beyond your boundaries is you can help it"

If it is in the best interest of the public, I support the buyout at an affordable price, That is why Terry Rowe is one of the leaders to force the meetings be open to the public which it appears certain "movers and shakers" are trying to avoid.

Be careful not to be misled by Kolhbuss and Van Winkle who both stand to gain by eliminating private ownership that pay property taxes and contribute heavily to charity, Under public ownership, the running of the water company will be by appointees which all depends on the goals of the appointers. Many of the appointers will probably not be qualified to act in the best interests of the whole.

Look at past history of public ownership as you taxpayers follow this saga. Smart cities are privatizing (Van Winkle's figures are mis-leading) as much of government as they can to let government focus on the basics of  infrastructure and ease of development for the private sector, along with safety (getting a little more scary in Peoria) and the health and happiness of the general public.

Realize that "sprawl" appears to be sounding the death knell of Peoria whose population is either static or lower in the past decade or so. More sprawl is the aim of many of the members of the Peoria elite.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

anyone who wants to see how city owned utility companies operate should look at CWLP in Springfield, which should be a fair comparison. FYI, it's a mess of nepotism, cronyism and other standard thievery of the illinois politician variety.