PEORIA, Ill. – Peoria City Council members spent a portion of their regular meeting on Tuesday discussing what to do with the latest round of violence prevention funding.
Around $1.2 million is available to be spent by June 30th, 2024. $700,000 of that amount came from a request for proposal, while the remaining $500,000 comes from the Illinois Department of Human Services for efforts focused on youth.
Multiple council members suggested using funds to add lighting to brighten areas of Peoria, led by 3rd District Councilman Tim Riggenbach.
“One complaint we hear repeatedly from our folks in the neighborhood is how dark the streets are, how dark the alleys are, and how you just can’t see, and you don’t know who’s there,” Riggenbach said.
Riggenbach suggested a focus on porch and street lighting, with the brighter street lights potentially also having cameras installed on them.
1st District Councilwoman Denise Jackson suggested improving street lights throughout Peoria, citing a recent shooting at Bradley University about how crime happens all over Peoria. At-large Councilwoman Dr. Bernice Gordon-Young favored the idea as well, but noted that crime in the city happens at all times of the day.
Other suggestions from the council included funding anti-poverty programs, addressing mental health, and funding substance abuse programs.
There were concerns raised about the process itself. 4th District Councilman Andre Allen suggested looking into the application process to try and give smaller organizations a better shot at being awarded funding.
“What were some of the previous things that we learned in the previous round, and maybe we can get some feedback,” Allen said. “I don’t want us to lower our standards, but I think there’s some things we can possibly tweak to get some of those unusual suspects an opportunity to earn some of this funding.”
Allen added that he would like to also see more accountability with money that has already been given out. At-large Councilman Zach Oyler concurred, but wants to see reports from organizations of what did and did not work with money given to them.
“I know when they came in, they laid out a proposal. But there should be something to check that off to say ‘out of the things that went well, this is where we think what we did is headed,” Oyler said.
City Manager Patrick Urich told council information such as that should be available and would gather it for the next scheduled meeting in January. The same meeting is also expected to have proposals for the council to vote on.
