Month: May 2012

Washington Theater, other locations now included
in downtown Quincy walking tour

Posted by – May 23, 2012

The Historic Quincy Business District has added locations on its smartphone app walking tour, including the Washington Theater.

Residents and visitors who have the app can pull up videos on the different locations detailing the history of it. Other sites included in the walking tour include Washington Park, the Newcomb Hotel, the Dr. Richard Eells House and the Western Catholic Union Building.

FERC to Quincy: Application for Lock and Dam 25 deficient

Posted by – May 17, 2012

As expected, the city of Quincy received a letter from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission saying there are deficiencies in its preliminary permit application to develop hydropower at Lock and Dam 25 in Winfield,  Mo.

Chuck Bevleheimer, director of planning and development, said he expected the city would receive the letter after the city received one for Lock and Dam 24 in Clarksville, Mo.

FERC also announced that it has accepted Boston-based Free Flow Power Corp. application for Lock and Dam 24 and will accept comments on the project.

House committee discusses cutting shared revenues to local governments

Posted by – May 16, 2012

UPDATE (3 p.m. Wednesday): The amendments were not called before the committee. The committee is scheduled to meet at 9 a.m. Thursday.

The Illinois House Executive Committee is scheduled to meet at 2:30 p.m. to discuss amendments to House Bill 3637. The amendments would cut revenues collected through the personal property replacement tax and distributed to various units of local government. The state distributed $1.401 billion last fiscal year.

Introduced by House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, the first amendment would divert $536 million to the Teachers’ Retirement System collected from the personal property replacement tax that school districts outside the city of Chicago would have received. Chicago Public Schools pay for the employer’s portion for teacher pensions.

The second amendment would take $982 million collected form the personal property replacement tax for all local governments except the city of Chicago, while the third amendment would divert the entire $1.4 billion money to teacher pensions.

In the state’s current fiscal year, the city was projected to receive $2.94 million while the county was projected at $1 million. Quincy Public Schools was budgeted for $4.49 million, according to projections from the Illinois Department of Revenue.

Quincy Mayor John Spring is expected to testify before the committee.

Coverage from The Herald-Whig can be found HERE.

Estimates on the revenues shared with local government and what was given in the 2011 fiscal year can be found HERE.

Abraham Lincoln battling a dinosaur?

Posted by – May 10, 2012

In Illinois, we love Abraham Lincoln. Any local connections to the 16th president are highlighted in Quincy and other communities. This is old news. However, this is something different from the Illinois Office of Tourism. It is part of a special promotion. It actually left this history student speechless.

Speaking of Lincoln while the idea of “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” the book and movie had me cringing at first, I have to admit I want to see the movie after seeing the trailer. I should probably read the book as well. And for those of you wondering, I have never seen a “Twilight” film.

Meeting closes 2011-2012 fiscal year

Posted by – May 7, 2012

The Quincy City Council met for less than five minutes this afternoon to close out the 2011-2012 fiscal year. Aldermen quickly approved monthly and annual reports for numerous city departments.

It actually took city staff longer to attempt to fix the microphone system that apparently shorted out before the meeting than it took to run through the meeting.  City staff is going to try to have the system fixed before tonight’s regular City Council meeting.

This was quite different from last year’s end of the fiscal year meeting when aldermen sparred over the sale of a city-owned piece of property.

Preliminary permit applications for Lock and Dam 24, 25

Posted by – May 3, 2012

As expected the city of Quincy reapplied for preliminary permits from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Tuesday for Lock and Dam 24 in Clarksville, Mo. and Lock and Dam 25 in Winfield, Mo.

Boston-based Free Flow Power also submitted an application for the permits.

Chuck Bevelheimer, director of planning and development for the city, said he expects FERC will award the permits within three months. The city asked FERC to grant municipal preference, which allows communities to get first preference for permits.

Here are the permits available from FERC.

City of Quincy Permit Application for Lock and Dam 24

Free Flower Power Permit Application for Lock and Dam 24

City of Quincy Permit Application for Lock and Dam 25

Free Flow Power Permit Application for Lock and Dam 25