FREEZING TEMPS ARE BACK!

TIPS TO PREVENT FROZEN PIPES

The Village of Peoria Heights would like to remind you of the importance of preparing for the cold weather. Please remember these tips as you are preparing and protecting your pipes this winter:

  • During extreme cold temperatures, leave a faucet running with a pencil sized stream.

  • Become familiar with the areas of your home such as basements and crawl spaces. Also be aware that unheated rooms and outside walls are particularly vulnerable to freezing.

  • Eliminate sources of cold air near water lines by insulating walls, fixing broken windows, closing off crawl spaces, and eliminating drafts near doors.

  • Locate your main water shut-off valve. If a pipe freezes or bursts, shut the water off immediately.

  • Protect your pipes and water meter by wrapping exposed pipes with insulation or an electrical pipe heater. Newspaper and fabric may be used as well.

    If your pipes freeze:

  • Shut off the water immediately. Do not attempt to thaw frozen pipes unless the water is shut off. Freezing can often cause unseen cracks in pipes or joints.

  • Apply heat to the frozen pipe by warming the air around it, or by applying heat directly to the pipe. Use a hair dryer, space heater, or hot water. Be sure not to leave space heaters unattended and avoid the use of kerosene heaters or open flames.

  • Turn the water back on slowly once the pipes have thawed, and check for cracks and leaks.

    4901 N Prospect Rd,
    Peoria Heights, IL
    61616
    P 309-686-2375
    www.peoriaheights.org

Local news wrap-up

A new TIF District and more


The Village intends to add a fourth tax increment financing (TIF) district, this one to encourage economic development along the Heights’ riverfront.


TIF is an economic development tool wherein a local municipal government designates an area of land for a period of time, freezes its property tax value, incentivizes private investment there with public funds and then uses the additional tax revenue generated by the development to pay for infrastructure (roads, water pipes, etc.) and other costs. Generally speaking, TIF funds are supposed to be used in areas of decline where, the argument goes, investment would not occur without them. By law, the term of the TIF would be a maximum of 23 years.


In this case, the Village has targeted the area along Illinois Route 29 from the bluff to the river, between Gardner Lane and just north of the McClugage Bridge. Much of the area is commercial or industrial, with a smattering of residential on both sides of the road.    


The Village’s Bloomington-based economic development consultant has identified 450 properties in that Route 29 corridor, 364 of which have a building on them. There are 86 vacant lots. About 90 percent of those properties are in need of “a little love,” said Steve Kline, president and CEO of The Economic Development Group. Many of them are at risk of further deterioration, he said.


While this TIF District and the pending Route 29 reconstruction are separate projects, the state’s focus on the corridor with nearly $90 million in pending reinvestment makes it “ripe” for development and is a primary reason behind this TIF, said Kline. The Village hopes to “piggyback” on that attention by tangibly encouraging private investment there, said Mayor Matt Wigginton.


There is a fair amount of public confusion and sometimes concern regarding TIFs, acknowledged Kline, but it doesn’t mean a tax increase or a surrender of control over anyone’s property. It has nothing to do with eminent domain, which means a forcible government purchase of a property, he said.


Fundamentally it’s just a reallocation of property tax and sometimes sales tax revenues that are diverted from a local government’s general fund to a separate TIF fund – fundamentally a “lockbox,” said the mayor -- to be used to assist development in that specific corridor. It can affect the budgets of other governing bodies such as school districts though other arrangements can be made. Peoria Heights, for example, has made efforts to compensate School District 325 for its loss of revenues during the life of the TIF.


At a recent hearing, residents had questions about whether the TIF could be used to address unkempt properties – the answer is no, as that’s a code enforcement issue – whether current property owners would have any say over the types of development to come, which is predominantly a zoning issue, and what will become of Roosevelt Road, where vehicle traffic is now restricted to emergency vehicles and to residents who live there.


Recipients of TIF funds must enter into a development contract with the Village. “It’s a very transparent process,” said Kline.


In other recent business:


  • The Village Board approved a TIF agreement with assistance for a five-townhome project at 1201 E. Duryea.


Florida-based developers King/Donnellan Joint Venture, LLC and William and Roberta King are behind the $2.75 million project, which will be aided by up to $828,000 in property tax reimbursements over the next 16 years. The developers’ TIF-eligible costs in this case include land acquisition, site preparation and utilities extension. They purchased the property from Larry Herman, the developer of the Twelve21 Duryea apartment project.


  • The Village Board approved a $412,500 contract with Missouri-based water consultant Woodard & Curran for design and construction services regarding replacement of a water main beneath Illinois Route 29, in coordination with the pending $90 million road reconstruction there. The firm will work closely with the Illinois Department of Transportation, which will determine the timing of the project and the placement of the line.


The Village will be replacing 8,000 linear feet of six-inch drinking water main and 2,200 linear feet of 12-inch raw water main at a total cost topping $2 million, with about half of that covered by a federal grant secured through the office of Congressman Eric Sorensen. The Village’s portion of the project will be paid for through a 40-year, low-interest loan, said engineering consultant Mark Lee.


The current main dates to 1970. “This is the time to replace it, not 100 years later,” said Heights Public Works Superintendent Chris Chandler.


At no time will residents of the area be without water, said Lee.


  • The Village Board unanimously approved another contract with Woodard & Curran, this one for $250,000, to oversee lead service line replacement in the Village in 2026. The work will include engineering, design and contract bidding. Approximately 275 local service lines will be addressed in the coming year.


The work is being funded mostly through grants and forgivable or low-interest loans.    


“They understand our system,” said Trustee Teresa Symmonds, who encouraged a “yes” vote on the contract.


  • The Village Board continues to discuss the future of garbage service in the community, even though the Village still has more than two years left on its contract with GFL Environmental.


Trustee Brandon Wisenburg has advocated for taking the Village out of the waste-hauling equation and letting residents contract for garbage service on their own, noting that there are just two companies that serve this part of central Illinois for the most part, that “you can’t really call that competition,” and that theoretically, with competition “the cost should come down.” The Village used to subsidize garbage pickup but no longer does.


Others including Village Administrator Dustin Sutton have noted that there are “advantages and disadvantages” to letting residents do their own thing regarding the removal of waste, among the latter the risk that many residents wouldn’t have their trash removed at all, with it ending up not in a landfill but in local alleys and other undesirable places. Meanwhile, letting residents secure pickup on their own might actually drive up costs as waste haulers forfeit the economies of scale that come with a community-wide contract. Public Works Supervisor Chris Chandler  cautioned that the wear and tear on Village roads of having more garbage trucks on local roads could affect the Village’s bottom line, as well.


“We need a lot more investigation,” said Sutton.


  • Trustees learned that the fourth annual Mt. Moon Festival in Peoria Heights last August raised some $10,260 for charity, specifically this year for homelessness outreach and transitional housing. Organizers of the two-day music festival and street party said they hope to return to the Village for their event in 2026 and that they intend to do a better job of working with the Chamber of Commerce in communicating the road closure.

State of the Village 2025

State of the Village 2025

With gratitude for the present and optimism for the future, Peoria Heights Mayor Matt Wigginton used his State of the Village address Thursday to tell a Chamber of Commerce audience that there has been “a lot of good news” locally in 2025 and to prepare for more of it in 2026.

For starters, Wigginton said that he will be proposing a property tax rate cut for fiscal year 2027 at next Tuesday’s Village Board meeting to compensate for the rise in local real estate values over the last year.

While that runs counter to what many municipalities are doing, Wigginton said the Village is well-positioned to absorb any forfeited revenues with multiple consecutive years of surplus budgets, ample reserves and fiscally sound practices such as keeping up with employee pension payments.

If the Village Board concurs, it won’t make a huge difference in local property tax bills, acknowledged the mayor, as the Village’s portion of that bill amounts to just about 4.2 percent, since local government relies most heavily on sales tax revenues. Still, it’s important to “continue to be business- and resident-friendly in Peoria Heights,” as it has produced so many dividends to date, said the mayor.

Indeed, asked recently at a forum of central Illinois mayors what distinguishes the community and government he represents, Wigginton said he told that audience that “the first meeting may be the only meeting you need to have” in a Peoria Heights where, “as far as red tape, as far as bureaucracy, you won’t find that.”

Beyond that, Peoria Heights is a community that makes decisions with an eye toward future generations, decisions that don't negatively or unduly “impact the child who’s looking to run for mayor 30 years from now,” said Wigginton.

In a Heights where “it’s no accident that we have kept the size of government small” and mom-and-pop shops are and remain “the bread and butter” of the economy, that has paid off repeatedly with record sales tax revenues, which then go to Village services such as the police and fire departments. Indeed, public safety is an overlooked component of economic growth, added the mayor, as people come to the Heights because they feel secure and comfortable here. On that front, the Village welcomed new police and fire chiefs this year in Chris Ahart and Austin Szentes, respectively.

In fact, local economic growth has been “consistent and persistent,” said Wigginton, with millions of dollars in private investment now going into projects large and small. The local jobs base is expanding, as well, with nearly 200 employees being added in the coming year to the payrolls of businesses such as Pearl Insurance, Raymond James and accounting firm Clifton Larson Allen, he said. In a community the size of the Heights, numbers like those are “major,” said Wigginton.

Retailers are relocating to the Heights because “success breeds success,” and the Village continues to have the region’s preeminent Restaurant Row, with growth this past year – Casa Agava, Frank’s Italian Beef, Feels Like Ohm and Big Behm’s – and new eateries such as Segreto and Sloane Supper and Social about to join those ranks, he added.

Meanwhile, Village government is doing its part to help with multiple public projects in the pipeline.

No investment is more critical right now than what the Village is pouring into its outdated water system, said the mayor. Local government has raised nearly $12 million in outside dollars to go with $2 million from Village coffers, including $8.5 million to be spent on a water filtration plant that will break ground in 2026.

“For the first time in 127 years, the Village of Peoria will have filtration in its water system,” he said.

The Village also is replacing hundreds of lead water lines at no cost to residents, another effort that goes against the grain of most area communities, he said.

In addition, the Village has infrastructure projects coming on Glen Avenue with road, sidewalk and intersection improvements as well as a library renovation and expansion there, plus a new water main that will be going beneath Route 29, which is due a nearly $90 million reconstruction and enhancement by the state that promises to be “game-changing” for the region, said the mayor. The Village is piggybacking off that state funding with a 4th tax increment financing district to stimulate private investment on the Village’s riverfront, he said.

Finally, the $20 million-plus reconstruction and reimagination of the Prospect Road corridor through the Village has gotten a lot of discussion. Wigginton reassured business leaders that the project is “in the early stages” and that “$20 million does not grow on trees and we have to get that financing,” so “this won’t happen tomorrow.”

That said, “Prospect will have to be addressed regardless of what we do,” he said. “The infrastructure has to be replaced” and the sidewalks must eventually comply with federal accessibility standards.

Nonetheless, “I don’t want you to worry. We will get this done and we will work with our business partners to make this as painless as possible.”

“We are constantly being the phoenix,” but not the one that rises from the ashes, concluded the mayor. It’s the one that continually invents and reinvents itself thanks to the leadership of those who came before – such as Ray Picl, the Heights’ longest serving mayor who died recently – and will come after, he said.

And that’s why, from the perspective of December 2025, the Village of Peoria Heights has reason for optimism even in the face of ongoing challenges, said Wigginton.