Peoria Heights Zoning Board of Appeals will meet 11/16/20

The Peoria Heights Zoning Board of Appeals will meet Monday, November 16, 2020 at 5:30 p.m. at Village Hall, 4901 N. Prospect Road, Peoria Heights, Illinois.  

The purpose of the meeting is to consider the following requests:

1. Variance application by Jeffrey Metz and Cynthia Metz seeking a front yard setback variance to permit construction of a new front porch on the property located at 1337 East Samuel Avenue, Peoria Heights, Illinois, 61616 (PIN No. 14-22-401-026), which property is currently zoned R-3 (Multiple Family Residential District).

Additional documents and information are available at the Village Administrator's Office in Village Hall and/or by calling 686-2385.

Heights signs off on new police contract

The Peoria Heights Village Board has unanimously approved a three-year contract with its police union.

The 12 officers in Peoria Heights Police Benevolent Association Unit 76 will receive a 3 percent annual increase over the life of the contract, basically a cost-of-living adjustment, said Village Administrator and Police Chief Dustin Sutton.

“This is a good contract for both parties,” said Sutton. “It is something that we can afford.”

The Village also updated its longevity pay structure, which rewards veteran officers. “We’ve been very lucky to retain the officers we have for many years during my administration,” said Sutton. “I think this is a good gesture ... to show them our appreciation.”

Otherwise, benefits remained much the same.
The union had unanimously ratified the contract prior to the Village Board vote.

Both sides had agreed to postpone negotiations during the early stages of the pandemic.

“I just want to applaud the mayor, the Board of Trustees, the Police Benevolent just for having the foresight to delay this after first quarter and review it to see where we were financially. I think that
was a really professional move,” said Sutton.

“I know I speak for the entire police department when I say thank you for your continued support,” he added. “You should be very proud of the men and women of this police department, because they represent us very well.”

Municipal Aggregation FAQs

In September of 2020, Peoria Heights, along with 92 other communities in Central and Southern Illinois renewed their electricity supply contract with Collinsville-based Homefield Energy for the sixth time. The first contract was executed in July 2012. The program is enabled through Illinois state law, allowing groups of communities to aggregate the usage of all eligible residential and small business electricity accounts into a buying group with the goal of providing savings and budget stability to participating Ameren Illinois account holders. To date, the program has saved participants from all participating communities collectively over $60 million. Eligible account holders will be automatically enrolled in the program (those already in contract with another supplier, net metering customers, and customers who participate in an elective utility program such as Time-of-Use (TOU) are excluded, but may opt in by contacting the supplier directly). Those who do not wish to participate may opt out without penalty either prior to the program launching in December or anytime thereafter. 

The program rate under this renewal is $0.04285/kWh (kilo-watt hour). It will remain fixed, not changing through June 2022.

Ameren's price-to-compare is $0.04542/kWh. This rate will be in effect through May of 2021. Future Ameren rates are unknown at this time but will be posted on the ICC's PlugInIllinois website.

The program is operated under the due diligence of the Village.

For additional information, visit CSIMUNIAGG.com