PEORIA, Ill. — The results are in…Peoria residents have spoken on how they think the city should spend the rest of $36.7 million in COVID relief funds.
The city heard from 884 people and their top areas of need were infrastructure, neighborhood revitalization and business support.
Peoria City Manager Patrick Urich shared the public’s responses at Tuesday night’s city council meeting. He also shared his recommendations on how the city should spend the rest of the relief money.
Urich thinks Peoria should spend the money over the next four years. Some council members disagreed on that timeline.
“We’ve got violence continuing and we’ve had fires that have killed dogs,” 2nd District Councilman, Chuck Grayeb said. “This is not a time to proceed in a leisurely fashion to fill in these gaps. We don’t have that time.”
Other council members wanted to see more money put toward their districts.
News partner 25 News reports that the city has not established a timeframe yet on when the decisions will be made. However, the funds must be spent by 2024.
$10 million has already used to fill the most recent budget deficit.
