PEKIN, Ill. – “Pekin is doing really good.”
Those were some of the words of its Mayor — Mark Luft — during a Pekin Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon Wednesday.
Luft told the crowd things would be doing even better had a pandemic not hit, but things ended up being not that bad for his city.
“During COVID, we brought in new businesses. There were a little over 300 jobs created during COVID,” said Luft. “We were in a financial position, due to the hard work of our staff, to be able to pull out $1 million and go through two rounds of grants for our small businesses here in Pekin to help them keep the lights on.”
Nevertheless, Luft says the pandemic caused plenty of people stress, including him.
“It still drives me nuts today to think where we would be right now if we did not go through two years of COVID,” said Luft. “And I know every business in here, our school district, everybody in here, wherever you work or whatever you represent, felt that as well.”
Luft says in his time as mayor, 19 to 21 changes were made to the city administration in order to improve things.
He says that even turns around what he called a “sour picture” for the city’s building inspection process, that often kept businesses from locating there.
Luft — who also happens to be a State Representative — is concerned some of the state funding for local projects may not show up in local coffers. He told the crowd about a problem possibly returning that Illinois residents have heard all too often.
“Whether you’re for (Governor JB Pritzker) or not, this is the reality. We have a governor who sweeps funds that are intended for other things,” said Luft. “I just got an e-mail a week and a half ago that, now there’s the potential of our 911 funds being swept.”
Various published reports say Pritzker and the state budget swept $5 million out of the state 911 fund in order to pay for a brand new 988 mental health hotline that’s part of legislation he signed in Peoria Tuesday.
Pritzker claimed a few weeks ago the new hotline will take a huge burden off the 911 system, but the move was allegedly done without the knowledge of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police.
The Illinois State Police is in charge of the fund in question.
