Peoria County News Briefs

Chronicle Media

It’s a girl! Vivian the Giraffe welcomed her second baby at 2:38 a.m. Jan. 7,  at the Peoria Zoo. The public will be able to see them in the coming weeks.

PEORIA

Zoo is caring for new baby giraffe

It took more than 15 months – about 425 days – but at 2:38 a.m. Jan. 7, Vivian, a giraffe at the Peoria Zoo, gave birth to a girl calf, weighing 122 pounds and standing 5 feet, 10 inches tall.

Zoo officials say mom, Vivian, and baby are doing great, but Vivian needs time to heal and the unnamed baby needs time to grow before they will be ready for visitors. That could take two to four weeks. This was Vivian’s second birth.

An announcement will be made about how the public will be involved in naming the baby, such as through a contest or poll. The community has helped to name other zoo animals.

Until the baby and Vivian are ready for visitors, the Peoria Zoo is sharing pictures and offering a live video feed on its Facebook page, Peoria Zoo, and website at peoriazoo.org. Mom and the rest of her zoo family are “registered” at peoriazoo.org/donate/giving-tree/.

Bradley to hold job, internship fair

Bradley University will hold its spring jobs and internship fair Feb. 15 at the Renaissance Coliseum. 1600 W. Main St., Peoria, on campus. The fair is open to employers looking to fill full-time professional positions with some of the more than 900 Bradley students who typically attend this event. This fair also attracts a large variety of majors and is comparable to the Fall Job & Internship Fair though later in the school year. Bradley students and alumni are encouraged to attend the fair to explore career options, network with prospective employers, submit resumes and sign up for job interviews. The fair will be open 11 a.m.-3:30 p.m. For more information, send emails to careers@bradley.edu. 

Nashville singer at North Branch

Peoria Public Library’s 2018 Music in the McKenzie series will begin Jan. 21 with a performance by Sally Barris, an A-list Nashville singer/songwriter. Concerts are held monthly at 2 p.m. Sundays at the Peoria Public Library North Branch, 3001 W Grand Pkwy. Sales of the performers’ CDs benefit Friends of Peoria Public Library. To learn more about Barris, go to her website, sallybarris.com.

Work expected on Rock Island Trail

The city’s public works department is turning its attention to the mile-long leg of the Rock Island Trail that would take the trail from Harvard Avenue into Peoria is on this year’s to-do list. The public is expected to the invited to meetings that may be held in the coming months.

The Rock Island Trail, dedicated in 1989, extends 38 miles from Toulon to Peoria, most of it using the track bed of the old Rock Island Railroad.

Trail preparation for the mile-long segment that includes a railroad bridge spanning U.S. Route 150 is covered by a state grant. The bridge needs to be renovated to accommodate bicycles.

The mile-long segment being planned would formally complete the trail in Peoria. Right now, the public can go from Harvard Avenue through Springdale Cemetery to hook up with the trail in Glen Oak Park.

Trail users will still be able to use Springdale as an alternate route even when the Harvard Avenue extension is completed. 

The Rock Island Trail is developed by the Peoria Park District from Downtown to Alta, a stretch referred to as the Rock Island Greenway, while the state handles maintenance from Alta to Toulon.

Plan to cut school day would save money

Peoria Public Schools is considering a measure to dismiss high school students an hour early once a week next school year. The change is part of the latest proposal to cut costs of teachers’ planning meetings. With students dismissed early once a week, high school teachers would meet in so-called Professional Learning Communities, or PLCs, to discuss topics such as curriculum, instructional practices and how to improve academic achievement.

District officials have been discussing the proposal with parents at Parent-Teacher Organizations meetings at the three high schools. The board is scheduled to vote on the plan at the Jan. 22 board meeting.

While previous proposals would have saved the district $500,000 a year, the current plan could save as much as $750,000 a year and benefit more teachers, according to school district studies. Teachers of math, social studies, English and science currently meet in PLCs daily, not including preparatory periods. However, budget analysis has shown that the district can no longer afford to continue that practice. A special subcommittee has struggled to come up with an acceptable, but less costly, alternatives.

The district must still decide which day of the week students would be dismissed early and what kind of activities would be offered to students on early-dismissal days. In some cases, students would be allowed to leave school. But the district is also considering offering tutoring and other enrichment activities.

CHILLICOTHE 

Singer-songwriter duo to perform free concert

Bloomington-based singer-songwriters Karen Bridges and Clint Thomson will bring their group, Stone & Snow, to Chillicothe Public Library Jan. 28. This free concert will take place at 2:30 p.m. at the Chillicothe Public Library, 430 N. Bradley Ave., Chillicothe. 

With a soulful indie rock/folk sound, their repertoire includes melancholy folk songs on love, loss and exploration amidst the imagery of the Western mountain landscape. Their music has taken them on the road to places like Summer Camp Music Festival, Taste of Chicago and the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville.

The duo continues to grow their catalog of songs, and in 2016 they released their newest record, “Devil That I Know,” in collaboration with David Rossi of Bombsight Recording Studio in Bloomington.

For more information, visit the band’s website at stoneandsnow.com or the library’s website at chillipld.org or call (309) 274-2719.

 

–Peoria County News Briefs–