The John C. Flanagan House was built in 1837 and is the oldest standing house in Peoria and is one of the homes featured on the Peoria Historical Society’s annual historic home tour Saturday, Dec. 5. (Photo courtesy of Peoria Historical Society).

Peoria

CWTC serving up Thanksgiving dinner

CWTC, Community Workshop and Training Center, Inc., is serving its annual Thanksgiving luncheon” to its consumers, Wednesday, Nov. 25, at 3215 N. University St., in Peoria. The luncheon begins at 11:15 a.m. and will continue until 1 p.m.

“It’s a way for us to share the holiday with our consumers,” said Patti Gratton, executive

director for CWTC. “For many of our consumers, this is the only Thanksgiving they will have.”

The annual Thanksgiving meal has been a tradition with CWTC Board of Directors, staff and volunteers serving the meal. The Heart of Illinois United Way staff makes it an annual tradition to share with the serving.

CWTC provides programs and services to adults with disabilities; enriching their quality of life, promoting social change, and optimizing their potential for independence.

Discover Peoria County through GIS Open House

Peoria County’s Information Technology Services (ITS) will host an open house from noon to 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 14, in the ITS Training Room G10 at the Peoria County Courthouse, 324 Main St., in downtown Peoria. The event will be held on GIS Day, an international day to celebrate Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

Learn about Peoria County’s GIS department through hands-on map applications, demonstrations, interactive geography games, map posters, and by creating origami globes.

The GIS Open House is for anyone interested in learning the county’s system and our GIS manager will provide demonstrations.

Peoria County’s Front Desk map application is a GIS program that allows users to interactively explore and analyze geographic data in a map. Whether you are looking for property information, subdivision plats, or maps, this application can assist.

To view the Front Desk map application on any web browser, mobile device, or computer, visit www.peoriacounty.org/gis and select “Peoria County Front Desk” from the left menu.

Historical Society hosting annual Holiday Home Tour

Ring in the holidays with the Peoria Historical Society’s annual historic home tour. Enjoy the craftsmanship and ambiance of six historic homes while seeing them magically decorated for the holidays.  New this year are three homes in the Randolph-Roanoke Historic District.

Our two museum homes — the John C. Flanagan House Museum and the Pettengill-Morron House Museum — will be decked out in all their Christmas finery. Santa Claus will make an appearance at the Flanagan House.  Pettengill-Morron will feature Victorian décor as well as a lovely gift shop. The homes will be open from 5 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, Dec.  5 and from 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 6. This tour would not be possible without the willingness of the following homeowners to share their magnificent homes with the community:  Dr. George and  Colleen Johnson 1609 West Moss Ave., David Stotz and George Traylor,  201 W. Columbia Terrace, Todd and  Karla Dennhardt  311 W. Armstrong, and Ballance-Herschel Home (Home of the Junior League of Peoria) 256 NE Randolph. Tickets are $15.00 each for adults  until Dec. 3rd and $20.00 after.  Children 12 and under get in for free with the purchase of an adult ticket. To purchase tickets, please contact the PHS office at (309) 674-1921. Tickets may also be purchased at Kelleher’s, Harp & Thistle and Gregg Florist. Check the PHS website for additional information: www.PeoriaHistoricalSociety.org.

Library to Present “Baseball in the Attic” appraiser

Memorabilia appraiser Michael Osacky of “Baseball in the Attic.” (Photo Baseball in the Attic blog)

Well-known vintage sports card and memorabilia appraiser Michael Osacky of “Baseball in the Attic” will speak at Peoria Public Library North Branch from 2 to 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 22.

Osacky, who  has been collecting vintage baseball cards and other sports memorabilia since he was a teenager,  travels the country to evaluate pre-1970 sports cards and memorabilia from all sports. “I have been the official appraiser for some great athletes from the Chicago Bulls and New York Yankees; enjoying tremendously working with the families and the estates. Every year I am fortunate enough to spend time with some of the best athletes to ever play baseball, including Whitey Ford, Don Larsen, and Ernie Banks,” says Osacky.  He will give a presentation on collecting sports memorabilia, then get a free verbal appraisal of your vintage sports memorabilia. To reserve your appraisal spot, call (309) 497-2150. The program is free and open to the public.  For more about Baseball in the Attic visit www.baseballintheattic.com/speaking.html.  For more information about Peoria Public Library and events visit www.peoriapubliclibrary.org.

LWV hosts program on sustainability of clean water

The  League of Women Voters of Greater Peoria will host a discussion entitled “Sustainability: Why Should We Care About Water? “  from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 18 at the  Hearth Restaurant, 4604 N. Prospect Ave., Peoria Heights.  This evening is part of the LWV’s Drinks & Dialogue program. The importance of water is a global issue, and now the significance of water shortages hits close to home in the United States as droughts and water shortages impact many areas of the country.  The League has long been engaged in activities to protect groundwater sources to ensure the safety of drinking water. The dialogue will be facilitated by League members and led by Robert Fuessle of Bradley University.  Fuessle earned his masters degrees and PhD in environmental engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana. He is a specialist in the area of hazardous waste treatment and management modeling for environmental systems,stabilizing hazardous wastes, environmental management and policy analysis and environmental risk assessment. There’s no cost to participate, and refreshments are available to buy.

School District 150 hiring consultant for superintendent search

The Peoria School District 150 board voted Nov. 9 to hire consultants to conduct a search for a new superintendent. The board voted 4-3 to enter into an agreement with the Illinois Association of School Boards to conduct the search. The IASB consultants will come at a cost of $14,000, according to reports. On other school news, District 150 was given about $20,000 in grants, most ranging from $500 t0 $1,000, for classroom projects. The grants came from the Peoria Public Schools Foundation and the Murray and Rena Yeoman Fund of the Community Foundation.

Tri-County region

High winds led to power outages thousands of customers

Thousands of residents in the tri-county region of Woodford, Peoria and Tazewell counties were without power off and on in the late night hours of Nov. 11-12 due to high winds and a powerful storm. More than 3,000 Ameren customers were without power due to downed power lines and trees across the area.  Gusts up to 71 mph, recorded at Gen. Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport, were reported.  The storm took out feeder lines and the company was experiencing issues at substations, according to Ameren. No serious injuries or damages have been reported, according to Peoria County and the local police.

Public input sought on regional bike plan

The Tri-County Regional Planning Commission is inviting public participation on the BikeConnect HOI, the regional bicycle plan for the Heart of Illinois region. About 100 people stopped by the kick off event. But, there are two very easy ways to join the conversation — follow Tri-County Regional Planning Commission on Facebook and/or  join the MindMixer site. Regular updates are posted on the  Facebook page (facebook.com/tcrpc.page) regarding the bike plan, asking questions, and providing updates on the planning process. One of the planners, David Smesrud, has vowed to bike to work every day until December and residents can track his progress on the Facebook page as well. Residents can join conversations on the MindMixer site (bikeconnecthoi.mindmixer.com). Creating an account is easy (you can link it to your Facebook page). Anyone who has additional questions can contact either one of  two planners in charge of the planning process: David Smesrud, dsmesrud@tricountyrpc.org and Nick Hayward, nhayward@tricountyrpc.org.

–Peoria County News Briefs–