Central Illinois communities convening on coal plant transition
Canton Daily Ledger
HAVANA In the fall of 2019, the communities of Canton and Havana were hit with the shocking news that Vistra Corp. planned closing the local coal-fired power plants within three months. Community leaders were left to navigate the detrimental impacts to their tax base and workforce and they turned to each other to share ideas and resources.
This scenario is happening throughout Illinois. In the central Illinois region, Hennepin and Coffeen are experiencing similar challenges as Canton and Havana.
Since 2011, Illinois has experienced closures of over half of its coal plants.
“No one will love us if we don’t love ourselves.”
That’s Chris Setti, CEO of the Greater Peoria Economic Development Council, referring to one of the challenges raised in a recent report to promote economic development in the Peoria area.
The Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) is a document developed every five years to establish a working plan to assist the economies in five counties: Peoria, Woodruff, Tazewell, Mason and Logan.
“This time we used the Big Table meetings to generate goals and objectives,” said Setti, noting community meetings that were held in 2019 and 2020. Along with programs held in Peoria, sessions were also held in Brimfield, Delavan, Havana, Lincoln and Metamora, he said.
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PEORIA, Ill. The first-ever “Go Local” event Saturday in Junction City promoted local business and emphasized the importance of shopping small and supporting local.
The event hosted nine different speakers, including local councilmen and local business owners, among others.
The event was opened by Brittany Duffield, co-owner of MMC Brokerage.
Duffield has worked at Junction City for fifteen years and said she does everything she can to support area businesses. She urged the people of Peoria to do the same and explained why the “Go Local” campaign was developed.
“‘Go Local’ was created to encourage people to spend locally, to help build awareness and drive traffic to these locally owned establishments in hopes that we can help support and strengthen the ones fortunate enough to survive,” said Duffield.
Chautauqua National Wildlife Refuge / Facebook
When you rack your brain for places to get away for a weekend, Havana, Illinois, might not be top of mind.
At first glance, Havana has a lot of raw ingredients needed for tourism. The Mason County seat sits along the Illinois River, about an hour s drive away from Peoria, Springfield, or Bloomington, as the crow flies.
University of Illinois recreation and tourism professor Dr. Sharon Zou says proximity to population hubs aren t the city s only asset. The Main Street downtown redevelopment is really impressive. So we kind of have a nice combination of urban kind of feeling, as well as the outdoor recreation parts of it, Zou said.