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| 1 | HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| 2 | WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of | ||||||
| 3 | Representatives wish to recognize former Peoria Mayor Richard | ||||||
| 4 | Carver and the Peoria City Council members who served during | ||||||
| 5 | his time in office, sometimes referred to as the "Carver | ||||||
| 6 | Council", for their efforts to transform the City of Peoria; | ||||||
| 7 | and
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| 8 | WHEREAS, In May 1973, Richard Carver was sworn in as Mayor | ||||||
| 9 | of the City of Peoria, and he served in that position until | ||||||
| 10 | 1984; and
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| 11 | WHEREAS, The Peoria City Council members originally | ||||||
| 12 | serving with Mayor Carver were Joseph Mudd, R. James Bateman, | ||||||
| 13 | Thomas Dunne, Bruce Brown, C. Richard Neumiller, Lester | ||||||
| 14 | Bergsten, Franklin Renner, and Warren Reynolds; and
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| 15 | WHEREAS, These Peoria City Council members became the | ||||||
| 16 | initial members of the Carver Council, and their | ||||||
| 17 | transformation of the City of Peoria was visionary; and
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| 18 | WHEREAS, Over the course of Mayor Carver's 11-year tenure, | ||||||
| 19 | members of the Peoria City Council changed, including Richard | ||||||
| 20 | Sutton and Dorothy Sinclair replacing Thomas Dunne and Joseph | ||||||
| 21 | Mudd in 1975, Kenneth Sheppard replacing Richard Sutton in | ||||||
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| 1 | 1977, Daniel Gura and Leonard Unes replacing Warren Reynolds | ||||||
| 2 | and Franklin Renner in 1979, and Clement Dries replacing Bruce | ||||||
| 3 | Brown in 1981, with council members remaining the same in | ||||||
| 4 | 1983; and
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| 5 | WHEREAS, From the 1973 swearing-in, Mayor Carver and the | ||||||
| 6 | Peoria City Council embarked upon a Downtown Redevelopment | ||||||
| 7 | Plan to revitalize downtown Peoria; and
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| 8 | WHEREAS, Part of the Downtown Redevelopment Plan was | ||||||
| 9 | locating the University of Illinois School of Medicine in | ||||||
| 10 | downtown Peoria to be within close proximity to both | ||||||
| 11 | hospitals, with the school's groundbreaking taking place in | ||||||
| 12 | September 1974; and
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| 13 | WHEREAS, The Peoria City Council additionally voted on | ||||||
| 14 | building the Peoria Civic Center in August 1976, which was | ||||||
| 15 | followed by the vote to establish a hotel, motel, and | ||||||
| 16 | restaurant tax as a matching source of funding in September | ||||||
| 17 | 1976; the center opened with a theater, sports arena, and an | ||||||
| 18 | exhibition hall in 1982; and
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| 19 | WHEREAS, The University of Illinois School of Medicine in | ||||||
| 20 | downtown Peoria and the Peoria Civic Center were just two of | ||||||
| 21 | the projects that Mayor Carver and the Peoria City Council | ||||||
| 22 | accomplished, and these monumental projects continue to impact | ||||||
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| 1 | the downtown area to this day; therefore, be it
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| 2 | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | ||||||
| 3 | HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | ||||||
| 4 | we recognize former Mayor Richard Carver and the Peoria City | ||||||
| 5 | Council who served during his time in office for their | ||||||
| 6 | extraordinary foresight in planning and accomplishing major | ||||||
| 7 | downtown redevelopment in Peoria on the 50th anniversary of | ||||||
| 8 | when this vision began; and be it further
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| 9 | RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be | ||||||
| 10 | presented to the four remaining leaders, Richard Carver, R. | ||||||
| 11 | James Bateman, Bruce Brown, and Lester Bergsten, as an | ||||||
| 12 | expression of our esteem and respect.
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