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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of
3Representatives wish to recognize former Peoria Mayor Richard
4Carver and the Peoria City Council members who served during
5his time in office, sometimes referred to as the "Carver
6Council", for their efforts to transform the City of Peoria;
7and
 
8    WHEREAS, In May 1973, Richard Carver was sworn in as Mayor
9of the City of Peoria, and he served in that position until
101984; and
 
11    WHEREAS, The Peoria City Council members originally
12serving with Mayor Carver were Joseph Mudd, R. James Bateman,
13Thomas Dunne, Bruce Brown, C. Richard Neumiller, Lester
14Bergsten, Franklin Renner, and Warren Reynolds; and
 
15    WHEREAS, These Peoria City Council members became the
16initial members of the Carver Council, and their
17transformation of the City of Peoria was visionary; and
 
18    WHEREAS, Over the course of Mayor Carver's 11-year tenure,
19members of the Peoria City Council changed, including Richard
20Sutton and Dorothy Sinclair replacing Thomas Dunne and Joseph
21Mudd in 1975, Kenneth Sheppard replacing Richard Sutton in

 

 

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11977, Daniel Gura and Leonard Unes replacing Warren Reynolds
2and Franklin Renner in 1979, and Clement Dries replacing Bruce
3Brown in 1981, with council members remaining the same in
41983; and
 
5    WHEREAS, From the 1973 swearing-in, Mayor Carver and the
6Peoria City Council embarked upon a Downtown Redevelopment
7Plan to revitalize downtown Peoria; and
 
8    WHEREAS, Part of the Downtown Redevelopment Plan was
9locating the University of Illinois School of Medicine in
10downtown Peoria to be within close proximity to both
11hospitals, with the school's groundbreaking taking place in
12September 1974; and
 
13    WHEREAS, The Peoria City Council additionally voted on
14building the Peoria Civic Center in August 1976, which was
15followed by the vote to establish a hotel, motel, and
16restaurant tax as a matching source of funding in September
171976; the center opened with a theater, sports arena, and an
18exhibition hall in 1982; and
 
19    WHEREAS, The University of Illinois School of Medicine in
20downtown Peoria and the Peoria Civic Center were just two of
21the projects that Mayor Carver and the Peoria City Council
22accomplished, and these monumental projects continue to impact

 

 

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1the downtown area to this day; therefore, be it
 
2    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
3HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
4we recognize former Mayor Richard Carver and the Peoria City
5Council who served during his time in office for their
6extraordinary foresight in planning and accomplishing major
7downtown redevelopment in Peoria on the 50th anniversary of
8when this vision began; and be it further
 
9    RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
10presented to the four remaining leaders, Richard Carver, R.
11James Bateman, Bruce Brown, and Lester Bergsten, as an
12expression of our esteem and respect.