Kevin Barlow, kbarlow@pantagraph.com
Thirty-nine Twin City residents, representing governments, community, education and businesses, took part. The program, led by the Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council, promotes the community and finds funding sources.
“Everyone came back with a ‘to-do’ list,” said McLean County Chamber of Commerce CEO Charlie Moore. “We all walked away with multiple new ideas and additional resources for ways to find funding.”
“The trip was very organized and very effective,” said Crystal Howard, director of the Bloomington-Normal Convention and Visitors Bureau. “I think we came back with new things to work on to benefit McLean County.”
The group focused on finding money for mental health services, helping Bloomington find funding for the completion of the Hamilton Road project, and finding money for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs in elementary and high schools.
Howard was assigned to the group working on mental health services.
“We received a lot of insight from the Department of Justice and the officials there shared new grants that might be available,” she said. “We learned about one grant, but it is due on March 31 and so there are a lot of people back here now working hard to get that completed.”
Leaders from Normal focused on finding money for a way to connect Uptown Circle to the south side of the tracks. About $23 million of federal funding helped pay for Normal’s Uptown Station.
“We have benefited greatly from previous One Voice trips and we feel that a lot of the credit for some of that federal funding came as a result of the One Voice trips in the past,” City Manager Mark Peterson said. “We wanted to take advantage of meeting with some federal officials, but it is now our turn to help others during the actual trip.”
One Voice members met with U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Channahon; U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk; U.S. Rep. D-Springfield; U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Peoria; U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-East Moline and U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville.
Government representatives on the trip included Mayor Tari Renner, City Manager David Hales, Economic Development Coordinator Austin Grammer and Alderman Jim Fruin, all of Bloomington; Mayor Chris Koos, Council Member R.C. McBride, Public Works Director Wayne Aldridge, and Peterson, all of Normal; McLean County Board Chairman John McIntyre and Deputy Director of Court Services Dennis McGuire, both representing McLean County. Also on the trip were representatives from Illinois State University, Illinois Wesleyan University, the Bloomington-Normal Airport Authority, Chestnut Health Systems, Connect Transit, and nine local businesses.
