Heart of Illinois region envisioned to reopen for business

Posted on May 12, 2020
The Bloomington City Council meeting Monday night via Zoom. (Neil Doyle/WJBC)

 

By HOI ABC and Neil Doyle

BLOOMINGTON – Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration has drawn a map dividing the state into four regions to phase-in a reopening of the state.

However, mayors of Peoria, Bloomington, Normal and other community leaders are asking Pritzker to reconfigure that map to speed up the process.

According to our news partner HOI ABC, Bloomington Mayor Tari Renner, at Monday night’s city council meeting, said he participated in a conference call Friday with Peoria’s Jim Ardis, Normal’s Chris Koos, and several other area mayors to create a Heart of Illinois region.

Renner said the proposed change is “data driven” and includes 11 area counties including Peoria, McLean, Tazewell, and Woodford.

Bloomington City Manger Tim Gleason spoke Tuesday morning with WJBC’s Scott Miller.

“This is not political, this is driven by data and medical evidence that we have got the capacity in our hospital systems, in both Peoria and Bloomington,” said Gleason. “It’s driven more through a medical data sense, and really the ask is more through the Illinois Department of Public Health.”

Gleason said a letter was sent to the governor on Friday. Pritzker has so far indicated he’s not in favor of altering his original plan.

Neil Doyle can be reached at [email protected]

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