So, here we are with the second edition of the Pekin Hometown Voice. From what I am hearing, it has been a hit within our community. I have seen many positive comments on various social media pages that talk about the positive the paper focused on and how needed this was. One would have to agree, there is positive in Pekin and we need to draw attention to that.

I have not received any requests from anyone to address any particular topic, but I have been communicating with some people through social media regarding communication in general. I thought this may be an opportunity for me to address how I believe communication is important from City Hall to our community.

Currently most of our communication takes place at our public meetings, and through the use of social media. I am trying to increase the amount of interaction we at City Hall have with the community on social media but also, I want to increase our communication by other means so that our community can engage and hear firsthand what is going on. 

There are many rumors and misinformation out there. Social Media at times causes issues because we have the “trolls” out there who simply want to create chaos and provide disinformation. This often times creates a problem and starts arguments with people that is unnecessary. So, while we try to monitor and address social media, it is difficult to keep up. More often than not we find ourselves correcting the rumors.

That being said, this paper is but one opportunity we have chosen to address our community. Focus on the positive stuff. Simply, there are many positive things happening. The positive things we seem to lose track of. We do provide better updates on a bi-weekly basis, but we are also going to soon be launching a podcast where we are going to drill down on some of the issues taking place in Pekin. It may be a discussion regarding a recent council meeting. Explaining TIF or other incentives for people to bring business or residential development to Pekin. We may simply explain some of the difficult tasks we face such as the reason for a rate increase, or other happenings within Pekin. It is just another way for us to communicate better with our community. I am always looking for many ways to spread the word. Keep an eye out for information regarding the podcast that will be coming out soon!  I am looking forward to this and excited for the things coming to our community.

As always, if anyone has any particular topics they wish us to address, please email me at [email protected].