Mediaboss Marketing

There are new hands at the tiller for the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission. As part of a routine, two-year swap in the chairmanship between commission members in Peoria, Tazewell and Woodford counties, Larry Whitaker is stepping up to replace Mike Phelan.

The change comes after what has been an extremely active past couple years for the commission under Phelan's chairmanship, something Whitaker - who stepped back onto the commission recently after some time off - noted with the air of someone quite impressed.

"When I came back on the commission, I was just staggered by the intensity of work, the quality of work, the volume of work the commission has continued to take on," he said. Tri-County is "one of those organizations that people really don't hear about until a big project comes along."

Among those lately has been work involved with the Army Corps of Engineers' construction of the island in the Illinois River just north of the McClugage Bridge and a close focus on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency air standards issues - the latter in an effort to keep local air cleaner so we don't face even tighter regulations and restrictions during summer months.

Those are the kinds of things that don't "make for glorious headlines and a lot of glamorous news copy," Whitaker said, but they're the bread and butter of what the commission quietly does.

In addition, of course, the commission has spent time discussing a potential rail link into the Amtrak corridors passing through Bloomington and Galesburg, and commissioned a major study on regional economic development.

"I'm hopeful I can come close to that level of accomplishment" over the next two years, Whitaker said, giving Phelan credit for a "phenomenal job engaging the organization and the people it serves."

Whitaker also earns plaudits from Woodford County Board Chairman Stan Glazier for his experience and leadership, but moreover for the fact that "his personality blends in nicely with everyone so well."

That ability to work well with others is particularly critical for an organization that has to deal with sometimes competing regional interests and parochial interests.

It's a song Whitaker sings well.

Read this article:
Word on the Street: Planning commission chief figures to be busy