Quote:
Originally Posted by llama214
The Peoria suburbs can offer a decent amount of what you are looking for. Morton, Metamora, Washington, Dunlap, Germantown Hills, Tremont, Mackinaw, Elmwood, along with countless others have a real sense of self and are just nice, clean towns overall. Certain parts of Pekin and East Peoria are nice as well. Expect to pay more to live in some of these areas, but places like Elmwood, and Mackinaw would have more reasonable prices. The Illinois river valley is so beautiful, if you do a little research, I'm sure you can find the perfect small town for you. These areas all within a realitive distance to Peoria, and Bloomington.
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I grew up in Mackinaw and recently moved back (3 yrs ago)....A nice enough community..IF...you don't let the snobs bother you, You don't let anyone be an a** to you....The schools are decent as far as safety...education...Very cli'cky' at times though...always has been...there ARE very nice people though too...it just matters with whom you hang, I guess..
Sports are huge...we love our sports and have a good reputation in F/B and V/B....HUGE parent involvement which is great...The kids thrive on it...
You would do best in this town if you have some money, sad but so very true....Two bars are located on the other side of tracks..Mackinaw is acutally a 'DRY' Town...so bars and selling of alchohol are forbidden...so instead we pour money into the next community which is (as I said earlier) just across the tracks....DUMB IDEA if you ask me...pretend our town doesn't drink as the locals are across the street givng the next town good money that could be used in ours...YEAH..smart ...whew sorry needed to vent.
There aren't a lot of things to do here, however just 15 to 30 mins away offers many different things. (Pekin, Peoria, Morton, Bloomington) VERY safe though...which is one of the reasons we moved back..Plus...NO TORNADOES..WHEW HOO...we live in a valley so they always bounce upward...HUGE PLUS.....
If you are interested just get ahold of me qwemmie in the yahoo community

....I can answer just about anything on this little town....
What we do have is three Churches, a Family resturant, an Ice cream shop, IGA (a GREAT FAMILY that owns it), P.O. , Drug store, three banks, Dr's office, Lawyer's office, Library (of course), Video store that also sells pizza and ice cream, Area 52 Paintball !!, Caseys gas station, Auto shop, Hardware, The Tea room @ the old Depot, The Mackinaw Winery..very nice.., Heritage Pool, Henderson and Weir Real Estate & Ins., two parks, Rec. Sports, Brock Lake, two Hair salons...one offers nails..the other offers tanning, Amish Cabintry, Canoe Renting (the river flows through) these are just off the top of my noggin....oh a very good pre-school day care facilty.
Not that bad for as small of a town that it is. Deer Creek is also assc. with us...Deer Creek Mackinaw is actually the school names. Deer Creek is a nice enough town as well...but they DO get tornadoes....
I am done now...feel free to ask me any questions....I hope this helped