Moving to Peoria/Morton...please help (Chicago, Pekin: appointed, apartment, lease)

[myabcworld]

Hi all,

I have 3 young children from 2year to 10 year old. Our offices locate both in Peoria and Morton. We are looking for a house somewhere in between Peoria and Morton. Please advice which neighborhood/sub is best to live and schools for the kids. Also do public school in IL starts at age 4 or 5?

Thank you so very much.

[Scio42]

Hi,

Generally people enroll their kids in public school in IL at age 5, although you can do it at age 4 (but I believe the kid's birthday has to be before a certain date).

Morton and Peoria are only about a 10 min drive apart so it's not really necessary to move somewhere in between. Morton's a pretty nice town, pretty safe, sufficient shopping and good schools. You can easily drive to East Peoria or Peoria if you need to buy something not in Morton. Morton's a pretty conservative and fairly religious town (which is good or bad depending how you feel about it). The people in Morton seem to be either fairly well off white collar managers or blue collar workers doing OK. The property values in Morton are higher than most of the other towns surrounding Peoria. Morton (along with Dunlap) is one of the prime destinations for families moving out of Peoria.

Depending on where your office is in Peoria, there's probably not really much in the way of living on the Peoria side that would make working in both Peoria and Morton all that convenient. The only place in between is East Peoria. There's some nice places to live in East Peoria (especially on the bluff) and the schools there are OK (although Morton schools rank higher in most people's opinions). You're not really going to save a great deal of commute time by living in East Peoria over Morton though. In the Peoria metro area, you're never really more than a 30 min drive from anywhere else in the metro area. The traffic is rarely ever bad. In Peoria we have "Rush Minutes" instead of "Rush Hours".

Hope this helps.

[linicx]

Il schools begin at 5 on or before Sept.1. The idea location would be in East Peoria. Fondulac Drive is an excellent location. Depending upon where you lived the grade school could be as close as two blocks or as far as two miles. Herein lies the problem Bolin Grade School on Arnold Road is k thru 2. The the child transfers to Armstrong-Oakwood Elemetary School on Highview Road. It is grades 3 thru 5. 6-8 is at Cebtral Jr. High and then on to high school. The western entrance to Fondulac is very near the I-74; in fact it runs under part of Fondulac. The K-8 school is in Robein on East Washinton Road past the high schoo. It is highly desireable. You will drive a little further to access I-74. Their are other shcools. I do not recommend the areas to live in.

No one can go from east side of the river to the west side without crossing one of the seven bridge.

The next area is Washington on US 24 or Village of Morton. And lastly Peoria Heights. The advantage of the last two means only one car would be crossing the river. PH is a seperate town from Peoria and it has its own school system K-12 as does Washington and Morton. Metamore on 116 is a good town too. It's alittle farther out than Washington.

I'll tell you why I would chose Peoria Heights. It is the only one of the areas that is near a hospital. It is also near everything you can imagine for kids and families to go and do. In beats working all day to come home, change clothes, and drive 20 =30 miles to an event you child cannot live without attending. It is an excellent area to raise children.

There are advantages to living in a tightly knit community. There is an excellent bus system in Peoria too. I've lived in these areas for more than 40 years. You will not be disappointed especially when you learn Peoria has the largest park system outside of Chicago and PH is not too far from one of the biggest parks with the zoo and free saturday night movies in the summer, nor too far from the observatory or Lookout Tower or golf courses, country clubs, shopping, pro-sports or even sailing. Its all within about 5-6 miles. The only thing you cannot find in Peoria is Trader Joe's, Costco and Whole Foods - which are in Chicago. Peoria has a wonderful natural food store, too. One of Peoria's best kept secrets is a microbrewery. PH is bounded by War Memoria, N Knoxville and the river. If you travel west on Glen Ave. you'll cross Knoxville, Sheridan and Universty. Glen and University is where all the shopping begins. Think of this vs drivimg 25 miles from Morton to do the same thing. If you really aren't sure what you want to do, rent in PH for 6 mos or a year while you look for a house. If you have questionns, do ask.

[linicx]

Peoria Metro Statistical Area includes five counties: Peora, Tazewell, Mason, Fulton and Mason County. Havana, the Mason County seat is 50 miles from Peoria. Eureka in Woodford County is at leat 30 miles and so is Lewistown, the county seat of Fulton County. Pekin, the county seat of Tazewell is 20 miles from the southside of Peoria. The 10 minutes from Morton will get your from the entrance to 1-74 to the river side of Peoria. It may take that long to get from your house, through town, through the lights, across the bridge to enter I-74. If you figure 30 minutes you don't have to rush - it might give you a little extra time if you have to detour over another bridge, but then again it depends upon where you work in Peoria. Give yourself 60 minites if there is ice and snow because traffic will slow. My aunt lived in Morton, my mother in law was in the nursing home in Morton for four years. I know a lot about Morton and Morton roads.

The best frozen pizza in the area comes from Butch's in Morton. Look at the label. If it doesn't say Morton, it is not the same pizza. I made that mistake once.

[cnylouhoo]

we have a 3 bedroom apartment in Peoria in Dunlap Schools- the best around. It's 2 bath and a walk-in closet. We need to end our lease early and you can move in May 3. Call if interested 309-712-3802

[linicx]

Put it on Peoria craigslist. You cannot cross-post in this CD forum.