Police Cameras

Apparently the police department has an entire bank of cameras in the station monitoring various street intersections  and other locations in town. However, they are not regularly monitored by humans and only reviewed if a crime is committed and within view of one of the cameras.

Paw Prints

 If you have noticed the paw prints on the main streets and a number of piece of private property, those are a fund raising and civic project of the Saluki Pride Committee of the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce. Each summer, recruits volunteer to spend 2 Sunday mornings painting prints on east and west 13 and north and south 51 as well as side streets such as Giant City Road and East Grand Avenue. All of the street pawprints point towards the SIUC campus, while the ones on private property point wherever the property owner wants. Getting a print painted in your driveway costs $100 with the money going to pay for the ones on the streets and to help fund the Chamber's Saluki Stay Scholarship.

Lloyd Rich

If you would like to attend the funeral of one of Carbondale's more colorful characters, a funeral mass for Lloyd Rich will take place at the Newman Center on August 5th at 10 a.m. Rich was indigent so donations to help cover the cost of the funeral are accepted at the Newman Center and St. Francis Xavier offices. 

Stop lights

 Maybe it is just me but the stop lights on University and Illinois at Walnut and Main Streets  certainly seem to have annoyingly callibrated timers. it appears that during the day, the lights count down and then change as soon as the timer reaches 0. At night, they count down, then the red "hand of warning" appears and cars have to sit there for another 1-2 minutes. Just set the times to have the same duration both day and night as there is traffic on both 13 and 51.

Church Fire

Appears last February's fire at the Walnut Street Baptist Church was arson. This afternoon, Carbondale Police arrested Ramil Mize as a suspect. No motive given and the investigation is ongoing.

Saluki Way Tax

 The Saluki Way tax is due to expire in 2027 but waiting until then to push the council not to renew it is a bad idea. Unless residents want to keep a sales tax higher than 93% of the rest of the state's municipalities, they need to start letting the current members of the council know they do not want any resolutions passed keeping the tax.

Broken Glass

 If you are driving the alley that runs behind Castle Perilous, La Unica, Electric Larrys and Indigo Lounge, be careful as there are a couple of broken beer bottles in the road behind Indigo. Unfortunately, the city sweeper never makes it down those, or any of the alleys in Carbondale, so I play to get out there tomorrow afternoon when I get back to town and sweep it up.

I can see the city not wanting the sweeper to try to negotiate the alleys in downtown or in residential areas as they can be tough to navigate. Still makes it hard when some one decides to break glass or otherwise spread garbage. The city has been pretty good about clearning up gravel piling up around the speed bumps back there and fixing potholes when called to its attention.

Eclipse Preparation

 Maybe there is work done behind the scenes but it doe not seem as if either Carbondale or SIUC are doing much to prepare for next years eclipse. This was spraked by hearing a list of eclipse themed activities taking place soon in Cape Girardeau on WSIU this morning. Nothing similar that I have heard for Carbondale. When I drove through Perryvill Mo a couple of weekends ago, the city had a large sign posted in their park "Eclipse Viewing Site".Carbondale and SIUC are at the epicenter of the eclipse so how hard would it be to put up a similar sign near Saluki Stadium to build awareness of the event.

Lloyd Rich

Lloyd Rich, also known to locals as "TimeLloyd", passed away this last Sunday. Not sure as to what the cause was but he had been in ill health for a number of years. Rich was a Carbondale fixture since at least the 1990s when I moved to town. Recognizable by his floppy hat, Tom Baker Dr. Who style scarf and omnipresent bicycle, Rich could ususally be counted upon to put in an appearance at most outdoor Carbondale events for years. If you ever attended the Lights Fantastic parade and saw a man pedaling a bicycle festooned with Christmas lights, that was Lloyd.

Rich loved Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the Dr. Who tv series, hence the nickname he used, "TimeLloyd" and annually for years he posted notices inviting people to Intergalatic Picnics with a reminder to "bring your towel". He was also an early user of SIUC's computer system, back when the university allowed non-students to access and store material on its drives. Someo

In the last decade, he had a couple of serious bike accidents, which curtailed his bike use, meaning he relied on public transport or the kindness of friends to get around. Until the COVID 19 pandemic started, he remained a fixture at mass at St. Francis Xavier and the Newman Center, as well as the Thankgiving and Christmas dinners hosted by them. The last time I saw him a year or two ago, he was wheelchair bound.

With his passing, Carbondale has lost as unique a personality as Tanner was.  In fact, some years ago, someone made a pack of cards featuring Carbondale personalities including Tanner, former Mayor Brad Cole and Rich. 

Farewell TimeLloyd, say Hi to The Doctor, and So Long and Thanks for All the Fish.

Saluki Way Tax

 From what I am hearing, the city council already plans to keep the Saluki Way tax in place when it expires later this decade. Passing a resolution doing so will likely be all that will be necessary to do as that is what the council did when the sales tax increase to pay off bonds issued to pay for new roofing on the high school expired. Unlike the initial vote to increase the sales tax, which attracted large crowds for a council meeting, the resolution to keep the roof tax part of the sales tax passed very quietly with only a few people in attendance.

Carbondale's sales tax is currently 9.75%, higher than 93% of cities and counties in the state. At least we are not as high as Chicago, which is 10.25%

Boys and Girls Club

 According to this, after 20 years the Boys and Girls Club of Southern Illinois will close up shop this Friday. Until 2021, it was the Boys and Girls Club of Carbondale then changed its name and opened up a facility in Marion. No details in the release but I would guess that there was not enough funding coming in to support both facilities and trying to keep them open drained enough resources that it proved infeasible to keep both open. Otherwise I could see shuttering the Marion location and consolidating operations back to Carbondale.

Geologic Odditites

 Geologic Oddities had its grand opening last Saturday at 606 South Illinois Ave. Gift shop primarily focusing on rocks and crystals. Closed Monday and Tuesday, open noon to 8 the rest of the week.

Shooting

 Shooting on South Lewis Lane yesterday morning shortly before 6 p.m. Victim was treated and released and police are still  looking for the shooter. From the sound of it, the victim could or would not identify the person that shot them.

Also a knifing on S. Poplar last Friday afternoon about 12:30.  Again the victim was injured but not seriously enough to require hospitalition and the suspected assailant has been arrested. The two were meeting to complete a transaction set up on social media, when one pulled  a knife on the other. Once again, indicating it is a good reason to complete transactions such as this in a"safe space" such as the lobby of the Carbondale Public Safety Department, aka the Police Department. 

Saluki Gymnastics

 In case you were wondering, Saluki Gymnastics moved out of its old location in Eastgate Shopping Center, awhile back. Now located in the vacated CVS pharmacy next to Legacy Fitness.

Booby's

 Appears that the reopening Booby's plans to make live music a focus of the restaurant with the new stage the owners are installing. By my calculations, once Booby's reopens, every storefront save two along the strety of S. Illinois between Walnut and W. College will have a business in it.  Chango's still sits empty since they decamped for Marion and there is still an empty spot between Bombay Olive and Artistic Minds Tattoo. 

Marberry Arboretum

 In case you have been worndering what has been going on at Marberry Arboretum, here is the answer:  bathrooms. The CPD got a grant for the Arboretum and has been cleaning up the damage done by the derecho of over a decade ago and redoing the parking lot, as well as installing bathrooms.

Town Square Sales Taxes

 Looked at the business located on the Carbondale square and realized that over half of them do not collect any sales taxes. South side of the square is empty save for the train depot, which houses the offices of Carbondale Main Street and the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce, both of which are not for profits that don't sell anything. 

The west side of the square consists of offices, Fringe, Practice Pad and the Rainbow Cafe. Practice Pad may sell some musical equiptment but its primary business is music lessons.. Services in Illinois do not collect sales taxes.

North and east sides have two restaurants, 2 groceries, ABC Liquors, Hair Brains and Arthur Agency. The first five do collect sales taxes but the last two do not. That is a lot of places in downtown not generating any sales tax revenue.

Mural

 Another mural completed, this one just west of Woodlawn Cemetary on the side of the Wellness Center. Features Calvin Scott playing the trumpet, as he does at every Memorial Day celebration at Woodlawn. The cameos are John A Logan on the right and Daniel Brush on the left.

Church Vandalism

 Man wallking through the parking lot at St. Francis Xavier Church one afternoon last week decided, for whatever reason, to pick up a rock and wing it through a church window. Happily a staff member saw the man break the window and got Carbondale police there before he left the area.

Big Chill

 The renamed and revamped Dairy Queen, now named "Wazo's Big Chill" reopened this past Friday and crowds have been good so far. Both times I drove by there were people sitting on the wall along S. Illinois and a line of people at the window. 

I expect Big Chill to do much better than the relaunch of El Greco some years ago. Despite the long lines of people waiting to get into El Greco when it announced it was closing, and then again when it re-opened, there was never enough demand for the restaurant's menu to keep customers coming back multiple times. Ditto for Mississippi Flyway. Despite the lamentations upon its closure, people did not eat there often enough to keep it open.

Dairy Queen/Big Chill does not have that problem. The restaurant did not close because of lack of demand but because the franchisor yanked the license. The DQ's biggest problem was always finding enough staff to operate. Barring a major change in the menu, (Blizzards will have to have a different name as that is a DQ trademark), Big Chill should remain successful.

Peeping Tom

 Carbondale Police are looking for a male with tan skin and a chubby face in his early 20s, who has been seen peering through the window of a house on West College and another on North Springer on the nights of June 29th and July 5. The decription of the man in both cases is similar enough that it is likely the same person. In the case of the North Springer incident, residents of the house saw the man looking through a window on the second floor, while the West college sighting was through a ground floor window.

Vandal Arrested

 41 year old Dustin Randolph of Marion was arrested today in Carterville on charges of vandalizing several law firms in Carbondale the last week of June.

Randolph was charged with throwing rocks and chunks of concrete through the windows of 4 different law firms and a retail business between June 27 and June 30.

City Flag

 Might be time to update the city flag. Just looking at it does not indicate what the symbols on it mean. According to the city code, "The City flag shall consist of the Corporate Seal in gold, black and white on a white background."

The items on the city seal are a railroad track and spike, a lamp symbolizing education, a cross commemorating the first Memorial Day observance, along with cotton boles with the black coloring honoring the importance of coal to the region.

As I have read elsewhere, seals go on offical docutments. Flags should be simpler and not need to have the name of the community on it.

PR Position Open

 In case you are looking for a job, the City of Carbondale has a Public Relations officer position open. Former PR officer Roni LeForge-Croxwell resigned her office to take a position as the Egyptian Electric Communications Co-ordinator, starting, well, yesterday. Initial application deadline is 4 p.m. July7th 

Restaurants on Vacation

 The following resaurants/food places are currently closed for vacation.

Thai Taste-reopens July 7th

La Unica Bakery -reopens July 10

Mary Lou's - reopens July 11

Electric Larry's was closed today as well but no indication that they will close for the entire week.

DQ Reopening

 The Downtown Dairy Queen will reopen tomorrow as the "Big Chill".  Hours are 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. Hoping they get a new neon sign on the roof to replace the old one.

Fireworks

 Man, the (illegal) fireworks were loud and abundant this year. I starting hearing loud explosions in the downtown area around 6  p.m. and saw a number of aerial displays on north side of town on the way home. Several groups apparently did not have suitable places to shoot them off around their house as they had set up their boomies in the street. I heard some fireworks shot off were powerful enough to shatter a window over on Rawlings. Apparently there was no concern by the celebrants regarding the fact that the city has only had an inch of rain in the past two month. I did hear the sirens of several emergency vehicles but no reports of any fires, thank goodness.

Last year, I remember driving home through a haze of smoke but fewer aerial displays. This year, more displays but less neighborhood smoke. 

Declaration of Independence

Read the Declaration of Independence on Facebook Live this afternoon. Interview Interview and a snippet of the reading appeared on Wsil 3 this evening at 5 and 6. Hope to recruit others to particpate in the reading next year. Hopefully the mayor, ED of the Chamber of Commerce and a few council members and civic leaders and community members.

Brown Bag Concerts

 Here is the schedule for July's Brown Bag Concerts which take place at noon in the Town Square Pavillion. Still wonder why they do not host these in the evening when it is generally cooler and arrange for a food truck or two to set up.

Law Firm Damages

 Someone has been wandering the street the past few nights chucking rocks and concrete chunks through law office windows including the front door of the Barrett, Twomey et. al. offices at the corner of Main and Illinois. Since 4 of the five buildings vandalized housed law offices, I would assume the culprit has a grudge against lawyers or the legal system.