Letter to the Board

Carbondale Chamber of Commerce sent the following letter to the SIU BOD:

An Open Letter to the Southern Illinois University Board of Trustees

As representatives of the Carbondale business community, we hold a keen interest in the happenings and discussions at Southern Illinois University. We are paying special attention to Chancellor Carlo Montemagno’s plans for reorganization and restructuring of the University.

As the largest economic engine not only for Carbondale but for all of Southern Illinois, what happens at the University – its successes in all areas (enrollment, research, athletics, cultural and artistic endeavors and more) as well as its shortcomings – affect us all. In recent years, the continuing freefall in enrollment has negatively impacted most of our businesses, even forcing many once-profitable enterprises out of business.

There is no doubt that Chancellor Montemagno’s plan is challenging and ambitious. We believe that the time for action is now. Reorganization must not wait for extended, lengthy discussion, reviews and inaction. With years of declining enrollments and numerous leadership changes, the University, the city and region and our businesses cannot afford any delay.

Something must be done, sooner than later. The time for study, posturing and inaction is over. We stand with the Chancellor and his proposed plan and will do everything in our ability to support him and Southern Illinois University.

Board of Directors

Carbondale Chamber of Commerce

Me, I am still not sold on the need for re-organization as the cure for what ails SIUC. Of course, my background is marketing, so I am admittedly biased, but SIUC needs to do a lot better job of marketing itself in the southern Illinois region. When you have a situation where every university in the region, except SIUC, sends representatives to a recruiting opportunity at CCHS, there is not an organizational problem, there is a recruiting problem 

Sales Taxes Extended

Rather surprised at the very light turnout at tonight's city council meeting, especially since sales taxes, always a hot button issue, were on the agenda. The audience consisted of less than 6 people.  Members of the council stated several times that extending the taxes had been discussed a number so far this year and had even been figured into this year's budget. However, the half a dozen or so people I spoke with this week knew nothing about the proposed extensions and the Chamber of Commerce had not polled its members on the topic.

After some discussion, the council voted to eliminate the sunset clause for both taxes, meaning both will continue indefinitely unless council chooses to revisit them, which will likely only happen if enough residents of Carbondale contact them.. The vote was closer than I expected with Councilmen Loos and Grant, Councilwoman Harvey and Mayor Henry voting yes and Councilmen Doherty and Kang and Councilwoman Bradshaw voting no.

I was interested to learn that, due to the way the original ordinance had been written, the CCHS bond tax would not have sunseted. Instead, since the bonds had been paid off, the money from the tax would have continued to go into the general school funds until the ordinance was changed.

Meetings, We've Got Meetings

Busy night this Thursday the 19th.  Sustainability Commission meets at 6 p.m. at the Civic Center. On the agenda, a review of the proposed chicken ordinance (yet again.  I figure it will get OKed by about 2014), bike paths and recycling.

Then, for more local political fun, the CCHS (that's Carbondale Community High School, for those who don't speak acronym) School District #165 Board meets in the high school cafeteria at 7.

Then you only have a week to wait until the Carbondale Elementary School District #95 meeting at 7 p.m. on the 26.

Mustache Auction.

Mayor Fritzler's auction of his mustache to benefit CCHS has gone national, or at least interstatal.

Planning Commission

The Planning Commission last night rejected the request to re-zone the old CCHS athletic fields by a vote of 3-2. However, this vote serves only as a recommendation to the city council, which gets the final say.