Saturday, March 16, 2024

Eclipse Hotels

 Looks like hotels in Carbondale and the path of the eclipse are 99% sold out the weekend of the eclipse with rooms going for up to $850. The city apparently still has space available at Evergreen Park for $500-$700 for the weekend. and apparently still has space available As the Eclipse gets closer, though, I would expect them to sell out, though not without some grumbling.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Artistic Minds Tattoo

 Artistic Minds Tattoo announced on its Facebook page that the business has purchased the shuttered Chicago Hot Dog location at the intersection of College and Illinois, just across the street from its current location. From the wording of the post, renovations started today with no indication as to when the move will be completed.

Monday, March 11, 2024

Campus Lake

 Obviously, it has been awhile since I have been to Campus Lake. I had no idea the university had razed the facilities at Campus Beach and removed the beach, replacing it with a walkway adjoining the path round the lake allowing the walker to go out over the water. From talking to a few friends, it has been there since at least 2020. Guess I need to get onto campus more often.

Saturday, March 9, 2024

Rip's Pizza

 No indication as to when it will open but the old Keeper's Quarters building (old McDonald's building if you have lived in Carbondale for a long time) on south Illinois has a sign on it announcing Rip's Pizza, baked in brick ovens. Not sure if Carbondale really needs another pizza place but Newby's appears to be doing ok .

Friday, March 8, 2024

Carbondale Eclipse

 Carbondale city government has posted a roundup of events taking place in the city to celebrate the upcoming total eclipse. Looks like a concert featuring the Woodbox Gang on the Sunday night before the Eclipse and then street busking at a number of locations on the day of the Eclipse. wonder if this year will be a replay of 2017 when everyone came into town on the day before the Eclipse and then left immediately after, causing such a traffic jam that it took about 3 hours to get from here to Marion and about 6 hours to take 51 north to the interstate.

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

1 Million Gallons

 That is the amount of water vanishing from the Carbondale water system on a daily basis. At this time of  year, residents of Carbondale use about 3 million gallons of water a day. Measurements from the water purification plant show about 4 million gallons going out daily. No meters in the city show any significant increases and no customers in Carbondale have reported any abnormal increase in the bills so the city has no idea where the water is going. Staff members have spent the last two months looking for the and thought they had found it last month but after patching the leak they discovered, the flow continued.

The city figures one of two things is happening. One million gallons of water escaping per day is either creating a pond or swampy area somewhere in the city, so if you see a large accumulation of water in an area  that normally does not have any, contact the city to let them know. The other likelihood is the leak is close to a sewer drain or stream and the water is flowing into it before getting to any location where it could be measured.

From what I understand, the city can process about 5 million gallons of water per day before straining the purification system so the leak is not currently causing any stress so we are okay during spring, fall and winter. However, Carbondale water use increases to about 4 million gallons per day during the summer, raising the output from the system to levels that are problematical.

Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Gary Williams

 City Manager Gary Williams announced he will resign the post effective the end of  March. From the sound of the press release, it sounds as if he has another job opportunity within the area and plans to accept it. Probably not the Executive Director position at Carbondale Main Street, which, as far as I know, is still looking for someone to fill the spot. Meanwhile, the city is considering applications for an interim manager while it looks for someone to fill the position.

During his tenure, off the top of my head, the city saw significant upgrades to the downtown streetscape, construction of the multimodal transit center, transfer of several parks from the Park District to the city and progress on the downtown entertainment plaza. Not bad to list on one's resume.