Eclipse Street Festival

Looks as if the planned $1 million Eclipse Street Festival has hit a snag as the promoters have not been able to arrange for the level of talent they had promised and have pulled out of the promotion. Maybe the city will contact the Carbondale Music Coalition regarding taking over the festival.

The problem with attracting "top tier" acts to Carbondale is the city's location. We can get them, but not at a desirable time for attendees. Much like Cape Girardeau, Carbondale is located roughly halfway between two major metropolitan centers, so a major act can play one weekend in Indianapolis, load up the bus(es) and head to St. Louis for the next weekend's set of shows. If the performer wants to pick up an extra paycheck, they can swing off the interstate for a weeknight performance in Springfield or Carbondale. According to the director of Cape's Show Me Center, this is how the Center books a lot of its big name shows as the performers are traveling from St. Louis to Memphis and stop for one night in Cape.

NASA Eclipse Numbers

NASA disagrees with the numbers projected by the Great American Eclipse website and has told the city that the organization expects roughly 50,000 people to descend on Carbondale during the time of the eclipse, so the city is making plans based on that figure rather than the much higher ones estimated by the GAE site.

One major concern will be parking. Currently, from what I understand, the city has arranged for parking and transport for roughly 3000 vehicles and assumes that most of the visitors to Carbondale will arrive via multi-passenger transport. This is fine if visitors arrived dozens at a time in tour buses but much more problematic if they come 4 to a passenger vehicle.

Eclipse Numbers 2

As Audrey pointed out in her comment, the folks behind the Great American Eclipse website have crunched some numbers and posted their estimates as to visitations to various spots along the path of eclipse totality. The site estimates Illinois should see somewhere between 93,000 and 372,000 people. If those numbers prove accurate, then Carbondale should receive the lion's share of visitors as we are the largest city in the path once it moves beyond the East St. Louis and the one putting in the most effort, as far as I can tell, to attract visitors to our location.

Scoopz Opening

Scoopz Ice Cream and More will host its grand opening tomorrow May 30th in the Grand Avenue Mall. Summer is a good time to open a new ice cream shop but since the shops at Grand Avenue mainly cater to students, most of which are gone for the summer, I don't know if the beginning of summer was the best time to open. Hope it works for them.

Eclipse Numbers

The problem, as I see it, in preparing for the eclipse is that we don't have any idea as to how many people might show up. Last I heard, we still had a few (highly priced) rooms available, although rooms have been sold out for miles around Carbondale for several month. Of course,t his also happens during SIUC's graduation weekend as well. I have heard numbers floated anywhere from 5000 or roughly graduation weekend, to 50,000 to 100,000.

Fact is, we don't know how many people will show up. Carbondale is in competition with communities across the nation hosting events for the Great American Eclipse.  We are listed along with 9 other communities  as top places to see the eclipse and, while we are closest to the spot of longest totality, communities further to the west are projected to have better weather. Longest totality won't mean much if we have heavy cloud cover that day.

Government as Business

Been doing some reading on entrepreneurship and got to thinking about the whole idea that government should be run like a business. When you think about it, that is really a flawed concept since the two constructs are vastly different. Could Carbondale city government run more efficiently?Most likely but government and business differ significantly.

Consider.  I run a business here in the 'dale but my needs are quite different from the needs of Thai Taste half a block away from me or Wal-mart on the east side of town or Murdale True-Value on the west. Each of us focuses on our own organization's needs and take actions that we believe will enhance our operations. I do not take into consideration the impact of my actions on Wal-mart, just as I am sure, Wal-mart's management does not take into consideration the impact of its actions on me. As long as they remain within the law, business is free to take whatever action it wishes without regard or consideration for other businesses.

Carbondale city government does not have that freedom. It is charged with balancing the needs and desires of a large number of consistencies, many of which are at odds with each other. Consider Carbondale bars. In order to increase profits, the liquor store owner wants to sell as much alcohol, within the law, to as many people as possible. However, people consuming alcohol have their inhibitions lowered, causing them to act more recklessly, endangering themselves and others. City government is tasked with balancing the desire of the liquor store owner to increase profits, with the homeowner who does not want drunk people throwing up in their yard. Eliminating alcohol sales is Carbondale would be one way of accomplishing that, at the cost of a a good chunk of the business sector. Requiring home owners to maintain vigilance on their own property against trespassers. Government's job is to create a reasonable balance between the desires of the two groups.

Gold Diggers

Not sure what hours Gold Diggers (located in the old Blue Martin/Social House location) is keeping, but it sure isn't the posted ones.  Posted hours are 5 p.m. to around 2 a.m. 7 days a week but the last few times I gone by there about 9 p.m. , the place has been locked up tight. Doesn't look as if the operation has shut down as everything still looks in place but no sign of life and no posts to the business' Facebook page since mid April.

City Council Meeting

I am a bit late commenting on last week's city council meeting but better late than ever, says I. Most of what took place was covered on the consent agenda. I came in too late to catch the first part of the meeting but there were a few interesting items on it.

$29,500 contract awarded to Rawson Excavating for demolishing the old Sidetracks building. The building sits what is today considered an unsafe distance from the railroad tracks, so the railroad declined to renew the lease, causing Sidetracks, now renamed Trax, to relocate to new digs in the old Gatsby's building. The demolished area will become more downtown parking.

Resolution authorizing the city manager to purchase materials, property, services etc. from Henry Printing. Yes, owned by our Mayor Henry. I assume this was discussed prior to my arrival at the meeting and figure they wanted to get an authorization by council on the record approving    potential purchases from the mayor's printing company.

$27,420 to CivicPlus to update the city website, which, below the front page, apparently hasn't been updated in about 20 years. Also roughly $5000 per year for website maintenance. No idea if this is an open ended contract or not.

Apparently the questions over the parking lot next to the Interfaith Center got answered as the contract for redoing it got awarded to Samron Midwest Contracting.

However the big discussion of the evening is the plan to provide roll out trash carts to all residents of the city. Any city resident who get trash pick up from the city will receive a standardized trash cart. These carts are designed to allow city waste trucks to latch onto and automatically dump them, rather than require a human to pick up the trash and throw it in the truck, speeding up trash pickup.Concerns regarding costs of the receptacles was expressed by some residents as larger families will generate more trash but may have problems paying the cost of the additional receptacle needed. Council agreed to address these concerns before bringing the ordinance up for a final vote

Rent College Pads

Been seeing a lot of these Rent College Pads signs around town. Apparently it is an online search engine for students looking for rentals in over 100 university towns across the nation. Info about the communities for each college is provided on the search page but is pretty sketchy and apparently not updated frequently. In case you are coming to Carbondale, be aware that Fujiyama Japanese Steakhouse is not within walking distance of campus and Social House's location is now occupied by Gold Diggers

Chicken Coops

Did you know you can keep chickens within the city limits? The ordinance got passed a few years ago after several years of work and our city streets have not been taken over by raging flocks of poultry. If you would like to see some of the coops and get inspired to host your own flock, good news! There is a chicken coop tour coming up in June though I am not sure how beautiful they will be. I  had to clean out chicken coops in my misspent youth and they get messy:

Keep Carbondale Beautiful is planning a tour of “Chicken Coops of Carbondale”, set for Saturday, June 3rd from 2 to 5 p.m.  Chicken coopers are still being sought to participate.  The tour will run like previous garden tours:  The self-guided tour will begin at the  Old Train Depot/Carbondale Main Street (121 S Illinois Ave), where maps and tickets will be available for $5.  More information will follow.  Coop owners who are willing to show off their chickens are asked to contact Sarah Heyer at 618 525 5525.

We're #2, We're #2 (and #3) (and #1)

Here is a link to the actual website that ranks Carbondale as the 2nd best small city in the US in which to start a business. Although we rank near the middle of the 1261 cities examined in the research in terms of business environment, our ranking in the top 20% in terms of costs of operating a business and especially our #3 ranking in "access to resources" pulled the city up. Incidentally , Carbondale comes in at #1 in the rankings in terms of low labor costs. Good if you are starting a business, not so much if you are working to support yourself.

Terri Bryant Call In

Listened in on a call in with Rep. Bryant, Rep. Price and Sen. Schimpf tonight. The two main points I took away from the discussion was that they believed that both sides need to compromise, that most of the problem is due to Mike Madigan and that we need to revive the coal industry (because it is cleaner now).

Compromise is fine, Madigan appeared to have no problem working with Republican governors in the past and, unless the price of natural gas skyrockets, we aren't seeing any revival of the coal industry soon.

Hazardous Waste Collection

The IEPA is collecting hazardous waste today until 3 p.m. in Marion. Got there about 8:30 am and no line at all.

Radio Shack Closing

The "Store Closing" banner hanging in front of the Murdale Radio Shack would indicate that the store has finally succumbed to the closing virus to which most of the rest of the chain has surrendered..

Streetscape

There has been talk for about a year regarding installing flower beds along the south end of the Town Square. Glad to see the project is moving out of the planning stage and into the installing stage.

Seat Belt Enforcement

Looks as if the Carbondale Police will be cracking down on seat belt scofflaws over the Memorial Day weekend.


As summer kicks off and travel increases, the City of Carbondale Police Department is partnering with the Illinois Department of Transportation to remind motorists to Click It or Ticket. The national seat-belt enforcement campaign will take place May 22 through June 4, concurrent with one of the busiest travel and holiday weekends of the year. Click It or Ticket enforces seat-belt and car-seat use to keep all motorists safe.

Hwy 127 Closed

IDOT has a notice up that High 127 is closed south of Alto Pass. There is a pretty back crack in the road there that needs repairing and and no quick way to detour around it. For the immediate future, traffic wanting to use 127 should detour down Highway 51 instead.

City Council Meeting

Attended the May 2 city council meeting, which had a very short agenda and was completed in about 45 minutes. It would have taken even less time except that various council members removed items from the consent agenda for individual consideration, meaning that the only thing approved when the consent agenda was approved was the minutes from the previous meeting.

The results for April's election were announced and Mayor Henry took special note that, of the registered voters in Carbondale, only 1848 turned out to vote for city council.

A separate resolution commended Lee Fronabarger, who lost his bid for a second term on council, for his six years of service, two appointed and 4 elected, as a councilman.

The final item considered separately was the proposal of the awarding of contracts for parking lots where the old Sidetracks' building stands and reconstructing the parking lot next to Gaia House. The reason it was pulled from the consent agenda was that Councilwoman Jessica Branshaw had concerns about the construction of the lot, as when it had been built, as a temporary lot a couple of decades ago, the construction had caused flooding in the basement of Gaia House when it rained during the construction. She, Hugh Muldoon and Charlie Howe, all spoke in favor of holding off on awarding the contract until potential flooding problems were address in the design of the new lot. Council agreed and postponed voting on the lot work until the next meeting .

Coffee with a Cop

In case you want to discuss policing in the 'dale, the next Coffee with a Cop is scheduled for May 9 at 8 a.m. at Mary Lou's

On Tuesday May 9th, 2017 officers from the Carbondale Police Department and community members will come together in an informal, neutral space to discuss community issues, build relationships, and drink coffee

Lee Fronabarger Honored

City council passed a resolution at the May 2 meeting honoring Lee Fronabarger for his years of service on the council. Bet he would have rather had another  4 years. 

Dunkin' Donuts Parking Lot

Due to all the rain, the Dunkin' Donuts/Subway parking lot collapsed sometime early yesterday. No one injured as far as I know but both stores were closed for most of the day.