Haunted Carbondale Hundley House

One of the local papers, in this case the Daily Egyptian, makes its annual trek to Hundley House with a look at the 1928 murder and attendant haunting. Remember that Trick or Treating in Carbondale is from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. tonight.

City Survey

The city makes grants available for rehabilitation of older homes in the community and is surveying residents to find out which area of the city it should target for the next block of available rehabilitation grants. However, if someone comes to your door over the next month asking you to fill out a survey, probably not a bad idea to ask them for identification.  From the press release.

In an effort to continue to bring grant funding to the community, the City of Carbondale will be conducting a housing survey in northeast Carbondale to help determine a target area for future rehabilitation grants.

City staff will be conducting door-to-door surveys from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. now through November.

The survey will consist of demographics and economic and housing-related questions that are required by the state for housing rehabilitation assistance. Surveys will take approximately five minutes to complete.

All of the information gathered will be used solely for statistical analysis and will be kept confidential in accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974 (Public Law 93-579). Residents are encouraged to participate.

If you would like more information about this program or to be added to a mailing list for future housing grants, contact Carbondale Senior Planner Travis Taylor at (618) 457-3233 or ttaylor@explorecarbondale.com.

Dog Park

Friends of Carbondale Dog Parks sent out the following email for supporters to copy and paste and edit to send onto the Carbondale Park Board.

Dear Commissioners,

 I support the request by the Friends of Carbondale Dog Parks to establish a dog park at Hickory Lodge.

IN YOUR LETTER, STATE ONE OR A FEW REASONS YOU WANT THE DOG PARK SITED AT HICKORY LODGE. HERE ARE SOME OF THE REASONS IT WAS OUR FIRST CHOICE.

 Hickory Lodge is easy for me to get to [walking].

It’s easy for people throughout Carbondale to get to.

It’s centrally located.

All kinds of people live within walking distance.

It has a great parking lot.

It’s a very short walk from the parking lot to the site of the proposed dog park (especially important for people with limited mobility).

It’s a centrally located park that should be used as a park, not just the Park District headquarters.

It's a big, beautiful, empty, unused lot intended for community use, and building our dog park there will generate a lot of community use. 

It will help stabilize the neighborhood by making it more attractive to long-term residents – homeowners and long-term renters.

It was donated by the Martin family to be used as a public park facility, and it should be used for that purpose, not just the Park District headquarters.

The 2007 Hickory Lodge Task Force envisioned the Lodge and grounds as a multi-use community center. A dog park furthers this goal, contributing to making it a welcoming park for people in Carbondale and the larger region.

Trick or Treat on Main Street

Trick or Treat on Main Street takes place tomorrow from noon to 2 p.m. 19 locations in downtown will give away candy and other treats, followed by the Great Carbondale Pumpkin Race at the Mill Street underpass at 2 p.m.

Dairy Queen Last Day

Less than a month for you to get your fill of delicious Dairy Queen products from the iconic downtown Carbondale DQ before it closes for the season.

Haunted Carbondale SIUC

A story from the Daily Egyptian's archives, looking at several hauntings on the SIUC campus. There are a few other stories on campus that are not covered here, but I haven't heard any new ones in several years.

Dog Park

Putting a dog park in Carbondale on the Hickory Lodge/Carbondale Park District office grounds make quite a bit of sense, The offices are what gets use on the property, not the grounds, and the grounds are fairly spacious, giving plenty of room for dogs and their owners to run around. Turley and Attucks Parks get much more use by the human population of Carbondale, who might not care too much for having a lot of dogs running about. Meanwhile, the Hickory Lodge  is comparatively isolated and, as far as I can tell, gets very little use.

American Tap Liquors Boycott

Someone is not that happy with American Tap Liquors in downtown Carbondale

Founders Park

Did you know the city was looking into establishing a Founder's Park?  Me either but there will a meeting to discuss one this Monday at 6 p.m. at the Old Train Depot.  I think the plan is to locate it in the green space behind the public safety/police station. Here is the agenda:

Discussion regarding type of entity to create for the management of the park.
Old business: Continue discussion of Kiosks and historical information to be used/included.
 Update on metal fence parts for panels.
 Update of outreach to John A. Logan College and the Construction Technologies Program.
Private/Public partnerships:
Duplicating student submissions for display and public input.
Possible local, county, state, federal assistance

Commission Openings

Apparently since the city council cannot recruit enough people to sit on various commissions and boards from the city proper, the council voted to expand the region from which people can get recruited to a mile and a half outside the city limits. Maybe it's due to the fact that the city ignores most of the support boards it has established over the years and only pays attention to those that directly impact city operations, like planning and the LCC. I have sat on the Sustainability Commission since Joel Fritzler appointed me. I think my term expired several years ago but I never heard anything from the city regarding either reapplying or getting re-appointed so I just keep showing up for meetings. I will happily re-apply if I ever get a notice from the city one way or the other. If the city wants people to apply for seats on its boards and commissions, it needs to make potential recruits aware that it views the assorted commissions and boards as important and not afterthoughts.

Haunted Carbondale

It's that time of the year when we start paying attention to ghosties and ghoulies and long legged beasties and things that go bump in the night so figured I would start with the city's two main cemeteries:  Oakland Cemetery and Woodlawn Cemetery.  As far as I know, there are no ghostly legends associated with Woodlawn Cemetery but there is the above ground sarcophagus located there, which has a number of stories circulating about why it sits there.

Oakland Cemetery is far more active with balls of light floating along the abandoned railbed along the north side of the cemetery and a mausoleum that reportedly unlocks by itself.

Just remember, these are cemeteries so treat them with respect and remember that you can legally only be in them during daylight hours.

Curbside Open

Although there are no hours posted, Curbside has reopened with hours from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. or so. Hopefully they will get the correct hours up on the door soon.

Bike Path

Rather bemusing that we have a bike path running from the town square clear to campus and yet bicyclists continue to ride on the sidewalk on University and Illinois. Perhaps installing signage directing them to the path might get them off of the heavily trafficked roads through downtown.

More on Signpost

While talking with a friend about the new signpost installed on the town square with signs for the Chamber of Commerce, Carbondale Main Street and Station Carbondale Museum, we both realized that the direction the signboards point mean they are only readily visible to someone driving east on Marion Street (the street heading away from the sign in the picture). Someone driving north on Illinois would not see them until the car pulled abreast of the sign, making it likely they would drive past the entrance to the lot. Hopefully, it is possible to turn the signs 90 degrees and maybe even add arrows to them to better direct people to the appropriate offices (and maybe even an additional sign pointing to the Carbondale Tourism office across the street). Just a thought.

DE and Chancellor's Plan

Apparently new Chancellor Carlo Montemagno got a bit annoyed with the DE for relegating his speech on his vision for the university to page 15 of  the Sept 27 issue. At any rate the reorganization plan made it to the front page of the Oct 4 issue so I would guess word got back to the DE editorial staff.

Signpost

Saw this signpost going up on the Town Square last week and took it for a piece of downtown artwork but this week signs appeared on it for Main Street, the Chamber of Commerce and Station Carbondale. Of course, people will still keep asking if they can purchase train tickets there, even though the Amtrak station moved 2 blocks south back in 1984

Homecoming Windows

The window painting contest sponsored by the SIU Alumni Assoication was not really well publicized this year. Date to enter was last Thursday with photos and judging earlier this week, Monday I think. More notice and publicity in advance would probably generate a lot more participation next year, especially with the renewed focus, I hope, on the interrelationship between Carbondale and the University. It would really revitalize the whole community if SIUC could get attendance up to something approaching 1990s levels again.

Meet the Mayor AND Chancellor

Meet both the mayor and SIUC's new Chancellor next Monday at the SIUC Student Center's Starbucks from 11 a.m. to noon. Talk with them over coffee but I doubt if they are buying. From the city's press release:

The City of Carbondale and the Southern Illinois University Student Center will host “Meet the Mayor and Chancellor” on Monday, October 16.

SIU Chancellor Carlo Montemagno and Carbondale Mayor John “Mike” Henry will be at the SIU Student Center Starbucks from 11 a.m.-noon.

This is an opportunity for students and members of the community to talk to the Mayor and Chancellor over coffee.

A&W Rootbeer

From the signage and repainting, it appears that the Long John Silver's out by Wal-mart is transitioning into a A&W Rootbeer fast food restaurant. No idea when the new location will open.

New Business

Ribbon cutting for Manny's Spirits-Food-Gaming this Friday at 4:30. Is it just me or do we now have an awful lot of "gaming" parlours in Carbondale now? I know we have already seen one close (Gold Diggers). We should be reaching saturation point soon.

The Carbondale Chamber of Commerce will hold a Ribbon Cutting at 4:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 6 for Manny's Spirits-Food-Gaming.

Manny's is located at 801 N. Giant City Road, and it attached to the Best Western Saluki Inn. The Ribbon Cutting is part of the establishment's grand opening celebration and will feature a reception and appetizers

Representatives of the Chamber, City  and business will participate in the ceremony. The event is open to the public.

Fire Department Open House

At the West Side building this Saturday:

The Carbondale Fire Department will host an Open House on Saturday, October 7 at Fire Station #2 (401 N. Glenview Drive) from 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

This is an opportunity for the community to tour the fire station, meet firefighters, learn more about department services and ask questions.

There will also be activities for kids, including a special appearance by the Fire Department’s mascot Sparky.

The Fire Department will also be selling t-shirts during the Open House to raise awareness for breast cancer. T-shirts are $20 and are available in a variety of sizes.

The Open House will kick off National Fire Prevention Week October 8-14. This year’s theme is “Every Second Counts: Plan 2 Ways Out!”

If you have questions or would like more information, contact the Carbondale Fire Department Administrative Office at (618) 457-3234.