We're Number 6

For the month of February, the Carbondale-marion region ranked number 6 in the state in terms of job growth, adding about 1200 jobs. The only areas of the state that beat this region were Chicago (of course), Peoria, Lake and Kenosha counties, Elgin and the Rock Island area.

SIU Arena Naming

In case you missed it, Banterra Bank bought the naming rights to the SIUC Arena for $4 million over the next 10 years, with the possibility of another million if enough people sign up for SIUC credit cards issues by Banterra. I talked with one other banker I know who said that, not only did they not get offered the opportunity to buy the rights to the Arena but were quite glad that SIUC had not approached them as they do not think Banterra will get enough value out of the naming rights to justify a $4 million payment.

Newell House Closing

The Newell House, located at the corner of Main and Washington in downtown Carbondale, announced on its Facebook page that it and the Grotto will shut their doors on June 5th. You still have a week to sample the menu one last time.

Carbondale Memorial Day

Attended the Memorial Day celebration at Woodlawn Cemetery. Arrived about 10;20 and the ceremony only lasted another 15 minutes, just as they were launching the 21 gun salute.

A much shorter ceremony than in past years, it only ran 35 minutes. There were a couple of other changes as well. The VFW Honor Guard had been replaced by one formed from members of the Carbondale Police and Fire Departments. Not sure if they were veterans or not. I only saw one member of the VFW participating in the ceremony, blowing Taps, although other members may have spoke earlier.

The other major change was the elimination of laying of wreaths. In the past, community children, often Scouts, would lay a wreath at various gravesites in the cemetery.  Not this year. Attendance appeared lighter than normal as well.

TJ's Fine Jewelry

TJ's Fine Jewelry on East Main has morphed again and is now TJ's Fine Jewelry and Repair. Although the press release does not specify, I assume that means jewelry repair. Now that I think about it, I believe that leaves Carbondale with only two jewelers, TJ's and one in the mall. 25 years ago, the community could support four of them, 2 in University Mall and 2 downtown on S. Illinois, Don's Jewelry across from the Amtrak station and one, the name of which escapes me, located where the Carbondale Tourism office is now.

SIUE Phasing out Nursing Program at Carbondale

Not quite sure why SIUE had a nursing program at SIUC instead of on its own campus but the university is phasing it out. Maybe SIUE does not have a school of medicine and took advantage of the infrastructure at SIUC? Meanwhile, SIUC will start up its own nursing program and transfer current students in SIUE's program over to it. Of course, the transfer program got bollixed  enough, that, according to the article, one student got so much misinformation that she is opting to transfer to another school.

Hot Dog Carts

Looks as if hot dog cards are seeing a resurgence in Carbondale. There is one on the west side of town  in the Westgate Shopping Center parking lot, one downtown parked across from the Civic Center and one in the Lowes parking lot. Guess you would have to try all three of them to find out how each one serves upt its hot dogs.

Re-organizations

It appears the planed re-organization of SIUC is going ahead. I still have never head a good reason for it. Maybe there is one and it is being kept internal. Seems to me the ONLY reason to reorganize the university is to benefit the students. Students come to SIUC to get a degree.They do not particularly care about the department or college is organized. In fact, if they and the university do a good job, how the university is organized should never impact them.

Is the re-organization going to save money, make the university run more efficiently? From everything I have heard, it always sounds as if the upper echelons of SIUC want to reorganize but do not have a reason for doing so.

Students

I have heard that on-campus attendance at SIUC  will be less than 10,000 this fall. I remember when that was what the university expected for summer attendance and we would comment on how empty the town felt.

710 Bookstore Closing

It appears moving to another location was not enough to save 7110 Bookstore. After over 50 years in Carbondale, the business announced it would close its doors at the end of the day on May 25.

710 lost its long time location on S. Illinois when the Evolve apartment complex moved into downtown Carbondale. It first moved a few blocks south into the strip of stores occupied by Harbaugh's Cafe and Kampus Cuts, got rid of most of its textbooks and other school supplies and primarily focused on SIUC apparel. Last year, the store moved again to a second floor location on S. Wall but seems to have not been able to draw traffic there either.

McCarthy Watch

For those interested in the doings of commencement speaker and doctorate recipient Melissa McCarthy, from what I have heard she has dined at the following places:

Quatro's
Fat Bottom Bettys
Harbaugh's

Kudos to her for eating at local restaurants instead of chains.

Graduation

Just a reminder that tomorrow is SIUC's graduation, meaning that there will be a lot of people driving through town that are not familiar with Carbondale's system of one way streets. I have already seen a couple of cars driving south on Illinois this week.

Save A Lot

Looks as if discount grocer Save A Lot is having financial difficulties and has put itself up for sale. No indication the company intends to declare bankruptcy, though.

Parking

More downtown parking going in where the Huffman Harker Funeral Home used to stand. Probably purchased and installed by Memorial Hospital since I have not seen a press release from the city indicating it is a Carbondale project.

State Science Fair

the Illinois Junior Academy State Science Fair will probably bring 500+ plus high school students and their families to town this weekend so expect to see a lot of people driving the wrong way on downtown streets.