Elections

 Yep, it's that time again.  Well, almost. Should you want to run for Mayor or one of the three city council seats open, 4 year term for both, you can pick up nomination packets at City Hall starting today. You have until November 28 to submit your signatures. If more than 5 people want to run for mayor or 13 for city council, the city will have a primary in February, otherwise the election will take place April 4th. May the best people win!

Also Home rule will be on the ballot as well and a mayoral election should get more voters out to vote on maintaining (or not) city Home Rule

Downtown Saturday Night.

 Took a drive through downtown Carbondale about 9:30 last Saturday night and was pleasently suprised to see how packed the sidewalks were. Traffic on South Illinois actually had to slow down because of the number of students walking across the street. Not quick back to the "Take the Strip" levels of the 1980s and 1990s but still a lot of bodies.

Appears there was some sort of activity going on in downtown Saturday afternoon, which may have accounted for the activity, as I hared earlier in the day that West College was blocked off and the FirstMid parking lot was full. 

Apartment House Burns

 The 3 story white apartment house on West Monroe, just east of the intersection of Monroe and Poplar, burnt to the ground this morning. The blaze started sometime between 9 and 10 am and both the building and the house to the east of it were destroyed by the fire. I have heard conflicting reports as to injuries. One person said several people were injured in the blaze and another source said everyone got out safely.

Update:  according to the media, no one was injured although the house next door was damaged enough to be uninhabitable as well.

Murals

 Given the amount of discussion over the murals proposed by 304 Artspace, I noticed someone starting painting on the wall of SI Pawn at the corner of Walnut and Universiy. No idea if it is one of the proposed murals or something different.

Carbondale Tourism

 From what I have heard, Carbondale Tourism has yet to schedule a presentation before the city council regarding maintaining future funding. The council is considering shifting money to Visit SI and Southernmost Illinois. I believe the city partnered with Visit SI to promote the recent Off the Rails concert series. There must be events coming up but if you look at the Carbondale Tourism website, there are no upcoming events listed

Clearwave Installations

 From what I have heard, the Clearwave installation is proving a case of "measure once, cut two or three times". The burying and landscapping around the units has been done so poorly that Clearwave has a list of 400+ places it will have to go back and landscape around to get the yards back too looking normal. Walking along west Main this morning, I noticed piles of dirt left next to seveval of the in-ground installed units. I also heard that at least one of the ground crews was fired midway through the installalation but that is second-hand information.

Seems an awful lot of extra work  that should have been done right the first time.

Washington Street Stage

 the city announced today that it will receive a $2 millionn grant from the state to help with building the Washington Street concert venue. Once it gets constructed, I would bet the city moves the Sunset Concerts from Turley Park to the new venue.

Payday Loan Shops

 Happened to notice Carbondale is down to two payday loan shops, at least that I can tell, from the half a dozen or so the city had before COVID. Both are located in Eastgate Plaza, conveniently next to Little Vegas.

Starbucks Union

 Employees at the Starbucks on East Main successfully voted to unionize. vote was 11 yes, 2 no and 1 ballot challenged, which was enough to see the vote passed.

Do not think this will mean any major chages to customers of the business, although Starbucks has threatened to withhold some health care benefits from employees at  any of its stores that voted to unionize.

Terri Henry Dead

 According to both WSIU and The Southern, Terri Henry, Local ReMax realtor and wife of Carbondale mayor Mike Henry and a Remax realtor, died in the couple's home Tuesday night. After presiding over the Tuesday City Council meeting, Mayor Henry returned home to find her dead. Carbondale police are investigating.

UPS Store Closing

 According to this, The UPS Store in Murdale Shoppin Center will close at the end of August. No indication as to why and I am not informed enough to speculate. Anyone happen to know the reason?

Home Rule

Retaining home rule status is going to be a pretty important ballot question this fall. If Carbondale fails to vote to remain a home rule community, the city will lose a lot of its taxing authority and about $19 million in annual revenue. In order to make up the difference, the city will have to rely on property taxes more and the average property owner could expect to see property taxes go up a bit over $1400.

A major problem will be the wording of the question: “Shall the City of Carbondale cease to be a home rule unit?”  A yes vote means the end of home rule, a no vote means Carbondale continues to operate as a home rule community as it has for well over half a century. Expect to see a blitz by members of the city council pushing for a "no" vote or , even better, get the question reworded to read "Shall the City of Carbondale retain its status as a home rule community?"

Losing home rule status means a drop in sales taxes, an increase in property taxes and a cut in city services.

Scooters Again

 Since Someone asked a couple of weeks ago, or at any rate chastised the city for investing money in the VEO scooters, I contact the city to see if any city money had gone into them. The short answer:  No.

The longer answer is that the city facilitated VEO's opearation in the city and issued a permit to the company allowing it to operate scooters on the city right of way. In fact, included in the service agreeement with VEO is a small fee paid to the city and SIUC per scooter ride, the money to go to a mutually agreed upon safety initiative.

Scooters

One of Veo's competitors abruptly shut down today. Micro-mobility company Bolt Mobility abruptly shut down operations in 8 cities and it not responding to communcaitons from the cities in which it operates. Meanwhile, other competitors Bird and Helbiz have seen  the value of their companies drop by about 90% from their peak. Ridership has dropped as well concurrent with gas prices going down.

Vaccination

 SIUC announced today that masking and vaccinations for COVID are recommended but not required on campus, except for the Student Health Center and simiar facilities. Regular testing is also not required, although it will be offered each Tuesday.

COVID has not gone away, although symptoms are much milder and from what I read, masking and vaccinations are the best way to stem the spread. However, I see very few people wearing masks in any retail establishment in Carbondale. Still, there are far more mask wearers in Carbondale than there are in the Marion area. I stopped by both Sam's Club and Kroger last week and there were three times as many people wearing masks at Kroger as there were at Sam's Club.

Scooters

From what I hear, the seated Veo scooters and getting sequested away in locations off the beaten track  as they are more desirable than the standing scooters. Have not heard how the scooters get recharged. I assume the process is somewhat like Wing in that people clooect and recharge the scooters in exchange for a credit to their Veo account or a credit to a designated bank or charge account