Early Voting

 Early voting is available until this Friday at the Carbondale Civic Center. I stopped off today and had to wait about 5 minutes to use one of the machines.  About half a dozen people were also early voting while I was there. Got to use a touch screen machine and I did not worry once about the machine losing or miscounting my vote as the screen even showed that I had missed voting for one office.

I was gald to see the ballot clearly indicated that a "No" vote was necessary in order for Carbondale to Retain home rule. At the top of that section, it clearly stated that, if you wanted Carbondale to retain home rule, vote "No".

Music

appeaers that yesterday's rain did not impede the Off the Rails Halloween concerts as I saw at least one person complain online that the music from the "crappy bands" kept them and their baby awake. The sound of bands was a problem earlier in the decade as I recall numberous complaints regarding the sound of bands playing at Copper Dragon and Pinch Penny coming before the city council, but those died out in the past few years, likely because of the closure of both Copper Dragon and Pinch and dearth of venues for live outdoor music in the city.

Trick or Treat on Main Street

 Or as Carbondale Main Street is calling it now, the Candy Walk. Looks as if 26 locations from the North side of the square all the way down Illinois to Notcho Fries.  Takes place from Noon to 2. Maps are available at the Carbondale Main Street offices as well.

Senatoral Debate

 Listening to the debate between Sen. Tammy Duckworth and Kathy Salvi. Duckworth is doing a pretty good job of sticking to answering questions. Salvi, much like gubenatorial candidate Bailey, moves around the question and answers the question that she wants to answer, such as her non-answer to the question about what should be done about those covered by the DREAM Act and her statement the federal government needs to get out of the way of farmers. I wonder if she realizes how much fedearl funding goes to farmer?

Early Voting

 In case you want to vote early in Carbondale, here are the dates and locations.

Home Rule

 It is unfortunate that the ballot is written such that  voters will have to vote No to keep Home Rule. Generally the way things work is that if you want something, you say"Yes". I imagine the city tried to get the ballot measure reworded and was unable to do so. No there is a pretty massive blitz (well massive for Carbondale) to get the word out to vot "No on the measure. The last time I remember seeing this much activity on a measure was pushing through the Saluki Way tax a decade ago.

The only group I have seen advocating for an end to home rule is a Realtor's group out of springfield wich touts on their mailer that they have stopped several home rule measures in the past. Given that residents of Carbondale who are active in the community want to retain home rule and agroup of real estate agents that likely have never set foot here, and that I have see messages from even Carbondale realtors pushing for the retention of home rule, appears voting "No" to keep home rule is a good decision.

Koppers Update

 Removal of contaminated soil from the abandoned Koppers railroad tie plant continues, albiet slowly. 381 gallons of contaminated groundwater removed during September. No indication, although I am not an expert in reading these reports, that any dirt got removed or treated.

Gas Prices

 Heck of a discrepency in price changes between the Carterville and the east side of Carbondale tonight.   Carterfill station had unleaded at $3.60 while the Shell at Reed Station Road had it priced at $4.30 and the Casey's on East Main priced it at $4.00 per gallon. Saving 70 cents a gallon almost makes the trip to Carbondale worthwhile as you would save $7 on a ten gallon fill up.

Fireworks

 In case you would like to start your week of Halloween festivities off with a bang, Brehm Preparatory School will host a fireworks show tonight at 8:30, celebrating its 40th anniversary.  First 100 kids to attend get a treat bag. 

Skate Park

If the city will not build a skate park, go ahead and make one yourself. I remember a group of skaters petitioning the city to build a skate park in the city 8 or 9 years ago  but they did not keep pushing for it and it slid way down on the to-do list. The univeristy does not like them using the areas by Faner or the law building so recently they have been using the parking lot in front of Slabz. Putting one inside the now empty Crossfit building is a good use for the empty building, gives Slabz an additional revenue stream and gives the skaters a place to practice off the streets.

Shryock Auditorium Ghost

 Shryock Auditorium has a ghost light. A ghost too, supposedly that of Henry Shryock, president of the univeristy back in the 1930s. He did in his office in Shryock just before he was scheudled to give the convocation speech. The next week, students, faculty and staff gathered in the building for his funeral. Reported his ghost has haunted the building since and ther have been a number of  strange occurences reported there.

Home Rule

 Despite the REALTORs opposed to Home Rule mailings, those realtors actually living in the city are in favor of the city maintaining home rule.

SIUC Women's Soccer Coach

 This is the second coach of the women's soccer team at SIUC suspended in less than a year. The press release from the unversity does not say why Craig Roberts got put on administrative leave. One would think the university would vet these guys mor ethoroughly  or, even better, hire women for the position. Although it does happen, women do get caught up in sexual harassment or other such issues, and I would bet that is what this is, although I have no information one way or the other.

Police

 Half a dozen police cards speeding west on Main Street about 4 p.m.Passed the intersection of Main and Univeristy and kept heading west. No idea what happened but it was certainly something serious.

Best Buy

Major remodeling taking place at the empty Best Buy location on East Main. The facade and front wall  hae been completely removed and the interior appears getting gutted for whatever will go in there.

Fuller Dome Visitor Center

 A  visitor center for the Buckminister Fuller Dome moved one step closer to completion with the acquistion and demolition of the house directly across the street from the dome. Before you worry about destruction of another Carbondale property, the building had termite damage, foundation damage and needed a new roof to become usable. Unfortunately, as with a number of homes in Carbondale, the landlord failed to maintain the building and without mainteance, it deriorated past the point where it was feasible to rehab.

At least all usable fixtures, doors, windows, etc. were removed from the building before the demolition.

Mural

 Have you noticed the new mural on the north side of the old Cricket building at the intersection of Mill and Illinois?   It went up very quickly and will get dedicated as part of the Homecoming festivites this Thursday at noon.

Planning Commission

 Meets Oct 12 at 6 p.m. Only one item on the agenda, a request to rezone some property on Boskydell road from Agriculture to low density residential, indicating ht eowners was to sell or build homes on the property

1. Call to Order and Roll Call 2. Approval of Minutes: September 21st, 2022 3. Citizen Comments and Questions 4. Report of Officers, Committees, Communications 5. Public Hearings: PC 23-03: Elizabeth and Karl Mackenbach are requesting to rezone property located at 4133 and 4175 Boskydell Road from AG, General Agriculture District to R-1, Low Density Residential District, in order to re-subdivide their property

Homecoming

 Here is the list of events for SIUC Homecoming 2022. Showing how little conversant I am with today's music, I have no idea who Yung Gravy and Terror Reid are, although their concert at Shryock has sold out already with only about 40 tickets available to the general public. The rest were snapped up by students almost immediately.

From what I understand, SIUC is not hosting envents like this in the Arena, which one would think a better fit for concerts, because the Arena simply does not have the staff available to  co-ordinate a major event. Shryock's maller seating  is much more managable for SIUC's event staff.

Mural

 Quietly, the Chamber of Commerce and SIUC have painted a SIUC themed mural on the north side of the old Cricket building at the intersection of Mill, Illinois and Universty. The mural features a 2 story tall  Saluki dog head on a maroon background surrounded by the logos of the various SIUC colleges. Very nice and very quickly done.

Edited to remove the city ,which is focusing on its own mural project in conjunction with Artspace 305.

Halloween

 City of Carbondale announced Halloween events and times for this year. I noticed the city put up Carbondale Halloween street banners late last week, so they are making incremental steps in bringing the Holiday back to downtown.

ARBONDALE – The City of Carbondale is excited to announce the official trick-or-treat hours will be Monday, October 31, from 5 p.m. – 8 p.m. Residents wishing to hand out candy should light up their porches or driveways. 

Trick-or-treaters are encouraged to wear reflective tape or clothing and have their parents check their candy for potentially harmful objects. 

House Decorating Contest

Do you think your Halloween decorations are the spookiest in town? Or are they the most unique? Share pictures of your outdoor Halloween décor with the City, and be entered into our Halloween Decorating Contest! There will be two categories: Residential and Business. Entries will be included in the Halloween Drive Tour, a self-guided route to glimpse the spookiest of decorations! 

The winner in both categories will receive a $50 gift card to Ace Hardware and a yard sign to display proudly. (To enter, entries must be within city limits.) 

To submit an entry, email pictures of your display to contest@explorecarbondale.com. (Please include a way to contact you later, in case you are a winner!) Entries will be judged on creativity, scare factor, and originality. All entries must be submitted by Monday, October 24, 2022. 

Carbondale Halloween

We hope you’ll celebrate the spooky season by attending some of our community’s Halloween festivities! Check out carbondalehalloween.com for a list of events, including old favorites like the Pumpkin Glow, Safe Halloween, the Great Carbondale Pumpkin Race, and more!

For more information, contact the City of Carbondale’s Public Relations Officer at 618-457-3262. 

Vote with Confidence Event

 Get out the vote event on oct 12

VOTE WITH CONFIDENCE brings Information to Voters

Carbondale, IL. “Vote with Confidence” is the theme for an event to boost voters’ knowledge of our voting systems and ways to interact with the political system. The citizen-education project will be held Thursday, October 13, from 6 to 8 pm at the Carbondale Civic Center and is sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Jackson County, the Carbondale Human Relations Commission, the Carbondale NAACP, and Carbondale United.

Sarah Heyer, one of the organizers, stated: “There is a real gap between people’s understanding of how our government and our elections function and what happens before and after and behind the scenes. Our goal is to empower voters and get younger people fired up about participating.”

Doors will open at 5:45, with an option for high school students to register and get a “passport” for the various activities. Opening remarks will be made by Carmalita Cahill, Human Relations Commissioner and Coordinator of the Carbondale Warming Center.

The main part of the program will be run like a conference, with presentations in different rooms that attendees can choose from, and tables set up in the main room with information on various topics, all staffed by someone who can answer questions.

Walking around Room 108, people can get answers to questions like

• Am I registered to vote? (and if not, get help registering or clarifying status)

• Where do I vote?

• What offices are on the ballot and what is involved in those jobs (requirements, duties, compensation, etc.)?

• What is the schedule for this and upcoming elections (Voting Calendar Poster)?

There will also be a place for people to note what issues they care about most in this election. Other tables will answer questions beyond the November 8th election:

• How can I communicate with the government to resolve problems or express my opinion on an issue?

• How does instant run-off voting work (in other states)?

• How can I serve my community now? What boards or commission have openings that I could apply for?

• What other organizations are active in the community? Which ones align with my goals for improving this place?

And there will be a sign-up sheet for people interested in running for office or helping with a campaign.

In other rooms, short presentations will be repeating. One room will be set up like a voting station, with poll watchers and election judges to explain their roles, including what happens before polls open and after they close. Other expected topics are the history of voting; campaigning for office;

debates and what to listen for (by SIU’s debate coach Todd Graham); media literacy and disinformation (material provided by Alee Quick); finding websites that identify where candidates stand on issues and how representatives are voting on bills(by NAACP’s Linda Flowers); and what’s behind the ballot question, “Shall Carbondale cease to have Home Rule?” (material provided by LWVJC).

Questions about the event can be answered by contacting Sarah Heyer at heysar41@yahoo.com or 618 525-3075, or Nancy Maxwell at nrmaxwell46@gmail.com or 618 306-5885.

Down Town Vacancies

 Was walking South Illinois earlier this week and notice that most of the north end of the Strip, excepting the recently closed Sound Core and Carbondale Trophy Shop, have spaces filed. It gets looking a bit bleak towards the south end of Illinois with two of the three retail strips vacant save for Slabz. Seems if people are not coming in to rent your location and that location has sat empty for several years, the amount you are asking for that location is too high. Of course, if you own the building, you may be willing to wit longer for a tenant but meanwhile, you have to cover all of the fixed costs yourself.