Committee Openings

 Carbondale has several openings on various boards and commissions, including planning, preservation, Liquor Advisory Board , human relations, personel and Board of Fire and Police Commissioners. If you want a close view at the operations of city government, serving on one of these boards is a good way to do so. Not sure what is going to happing with the Tourism Board, now that Carbondale Tourism no longer handles tourism outreach for the city.

Planning Commission

 The Planning Commission will meet on April 5 to discuss the following

The City of Carbondale Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on

Wednesday, April 5th, 2023 at 6:00 p.m. to discuss the following:

PC 23-07: The City Council of the City of Carbondale, Illinois has directed city staff to

initiate a text amendment to Title 15 of the City of Carbondale Revised Code (CCRC)

to define and allow for community gardens and their associated accessory uses.

PC 23-08: The City Council of the City of Carbondale, Illinois has directed city staff

to initiate a text amendment to the City of Carbondale Revised Code (CCRC) to define

and establish parameters for pollinator-supportive landscaping.

Geez, Carbondale has had two community gardens for a number of years now and the council is just getting around to define what they are? Similarly with pollinator landscaping.

The problem with regulations is that people will do something that is not covered by the regulation and then the political body will have to make additional regulations to deal with that situation not covered by the regulation. 

Hence our reall complicated federal tax code.

Community Survey

 The city of Carbondale reaaaaaaly wants you to complete this community survey.  Of course, You do have to create yet another account in order to do so.

Carbondale Tourism

 Looks as if Carbondale Tourism will lose its funding as the city voted to change its official tourism office to Southernmost Tourism, which operates out of Anna, Illinois.

Looking at the website for Carbondale Tourism, there are no active events listed on the events calendar and the shopping section of the website has at least 4 businesses listed that have either shuttered or moved to Murphysboro. 

Levels

 It appears that Levels, located back behind the now shuttered Pinch Penny Pub complex at 706 East Grand Ave, may reopen in the near future. The company that owns Levels has applied for a Beer Garden Liquor Licence Rider

Plaza Records

 Heard a rumor that Plaza Records is looking to move back into downtown Carbondale. Unfortunately, it is looking for a location with decent amounts of foot traffic and there is no location with much pedestrian traffic save down at the south end of Illinois Avenue or the strip where Quatro's and Shawnee Trails are located. Most of the rest of downtown either has too many empty storefronts or too much space between stores to generate much foot traffic.

Energy Grant

 City just got approved for an $80,000 grant to support those affected by fossil fuel or mine closures. Not sure how $80,000 will help as that sould like just enough to cover 1 year's salary for two laid off workers in the field. While I am glad Carbondale received the grant, who will it target? unlike areas to the north and east of the city, Carbondale has not depended on the energy field for employment for years.

Bargains and Bargains

 No idea what the business stocks but I would assume bargains from the name. Opened a couple of weeks ago and located on East Main in the strip with Mike's Music and Plaza Records

General Election

 Carbondale General Election coming up April 4th. Here are the candidates. You get to vote for one candidate for Mayor and 3 for city council. Candidates in bold are all seeking re-election

Mayoral Candidates: 

Harold J. Visser, 800 Charles Road, Carbondale IL 62901

Carolin Harvey, 109 South Tower Road, Carbondale IL 62901 

City Council Candidates: 

Adam Loos, 512 West Pecan Street, Carbondale IL 62901

Clare Killman, 900 South Skyline Drive, Carbondale IL 62901

Justin Zurlinden, 600 West Oak Street, Carbondale, IL 62901

Lee M. Fronabarger, 1140 South Morningside Drive, Carbondale IL 62901

Nancy Maxwell, 1408 Bobette Lane, Carbondale, IL 62901

Thomas Grant, 5370 Springer Ridge Road, Carbondale IL 62902 

Joshua Dalton Liechty, 933 West Walnut Street, Carbondale IL 62901

Planning Commission Meeting

 the city planning commission meets next Wednesday. This is the only item currently on the agenda:

: City of Carbondale staff is returning to the Planning Commission with

recommended changes to a proposed Text Amendment to Title 15 of the Carbondale

Revised Code to create a Retail Revitalization Overlay District. This Text Amendment

was originally initiated by the City of Carbondale.

Threat

 According to WSIU this morning, mayoral candidate Harold Visser filed a police report regarding an threat he received online. According to the story, Visser posted an online questionaire askign repsondents what they would like to change about Carbondale and one person posted "Kill you".

Who in the blazes thinks such a response is a good idea? do they think they are funny? Or that they cannot be tracked? 

City Council Forum

 If you want to listen to and question the candidates for city council, there is a forum via Zoom  tonight. You can register here.

Interview with Mayoral Candidates

 IPM 21st show recently interviewed both candidates for mayor of Carbondale. You can listen to the show here. The election is coming up in early April and, aside from a few yard signs, I have not seen  much visual promotion for any candidate.

Burger King

 West side Burger King has been reduced to a concrete slab. Looks as if there will be some drainage issues addressed as there are some pretty good sized pipes on site.

If I remember correctly, the new facility will only provide drive through and walk up service. No inside seating, although there may be some outside tables.

Gun Violence Study

 City council heard the results of the recent gun violence study at Tuesday's meeting. Not quite sure what good hiring someone to coordinate gun violence initiatives would do and most of the other proposed initiatives appear focused on reducing places where people using guns might hang out. Mental health advocates with the police department would certainly help, since most police are not trained to deal with mental health issues but, again, that is an after the fact activity as the police do not get called until there is a problem.

Carbondale Community Survey

If you would like to fill out the Carbondale Community Survey seeking feedback on " City services, community programs, employment opportunities, and activities that interest you and your family", here is the link . Sould take 15 to 20 minutes to complete and everyone likes giving city government their opinion. You can also take it in Spanish here.

Bikes

 Carbondale is a bike friendly community. We are on one of the major cross country bike routes, although I see far fewer cross country bicyclists today than I did 20 years ago. It would certainly be nice if the city acknowledges this with more wayfinding signage for bicyclists, including signs showing them where the repair stations are and how to negotiate through Carbondale while avoiding the heavy traffic on 13.

Tower Road

 According to the agenda for the next city council meeting, The city plans to spend $500,000 patching and repairing Tower Road and another $500,000 doing the same to Pleasant Hill road. I do not drive Pleasant Hill much but Tower Road can certainly use the work. 

30 mph

 30 Miles Per hour is the speed limit along Highway 13/ Walnut and Main streets through downtown. Of course, very few people actually abide by that limit, ususally speeding through the residential areas of both streets at speeds of 40 and 50 mph. There are not a lot of pedestrials along either street but the lackof following speed limits makes it pretty unsafe for those that do walk along either street. 

The city currently has a speed monitor installed on Walnut Street, about 50 years before the Walnut and Poplar intersection. Unfortunately, I see very few people slow down as a result of the sigh indicating they are going too fast. Maybe some speeding tickets handed out to violators along either street would give people an incentive to slow down. 

Blocko's

 It looks as if a new restaurant is going into the location briefly occupied by Kat's Krab and Go at the corner of Illinois and Mill. A sign in the window announces the grand opening of Blocko's on April 1. Hopefully it is not an April Fool's joke

Suspect arrested

 Carbondale police announced they  have arrested the primary suspect in an unprovoked attack that took place Sunday night in the Wal-mart parking lot. From what I have heard, the suspect struck a woman in the parking lot and may have attacked her with a knife. From the press release, it does not appear the victim required hospitalization.

foot Traffic

 If I were going to locate a business in downtown Carbondale, I would see about finding a spot at the south end of Illinois Avenue, somewhere between Mill and Grand. The reason for that is that most daytime foot traffic is concentrated, as far as I can tell, in that area.

Legal Smile pulls in quite a few people, as do Harbaugh's Cafe and Kampus Kuts. I am not sure how well Nacho Fries is doing, but the other three do generate plenty of foot traffic, which is something a new business can draw upon. Most of the rest of the business north of Mill are either service busiensses, such as hair stylists, or restaurants and bars, which pull people to tht location but once they eat or drink, they leave, rather than shop at other locations.

Potholes

 Here is the list of streets that the city plans to work on this year. Looks like 8 projects will be tackled. I really hope they also fill the potholes on Old 13 East of Lewis Lane as there are some really bad ones there. It is difficult to use See Click Fix there as the street does not allow any on street parking and the stretch is pretty busy during the daytime

Bike Signs

 The bike path from the town square to SIUC was finished about 3 years ago, more or less. There is still no sign posted there to draw anyone's attention to it. i realize most people can check such things on their smartphones but it is still difficult to do so while cycling. Also, i fCarbondale wants to develop the image of a bike friendly commnuity , putting up signage indicating bike backs and other amenities would certainly help

Dairy Queen

 In a sure sign of spring for Carbondale, the downtown Dairy Queen has opened for the season. I have already seen short lines for delicious soft serve.

Town Square Sign

 I have commented on this before but the sign on the town square directing people to the offices of Carbondale Main Street, the Chamber of Commerce and the Station Carbondale railroad museum could certainly be positioned better.  While quite visibel to anyone driving east on Marion, anyone driving north on Illinois Ave. cannot see it until right in front of it. Even then it is difficult to see unless you are sitting in the passenger's seat. Turning the sign 90 degrees would make it much more useful.

Carbondale and SIUC

 Is Carbondale a college town? One would think so, given the large footprint of SIUC in the community but you do not see much of a signin the city that th eUniveristy is here. there is the Welcome to Carbondale sign mentioning SIUC on the east side as you drive in on Westbound 13 but nothing at the other three entrances. 

There are the small green directional signs but one would think a large sign pointing in the direction of the Univeristy would be in place. The city has flag holders on light fixtures to hand banners promoting Halloween, Lights Fantastic and Black History Month but no generic SIUC flags that should be up at other times of the year.

the mural at the intersection of 51 and Mill is primarily due to work by the Chamber of Commerce and the university. The proposed murals in collaboration with Arstpace 301 focus more on community history with little reference to SIUC.  It just seems more acknowledgement of the importance of SIUC to the community should be mande.

Candidate Forums

 IF you want to quiz the candidates for city council and Mayor, there are a couple of Zoom sessions comin up in the next month.  Details below:

MAYORAL CANDIDATE FORUM ONE WEEK FROM TODAY!

The Carbondale Mayoral Candidate Forum will be held on Tuesday, February 21, on Zoom, at 6:30pm. 

CITY COUNCIL FORUM NEXT MONTH

The Carbondale City Council Candidate Forum will take place on Tuesday, March 7 at 6:30pm, on Zoom.

Please see the attached for more information and to register at the Carbondale Library site.  The Carbondale Public Library's website is: https://carbondalepubliclibrary.org.

See Click Fix

 If you have not downloaded this app to your phone yet, I recommend it as a way to report problems to the city, especially with streets and lights. On several occasions over the past few years, I have used it to report potholes and have generally seen them repaired in a matter of days. This past week, I submitted a photo of potholes in the 200 block of West Willow on Wednesday and the city had repaired them, or at least filled them with asphalt, by Friday afternoon.

Phoenix Cycles

 Looks as if both the Phoenix Cycles building and business are for sale. I have seen "for sale" signs in the various storefronts of the building for a month or better. However, a sign on the side of the building adversises both it and the business for sale. Would not be a bad investment as four of the five store fronts in the building currently host businesses but the new owner would have to find staff convercent in bicycle to keep Phoenix Cycles runnin.

Suicide Intervention

 a number of people reported 9 or 10 Carbondale Police cars in the Mike's Music/Hemp n' Stuff parking lot on East Walnut this morning. According to this press release, someone had barricaded themselves inside a car in the lot and was threatening to kill themselves. Police resolved the situation and took the person into custody without incident.

Church

 Construction crews worked from late afternoon until about 9 p.m. last night leveling the remaninder of the original section of the Walnut Street Baptist Church. Currently, the left lanes of South University and East Walnut are blocked due to the rubble. All of the upper stories of the older section have been leveled

Walnut Street Church Fire

 The older section of the empty Walnut Street Baptist Church caught fire this morning and that section of the building is a total loss with demoltion of that part of the structure taking place tonight. The building has sat empty  since the congration moved to a new facility located on Old Highway 13. There was an attempt to repurpose the building as affordable housing several years ago but that fell through when the company planning the project failed to secure loan guarantees from the state.

According to the minutes of the last city council meeting, the city has appropriated money to demolish part of the building, although from what I have heard, the plan was to demolish the newer part of the structure and leave the  original part of the church building standing.

Founder's Park Meeting

 The Founders Park Subcommittee of the Preservation committee will meet at 5  p.m. on Feb 7 in the Civic Center. Planning on what to do with the property behind the Civic Center where what became SIUC first stood. I have  heard plans of putting in a stage for historical presentations which seems a case of guilding the lily, since I would be we would see very few of them. If someone wants to put on historical presentaitons there, renting a stage for the event seems a much more cost effect use of dollars.

The Founders Park Committee, a subcommittee of the Preservation Commission, will hold a meeting at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 7, 2023, at Carbondale City Hall/Civic Center.  The agenda for the meeting is attached.

Veterans Airport

 Appears that Cape Air, due to rising costs, has asked to put the contract for serving Southern Illinois and Veterans Airport up for bid. There are three regional carriers bidding on the contract. One is Cape Air, hoping to get it for a somewhat higher bid. The other two are Contour and Southern Airways. Apparently, an enticement for Contour's bid is direct flights from Veterans Airport to Chicago, which the other two airlines do not offer. You can look at the proposals and complete a survey on your preference here. 

Streetlights

 Noticed the same two blocks of streetlights off last night, the stretch between Walnut and Main along Illinois avenue. They were off the previous night as well but on earlier this evening. Will be sure to check and see if they are on when I head home tonight. 

When they are off, it certainly  emphasizes how brightly the other lights illuminate the rest of the Strip.

Burger King

West side Burger King closed on Saturday as promised. Today there is a chain link fence surrounding the site. Maybe they plan to raze the building and replace it with a newer one. Or maybe just do some extensive remodeling.

Saturday Night Downtown

 Went through downtown last night abou 9:45 and was plesently suprised at all the the activity. While not at the level of the 1990s, there were a lot of cars parked and most of the squar parking across from Mary Lou's was filled. Did not see much traffic at Trax or Hangar 9 but a short line extended out the door at Stix.

Saw no house parties taking place but the damp weather may have ended them. I did see evidence, from the number of red cups around, that there had been a couple in the West Cherry area but no sign of any of the parties of 200 to 300 people that took place during previous Polar Bear Weekends

Polar Bear

 Carbondale Police say they will be out checking during this weekend's Polar Bear parties. Pinch Penny Pub was always the prime focus for Polar Bear events with competing bars running Puck Finch events. Now, a quick search of local events shows one taking place at Hangar 9 and nothing at any of the other bars. Likely some house parties but not near the level that it was when Pinch Penny hosted it.

Street Resurfacing

 city announced that it will receive $2 million to resurface S Wall Street from East Walnut south to East Park Street and to slim the street from 4 lanes to 2 lanes with a turn lane in the center and bike lanes on either side. the resurfacing  will cover the section of Wall running south of the eastside Walgreens to about a block south of the intersection of Grand Ave. and Wall Street. projected start date is summer of 2024.

Street Lights

 Noticed the street lights are out for a two block stretch between Walnut and Main along S. Illinois. North of Main and south of Walnut the lights are fine. Been out for a couple of days now. It is remarkable how much darker the streets are without those high intensity lights.

Burger King

 According to their sign, the West Side Burger King will close for the winter this Saturday and re-open in the spring, much like the downtown Dairy Queen. Either sales have dropped off a lot or they are still having staffing problems. Maybe the cost of heating the building outweighs potential sales?

Neighborhood Alliance Meeting

 The Annual Neighborhood Alliance meeting takes place on Feb. 4  starting at 10 a. m. at the Carbondale Public Library. Neighborhoods and community organizations will update interested parties, including city leaders, on how they are meeting the past year's challenges and (I assume) plans for the future.

Arbor District Meeting

 Arbor District meeting at 3 p.m. on Jan 22 in St. Francis Xavier Churches' Xavier Hall, corner of Walnut and Poplar. Topics will be, among others, Halloween decorations, large gatherings of students in parking lots in the area (a recent one at the corner of Main and University ended with shots fired. No one was hurt, thank goodness), effects of zoning, immigration, transportation and renewable energy

Forclosure Addresses

 since I was asked, here are the addresses first Bank and Trust is forclosing on:

409 East Mill, 1130 Walkup Street, 201 S. Oakland,802 S. Johnson, 408 and 408 1/2 N. Springer, 1114 W. Walkup Street,710 N. Carico, 405 East Mill, 702 West Walnut, 502 West Freeman,514 S. Beveridge, 510 S. Beveridge

There may be some more but that would require digging into more fine print.

Home Rentals Forclosures

 According to the classifieds in the current issue of the Carbondale Time, the First Bank and Trust Company of  Murphysboro is forclosing on at least a dozen properties owned by Lindsey Fisher. With the exception of one on North Carico, all appear located south of Walnut Street.

Choices

 I see that Carbondale made the front page of Politco's website due to the Choices clinic opening here and the number of people coming here to make use of the clinic's services. 

On a related note, the clinic protestors appear very weather sensitive as inclinent weather tends to keep them away from the protests.

Arbor District Meeting Video

 In case you were not one of the approximately 100 people that showed up for the recent meeting on shootings and other violence in the city, with an emphasis on the Arbor District, you can watch the video here.

According to State’s Attorney Joe Cervantes, a good number of the shooting and violence in the Arbor District area, esp. on South Forest, was due to feuds between three "gangs" of young men between the ages 15 and 28. Two of the gangs were based in Marion and one in Carbondale. Since November, Cervantes' office has arrested most of the members of two of the gangs as well as the member that first the most recent shots on S. Forest, prompting the meeting

Resiliance Hub

 Ran across the term "resiliance hub" in my reading recently and, from the description, it sounds very similar to Carbondale's "cooling center" as the civic center gets called when the termperature gets high. A resiliance hub offers air conditioning, drinkable water, wifi and personal electronics charging, just as the civic center does, although, the last time I checked, the building's wifi access was password protected. Have not tried to use it in a couple of years so no idea if this is still the case. If it is, the policy should be changed, with maybe a 2 hour limit put on use before the user has to log on again.

Walker's Bluff

 Planing to focus on the casino, I guess, Walker's Bluff announced the shuttering of the Walker's Bluff General Store. I imagine they will move most of the General Store operations into the casino once it opens.Never visited the place but it always seems off the beaten path to me. I never heard anyone speak of eating there and it was on the wrong side of Highway 13 to take advanges of Shawnee National Forest tourist traffic.