City Council Meeting

 Here is the agenda for tonight's city council meeting. Not much on it. Looks as if the plans are to approved expenditures of just over $6.1 million for the period ending 11/8 and entering into a $75,000 contract with REACH. Council is also authorizing the interim city manager (still have not found a permanent one) to purchase properties from Jackson County. I rather hope it is the SI Humane Society property as Carbondale needs some place to house animals that Animal Control picks up and it would be a shame to let that facility go to ruin.

Update--Was not a motion to buy the old Humane Society building. Instead the city is buying three properties that have reverted to the Jackson County Trustee and either have been demolished or are  scheduled for demolition. By law, the city can buy them now for about $750 per parcel and plans to turn them over to a local not for profit to use to develop affordable housing

SIUC Economic Impact

 According to this research, SIUC had an economic impact of about $2.7 billion in the state of Illinois and supported 18,600 last year. The university provides about 6300 jobs directly and about another 3400 indirectly.

Little Caesars

 Little Caesars has reopened after closing for several days last week. According to what I have heard, a customer spotted a cockroach crawling on the floor, canceled their order and called the Health Department, which pulled the pizzeria's permit until an exterminator was called in  and the location passed another inspection.

City Council Meeting

 The city council will hold  a special meeting this afternoon at 3 p.m. citizen comments first then going into special session to discuss employment issues. Really wish they would find either another city manager or police chief as having one man pull double duty for too long is not a good idea.

SI Pawn

 SI Pawn has moved from its longtime West Walnut location to 319 N. Illinois into the old Odd Fellows building that last housed a taxi service. A lot more parking there than at the old location but not nearly as convenient for foot traffic as the West Walnut location, though the owner thinks being 2 blocks north of the Thrift Shop will help. business

Hangar 9

 Barring someone stepping in and purchasing the venue, longtime Strip staple Hangar 9 will close its doors on January 1 2025. The venue has been up for sale since early this year.  Several potential buyers expressed interest in the business since it was put on the market but no takers.

Parking

 Attending a meeting on downtown Carbondale Parking this evening. There are 1183 public parking spaces downtown, 277 on street and 906 off street. There are 241 private residential and 1676 private business, significantly more private parking than there is public parking, though I guess the FirstMid/ Bombay Olive lot is all private parking. Not sure if that counts the SIH parking but that is a lot of private business parking.

Quatro's

 Quatro's has done some interior remodeling and gotten rid of the inside step leading down to the adjacent dining area. In its place is a sloping floor, making that section accessible to everyone

Skate Park

 Carbondale could use a skate park. Slabz has proven there is enough demand for one but we need one that skaters do not have to pay to use. I still see skaters on occasion using the Faner Hall breezeway area, despite the efforts of the city to stop them. it would be another activity for tween and high school students. Putting one in has been discussed for several years and the city does have open space available south of the new nameless entertainment venue on East Walnut.

Top City

 According to Yahoo Finance, Carbondale is listed as one of the top 10 cities in the midwest to which to retire if you are living on a fixed income. We have a livability rating of 70 and have the cheapest average rent of any city on the list, although other monthly expenditures are on the high end.

Big Chill

Big Chill closes today for the season so stop by for a traditional Carbondale snack. Will likely reopen for 2025 in February.

Preservation Commission Meeting

 The Carbondale Preservation Commission will meet in the Civic Center next Monday at 5:30. Not much on the agenda save for the following:

Brief overview/summary of current and recent projects:

1. Creation of Northwest Historic District

2. Historical/Architectural Inventory of the Northeast Quadrant

3. Attucks High School Designation

4. Annual Preservation Awards

Appears the Northwest Historic District will complement the West Walnut Street Historic District. I thought the Arbor District might have been designated as a historic district but not according to the city.

Candidate Petitions

 It looks as if three of the candidates for city council, Rye-Sanders, Hill and Reed, did not follow the directions for submitting their petitions for getting on the ballot and former councilman and local businessman Navreet Kang has filed an objection and there will be a hearing by the Municipal Officers Electoral Board at an unspecified date in the future.

Q Massage

 Q Massage has opened up in the University Plaza strip on South Illinois. That, by my count, makes at least 5 Asian massage locations in Carbondale. We must be a really stress filled community.

Little Grassy Lake

 The marina and campground at Little Grassy Lake will close permanently, at least until someone else buys it, on November 24. Despite some misleading comments, the lake, since it is a state operation, will remain open but with only state provided facilities. 

Traffic Signals

 The city is installing traffic signals at the intersection of Giant City and Pleasant Hill and should have them operational by Nov. 14. Apparently there have been a number of accidents at that location and the city hopes signals will reduce them. The most dangerous intersection in town, at least as far as I can tell, it Giant City and Hwy. 13. Signals have been there for decades but we still have one to two accidents a month.

Hemp N. Stuff

 According to this Hemp N. Stuff is moving out of University Mall into the Eastgate Mall, next to the Ashley Outlet store. The post says, with Maurice's closing, there is not enough traffic in the mall to sustain them.

Election Results

 Here are the final results for the 2024 election for Jackson County. Final results posted about 2 a.m. Wednesday morning.  Harriz/ Walz beat Trump/ Vance by a surprisingly small margin 50.1 to 47.7% and Mike Bost beat Brian Roberts by 3%. The Republican candidates for state office, Bryant, Jacobs and Friess won with no Democratic candidate opposing them. States' Attorney is still too close to call tonight., but other county offices and 5 of the 7 county board seats went Democratic.

Mike Bost

 Looks like Rep. Mike Bost keeps his seat for another 2 years as he defeats Brian Roberts 76% to 24%. Never saw any indications of a campaign by Roberts: no yard signs, no ads, no social media. Even the Southern Illinoisan said the paper reached out to his campaign multiple times for an interview and never received a response.

Election Day

 Town Square Parking lot is packed for voting at the civic center. So is the civic center parking lot. Waiting time is 30 to 45 minutes I heard while precinct wait time is about 10 minutes 

Food Truck Park

 According to posts on Facebook, the empty lot at the corner of College and Illinois, just north of the new Artistic Minds Tattoo studio, is slated to become a food truck park. Map shows space for 3 food trucks and open air dining tables.

Advisory Referendum

 apparently the three advisory referendum items on the Illinois ballot were put there because Democrats wanted to block out any competing referenda that others would try to put on it, such as one addressing parent's rights for which a Republican politician had advocated.

the one calling for a tax on incomes over $1 million , to be used for property tax relief, is markedly similar to a advisory referendum that passed 64% to 36% a decade ago. However, when the proposed income tax increase actually came up on the ballot to go into the constitution, a strong campaign against it caused the measure to fail.

Halloween on Glenview 2

 Appears preliminary numbers for S. Glenview were woefully understated. Over 2200 trick or treaters hit the area of West Walnut and S. Glenview last night. Pictures showed kids, in some cases, lined up for half a block to get candy.