Thursday, January 30, 2025

City Council Agenda

 Here is the consent agenda from the Jan 28th council meeting. There were no non-consent items on the agenda, though council did go into executive session after the consent agenda items were approved:

3.1 Regular City Council Meeting Minutes from January 14, 2025

3.2 Resolution Authorizing the Interim City Manager to Enter into a Three-Year Contract with Gateway Fireworks Displays

3.3 Ordinance Authorizing a Budget Adjustment to the FY 2025 Water and Sewer Fund Budget in the Amount of $200,971 for Various Water & Sewer Operating Costs

3.4 Reappointments to Boards and Commissions

3.5 A Resolution Approving an Employment Agreement Between the City of Carbondale and Stan Reno

3.6 Approval of Consent Agenda Items

Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Multi-Modal Transit Center

 The multi-modal transit center is coming together nicely. On the one hand, I like that the architects adhered to downtown zoning regulation in that all new buildings have to be 2 stories tall as it will certainly improve the streetscape. On the other hand, making it so tall without putting an actual second floor in there wastes a lot of space and will likely increase the heating and cooling costs. I still want to know the layout for bus entrance and exit as well as how parking for taxis (if we still have any) and Uber drivers (I know we have these) will be handled. 

Will buses exit north onto 51 or east onto 13? I hope the design puts the bus port further south on 51 so that buses have the option of either going north on 51 or east on 13.

Monday, January 27, 2025

Tourism

 I really hope the city puts a staffed tourism office in the new multi modal center or at least a kiosk with both printed and touch screen information. The store is a tourist destination for a certain group of people and we often has inquiries from those people as to other tourist activities in the area and where they can find out more information.  With the closure of the Carbondale Tourism office in 2023, . there really is not anyplace currently to send them for more information about activities in the Shawnee or the Southern Illinois Wine Trail

Friday, January 24, 2025

New City Manager

 Surprising no one, the city has offered Police Chief Stan Reno the position of City Manager and indications are he will accept. from what I understand, the city has already settled upon an interim Chief of Police which will be announced in the near future

Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Neighborhood Alliance Meeting

The next monthly  Neighborhood Alliance meeting takes place Feb 1 at 10 a.m. at the Carbondale Public Library. Primary topic is disaster preparedness along with discussion on what is going on in various city neighborhoods.   After the recent ice storm and lengthy power outage, a discussion of how to prepare for the next one (and there will be a next one) is probably in order.

Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Heartland Women's Healthcare

 Heartland Women's Healthcare announced on social media today that, as of  January 31, 2025, the organization will no longer have privileges at  SIH Memorial Hospital. Heartland will still provide care at other local hospitals and their own offices but not at Memorial. 

From what I can tell, this was a decision by SIH and not Heartland, as the press release says Heartland has been working to maintain privileges there.

Sunday, January 19, 2025

Polar Bear

 Likely due to the drop in temperatures and no local bars actively pushing the event (cough Pinch Penny Pub cough), this year's Polar Bear was a comparatively tame event. I saw one group drinking on a porch on West Mill Street at 10 a.m. and a couple of the fraternity houses on S. University had people out in the afternoon. I heard of one party on S. Poplar getting loud about 2 a.m. and saw a few complaints about people peeing by dumpsters but that was about it. No large crowds of students traipsing along West Main or S. Poplar as in days of yore.

Of course, it was a bit cold yesterday so that may have kept people inside.

Friday, January 17, 2025

Verbal Altercation 2

 It appears Tuesday night's "verbal altercation" after the city council meeting was between Councilpeople Claire Killman and Ginger Rye-Saunders and members of Rye-Saunders family. According to the current Carbondale Times, each had disparaged comments the other made and the two continued commenting to each other after the meeting with members of Rye-Saunder's family deciding to get involved. Carbondale police intervened and a staff member escorted Killman to her car.

Thursday, January 16, 2025

Rental Housing

For all the complaints about rental housing in the city, it appears that very few people want to actually put in the work to redo rental regulation. If no renters want to get involved, they can expect to either see things stay the same or change in favor of the landlords who do want to get involved. After all, it is the landlords whose "ox will get gored" should any changes get put into play as they would be the ones most likely to be affected negatively, so it is only reasonable to expect them to to take action to mitigate what they would perceive as harmful outcomes. Press release from the city:

Alert Sent On: 01/16/2025 04:45:18 PM CST

 At the February 13, 2024, City Council meeting, the Carbondale City Council held a public hearing concerning changes to how the City would regulate rental housing. This included changes to regulate the relationship between landlords and tenants and a new rental housing licensing program. Following this meeting, the City Council voted on March 26, 2024, to establish a working committee to discuss and draft a new rental housing ordinance. 


Multiple attempts were made to fill this committee, but the City only received a few letters of interest in being placed on the committee. After the final attempt to get landlords and tenants and other community members involved in the committee, it was determined to move forward with a Staff-developed rewrite of Title 4, Chapter 4 to address the concerns of the City Council as it relates to rental housing and landlord-tenant relationships. 


At this time to respect the time and efforts of those who have applied, the City Attorney’s office will be reaching out to the individuals whose applications were received throughout this process. A calendar invite will be sent to coordinate dates that these individuals can meet to discuss this ordinance. Following that, two open sessions will be held that the public may attend. All dates and times TBD.  


If you previously applied and do not receive an invite to the stakeholders meeting by 5 PM January 22, please forward the original email you sent with your application you to cityattorney@carondaleil.gov 


If you wish to receive e-mail updates on the dates and times of the meetings related to the changes to landlord and tenant ordinances, please contact the City Attorney’s office at cityattorney@carbondaleil.gov.  


For further info contact the City Attorney’s Office at 618-457-3215.  

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Verbal Altercation at City Council

A "verbal situation" took place after last night's city council meeting between a  couple of council members and some members of the public. Since a major topic of conversation at the meeting was more regulations regarding the relationship between renters and landlords, a good guess would be one or the other annoyed by the proposed regulation

Tuesday, January 14, 2025

City council Agenda

 Here is the agenda for tonight's Liquor Control Commission and City council  meetings. From the LCC agenda, it looks as if Qin Guan Buffet is setting up a delivery only kitchen with alcohol delivery available . Most of the Council business is  approval of warrants, although there is one separate item discussing "An Ordinance Amending Title Four, Chapter Four of the Carbondale Revised Code as it Relates to Housing and Landlord and Tenant Rights and Obligations"


Friday, January 10, 2025

Parks Master Plan

 In case you want to have some input as to the direction the Carbondale Park District takes over the next several years, here is your opportunity. The Master Plan guides the decisions the Park District makes over the next few years. The city has a similar Master Plan as well and I know of residents that, when the city has made a decision that runs counter to the Master Plan, they have called attention to it and cause the city to reverse the decision.

The consultants for the Park District and the City will be giving a public presentation on Carbondale's Parks and Recreation Master Plan Tuesday, January 21st, 5:30 p.m. at CCHS 1301 E. Walnut St. The public is invited. Please try to attend. 


Streets

 for whatever reason, streets running east and west in Carbondale tend to get cleared more quickly than do streets running north and south. Most of the east and west bound streets in town were pretty clear and easy to drive down by noon today while most of the North and South streets remained unplowed as of late in the day. Of course the tendency of residents to park their cars on the street, even during snow emergencies, makes it much harder to plow around them. 

Tuesday, January 7, 2025

Meet and Greet 2

 Stopped in for the last half hour of the Meet and Greet with the city manager candidates. There were still about half a dozen people talking with the candidates. I got to ask questions of current Interim city manager Stan Reno and former city manager of Hastings NB, Shawn Metcalfe:

Stan Reno--I was primarily interested in why he wanted the job, given that his entire career until the last 6 months has been in law enforcement. He said that he had planned to end his career in law enforcement but found that, as he  performed the city manager duties, he found he enjoyed it and felt he did a good job. He estimated that, since the city would probably not engage in as widespread a search for his replacement as chief of police, the city could fill the position in about 3 months. Asked about what he would do about the perception, not the actuality, of Carbondale's high crime rate (the crime rate is no higher than any other town of Carbondale's size), he said transparency would be the number one way he would combat the perception and that encouraging events like the Off The Rails concerts, which have had no disruptions, would aid in that. He feels his work with the police department, working relationship with council and his in-depth knowledge of Carbondale would make him an effective manager. However, the past six months is the sum total of his experience as a city manager.


Shawn Metcalfe-- has experience as a city manager, having worked as one in Hastings, a town about the same size as Carbondale. However, his contract there was not renewed so he is looking for a position in a similar sized community. His expertise is in finance and human resources, which would be beneficial to the city. to get a feel for the city,  he read back through past city budgets and city council agendas and watched about 14 hours of recorded city council meetings, but has no "on the ground" familiarity with Carbondale. Strengths of Carbondale, he feels are SIUC, hospitals and medical development and the town's access to the Shawnee National Forest. I also asked him about dealing with the perception of Carbondale as having a high crime rate and he thought more events getting the police out into the community such as the "national Night Out" would help combat it. He also expressed interest in revisiting the city's position on Uber and AirB&B operations.

I did not get the opportunity speak with Thomas Thomas

Council will interview all three candidates in closed session tomorrow night and make a decision in the near future.

Meet and Greet

 The meet and greet with the candidates for the city manager position is still taking place from 5 to 7 p.m. tonight. I find it interesting the city has not published the names yet. I have not seen any media source listing them. All I have heard is that there are three and one of them is a local resident.

Monday, January 6, 2025

Power

 Power is off at random locations around town. Much of the south side of town has power sporadically. Chautauqua and Tower road's power came back on, from what I have heard, came back on about 10 p.m. last night while over by NoName Road, the power came on about 10 then went off again about 2. Power stayed on in the area north of Willow and east of  Oakland while it went off on the west side of Oakland. I heard of a least 4 transformers catching fire and/or blowing up and WSIU's transmission tower took enough damage last night that the station is not transmitting over the air for the foreseeable future.

Saturday, January 4, 2025

City Council Meeting

Special city council meeting Wednesday night, the night after the meet and greet with candidates for the city manager position. Since it is an executive session to discuss employment issues, my guess it is to consider the three candidates for the position select one. Hopefully Stan Reno is not one of them as I would not like the city to have to start a search for another chief of police.

Friday, January 3, 2025

Saluki Tax

 If I remember correctly, the increase in the sales tax voted for by the city council to help fund the Student Services Building, Saluki Stadium and renovations of the SIUC Arena expires in 2027. Basic sales tax for Illinois is 6.25% and Carbondale's sales tax is 9.75%, one of the highest in the state. Unless council is lobbied by residents, the council will likely vote to amend the ordinance setting that rate, as it did the last time a portion of the sales tax was set to expire. If you think the sales tax is too high, complaining about it on social media will do little good, unless you also direct your complaint to city council members as they are the ones who will either let it expire or vote to amend the ordinance to keep it in place.

Thursday, January 2, 2025

Downtown Vacancies

 Took a walk along S. Illinois this week and noted that the vacancy rate in storefronts north of West College is almost zero, with the recently shuttered Hangar 9 and Stix the only empty locations in the area. South of West College is a different story with at least 8 empty storefronts in the area between College and Mill. Due to the steps leading to them, it will be very hard to fill the empty locations behind Trax as most customers will not want to climb the steps to get to them.

Wednesday, January 1, 2025

Christmas

 Given the kickoff to the season in Carbondale that the Lights Fantastic parade provides, the city and local organizations should take advantage of that attention with a "Christmas in Carbondale" or some similar page listing all of the Christmas related events taking place in the city through the season. Something similar to Carbondale Halloween, making the city's downtown a focus of Christmas related activities.