Frontier Communications Building

I had the opportunity to take the Hidden Carbondale tour yesterday (well, I had to pay for it so anyone could have had the opportunity) and while there were a number of interesting things I noted (such as Prairie Farms Cottage Cheese and Wal-Mart's Great Value Cottage Cheese both coming out of the same vat), the most interesting was the Frontier Communications building (the old GTE Building north of the Civic Center.

The building sat empty except for the Marketing Director for the local Frontier office, who gave us the tour and unlike all of the other places we toured, he seemed the only person in the entire building and I believe only a dozen or so people work there. An unused call center sits ready for any telemarketing or similar type of operation to move in and start work. From what I understand, the taller building of the two building complex, sits completely empty of staff, filled with offices and desks no longer used.

Hidden Carbondale Tour

The Chamber of Commerce will host another Hidden Carbondale tour later this month. The last one sold our fairly quickly. Most of the "Hidden" spots involved going inside one business or another in Carbondale, so if seeing how C'dale businesses operate interests you, you should find this tour enjoyable (and hopefully less wet than last year's tour):

Carbondale residents have an opportunity to get an inside look at otherwise unseen parts of the community thanks to a bus tour planned by the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce.

“Hidden Carbondale” is being billed by event organizers as “a field trip for adults,” taking participants to parts of the city they may have never seen before. The event, set for 3:30 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 23, includes stops at Carbondale industrial healthcare, communications sites as well as a few surprises. The program includes motorcoach transportation to all destinations and concludes with dinner and custom coffee bar at Cristaudo’s at approximately 7:30 p.m.

The Chamber’s first Hidden Carbondale event, held last year, took participants on visits to the R. Buckminster Fuller Dome, Com-Pac International, Grand River Spirits, the Varsity Theater and Memorial Hospital of Carbondale. All new stops are planned for 2014.

The tour does include significant walking and stairs.

Hidden Carbondale is limited to 50 participants. Reservations are $35 per person, which includes all transportation, dinner and beverage costs. For more information or to reserve space for the Hidden Carbondale program, call the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce at (618) 549-2146.