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.
jackson County has seen an 88% increase in the number of businesses opening since 2019, putting the county among the top 25 in the state in terms of new businesses over the last five years.
If you want to look them over, here are the primary results for Jackson County. No surprise that Biden and Trump won their slots, though I was bemused to see that Biden did a bit better than Trump did, taking 90% of the votes compared to 85% for Trump. Not much competition amidst the rest of the. It looks like Darren Baily got stomped by Mike Bost and I expect that to carry throughout the district. If voting patterns hold through out the rest of the 12th District, I figure Brian Roberts will beat Preston Nelson, who has previously run as both a Republican and Libertarian.
Not sure who "we" are but this takes place tomorrow at the Dunn Richmond Economic Development Center from 9:30 to 11. Apparently a presentation on local services available to local buisnesses.
According to the news this morning, Jackson County is switching to the Code Red app for emergency notifications. If you want to download it, here is a link to the website.
If you want to request a vote by mail ballot in Illinois, here is a link to the website to request one. Despite what some people say, the state is not going to send you one without you requesting it.
Jackson County is averaging 16 new cases per day for the past week. 38 new cases this past weekend. No new fatalities thank goodness but 70% of the new infections are among people age 18-30 . Almost all of these will recover without any problem. The problem comes if they carry the disease into a assisted living facility or nursing home, with confined quarters and people with weakened immune systems.
Two local reports of Covid-19, one in Williamson County and one in Jackson County The Jackson County case has self quarantined and is recovering. From what I have heard, it is an upper level administration at SIUC that tested positively for it but have not seen confirmation.
Jackson County is collecting household hazardous wastes at the SIUC Area parking lot until noon today. Paints, lightbulbs, batteries, etc are accepted, no industrial waste and you have to have an id or utility bill showing you live in the county. Easiest way to get to the collection site is from the Pleasant Hill Road entrance to the Arena lot.
In case you want to learn more about the Jackson County Mass Transit service, there is a presentation tonight at the Civic Center at 5 p.m. From the PR
Jackson County Mass Transit Executive Director Ted Gutierrez will share a special presentation at tonight’s Human Relations Commission meeting.
The meeting will be held in Room 112 of the Carbondale Civic Center at 5 p.m.
You probably already know the national election results but the Southern is kind enough to post the results for Jackson County A few things I found interesting:
For the first time in recent memory, Jackson County voted Republican for President. The Trump/Pence ticket won by 12 points.
Sheila Simon didn't even win in her home county, losing to Paul Schimpf by 45 votes.
People's concerns about "big government" didn't stop them from voting to create the Public Building Commission of Jackson County. Despite making Carbondale's sales tax among the highest in the state and comparable to the sales tax in DuQuoin, it passed. Here's hoping that all the people living in the county come to shop in Carbondale, rather than driving to lower tax communities like Marion
There's a county wide 1% sales tax on the ballot this election day to help fund school building repairs and help reduce property taxes that would normally be collected to fund the school districts. Instead, money from the sales tax would replace that normally collected from property taxes.
Adding the proposed 1% sales tax to Carbondale's existing sale tax would push the city's sales taxes to among the highest in the state, around 10%. About 70% of the revenue from the tax, which would generate an estimated $5.4 million for Jackson County schools, would come from Carbondale.
Jackson County is looking into establishing a county wide zoning policy and is asking for feedback from country residents. You can fill out the survey here. You may have to scroll down a bit to see said survey.
Jackson County is, according to this. I'd have guessed one of the counties south of us. However, our high proportion of poor college students likely has a lot to do with the results.
13. JACKSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS
> County median household income: $32,681 > State median household income: $57,166 > Poverty rate: 32.3% > Unemployment: 6.6%
Jackson is the poorest county in Illinois. Higher educational attainment typically correlates with higher incomes. However, more than one in three adults in the area have at least a bachelor’s degree, higher than the statewide college attainment rate of 31.9%. As in the poorest counties in most other states, Jackson's poverty rate of 32.3% is more than double the corresponding statewide rate.
Paid the last of this year's real estate taxes yesterday and always find it interesting to see where the money goes:
1.6% Jackson County
.28% Carbondale Township
.35% Carbondale City
.49% Carbondale Park District
.24% Southern Illinois Airport
.035% Mosquito Abatement
3.83% School #95
2.39% School #165
.59% Logan College
.11% Carbondale Road and Bridge
.34% Carbondale Public Library
.37% Special Service Area (only paid by those with property downtown)
According to the Jackson/Williamson County Survey conducted by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, the most important issue facing both counties is attracting new businesses and jobs to southern Illinois. More jobs for the area trumps reducing local crime, reducing government spending and reducing the local tax burden.
Attracting more jobs and business to the area would also help in combating the student brain drain from SIUC. Unlike universities in larger communities, Carbondale has too small an economic base to keep the students that graduate here yearly. Ergo, they take the skills and education they have spent the last 4-5 years developing with them when they leave the area, seeking employment.
Looking over a copy of the Jackson/Williamson County Survey conducted by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute this spring. Lot to go through here and I plan to over the weekend but right off the bat, less than 15% of residents of the counties believe that current local business conditions are better than they were a year ago.
This despite the fact that the economy both nationally and in the state have slowly improved since the recession kicked in and 2/3 of those responding said that the state, as a whole, is generally on the right track. In fact, only 7% of those responding rate the counties as an excellent place to live.
Courtesy of Jane Adams, here is a link to the GIS Map site located on the Jackson County website. You can use it to search for the owner of any parcel of land within the boundaries of the county. So if you have a desire to know who owns the house you are considering renting or the palatial mini-mansion down the street, now you can find out, though there are some glitches and omissions on the site.
Looks like another light agenda for the City Council tonight. One interesting thing is the contract providing funding from the city to various civic organizations. Yo may notice that the Convention and Tourism Bureau is not on the list of organizations funded. According to Councilwoman Jane Adams, the contract has been removed from the other contracts and will be negotiated separately. It appears the council at least wishes to negotiate language into the contract giving the city representation on the CCTB board commensurate with the amount of funding it provides to the CCTB, currently about 80%. City funding will prove even more important to the CCTB now that the organization has severed ties (and funding) with Jackson County as the Carbondale Times reported in its April 11 issue.
According to the article, the CCTB board sent a letter to the Jackson County Board in early February, asking if Jackson County wished to continue its relationship with the CCTB and giving a March 15 deadline for a response. The county did not respond and the CCTB decided to forgo the $12000 annually it received from the county, choosing instead to focus on Carbondale, which is problematic to say the least, given the current relations between the board and city council.
