Fugitive

Robert Lash, 24 is wanted in connection with three counts of 1st degree murder in Mt. Vernon. Police reports say he may be in the Centralia or Carbondale area, possibly driving a maroon 1981 Oldsmobile couple.

Blue Martin

Looks like Fusion has fully made the transition to The Blue Martin, as there is much more signage with The Blue Martin on the building than there ever was for Fusion. Guess Fusion was going for the understated look.

Want a House?

Civic organization Hannah House is raffling off chances to win a house, flat screen TV or $1500 cash to raise money to keep the organization funded. The drawing is just in time fro Christmas, December 24.

Team Brad

Brad Cole has racked up a number of endorsements in his quest for Lieutenant Governor. For the most part, they look like mayors and GOP chairs from this region. He's going to need to build much more statewide support if his candidacy is going to succeed.

Sales Tax Agreement

Apparently the agreement between the city and SIUC regarding the increase in the sales tax is not as set in stone as was believed. D. Gorton found a revised agreement between the city and university dated April 15 of this year, signed by Mayor Cole, Chancellor Goldman and President Poshard, with at least three changes in it.

In the original agreement, Section 3-A-2 gave the city "naming and advertising rights for the renovated Arena." This section is no longer in the April 15 document. I asked Councilman Chris Wissmann what he thought of this and he wasn't particularly concerned, saying he felt people would complain no matter what the city named the Arena. There would be complaints if we named it to honor somebody and didn't get money out of it and complaints if we sold the rights, with the naysayers saying we should have taken the opportunity to honor someone instead.

Section 2 of the agreeement has been extensively rewritten to more closely define what the university is doing with the funds, i.e. paying interest or principal on tax exempt or tax credit bonds or obligations and (quote) "In the event the University notifies the City of an examination of its bonds or obligations by the Internal Revenue Service of the United States of America, the City will cooperate with the University in defending such examination." (unquote)

Finally, Section 10 originally said that the city was still obligated to make its annual payment, even if the 1/4% sales tax is repealed or there is(quote) "a change to State law or andministrative regulations which modifies the manner in which the Home Rule Sales Tax is collected or paid or the base upon which it is levied." (unquote)

When he emailed Mayor Cole about the changes to the contract, D. Gorton received the following email in reply:

_____________________________________________________________________________________

From: Brad Cole [mailto:bcole@ci.carbondale.il.us]

Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 10:53 AM
To: Duane Stucky
Subject: Saluki Way Contract

There have been some questions recently about why the original Saluki Way contract was revised, which was done at the University's request to meet bond counsel concerns..... can you please provide me with clarification that I can share with the City Council and others? Thank you.

----- Original Message -----

From: Duane Stucky

To: 'Brad Cole'

Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 12:20 PM

Subject: Saluki Way Contract

The three primary reasons that bond counsel requested changes to the original agreement are:

1) Language in the agreement did not accurately describe the amount of revenue the City agreed to allocate to the University.

2) Language was desired to determine how the City would accumulate revenue so IRS tax-exempt rules would not be violated.

3) The inclusion of naming rights could lead to private use issues and impair the tax-exempt status of the bonds.

Items 1 and 2 were addressed by a number of suggested changes in Section 2A. Item 3 was addressed by a suggested change in Section 3A.

Other less significant changes were proposed. Changes were suggested in Section 3B and Section 17 to ensure full disclosure of the University's intent to use the revenue to finance bonds, and minor language changes were suggested in Section 3C and Section 7.

As a footnote, I would add that the University ultimately chose to issue Taxable Build America Bonds. These bonds must comply with the same requirements as tax-exempt bonds.

*************************************

Duane Stucky

Senior Vice President for Financial and Administrative

Affairs and Board Treasurer

Southern Illinois University

Office of the President

dustucky@siu.edu

Phone: 618-536-3475

Fax: 618-536-3404

Crime (with pictures)

C'dale Police report the theft of a debt card, along with other stuff and are looking for the two gentlemen pictured here as they entered the Circle K just about the time the stolen debit card was used.

Kopies n' More

Looks like there's work being done on the old Kopies n' More location on S. Illinois. There's a plywood screen covering the view of front end of the building.