Neighborhood Alliance Meeting

In case you are looking for something to do on the 17th:

The Annual Carbondale Neighborhood Alliance Meeting will be held at the First United Methodist Church located at 214 West Main Street, on Saturday morning January 17^th.  The meeting starts at 9:30 with registration, coffee, and informational displays.  Neighborhood  and community organizations and city commissions will provide information helpful to neighborhood groups. Mayoral and City Council candidates have been invited to attend the meeting and will be introduced at noon for an informal meet-and-greet  chili luncheon.  The annual meeting is organized by the Carbondale Neighborhood Action Group, which meets monthly to explore ways to improve Carbondale neighborhoods as well as provide disaster preparedness training for neighborhoods.

For further information contact: Mary O’Hara at 713-0820 or maryohara@mchsi.com or Sarah Heyer 549-5230 heyer41@yahoo.com

Shop Local and Win Results

The Chamber of Commerce announced the winners of their Shop Local and Win contest today. $34,000 in cards turned in was on a par with last year's contest. Fewer of the participating stores appeared to push it this year though. I heard of several shoppers who had to ask stores to punch their cards and I know when I made purchases at some of the participating stores, they never offered to punch my card either. I know they were busy during the holidays but if you pay to participate in an event like this, one would think they would make sure to take advantage of it:

With each purchase at a participating Carbondale business, shoppers earned punches on a special program card. By filling the card with $250 in punches and turning in the completed card at the Chamber of Commerce office at 131 S. Illinois Ave., shoppers were eligible for weekly gift card drawings of $25 and for shopping sprees of $500, $250 and $100. Participants could fill as many cards as they wished.

The program this year was a great success. Punch cards representing nearly $35,000 were turned in for the drawings. The winners of the $25 weekly drawings were Kathryn Sime of Carbondale, Keith Thompson of Herrin, Sheliee Summers of Thompsonville and Gina Raney of Murphysboro. The $100 shopping spree winner was Mary Avery of Makanda. Betty Enrietto of Marion won the $250 shopping spree. Finally, the winner of our $500 dollar shopping spree was Anita Reagan of Murphysboro! Shopping spree winners were able to choose gift cards from participating 2015 Shop Local and Win businesses. 

Brad Cole Running

Former Mayor Brad Cole is running for an open seat on the Carbondale High School Board of Education. I guess once you start running for office, the taste of it never goes away.

Chamber Board

For those interested in such things, here's the recently elected and returning members of the Board of directors for the C'dale Chamber of Commerce. Bug one of them if you have comments about the direction of the city. Hey, they asked to be on the board so they asked for it.:

Mike Henry

Owner, Henry Printing

Jim Jacobs

Owner, Jacobs Air Conditioning & Heating

Brad Weiss

Owner, Furniture King

They Join

Darren Berger

The Bank of Carbondale

Daniel Booth

Carbondale Community High School

Todd Darnstaedt, Past President

Today's Technology

Steve Falat, President

River Radio

Ronda Gaertner, Treasurer

Payne Gaertner & Associates

Melissa Lewis, President Elect

Murray Patterson Group of Wells Fargo Advisors

T.J. Martin

TJ's Fine Jewelry

Angela Povolish

Feirich/Mager/Green/Ryan

Marcia Sinnott

Five Star Realty

Jason Thomas

Thomas Publishing

Kevin Baity

City of Carbondale

Kevin Bame/Matt Baughman

Southern Illinois University

Jeff Doherty

Jackson Growth Alliance

New Farmer's Market In Carbondale

It looks as if another farmer's market will open in Carbondale this year. From the RPFM Carbondale Facebook page:

The deal is made and the location is secured. Most folks guessed correct on the final location.. The South side of the building and parking lot of where The Auto Shop is on 317 East Main Street This will be a year round market and will run rain or shine since if its raining we can open the big door and everyone can set up inside the 30' x 60' portion of the building. A sign will be going up on the board where the other businesses in the building signs are sometime befor April. As I said in an earlier post this will also be the home office of the Regional Producer Farmers Market. Open Market Days will be Thursdays from 3pm-7pm and Saturdays From 2PM - 6pm. The Seasonal Vendors will also be able to set up and sell on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Seasonal Vendors are guaranteed one of the 14 indoor stalls/displays and will be a farmers market Wednesday through Saturday. The advertising will begin in March as will Vendor sign up. Folks this is a great location with easy in and out access for market visitors, a very near downtown C'dale location, room for 14 outdoor vendors and 14 indoor Vendors (Possibly a few more), open 4 days per week and will function sort of like a co-op except the people producing the food will be the one there selling the food. We will have a limited number of tables and tents available for those who don't have them and I am going to be building market stalls on wheels/casters that can be rolled in and out of the building, for those that wish to use them. Now its getting real 

Carbondale Main Street sponsored a Wednesday afternoon farmer's market on the town square for a couple of years but could not get sufficient vendors to attain critical mass so as to make it self sustaining. Here's hoping the Regional Producers Farmers Market does so.

Seasonal Parking

Downtown free seasonal parking ended yesterday. From what I understand, city employees will unbag the parking meters on Monday. So long downtown free parking, you were nice while you lasted.

Egyptian Corner Supports Jane Adams

Interesting to see that whoever owns the Egyptian Corner has come out in favor of Jane Adams . The stores' street sign advertises Gyros, Shawarma and "Jane Adams for Mayor". First sign endorsing any candidate I have seen.