City Slogan

Only caught the last 5 minutes or so of the State of the City address, which could be boiled down to "Shop local and be nice to each other". Will have to watch the entirety later. The new city slogan, however, is "All Ways Open". Not great but certainly better than Cape Girardeau's "Where The River Turns a Thousand Tales", which led to a short-lived storytelling festival

State of the City

Mayor Henry will give the State of the City address starting shortly after noon today at the Civic Center.  I bet the state of the city will be "good"

Payday Loan

Apparently Carbondale can have too many payday loan places. The one located across E. Main from Vogler Ford has shut down. Signs in the window indicate it has relocated to Mount Vernon.

Rendleman Orchards

Rendleman Orchards, in Alto Pass, will close for the season on December 17. It would appear they have quite a few apples left as their remaining stock was half price when I stopped in earlier this week.

State of the City

The Mayor will give the annual State of the City address during the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce lunch on Dec. 12. According to the city, if you just want to attend and not eat, you can do at no cost:

The Carbondale Chamber of Commerce will host the 2017 State of the City Address on Tuesday, December 12 during their monthly luncheon.

Carbondale Mayor John “Mike” Henry will unveil the City’s new logo and branding. He will also highlight the City’s progress and accomplishments over the last year as well as discuss plans for 2018.

Lunch will begin at noon in the Carbondale Civic Center located at 200 S. Illinois Avenue. Tickets for the event are $15 in advance or $20 at the door. Reservations can be made by calling (618) 549-2146.

Proceeds from the event will go toward the Mayor’s Scholarship Fund which provides scholarships for Carbondale Community High School students attending Southern Illinois University.

Clean Streets

Took a walk down Illinois after the Lights Fantastic Parade Saturday night and was amazed at the lack of trash on the street. Given the thousands of people that watched the parade, I had expected to see a lot more garbage but either the city did an exemplary job of cleaning up after the parade finished or that many people were exceedingly litter conscious during the event.

But Will They Use Them?

SIUC Design students have completed landscaping designs for downtown Carbondale and those designs will be on display in the Old Train Depot tomorrow evening from 4 p.m to 8 p.m. There have been a number of designs done by SIUC students displayed over the years and never have used any of the concepts developed. Given that we have the resources of a university here, it seems a shame for the city not to make better use of it. From the email:

The Carbondale Founders Park Committee will display student design proposals for landscaping elements on Saturday, December 2 at the Carbondale Civic Center.

The SIU Landscape Design & Architecture class has completed conceptual drawings for the "Founders Park" property located behind the police station. Design proposals will be on display during the Lights Fantastic Parade from 4-8 p.m.

Everyone is encouraged to come and see what the students have envisioned for a future outdoor recreation space. Public comments are welcome.