City Council Special Meeting

The city council has called a special meeting for this Tuesday evening at 6 p.m., apparently to deal with only one thing:

1. Roll Call
 2. Citizens’ Comments and Questions
 3. Closed Meeting Closed Meeting for the Purposes of Self-Evaluation, Practices and Procedures or Professional Ethics, When Meeting with a Representative of a Statewide Association of Which the Public Body is a Member Pursuant to 5 ILCS 120/2(c)(16)
4. Return to Open Session No Action Following the Return to Open Session Except to Adjourn

Apparently there might have been some problems with a recent meeting of someone on the council with a representative of a statewide organization of which the council is a member and the meeting was called as a refresher course in proper procedures.

Lights Fantastic Road Closures

Carbondale will start closing roads for the Lights Fantastic parade tomorrow starting at 5 p.m. and will reopen them shortly after the parade ends, typically soon after 6 p.m. No indication if cars parked on Illinois Avenue, which comprises the majority of the parade route, will be towed. You can go here for the complete parade route map, parking and shuttle information, as well as a list of most other activities taking place

Captain D's Returning

Captain D's seafood is (unofficially) returning to Carbondale. The chain left town over a decade ago but is poised to locate a restaurant at the (now razed) location previously occupied by Godfather's and DiMaggio's Pizza. It is a decent high traffic location and Long John Silvers has moved to a much less visible location now out by Wal-mart

Candidates

Here is the list of candidates for next year's city government election. No primary, thank goodness. We have one mayoral office and 3 city council seats up

The following candidates have filed their nominating petitions for Carbondale Mayor:

1.     Nathan Colombo, 229 South Hunt Road                            9:11 a.m., November 26

2.      John “Mike” Henry, 1210 West Hill Avenue                      1:30 p.m., November 26

The following candidates have filed their nominating petitions for Carbondale City Council Member:

              

Council Candidate Name and Address                                                    Time of Filing/Ballot Order 

1.     Adam Loos, 512 West Pecan Street                                    8:00 a.m., November 19

2.      Mark Chalem, 1004 West Laurel Street                             8:03 a.m., November 19

3.      Navreet S. Kang, 613 South Terrace Drive            8:31 a.m., November 19

4.      Lee M. Fronabarger, 1140 S. Morningside Drive               1:51 p.m., November 19

5.      Thomas Grant, 5370 Springer Ridge Road            4:26 p.m., November 20

6.      Theodore “Ted” Jude Gutierrez, 316 S. Lu Court 2:59 p.m., November 26

7.      Greg Knoob, 3 Pine Lake Drive                                         3:38 p.m., November 26

8.      Jerrold Hennrich, 610 West Sycamore Street                    4:06 p.m., November 26

Nathan Columbo Announces for Mayor

Small business owner and social media marketer (and local comedian) Nathan Columbo announces his campaign for mayor of Carbondale at 12:30 today. Going to make this an interesting campaign. Mayor Mike Henry has the backing of many of the businesspeople in Carbondale whilst Columbo brings much more expertise in promotion, especially social media, and awareness among a  number of the activists in Carbondale.

Black Friday

Drove through the east part of Carbondale late morning on Black Friday and noticed quite a lot of traffic at University Mall, Wal-Mart, Hobby Lobby, Best Buy, etc. Actually I was rather surprised to see empty parking spaces around the back end of University Mall. Even saw most of the parking spaces filled at the Furniture King's location on the east side. Not a lot of traffic for the retailers in the Reed Station Road area and traffic at the Marion mall was pretty pathetic, which is to be expected given that it will close up 2 weeks before Christmas.

Christmas Lights

City got the Christmas lights up early throughout the downtown area. Makes the place look festive but still wish they would hold off until after Christmas. However, given that the Lights Fantastic Parade is the 1st, I can see wanting to get everything up soon. Downtown window decorating has to be done by the 28th if you want it judged.