Carbondale Bytelife

Instead of being up about $100,000 over 2008, it looks like Carbondale's sales tax collection will run about $300,000 below projections. Not good, but certainly livable. Given the lousy economy, I guess we should be glad it's not much more than that.

Labels: Carbondale, economy, sales tax

Former C'dale landlord Henry Fisher will serve the remainder of his term for sexual assault after his appeal on the ground of ineffective council was denied by Williamson Co. judge Ron Eckiss

Labels: Carbondale, crime

I see the Aldi's on the east side of town next to Dick's Sporting Goods has a sign up announcing they are open for business.

Labels: business, Carbondale

In case you didn't catch this on the city's website or in the SI:

NEWS RELEASE
MAINTENANCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES

Due to the inclement weather and the icy road conditions, the City’s refuse, recycling and bag and bundle collection programs have been SUSPENDED for the remainder of this week. Residents are advised to not set their refuse or recycling containers at curbside this week. Please hold them until next week.

Weather permitting, refuse and recycling will resume normal schedules next week.

Questions may be addressed the Maintenance and Environmental Services Office at 618-457-3275.

Labels: Carbondale, city government

Carbondale's website was down from Monday through Thursday morning, plus no-one in the building had external email access which was driving a few offices crazeeee. Apparently, someone (accidentally?) cut one of Verizon's cables which played hob with any commercial user of Verizon broadband throughout southern Illinois.

Labels: Carbondale, city government, infrastructure

Longtime Carbondale resident and activist for progressive causes (over 65 years) Lillian Adams died last Saturday at the age of 96. There will be a Memorial Service for Lillian on February 8 at 2 PM at the Unitarian Fellowship in Carbondale. Her family invites everyone to attend and celebrate her life. Also please visit the Lillian Adams memorial site:

http//lillianadams.blogspot.com

(info courtesy of the Arbor District mailing list)

Labels: Arbor District, Carbondale

The city's done a great job of cleaning up the streets but it would be a little more useful now for the plows to be clearing off sides streets rather than scraping the edge of Main like the one that just passed me. Main is free of ice and snow except along the edges while there are still dozens of side streets unplowed.

Labels: Carbondale, weather

Out of curiosity, I dug up the statistics for some other college towns: Rolla, Mo, Springfield Mo, Columbia, M0, Cape Girardeau Mo, Mattoon Il and Kirksville Mo. With the exception of Kirksville, all of them have poverty levels under 20%. Kirksville is most like Carbondale, in that it is a relatively small rural community, dominated by a college, and without direct interstate access. Not quite as steep as Carbondale, it still has a 30% poverty rate.

Labels: Carbondale, college, poverty

After looking at the figures more and considering some of the comments, something else became apparent. The student population at SIUC has remained pretty constant since the early 90s, fluctuating maybe a couple of hundred students a year or so. However, the Carbondale poverty rate increased by 5% during the period from 1999 to 2007, so whoever was getting poorer, it wasn't the students.

Labels: Carbondale, Economics, poverty, siuc

I was doing some reading last night on the Census Bureau's website and found the number of people living below the poverty line in Carbondale stunning. 41% of the C'dale population, as of 1999, the most recent figure, are classified as living in poverty. In Jackson County, it's only 20% and in Williamson and Union counties, only 14%. The county figures are for 2004 so maybe it's due to the Carbondale data being older and things have improved since 1999?

Nope, if anything, they've gotten worse.

Labels: Carbondale, economy, poverty

Sat in on most of last night's City Council meeting. Missed the Liquor Control Commission meeting but was told by city council candidate Kevin Clark that Fair Days designations for the Southern Illinois Irish Festival and an A2 liquor license for Spotlight Bar and Grille passed.

Several community members spoke about concerns regarding the proposed annexation of the property on East Park Street, which includes Snider Hill Cemetery. A representative from the Presbyterian Church, which owns part of the property, was particularity concerned since the city and developers had promised a protective buffer from all the development taking place nearby during the past few years. The promised buffer apparently was not provided and now there are problems causing the cemetery to settle and tombstones to fall over.

The consent agenda, items normally passed as a group, had 4 items voted on separately when Councilmen Lance Jack and Steven Haynes had questions about the Snider Hill annexation and utility easements at Prairie Living subdivision, respectively. Councilman Joel Fritzler had questions about two items including payment for some of the mayor's travel expenses (Shades of the last race for mayor.) Mayor Cole appeared mildly irritated when responding to Fritzler's questions, while Fritzler sounded rather hesitant when posing them.

The council moved through general business pretty quickly. The resolution declaring Fair Days for the Southern Illinois Irish Festival passed with only Corene McDaniel voting no because alcohol would be served. I assume this means she'll also vote no when the Sunset Concerts and Main Street Pig Out come up for a similar vote.

The Stadium Grille going in on East Main got approved for a TIF agreement, which will save them about $500,000, according to my notes. In response to a question from the council, the owners said they were indeed using local union contractors and expect to open mid-April. I'd lay money it opens before Lance Jack gets his Fat Patties' place open.

Finally, during council comments, another city council candidate made an appearance as Justin Stofferahn, (yeah, he's on Facebook too) who, along with three companions, all attired in dress shirts and ties, had sat in the back during the entire meeting. I'd thought they were members of a fraternity come to ask the city for funding for some event, but Stofferahn asked the council if the city would implement the findings of the energy audit it was undertaking and if the lobbying group the city hired had produced results worth its fee.

At 8:50, the council retired to closed meeting to discuss sale, purchase or lease of real property and pending or imminent litigation as well as the planned conquest by force of Marion, the Hub of the Universe.

Labels: Brad Cole, Carbondale, City council, development, Joel Fritzler, Lance Jack

The fifth annual Neighborhood Alliance Meeting takes place Sat. Jan 17, at Our Savior Lutheran Church on S. University. Doors open at 9:30 and the meeting runs from 10 to noon. More details here.

Labels: Carbondale, city government

Apparently the Dough Boy's Pizza over in Murphysboro, also a converted Domino's, closed for "Christmas break" as well. I could see some justification for the C'dale closing with all the students gone but doubt very much if enough SIUC students ordered from the Murphysboro location to justify the closure. Add in the talk of a lawsuit by Domino's and I'll be surpised to see either one open again.

Labels: business, Carbondale, Economics, murphysboro

Two more business are going into the Wall and Grand strip center at the corner of, well, Wall and Grand. Unless I miss my guess, Family BBQ will probably be selling BBQ, while, according to the sign in the window, the Hot Spot will offer hamburgers, cheeseburgers and gyros, among other fast foods. If Hot Spot is good, the heavy student population in that area should make it a success. Not so sure about Family BBQ, since you've got Southern Que less than a quarter mile away in the Grand Avenue Mall.

Labels: business, Carbondale

Got an email from Allan Keith, author of SIUC's Days of Dissent and, according to him, it was pretty common during the late 60s and early 70s for the city to appoint a non-voting student representative to not only city council but most city committees as well.

Labels: Carbondale, city government, siuc

Mayor Cole may have spoken too soon about Walgreen's putting a second location on the west side at the old Mugsy McGuire's location. However, Walgreen's has not confirmed a second Carbondale location yet and I've heard secondhand that the company is none too happy with the mayor for his premature announcement.

Something similar happened back in 2004 when the mayor announced the purchase of the American Tap before the completion of the negotiations. The city eventually purchased the Tap property, appraised at $39,000, for $150,000. BTW, the Tap property still sits empty, without even a "For Sale" sign on it.

Labels: American Tap, business, Carbondale, city government, economy, Walgreen's

Literally. If you drive down Cedarview or East Main, you can see the back side of the Dough Boys Pizza sign is completely blank. Apparently, the company only paid to put up a sign facing west, so that traffic heading east on Walnut can read it. I guess they figure people on East Main aren't that intersted in finding the place. Yes, trying to cut costs is important, epecially in this economy, but when you have a 40 foot tall sign, visible from at least 5 blocks away, leaving it a blank white space just doesn't seem like a real good promotinal move to me.

Labels: business, Carbondale

Here's the latest from the weather service as of 2:30 today:

250 PM CST SUN DEC 14 2008

Labels: Carbondale, weather

The house at 314 West Walnut crams a whole lot of lights, inflatables and animatronics (is that a word?) into a postcard sided lawn.

Labels: Carbondale, Christmas

Office Depot has announced the closing of the Carbondale store along with another 16 underperforming stores in Illinois. It lasted about as long as OfficeMax did at the same location. Nationwide Office Depot will close 112 of its stores and cut about 2200 jobs over the next three months. Naturally, the stock price of the company rose about 9% afte the news was announced.

Labels: business, Carbondale, economy