Champaign City

Today's News-Gazette:

The study will look at income the city receives from certain types of development, such as new property and sales taxes, compared to costs of serving that development, such as constructing new main roads and hiring additional police and firefighters.

The issue is more than just an academic exercise because Champaign currently has a $45 million funding shortfall for needed arterial roads over the next decade. Champaign is also one of the few larger cities in Illinois that doesn't charge developers impact fees for new arterial roads or require mandatory park-land dedication.

"The goal of the study is for us to better understand the true costs and revenues of development in the city," said Rob Kowalski, Champaign's assistant planning director. "It'll look at existing areas, and areas where we might grow in the future."

The study will also look at the costs and benefits of developing within the established city, called infill development, vs. developing on farmland at the edge of the city.

The study will help shape an update of the city's comprehensive plan, to be called Champaign Tomorrow, by identifying areas where the city can grow at a lower cost. City staff plans to begin work on the comprehensive plan this fall and to adopt it by next summer.

Discuss.

Eight of them?

Students, parents and teachers will see new faces in the principal's office at many Champaign schools when classes begin this week. Four of the district's 11 elementary schools have new principals, as does one of its three middle schools and both its high schools. The district's new academic alternative program has a new leader as well. The News-Gazette's Jodi Heckel takes a closer look at each of the new leaders.

My favorite response, from Joe Williams at Central:

What is your No. 1 goal for this position? Without a doubt, the No. 1 goal is to develop a strong collaborative culture focused on student learning, using best practice research within the context of our current reality. This is a dynamic process that, if implemented authentically, will improve the level of student learning for all students.

That's a lot of buzzwords.

One of the as-yet-overlooked aspects of moving the OTB back to Champaign from Urbana is that there is a considerable amount of revenue to the respective park districts which shifts with it.  Or at least it's supposed to:

The Champaign Park District stands to reap about $50,000 a year if the local off-track betting parlor moves to Jupiter's at the Crossing in Champaign later this year as planned.

Park district Executive Director Bobbie Herakovich said local park districts are supposed to get a portion of revenues from OTBs, and she'll likely recommend the money go for ongoing renovation of the Virginia Theatre.

But if the Urbana Park District's experience is any indication, the Champaign district shouldn't count its chickens too soon.

Vicki Mayes, executive director of the Urbana district, said her district received OTB money only the first year the off-track betting parlor operated at The Brickhouse in Urbana. The second year, Gov. Rod Blagojevich "swept away" the money earmarked for park districts, and Mayes said she doubts Urbana will receive anything for the third year either.

(Link was missing before, but fixed now.  Sorry!)

Yesterday's News-Gazette:

The city council will discuss a "sustainability inventory report" Tuesday that is meant to show where the city stands in terms of energy usage and conservation.

The council meets in regular session at 7 p.m. at the Champaign City Building, 102 N. Neil St. The sustainability report will be discussed at a post-council study session.

Sustainability is a popular issue these days with cities across the nation. It is defined as meeting current needs without sacrificing the ability of future generations to meet their needs, and involves balancing environmental, economic and social concerns.

Assistant City Manager Dorothy David said the city needed an update of where it stands before moving on to new initiatives.

"We want to know where we started from," said David. "This report is a baseline. We felt as we move forward to really be proactive in sustainability and environmental concerns, we needed to know what we're doing right now."

Discuss.

From today's News-Gazette:

More than two years after Christie Clinic announced plans to leave downtown Champaign and build a big new campus on the northwest outskirts of the city, the clinic's Chief Executive Alan Gleghorn says moving plans are still up in the air after a hoped-for sale of the downtown property fell through.

Remodeling plans for the downtown facility also remain undecided, as are plans for building more space elsewhere on a smaller scale, he said.

The only determined factor right now is why the clinic wanted to move in the first place: Gleghorn said the landlocked downtown site at 101 W. University Ave. still urgently needs room to grow and add more specialists and parking space as an increasing number of patients – largely coming from outside Champaign County – continue to arrive.

But "Plan A" is history, Gleghorn said.

Discuss.

WDWS is reporting that Christie Clinic will not be moving out of downtown to northwest Champaign, but will instead refocus on a major rehabilitation of their downtown facility.  The change comes after the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board rejected Christie's application to move to the outskirts of town, and in the midst of a difficult real estate market.

Please note that the IHFPB has been at the center of major corruption allegations within Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration, but I'm not aware of anything of the sort in connection with Christie's application or denial.

Well at least they aren't going to Europe again, from today's E-NG,   

 www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2008/07/17/champaign_officials_heading_to_quad_cities_to_study_housing

Two more articles in this weekend's News-Gazette about the Garden Hills neighborhood:  Garden Hills Has Been Foundation for Generations of Families and Residents Have Ideas Where City Can Help Subdivision:

Restad would like to see signs on some streets warning motorists that there may be children present and to slow down. She would also like to see lighting for the park and some streets.

"It's really dark out there. Hopefully, the city and park district will improve the lighting," she said. "There's no sidewalks.

"I don't know how many times I've seen kids almost hit by a car."

The City of Champaign has a weak mayor. Nothing personally against the good mayor, but it is widely accepted that Steve Carter holds the power in Champaign.

The City of Urbana has a powerful mayor. Everyone now appreciates that if she wakes up on the wrong side of the bed, she might fire you in five minutes if you disagree with her. Score one for the strong mayor side making city employees more accountable.

The voters didn't elect Steve Carter and voters did elect Mayor Prussing. Score one for the strong mayor side.

Change can happen more quickly in Urbana. Score one for the strong mayor side.

The city staff of Urbana is going to do what the mayor says. The city of Champaign staff may or may not do what the mayor says. Score one for the strong mayor side.

Urbana city mayor can outline what priorities are for the city staff. Champaign city staff sets it's priorities according to the long term plan and it really doesn't seem to matter what mayor thinks the priorities should be. Score one for the strong mayor side.

In Champaign, everyone knows that it is not in your best interests not to disagree (too much) with city staff on something. In Urbana, if you disagree with city staff on something, the Mayor/council takes it under advisement. Score one for the strong mayor side.

In Champaign, the city staff seems to provide insulation from shady politics. Score one for the weak mayor.

In Champaign, things are looking pretty good overall. In Urbana, there are looking at very tough decisions in the near future. Score one (maybe more) for the weak mayor side.

We can look at two cities and see how they have progressed under these systems and determine which one we think is better based on results. Contrary to recent trends, I don't have a particular side that I favor. So which one is the better system? Am I missing something in my analysis? Am I just wrong on some assumptions?

In yesterday's News-Gazette there was this excellent article by Mike Monson about Champaign's Garden Hills neighborhood, some of its history and challenges, and plans for it moving forward:

Garden Hills has a way of getting noticed.

The northwest neighborhood of roughly 1,000 homes – a proud, diverse and working-class neighborhood – has its share of problems. But it's also filled with many longtime residents who say they wouldn't live anyplace else.

This summer, Garden Hills is the focus of an intense city effort to provide activities and guidance to local youths, who alarmed city officials last spring by gathering in large numbers on many nights and sometimes clashing with police.

More than 50 years ago, Garden Hills was getting noticed for a different reason: its sheer unprecedented scale. The dream of developer Cecil Ozier and his two sons, Darrell and Mervyn, all now deceased, Garden Hills was described in a 1955 news article as "the largest single residential development ever proposed here at one time."

Discuss.

City of Champaign Township Supervisor Linda Abernathy, who is asking voters for a property tax increase this fall because she feels she doesn't have enough money to provide general assistance to township residents, somehow submitted a budget which inlcuded several thousand dollars in legal fees despite the City of Champaign providing free legal service for the Township.

Tension was higher than normal as the town of the city of Champaign Township debated their budget for Fiscal Year 2008-09 Tuesday night.

Though the township board eventually passed the budget, debate ensued about a $9,000 line item, of which a large portion was called "a supreme waste of money." An amendment was eventually added re-appropriating the $9,000 of the $688,668 budget. Originally, $3,000 of that money was allotted for professional fees such as membership to the Township Officials of Illinois, while the other $6,000 was appropriated for legal fees, which a number of the Board members had a problem with.

The legal fees were said to be used for outside legal counsel, despite the fact that the city of Champaign currently allows the township to use their attorneys.

"It sounds like there could be a fight on the horizon," said Board member Tom Bruno. "I don't want to suggest we get separate legal counsel if that's not the case. It seems like a supreme waste of money."

Township Supervisor Linda Abernathy said the counsel was not going to be used for any legal action brought up against the city of Champaign but rather to get advice about how to properly run the township and utilize its resources.

"This is not about a lawsuit," she said. "What (the board members) are doing is polarizing the issue."

Sheesh.

From yesterday's News-Gazette:

Purchase of the Lo property means that, out of 19 properties, only one 7-acre piece would remain to be acquired. Schmidt said the local governments are likely going to have to use their "quick-take" eminent domain authority to obtain that property, which he said is owned by a defunct land trust. Under quick take, the city gets immediate control of the property while a purchase price is litigated.

The next phase of the Curtis Road project calls for building a four- and five-lane road for 1 1/2 miles from Wynstone Drive in Champaign to Wesley Avenue in Savoy. It will cost $12.1 million. Of that amount, $5.7 million will be federal funding, with the county paying $3.7 million and Champaign and Savoy paying $1.6 million each.

Discuss.

From today's News-Gazette:

Faced with skeptical council members and many questions about how it would work, city staff asked for – and received – city council approval Tuesday to define a proposal more clearly to require that garbage containers be screened.

City Manager Steve Carter suggested the move late into Tuesday night's study session, saying the proposal "probably deserves some additional thought by staff."

Lots of good questions in the article.

Champaign's Council has unanimously passed a FY09 budget:

Capital improvement spending is set at $29 million. The budget includes $12 million in funding for a 600-space parking deck at the southeast corner of Hill and Randolph streets that is under construction; $950,000 to improve the intersection at Windsor Road and First Street; and $4.2 million to widen Curtis Road to four and five lanes next year for 2 miles between Wynstone Drive and Wesley Avenue.

The capital budget also sets aside $6.1 million for the Boneyard Creek detention project, also known as the Second Street reach. Work will begin this year on drainage improvements, including underground conveyance of storm water, in Scott Park.

Discuss.

Both Champaign Unit 4 and Rantoul Township High School boards have voted to support a November ballot question asking voters for a one percent sales tax increase to support education.  Both Districts are using a miniscule amount of property tax relief to mask their request for the largest-possible tax increase, as have most other area school districts, and most media reports are emphasizing the property tax relief as if it somehow offsets the sales tax revenue which will be generated.

It will be interesting to see if the County Board puts the full one-percent increase on the ballot, or if they settle for a smaller amount.

And it will be interesting to see how long the "this is about property tax relief" storyline is allowed to play out before people realize that the sales tax revenues of a one percent increase are several times larger than the maximum amount of property tax relief allowable.

Good article:

This coming fiscal year, Urbana expects to allocate $300,000 toward social service grants. That's an increase of $12,000 compared with the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.

That level stands in contrast with Champaign, which this coming fiscal year plans to spend $113,000 on social service grants – but has announced that such grants will be ended, starting July 1, 2009.

Discuss.

According to the News-Gazette, Brian Chesley received conditional discharge and 100 hours of community service.

A Rantoul teen convicted of resisting and obstructing police in Douglass Park in north Champaign more than a year ago has been sentenced to a year of conditional discharge and 100 hours of public service.

The sentence for Brian Chesley, 19, who also lives part time with a grandmother in Urbana, means he will have a misdemeanor conviction on his record but will not have to report to a probation officer for monitoring. It was the least restrictive sentence that Champaign County Judge John Kennedy could have imposed for the crimes.

What's interesting is that the Very Green candidate for CB 9 started out with a couple of felony charges and ended up with first offender's probation, meaning that he'll have no record if he successfully completes it.  Chesley started out with an offer of diversion and ended up with a couple of misdemeanor convictions.  I wonder if this has anything to do with the former getting Diana Lenik as a defense attorney and the latter getting Kirchner and Wyman?

The Township Board (City Council) has granted Supervisor Linda Abernathy's request to put another tax increase for City of Champaign Township on the ballot.

Township Supervisor Linda Abernathy said the increased tax income would allow her to increase benefits to 50 disabled people receiving general assistance/transitional assistance from the current $150 per month to the state-recommended $223 per month. The additional funding would also allow her to create a $42,000 emergency assistance fund whereby extremely poor residents could receive a $225 grant once a year to deal with an economic crisis, effective July 1, 2009.

Abernathy asked voters in November 2006 to approve a 5-cent increase in the district's overall tax rate. But voters rejected that proposal by a 2-1 margin.

She said she proposed a smaller increase this time around because she recognizes that residents are feeling the economic pinch.

"People are feeling the burn, the pinch," she said. "I wanted to do something minimal enough to survive the shortfall, but not so extensive to turn the voters off."

At least she reduced the amount of increase she was requesting this time.

There is another batch of Great Schools Together community forums:

The schedule for the upcoming forums is:

– 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Washington Elementary School, 606 E. Grove St., C. Topic: Excellence and Equity.

– 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. May 5, Garden Hills Elementary School, 2001 Garden Hills Drive, C. Topic: Programs.

– 2 to 4 p.m. May 18, Barkstall Elementary School, 2201 Hallbeck Drive, C. Topic: Buildings.

– 10 a.m. to noon, and 2 to 4 p.m. May 31, Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church, 1310 N. Sixth St., C. Open topic forums, with a cook-out between forums.

This is really cool:

WILL AM-FM-TV is videotaping interviews at each forum and posting them on a Web site dedicated to the school planning process. It is http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/greatschools.

Discuss.

From yesterday's News-Gazette:

Sales tax represents almost half the city's operating money, and Champaign has come to expect a 4 percent increase in sales tax revenue every year, Schnuer said.

"This year, it's coming in at 2 percent," he added.

And:

Schnuer said the upcoming year's budget proposal doesn't call for any new taxes or fee increases, but it does recommend two new fees – one a fee on builders for erosion control and the other to cover the cost of inspecting multifamily residence common areas, Schnuer said.

Discuss.