One of Jacksonville’s most popular nightlife destination for the past 40 years is changing hands.

Don’s Place, located at 207 West Morgan, has been a fixture for the last 4 decades in downtown Jacksonville. The legendary home of the Thursday night crab races has been officially owned by Danny Kindred since 1982.

On the bar’s Facebook Page today, the ownership will be staying in the family. Kindred’s daughter, Rachel Kesler along with Jim Ash will be taking over.

The Jacksonville City Council voted to donate to a local homeless shelter to keep its operations going for the next three months.

The City Council approved by a 9-0 vote to give $10,000 a month for the next 3 months to New Directions Warming & Cooling Center. The $10,000 a month is equal to the operations budget for the shelter.

New Directions Executive Director Sarah Robinson says the funding allows the shelter to continue to seek other revenue streams: “We’re excited. We absolutely had to have this. So, to know this is going to happen, I mean it’s a relief and we are very pleased.”

Robinson says they are still working out the details and awaiting information from the State of Illinois after being announced as a R3 grant recipient: “With the new grant, we do need to find out a little more about the stipulations about how we can spend those funds. We haven’t gotten all of our details yet, but we are definitely moving forward with that. We will continue to look for other funding sources, as well.”

Members from the shelter explained that approximately $37,000 of the new grant that totaled just under $58,000 from the state will be used for extending hours for current staff and to have more staff on hand at night. The other $20,000 of the grant has been earmarked for creating a new assistant director position since Robinson only works part time.

Ward 5 Alderman Don Cook who acted as Mayor pro temp in the absence of Andy Ezard last night says that the city will look to draw their funds from American Rescue Plan Act funding. Adam Whithee of Zumbalen, Eyth, Surratt, Foote, and Flynn gave the city a clean audit report prior to the discussion on the shelter. Cook is also chairman of the city’s Finance/I.T. committee.

Cook says the city will explore the options with ARPA funds first: “It possibly could be there. If not, then, we will look at the General Fund as Adam Whithee told us. We are in pretty good shape right now with 9-11 months of money. We’re doing good.”

New Directions will be providing extended reporting to the City of Jacksonville during the 3 months of funding, showing the city how the funds are being spent and how many people they serve.

Robinson says that she and members of the New Directions Board have meetings scheduled for discussions of possible funds being raised from the Village of South Jacksonville and the Morgan County Commissioners starting next month.

The Village of New Berlin’s skyline is changed yesterday

The 1960s-era water tower was demolished in a matter of a few hours.

New Berlin village officials say not to worry, the village’s new water tower build in 1997 is still fully functional.

Portions of the old tower are being saved and will be sand blasted. The smaller pieces will be placed on sale by a group to raise proceeds to go towards park improvements at both North Park and Corbett Park in New Berlin.

North Park will soon be featuring a brand new splash pad.

Jacksonville State Representative C.D. Davidsmeyer blasted Governor J.B. Pritzker for calling a special session of the General Assembly to work on codifying abortion rights into state law. Pritzker called for the special session in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s repeal of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Pritzker hasn’t talked about exact specifics of what he wants lawmakers to put into law after the repeal.

Davidsmeyer says the State of Illinois needs to work on issues that aren’t already settled: “Illinois is a destination for abortion already. The Democrats have already legalized everything that they can possibly do with abortion including: taxpayer-funded elective abortions, as well as a 12-year old being able to go into their doctor and get an abortion without even notifying their parents. Illinois is going to waste money – hundreds of thousands of dollars – to come back [to session] for something like this when Downstate communities are talking about having rolling brown outs because of lack of energy; we’ve got $5 gasoline; we’ve got inflation going through the roof…and we’re going to bring back a special session so that the governor and the Democrats can make a special point about an issue that the State of Illinois has already decided. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous that we are wasting this time and money.”

Davidsmeyer also blasted the state for failing to maintain the Jacksonville Developmental Center grounds: “The State of Illinois can’t even afford to mow the yard. We’re going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring the General Assembly back for something the state has already decided. It’s absolutely ridiculous and the governor should be ashamed of himself.”

Democratic leaders are talking about the special session coming to fruition after the 4^th of July holiday.

Negotiations between AT&T and the Village of South Jacksonville remain open as to the placement of a cellphone tower in the village.

Trustee Todd Warrick says that AT&T is offering to build a tower on the village’s property and possibly cede the deed to the tower to the village. The village could then rent out the tower to AT&T or other cellphone competitors as they desire.

Warrick said Thursday night the tower would either be a lattice/self-support tower or a monopole tower. The tower would be between 100-200 feet tall. AT&T engineers presented two options on the placement of the tower. The first option would be at the southwest corner of 1810 Sequoia Drive, allowing 400 feet of clearance from the South Jacksonville Police Department’s existing communications tower. Village President Dick Samples said that the engineers reported interference problems with a previous tower placed near emergency services communication towers and that placing the tower near the police station would create some problems.

The second proposed site would be at the corner on West Greenwood Avenue and South Diamond Street at the southeast edge of the Prairieland Heritage Museum’s grounds. Warrick says that to go with the second option, the village board would have to seek approval from Prairieland’s board for the placement of the tower.

The general consensus of the Trustees on Thursday night during the Committee of the Whole session appeared that the option 1 location with a lattice tower was the preferred measure.

The tower would fix the giant dead zone of coverage that exists in the heart of South Jacksonville. Village President Dick Samples says something needs to be done and done correctly: “The consensus on the project has always been the same. We want to the best for the residents of South Jacksonville, because our service absolutely sucks. It’s bad. We want to do something to improve that service, but we don’t want to hurt ourselves in the process. Where AT&T wanted to put that tower originally was right in the middle of the vacant property that the village owns on the south side of the Police Department. If you do that, you’ve absolutely limited what you could ever do with that property again. Now, if you put it down in one corner, it’s not near as bad as being right in the middle. There’s no intentions with the property. There’s nothing upcoming with the use of that property…but why cut our nose off to spite our face on this thing and set up something that’s going to affect us 20 years from now because there is a tower possibly in the way?”

Samples says the village doesn’t want to make a hasty decision. He says when the plans do get finalized, he wants to make it work for everyone involved. The Board of Trustees did not present a timeline for an action item on a proposal for setting the tower or coming to an agreement with AT&T, but said more information on a decision would be coming soon.

The Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority announced Thursday that $45 million has been granted to fund 148 programs around the state through the state’s cannabis tax revenue. One of those programs is a beleaguered Jacksonville homeless shelter that is getting significant financial help.

New Directions was granted to receive $57,785 to be administered in the state’s 2023 calendar year. New Directions Executive Director Sarah Robinson says they are awaiting information about the funding and how they can use it to keep their doors open: “It definitely means that it gives us the opportunity to stay open at this point. As everyone probably knows, we have been really struggling, so it breathes new life into us and allows us to continue to seek other funding options as we move forward. As far as the specifics [on the grant], we are still waiting for the details. We actually applied for 2 grants through that program – two different funding streams; and we need to receive the details on how much money that we are receiving is allocated through which grant we applied for.”

The grants are a part of the Restore, Reinvest, Renew or R3 program created by the equity element of the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act signed into law in 2019. The law requires using 25% of all cannabis tax revenue to support communities hurt by economic disinvestment, violence, and the severe and disproportionate damage caused by the war on drugs. The grants in the cycle were awarded to organizations that serve residents of designated R3 zones. Jacksonville’s northeast end is located in one of the designated zones.

Robinson says that it will give the shelter a cushion to seek other revenue streams to continue operations: “We estimate that our monthly cost to operate is about $10,000, so it definitely buys us some time. We are still very hopeful that the City of Jacksonville will be able to offer some assistance, as well. We have meetings scheduled with the Morgan County Commissioners, and we are also reaching out to South Jacksonville to sit down with them and possibly seek funding through them, as well. We will continue seeking funding through various sources and additional grants as we go forward.”

Robinson says that she was elated when she learned the news on Thursday. She says that the news came with good timing as the shelter urgently is seeking revenue streams to remain in operation with the hottest summer months ahead.

Brown County Middle School students will have a new playground when they return to school in the fall.

WGEM reports that students and faculty came together Friday morning to install new playground equipment behind the middle school. The playground will have slides, a rock wall, and swing sets. The playground will be open for community use.

Brown County Superintendent Lan Eberle told WGEM that $1 million of Covid-19 relief money was used to purchase the equipment. The remainder of the district’s relief funds are being set aside for other projects. Eberle said rather than contractors install the equipment, he wanted students and the school staff to work together on the installation as a service project.

The installation was expected to be completed sometime late Saturday.

Local unemployment rates remained relatively the same over the month. IDES reported Friday that the unemployment rate decreased in eleven Illinois metropolitan areas, increased in one and was unchanged in another last month.

Chicago, Rockford, and Bloomington continue to see the largest increase in jobs over the year. Springfield’s metropolitan area saw 4-tenths of a percentage point drop. Kankakee saw a slight increase in unemployment, while the rate stayed flat in Danville and Decatur.

Morgan and Scott county remained at 4.5% unemployment for the month of May, which is relative to the rest of West Central Illinois. Brown County remains the lowest in the region at 2.5%. Local unemployment rates have actually rose by almost a full percentage point since the beginning of the year.

The Governor Duncan Mansion will play host to a historical barbeque on their lawn this evening.

Susan Hardin of the Daughters of the American Revolution who do the upkeep at the mansion says its a reenactment of an actual event: “The event is supposed to be a re-creation of a barbeque that Governor Duncan actually held on the grounds for Daniel Webster. It’s an attempt to historically re-enact an event that actually occurred here in Jacksonville.”

The 1837 event will be commemorated by re-enactor Buford Stowers will perform a speech given by Webster on the lawn. In 1836, Webster had unsuccessfully ran for President of the United States as a member of the Whig Party. Webster was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society in 1837. Stowers will re-enact the speech that was recorded of enamoring the crowd.

The evening will feature BBQ catering from Hamilton’s, a bourbon tasting, bottomless beer, and the SafeCo Ice Cream trolley. Live music will also be on hand from 7:30-9PM.

Duncan Mansion Association President Becky Baumgart hopes for a large turnout: “Many of you might remember in the past, we have always held a Holiday Gala in December. This year we decided to try something different. It’s been something that’s been on our backburner for awhile. This year we are going to do the Governor Duncan BBQ, and it’s going to be our main fundraiser for the year. We are hoping lots of people are going to join us.”

Tickets are $30 per person. For more information, call 217-491-1356. Social Hour begins at the Duncan Mansion at 5PM, located at 4 Duncan Place here in Jacksonville.