Sign up for our daily newsletter here
Drop in a question of your very own BY CLICKING HERE or by emailing Kathy Reiser at mailbag@news-gazette.com
I may need to get my sewing machine out and do a little mending over the weekend. Today’s Mailbag is bursting at the seams with info on a cool, new collaboration to preserve the history of local restaurants ... why Savoy doesn’t have its own school district … why some UI sports teams have chaplains while others don’t … whether changes might be coming to local ambulance services … and what’s next for Urbana’s Florida Avenue corridor.
Help us preserve local restaurant history
If there’s one thing Mailbag readers love, it’s restaurant news.
OK, make that two things. Local restaurant history is pretty high on the list, too!
From time to time, the Mailbag digs into the Champaign County Historical Archives’ collection of restaurant menus. It’s always fun to leaf through those old menus from 1978 — 45 years ago. You can’t help but smile at the Town & Country Steak House’s “Casserole of Chicken Livers.” Trito’s Pepper & Egg Grinder. And the $1.19 Gut-Buster slice at Garcia’s Pizza in a Pan.
These restaurants, and their menus, are part of Champaign County history. And before hard-copy menus disappear forever, the Mailbag is working with the Archives to assemble a collection of current-day menus that will become part of its permanent local history collection. Someday, people will be glad we did.
It seems fitting that we’d start this project just as the 2023 Champaign County Restaurant Week celebration winds down. With the help of Visit Champaign County, we plan to include some of the participating eateries’ Restaurant Week menus, as well as their regular menus, in this special collection.
We’re collecting current menus from brick-and-mortar restaurants, food trucks, coffee shops, caterers, bars that serve food, drive-throughs, and other businesses that sell ready-to-eat food. Not just from Champaign-Urbana, but from all over the county.
How can Mailbag readers help? If you happen to be a Champaign County restaurant owner or manager, please mail us one of your hard-copy menus – or drop it off the next time you’re in the neighborhood during business hours, at:
The Champaign County Historical Archives at the Urbana Free Library (2nd floor), 210 W. Green Street, Urbana, 61801, or
The News-Gazette, 2101 Fox Drive, Champaign, 61820
If your eatery no longer has a hard-copy menu, we’d love it if you could email a PDF of your menu(s) to kreiser@news-gazette.com with MENU COLLECTION in the subject line. We’ll make sure the Archives gets it.
Our goal is to collect at least 50 current menus from Champaign County eateries by April 1. We hope to see every local community, and every type of cuisine, represented. We’ve already collected menus from Martinelli’s Market, Homegrown, Hamilton Walker’s, Old Orchard, Hickory River Smokehouse, Po’Boys, Industrial Donut, Manzella’s Italian Patio and The Esquire Lounge. Nine down, 41 — or more — to go!
Thanks in advance for your help in preserving this key part of Champaign County’s cultural and business history.
Ambulance coverage in C-U area
“Is Advanced Medical Transport stopping or reducing their coverage for local emergency calls? I have heard that Urbana is going to be covered solely by Carle’s Arrow Ambulance. I’ve also been told that AMT is so short-staffed that Carle has been covering parts of AMT’s response area. Is that true? Any chance Champaign-Urbana will be covered just by Carle’s Arrow Ambulance?”
I asked health and business beat reporter Deb Pressey what she might have heard about this, and she did a little checking of her own. Greg Chance, regional CEO for AMT, told her they “remain fully committed to serving this area, and there is no truth to what the writer told you he heard.”
Why Savoy doesn’t have its own school district
“As the population of Savoy grows, and with the pending changes in the Unit 4 school district, I am curious as to why Savoy hasn’t formed its own school district.”
Once upon a time, Savoy did have its own school district.
In May of 1946 — after a devastating fire at Savoy’s public school building — residents of Savoy School District 69 voted to consolidate with Prairie View School District 65, to form Savoy Consolidated School District 69. A new school building was constructed on Church Street in Savoy.
Less than two years after that first consolidation, residents of Savoy District 69 and Champaign School District 71 voted to consolidate into Champaign Community Unit School District 4. The two districts officially merged on July 1, 1948, according to the Short History of Savoy, Illinois book published in 2006. Unit 4’s Savoy School building was closed at the end of the 1976-77 school year. It was the smallest school building in the district, and officials said they couldn’t justify adding on to it “when there are others in the district standing empty.”
Most recently, that building was the home of a Champaign County Head Start education center; it is not being used as a school at this time. The village did not have a public school for decades, until Unit 4’s current Carrie Busey Elementary School was built in the Prairie Fields neighborhood in 2012.
Today, the vast majority of Savoy residents live within Unit 4’s boundaries. But homes in the 16-acre Coyote Run subdivision – at the southwest corner of First Street and Airport Road – are an exception, according to a Jan. 6, 2022 News-Gazette article by Deb Pressey. Under the terms of a pre-annexation agreement from about 20 years ago, the subdivision automatically became part of the Unity School District when it was annexed into the village about a year ago.
Nasty potholes at Mahomet PO
“Is there any plan to fix the large holes at the entry into the Mahomet Post Office parking lot? They stretch across both sides and affect both entering and exiting traffic. The holes are big enough to pose a hazard for individual vehicles and pedestrian traffic.”
“The Mahomet Post Office has contacted USPS maintenance officials regarding repairs to the parking lot,” according to Tim Norman, the Postal Service’s Chicago-based spokesperson. “No further information is available at this time. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused our customers.”
Guess you can’t spell the word “pothole” without “P-O”….
UI sports team chaplains
“I recently learned that the University of Illinois wrestling team has a chaplain. Is this true across other Illini sports teams?”
“Several Fighting Illini teams have a team chaplain, but not all,” said Kent Brown with the UI’s Division of Intercollegiate Athletics. “The decision for this volunteer position is up to the head coach for that particular program, with interaction by an athlete or staff member left up to each individual.” So players and others associated with the program are free to interact with the volunteer chaplain … or not … at their discretion.
How many miles of streets, sidewalks and sewers in C-U?
“How many miles of sidewalk and sewer pipe do the cities of Champaign and Urbana each own? How many lane-miles (or just miles, if lane-miles are unknown) of concrete and asphalt streets do each of the cities own?”
This seems like a more-than-idle-curiosity question! Some real-world detail for a homework assignment, perhaps? Our thanks to staff in both cities for their quick answers. (And we’ll let the reader do the apples-to-apples math, if needed.)
Champaign Public Works’ Kris Koester said that city has 392 miles of sidewalks, 420 miles of storm sewer pipe and 240 miles of sanitary sewer pipe. Champaign has a total of 630.5 lane-miles of streets, including 246 miles of hot-mix asphalt and 324.5 miles of Portland cement concrete.
Urbana’s city engineer, John Zeman, said there are 235 miles of city-owned sidewalks, 263 miles of storm and sanitary sewers, and 143 miles of streets. Of those streets, he said 46% have a concrete surface and 44% asphalt surface. The rest are oil and chip or brick.
Zeman notes that “getting these statistics from Urbana and Champaign will only tell part of the story. IDOT and the UI also own a significant quantity of streets in town, aside from Champaign and Urbana. UI also owns sidewalks and a sewer system. The Urbana-Champaign Sanitary District (UCSD) owns the larger interceptor sanitary sewers, which are fed by the smaller collector sanitary sewers, which are owned by Urbana, Champaign, UI and others.”
Devonshire Drive street lights
“Are there any plans to put street lights on Devonshire Drive from Prospect Avenue to Neil Street?”
Champaign Public Works’ Kris Koester tells us there are no plans in the city’s 10-year capital improvement plan to add lights to Devonshire Drive from Prospect Avenue east to Fox Drive. The segment of Devonshire between Fox Drive and Neil Street already has several street lights.
Can nesting eagles successfully relocate?
“The eagles’ nest along Church Street in Savoy is amazing. What will happen to the trees and nest when progress takes over and they start developing that land? Most all the land in that area is already developed, so I feel it is just a matter of time.”
And it could be a long time. I’ve heard of no specific plans to develop that area. Jeff Hoover, an avian ecologist with the Illinois Natural History Survey, says that particular nest has been used by pairs of eagles for several years now. They don’t seem bothered by vehicular traffic, agricultural activity, mowing, flights at the nearby airport, or other activities of suburban life.
Hoover referred us to the American Eagle Foundation’s website, which says, “bald eagles were removed from the federal list of threatened and endangered species in 2007, and are no longer protected under the Endangered Species Act. However, bald eagles remain protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.” The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service “does not dictate whether a landowner can build a home near an eagle nest. Rather, the service makes recommendations on ways to avoid impact to nesting bald eagles.” (More details at www.eagles.org/take-action/habitat-protection/)
So … how resilient are eagles when their nest is disturbed by some force of nature? “If the nest were to come down because of natural causes like a wind storm knocking down the nest tree, the pair of birds may build a new nest in one of the other remaining trees in that lot, or possibly look for a new large tree elsewhere in the area – within some miles – that fits the bill,” Hoover said.
Illinois guard Terrence Shannon Jr. (0) leads the team through the tunnel in a NCAA basketball game at the State Farm Center in Champaign on Tuesday, January 24, 2023.
Makira Cook, middle, is averaging 17.8 points and 4.1 assists in her first season at Illinois after transferring from Dayton in the offseason.
'Illini basketball' vs. 'Illini women’s basketball'
“A question for Josh Whitman: When most U of I sports are offered for both men and women, we refer to them by gender: men’s golf and women’s golf, and so on. Equal (naming) treatment. The exception is basketball. The men’s sport is almost always referred to as Illini basketball, as opposed to Illini women’s basketball. This is true in most DIA ads and promotions, on Illini network broadcasts, and in other official communications. I’m a huge supporter of both teams! But it’s hard not to infer that the men’s program is being positioned as THE basketball program, with the women’s program as something lesser. How does that not go against at least the spirit of Title IX, if not the letter of it? When Josh’s daughter is a little older, I’d love to hear him explain that to her!”
No word on whether Josh saw the question, but UI Athletics’ Kent Brown answered at least part of it for us. “We searched through our website and social media graphics, and found that, by and large, we have been consistent in identifying if that particular story or graphic was for women’s or men’s basketball, when appropriate. A survey of social media accounts around the Big Ten showed a mixed bag of how each school identified the gender for the basketball accounts.
“So, to be more consistent with all our sports, we are adding an ‘M’ or ‘men’s’ to the account name for men's basketball moving forward. Several years ago, we changed our social media handles to be consistent with each gender (i.e., @IlliniMBB or @IlliniWBB).”
History of Eisner’s markets in C-U
“How many Eisner grocery stores did we have in C-U, and where were they located?”
Such a seemingly simple question — with answers that depend on which timeframe the reader is asking about. Eisner’s was in business locally between 1906 and 1985, and the number and locations of its retail stores varied from one decade to the next. In fact, a look through about a dozen C-U city directories from the mid-1930s through 1984 showed at least 25 different addresses for grocery stores associated with the Eisner name.
The Early Jewish Life in Champaign website tells us Albert Eisner, a Hungarian immigrant to the U.S., built his first local warehouse in 1904 and incorporated Eisner Grocery Company in 1906. He soon began acquiring grocery stores in various central Illinois communities. In 1919, Eisner bought into the relatively new Piggly Wiggly franchise. Piggly Wiggly was the first grocery chain that allowed customers to browse the store and gather their own groceries in baskets or carts, rather than hand a list to a clerk who would gather the goods for them.
Back then, the Eisner Company was listed in city directories as a wholesale grocer. It operated stores under the Piggly Wiggly name at 134 and 1311 W. Church Street, 805 S. Fourth Street, 109-11 S. Neil Street, 106 N. New Street and 607 W. Springfield Avenue in Champaign. In Urbana, Eisner-affiliated Piggly Wigglies were at 115 W. Elm St., 807-09 S. Lincoln Avenue (now a Jimmy John’s), 1102 W. Main Street and 119-121 S. Race Street.
Eisner’s son, Albert Jr., cut ties with Piggly Wiggly in 1951 and started operating markets under the family name at most of the same locations that had been Piggly Wiggly-branded stores. Eisner’s grew to become a chain of more than 40 stores in downstate Illinois and parts of Indiana.
In 1957, Eisner’s was bought by the Jewel Tea Company. Over time, the stores assumed the look and feel of their parent company’s Jewel stores – right on down to their familiar oval logo. Several of C-U’s smaller and older Eisner markets were closed by the late 1950s and early ’60s, as larger, more modern supermarkets were built. They included 105 W. Green Street (now a CVS), 909 W. Kirby Avenue (now the site of a Busey Bank), 710 N. Neil Street (now Sunset Funeral Home), and 1900 W. Springfield Avenue at the Country Fair Shopping Center.
Urbana’s last few Eisner stores were at 400 S. Broadway (south of Lincoln Square Mall) and 1810 S. Philo Road. The Jewel parent company retained the local Eisner’s name for nearly 30 years until 1985, when all remaining Eisner stores became Jewels. The last local Jewel store closed in 1998.
Change in traffic-signal timing
“For many years, the eastbound Curtis Road crossing at Route 45 (Dunlap Avenue) had its red light come on several seconds before the westbound red light, to allow the westbound traffic to clear the railroad tracks. As a warning, two bright yellow, eastbound-facing signs say, ‘oncoming traffic may have extended green.’ Recently, the signal timing was changed such that the eastbound and westbound red lights come on simultaneously. Was this timing change intentional, and is it permanent? Will the warning signs be removed?”
The signal timing change was intentional, according to IDOT engineer Kensil Garnett. “It was modified at the same time the traffic signal control cabinet was replaced last summer. During most cycles the reds will be simultaneous in both directions. When a train approaches the intersection, there is a scenario where the westbound signal will remain green while the eastbound signal is red” to allow all traffic to clear the tracks. “This the reason that the warning signs will remain in place.”
NIL program coordinator Kam Cox talks in his office at Bielfeldt on UI campus in Champaign on Thursday, July 15, 2021.
NIL and FOIA at the UI
“I would think that the UI has to monitor and approve the Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) contracts for the student-athletes to assure compliance. If that is the case, can the News-Gazette, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), obtain and publish how much each athlete earns in the NIL system?”
In a word, “no.” That information is exempt from FOIA disclosure, according to Kent Brown at the UI Division of Intercollegiate Athletics.
Kam Cox, DIA INFLUENCE Program (NIL) Coordinator, said, “Illinois law requires that student-athletes disclose all NIL activities to their institutions. So, while the university receives disclosures about NIL after deals are completed, we do not approve deals preemptively and we are largely unable to monitor them while they are in progress. NIL compliance is relatively limited; the NCAA has put forth two overarching rules prohibiting (1) pay-for-play and (2) recruiting inducements, and Illinois law adds additional parameters, processes and protections to help student-athletes put the general framework into practice.
“That said, there is a common misconception that the university stores records of NIL earnings in a similar way to the HR payroll apparatus and this is simply not the case.”
Frustration with collectible coin purchase
“In March of 2022, I responded to an ad in The News-Gazette for silver walking liberty coins. Ten months later, I still don’t have the coins from National Mint and Treasury. I have made 12 phone calls since the March 10 purchase and payment of $2,340. I also have filed a complaint with the Illinois Attorney General’s office. In January I received a call from Emily, who said she was with National Mint and Treasury, saying that the company had released payment to me. I’ve seen similar ads in the paper recently, and it seems to me they are fraudulent.”
We shared the reader’s concerns with Mark Lukas, the News-Gazette’s VP of Sales, who said, “we have carried advertising from both this client and advertising agency for many years and this is the first time we have been made aware of any issue with fulfillment of a purchase.” Even so, he contacted both the National Mint and Treasury company and the agency that brokers national ads for The News-Gazette, to see what might have gone wrong with this reader’s purchase. (Despite the official-sounding name, “National Mint and Treasury” is a private company that is not a part of the U.S. government.)
Laura Fish, National Mint and Treasury’s controller, said, “We have looked into their order and confirmed she has been refunded. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear we were able to speak to her, but it does appear she received our voicemail. While we strive for 100% customer satisfaction, as a national company with tens of thousands of customers, that is not always the case.
“I assure you they had an experience that is not the norm and I will be looking further into this to see what occurred and how we can improve. All ads are vetted by our executive team and attorneys to ensure that all claims are backed with reputable citations and products are shipped daily. As such, we supply ship times while on the initial call; if for some unseen circumstance we are not able to deliver on time all customers are contacted promptly and given the option to keep their order or cancel,” Fish said.
Independently of Lukas’ efforts with the advertiser and the ad agency, I checked the national Better Business Bureau website to see what the BBB had to say about National Mint and Treasury. The 39 customer reviews were mixed, mostly negative. Still, the BBB gives the company a “B+” rating overall. The website says the national BBB has received 105 complaints about the company in the past three years with 55 complaints closed in the last 12 months.
Uneven sidewalks on Green Street
“The sidewalks along Green Street, particularly on the block between Fifth and Sixth Streets, are in really rough shape with uneven blocks and sections that are almost like miniature hills. Does the city of Champaign have anything in the works to make these less treacherous?”
“The grades as you walk along Green Street are compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act requirements,” said Champaign Public Works’ Kris Koester. They “were necessary to meet the elevations of various existing driveways, building entrances and other features of existing buildings and structures at the time of construction. There are currently no plans to make any adjustments.”
Whatever happened to … Mable Thomas playground?
“I recently discovered, while doing a little exploring with Google Maps, that there used to be a small children’s playground at the southwest corner of Campbell Drive and King’s Way in the Dobbins Downs neighborhood of northwest Champaign. The playground was there in 2015, and gone in 2017. The sign for it appears to say Mable Thomas Memorial Park.
“That corner is now a vacant lot. Who was Mable Thomas, and why was the playground removed? Also, have there ever been any discussions about the city annexing that neighborhood and possibly improving it in ways such as have been discussed for the Garden Hills neighborhood to the south?”
Mable Thomas was the City of Champaign’s long-time – and much-loved – neighborhood services coordinator until her death in 2010.
As some readers may know, the City’s boundary snakes through Dobbins Downs. Properties under city jurisdiction “are next to unincorporated properties, and sometimes that can be a challenge for law enforcement and fire protection,” said John, Hall, Champaign County’s director of planning and zoning.
“The property that was formerly the Mable Thomas Park was, prior to that, the site of a burned-out building that Champaign County paid to demolish and clean up in 2007. A few years later a neighborhood organization that called itself Dobbins Downs Improvement Association formed for the purpose of establishing a park. The County eventually approved a lease for the site and the Dobbins Downs Improvement Association was able to get playground structures in place,” Hall said.
“At some point the property was annexed into the City of Champaign in the hope that the Champaign Park District would assume ownership of the park. But the park district never did assume ownership of the Mable Thomas Park.”
By 2016, the Dobbins Downs Improvement Association was defunct and the property was becoming a nuisance to the neighborhood, Hall said. About 40 city employees and their family members – including some of Thomas’ former colleagues – volunteered their time for a Saturday morning clean-up in May of 2016, according to an article on the City of Champaign website. It turned out the improved conditions were only temporary.
A little later that year, a post on the city website said, “Mable Thomas Park has been the scene of numerous complaints from neighborhood residents living in homes adjacent to the park, and reports from county and local police concerning large groups of unsupervised youth fighting, vandalizing and destroying park equipment.
“After discussions with Champaign County officials regarding ongoing park sustainability, it was determined that the park no longer has insurance coverage and that they could be subject to civil litigation if a child or adult is injured at the park. Therefore, due to the ongoing challenges and lack of insurance, the County has decided to ‘de-park’ the lot,” the website said.
The playground equipment was removed shortly thereafter, and the property went back to being a vacant lot that is still owned by the county, Hall said.
An old hitchin’ post
“There’s a post outside a house in the 500 block of West Washington Street in Champaign that has the year 1891 engraved in it. Any story behind it?”
As the reader may know, it seems to be a hitching post — or hitchin’ post, if you prefer. In pre-automobile days, riders would tie their horse’s reins to the ring at the top of the post to keep the horse from wandering off when unattended. Hitching posts had to be sturdy, and this one still fits that description more than 130 years later.
It appears to be the only post of its kind in the immediate area, and it made me wonder: was it likely installed by the homeowner in 1891, or might the City of Champaign have placed hitching posts along streets in residential areas – either as a public service, or on a cost-recovery basis?
T.J. Blakeman, a Champaign city planner and volunteer president of the Champaign County History Museum board, said, “I highly doubt that the city would have installed these posts. My guess is that the private property owner installed the post. Sorry, I don’t have anything concrete to offer!”
If the homeowner or a neighbor happens to know any specific history behind the post, we hope they’ll share it with us. Drop me a note at kreiser@news-gazette.com.
Repairs made at busy intersection
“The stoplight at Lincoln and University in Urbana has been blinking red for nearly a week now. What happened, and when will it be repaired?”
Great news: repairs to the intersection’s complex signals are essentially completed. One of C-U’s busiest intersections is “back in colors” as final testing and tweaking continue, according to Vince Gustafson, Urbana Public Works’ deputy director of operations.
“Early last week, there was a vehicle accident that knocked out the traffic signal controller at this location, and this signal was special-ordered to integrate the traffic signals along with the railway crossing at this intersection,” said UPW director Tim Cowan.
“City representatives have been in constant coordination with IDOT and Norfolk Southern (Railroad) to expedite the replacement as much as is feasible. Unfortunately, due to the special design components with the controller at this intersection, the repairs have been delayed while we await fabrication of a new controller,” Cowan had said on Monday.
The new controller arrived earlier than expected, and the green, yellow and red signals were operating on timers as of late Wednesday morning, Gustafson said. “We’re just on a timed cycle until we finish up the pedestrian crossing timings. It’s a pretty involved programming with everything (going on) at that intersection there, especially with lighting up the railroad crossing and all. We hope in the next couple of days we’ll be back with our full detection and our regular cycles” that use sensors rather than timers to change the lights.
Chris, an employee with Champaign Signal and Lighting Co., was among those working on the signal controls under a blue tent on Wednesday morning. “I’ll be back out to do fiber (optic cables),” she said, “so the cabinets can talk to each other and keep things moving. Things won’t be up to par ’til that all gets hooked up.”
Chris said the signals may need to be re-set another time or two as testing and synchronization work continues, but any interruptions should be brief. The railroad had completed its testing of the repaired traffic signals by noon on Wednesday.
