[MAY 18, 2006]
The timing is right and efforts through various
entities continue to build Logan County tourism.
Happy Wiener Days will kick off the festival
season, board member Paul Gleason said. You're sure to find a great
hot dog to eat at the Happy Wiener Days that will be celebrated in
Atlanta, the place with the tall smiley face, over the Memorial Day
weekend, May 26-28.
*
Gleason reported that Main Street Lincoln and Abraham Lincoln
Tourism Bureau of Logan County are putting together a self-guided
Looking for Lincoln tour where visitors will be led on a trail to
all of the Logan County sites. It will include an audio CD or tape
and map to guide tourists to the sites and provide information while
en route.
The directors of the agencies, Wanda Lee Rohlfs from Main Street
Lincoln and Geoff Ladd of the tourism bureau, are excited about the
new project. Rohlfs said that there would be local people engaged to
speak on the CD to tell details about their sites like no one else
can tell it. This will enhance the visitors' tour experience when
they get to the site, as well as making finding the sites easier and
travel between sites more entertaining.
***
New board members of the Work Force Investment Board joined the
other board members and committee chairman Paul Gleason in new job
training. Gleason said that there is now a new program, Worknet,
that provides a one-stop center for all services. Matching job
skills, personal information and location by ZIP code has become
more integrated and is now being done quicker on the computer. In a
nutshell, that's what we got in a three-hour training, Gleason said.
*
Gleason said that Community Action is getting ready for the
program cuts that will begin in a few months. State funding cuts
have affected several programs. In particular, the senior nutrition
program that delivers meals to homebound will cut two of five
delivery days, doubling up the number of meals delivered on the
remaining days.
***
Buildings and grounds chairman John Stewart gave an update on
Logan County Courthouse improvements. The elevator repair is
complete. A $20,000 matching state grant received through the county
clerk's office to assist people with disabilities paid the bill. The
county contributed $200.
*
An evaluation and proposal to renovate the courthouse dome is
under way. The bid request is to reglaze windows, replace Plexiglas,
renew stucco and fiberglass coating.
*
Mr. High will be taking action against the courthouse birds. The
five-year bird repellent contract has six months left. So, there's a
contract out on the birds.
County board member Dick Logan asked about the progress on the
sale of the county farm.
The county determined to sell the farm located northwest of town
last year and estimated $100,000 in revenue from it to go toward
this year's budget. There was just one surveyor who offered
services, Ron Fox. Fox has just returned from being out of state. He
will begin that survey soon and then the farm will be put up for
sale, finance chair Chuck Ruben reported.
***
Illinois has had an outbreak of mumps this year. Logan County
Health Department Margie Harris relayed a message via Logan County
Board liaison Pat O'Neill that there are inoculations against mumps
available at the health department.
Harris also conveyed that they don't expect the mumps to spread
since school will be out soon.
***
Last month's tire collection exceeded expectations at 200.2 tons,
80 tons over last year, Pat O'Neill said. O'Neill said that the
Lincoln streets and alleys employees were a great help and the fair
board was pleased with the cleanup afterward. "Hats off to Tracy
Jackson, Lincoln streets superintendent," he said.
*
The year's glass collection has gone well too. So much so that
Lisa Madigan, representing the Lincoln Junior Woman's Club, the
group that leads the collection the second Saturday every month at
Wal-Mart parking lot, has asked for a larger truck and manpower.
They had 10,365 pounds of glass in April.
***
Appointment
Lois Conrady to the Logan County Housing Authority.
*
The board recognized May as Workforce Development Professionals
Month.
