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During various meetings in the last month, the Logan County Board
heard reports from the Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce,
Main Street Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln Tourism Bureau of Logan County,
and the Lincoln & Logan County Development Partnership. Chamber
Donna Boyd, president of the Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of
Commerce, reviewed recent activities of the group, which is
committed to the economic prosperity of Lincoln and Logan County.
Boyd said the chamber prepared its first-ever annual report,
reviewing the past year and goals for 2011.
At the end of January the chamber
hosted its annual dinner, highlighted by the Pride and Progress
Awards and the Champion for Free Enterprise Award. Pride and
Progress Awards went to:
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New Business of the
Year -- Owl's Roost
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Beautification --
Integrity Data
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Excellence in Service
-- Logan Lanes
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Ambassador of the
Year -- Mike Fak
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Student's Choice --
Qik-n-EZ
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Distinguished
Business -- Abraham Lincoln Memorial Hospital
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Volunteer of the Year -- Vic Martinek
Other upcoming chamber events are the Ag Day Breakfast on March
24 and the Office Professionals Luncheon in April.
Year-round planning continues for the area's feature event, the
Lincoln Art & Balloon Festival. More attractions are added every
year. This year's plans include a nationally sanctioned barbecue
cook-off, "Up in Smoke on the Square." (See
article.)
Main Street Lincoln
County board member Andy Anderson, who serves as Main Street
Lincoln's liaison, presented the 2011 work plan.
Main Street Lincoln's primary aim is toward economic development
efforts that promote, enhance and preserve the commercial and civic
enterprises, and encourage the social endeavors of downtown Lincoln
and the Courthouse Square Historic District.
On Saturday, the organization had a chili fundraiser hosted by
Owl's Roost. Profits from the event will be used for a first-time
project to place hanging flower baskets on poles surrounding the
courthouse during the coming growing season.
Other Main Street Lincoln events and activities:
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March and April:
"Shop local" campaign
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Sunday, March 20:
Looking for Lincoln/Partnership dinner, "Celebrating Community,"
at Lincoln College.
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May: Observe
National Historic Preservation Month
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May 7: National
Train Day
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May 16-20:
National Small Business Week
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June 11: Honest Abe's Backyard Barbeque
Cook-off and Patio Party
Wanda Lee Rohlfs, Main Street Lincoln director and Community
Revitalization Committee representative, will attend the Looking for
Lincoln Coalition's Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area meeting
in Springfield on March 24.
Tourism bureau
This month the Abraham Lincoln Tourism Bureau of Logan County has
its eye on sports-related tourism.
Lincoln streets and businesses should see a burst of activity
this weekend as 100 basketball teams will roll into town for the
2011 Trojan Basketball Tournament. The event, in its 14th year, has
been expanded to include seven courts and is expected to bring over
3,500 people to the community. Lincoln Junior High School is host.
Last week tourism introduced area businesses, potential sponsors
and others to the concept of a Lincoln/Logan County Sports
Commission. Pete Garlock, chairman of Sports Illinois, explained the
advantages of taking an organized approach to attracting tournament
and sporting events. Garlock identified that Logan County has a
great opportunity to infuse a lot of money into the community
through the hosting of sporting events.
May and June events:
- May 13 and 14, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Fifth annual Route 66 Garage Sale
The countywide garage sale is a great opportunity for families
and businesses to have garage sales and for organizations to host
fundraisers.
Postville Courthouse in Lincoln will serve as the sanctioned site
for vendors.
Proceeds from vendors and from sponsorships go to toward the
restoration project at The Mill. (See
Route 66 Garage Sale
website for details.)
- Memorial Day, May 30, noon to 9 p.m.
Community Memorial Day event and fifth annual Airport Daze
The move of this year's Airport Daze to Memorial Day provides a
greater opportunity to merge the promotion of aviation opportunities
with remembering our country's past.
The day begins with the popular Young Eagles program. From noon
to 2 p.m., pilots voluntarily provide free airplane rides for kids.
Any child ages 8 through 17 qualifies.
From 2 to 4 p.m. activities focus on honoring those who
sacrificed their lives for country. This will be through
experiential World War II recollections, news briefs, re-enactments,
musical entertainment and ceremonies with special recognition by,
with and for veterans. There will also be surprise guest
performances, displays and informational booths.
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Two new activities have been added to the Airport Daze event. A
fly-in, drive-in barbecue fundraiser will take place from 4 to 6
p.m. Watch planes come in, join the chow line, sit in the mess tent
and eat side by side with war heroes, pilots, friends and neighbors.
Then stick around for a snappy, USO-style hangar dance from 6 to
9 p.m. -- open to all and FREE. The best music of the '40s and '50s
for your listening and dancing pleasure will be provided by the
fabulous Jim Markum Swing Band
Food and refreshments will be available for purchase all day.
All activities will be at Logan County Airport's Heritage In
Flight Museum and hangar in Lincoln.
- June 11
Route 66 Association of Illinois Hall of Fame Banquet
Over 300 members of the Route 66 Association of Illinois Hall of
Fame, set to make their annual motor tour of the Mother Road, will
make their overnight stay in Lincoln this year. The banquet will be
at Lincoln College's new Lincoln Center.
Development partnership
There was a lot of good news when the development partnership's
president, Mark Hughes, and its director, Joel Smiley, met with the
Logan County Board's executive economic committee this month.
The primary talk was of wind energy businesses. There have been
indicators that Windfarm Sugar Creek One, an LLC under
American Wind Energy
Management Corp., a subsidiary of European Wind Energy Corp., is
nearly ready to move that project forward.
Once application is made for building permits, the company will
go through various local hearing processes.
The first phase of the wind-to-electrical energy conversion
project would bring approximately 110 wind turbines to Sheridan and
Corwin townships. The 2-megawatt towers could produce up to 220
megawatts of electrical power. The towers would be located west of
Lincoln along Fifth Street Road, bounded by Illinois Route 10 to the
north and County Road 1400N to the south. The project spans
approximately 16,000 acres located west of Lincoln.
A second phase, Windfarm Sugar Creek Two is on the company's
project board. That project would bring an additional 90 to 100
like-sized turbines that would be spread over approximately 17,500
acres in western Logan County, in Hurlbut and southern Corwin
townships.
Another wind project, to be located north and south Mount
Pulaski, is progressing. Smiley said that those meterological towers
have been in place for some time.
This project was initially projected to be a large farm, in the
range of 111 towers.
Smiley said that while it is not being named yet, the developer
recently hired a project manager. Smiley, county board chairman Bob
Farmer and zoning officer Will D'Andrea would be meeting with that
person soon.
With the groundwork that would attract wind producers to the
county all laid, Smiley said his efforts would now shift toward
trying to attract manufactures and warehousers of wind energy
equipment. There are currently two prospects for manufacturing, one
from California.
The partnership also continues in its work on developing a
business incubator and other projects.
[By
JAN YOUNGQUIST]
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