[OCT. 17, 2000]  A 10-point project to boost tourism in the Lincoln area has been announced by Main Street Lincoln, the group that is administering the Looking for Lincoln project. One project, making a historical documentary video, already has funding promised, Main Street Director Wendy Bell told the Lincoln City Council Monday evening. State Sen. Robert Madigan (R-Lincoln) and state Rep. John Turner (R-Atlanta) have promised $20,000 for the video from member initiative funds, she reported.

The video will have a number of uses, Bell said. It will serve as an introduction to the Abraham Lincoln sites in Lincoln and Logan County and will be shown in the Visitor’s Center that is also part of the overall plan. It can be used in schools throughout the state, shown on public television and sold to tourists to help fund the Looking for Lincoln program.

Bell said the group will not receive the funds to make the video until the spring of 2001 and will probably not have it completed until December of next year.

The building of the Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, for which federal funding has already been approved, is expected to bring about 500,000 people to the area each year, according to the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. Bell said that if only five percent of these tourists make a stop in Lincoln and Logan County, it would mean 25,000 new visitors to the area.

"These visitors could generate hundreds of thousands of dollars for the local economy," said Jan Schumacher, a member of the Main Street Lincoln board.

The most expensive item on the master plan is a Visitor’s Center, with an estimated price tag of $500,000. The center would have small exhibits and sell gifts, but its focus would be to point the way to other Lincoln sites, such as the Lincoln Museum at Lincoln College and the Postville and Mount Pulaski courthouses. Bell said she thought the best location for the Visitor’s Center would be on the west side of Lincoln, near the major highway exits, where it would be easy for tourists to find.

She hopes to find grants or state funds to help construct the center, and possibly use funds from the local hotel-motel tax, which is not fully levied.

Two equally high priorities, according to Bell and Schumacher, are highway signs letting tourists know about the Lincoln sites and full-time staffing at the Postville and Mount Pulaski courthouses. The Mount Pulaski Courthouse is largely staffed by volunteers, and a group headed by Shirley Bartelmay is working on providing volunteers for Postville when it reopens later this fall. Funds for paid staff are also being sought.

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Bell pointed out that it is crucial to have highway signs directing tourists to the sites. She reports that the Illinois Department of Transportation says obtaining state highway signs would not be a problem. To obtain signs on an interstate highway, a site must have 200,000 visitors per year, but Bell’s report notes that there are other tourist sites with interstate signs that do not meet that requirement, and the group will seek more information about getting the interstate highway signs.

Other projects in the overall plan include signs and exhibits in each town or significant Lincoln site throughout Logan County, which would include the history of the site, Lloyd Ostendorf artwork and maps to other locations. These signs would be similar to the one to be erected later this month near the city’s christening site at the Amtrak depot. Projected cost is $150,000.

A guidebook with chapters that correspond to the signage and maps is also part of the plan. Cost for the initial printing of 25,000 copies is estimated at $50,000. "Self-serve" tourist information centers in Elkhart, Atlanta and downtown Lincoln, with brochures available, are on the list, at a projected cost of $3,000. A parking lot and picnic area next to Postville Courthouse is also in the plan, with a projected cost of $75,000. "Overlay" streetscapes in downtown Lincoln, which would show visitors how the street looked in Lincoln’s day, are projected at $175,000.

A focal point for visitors would be an Abraham Lincoln statue at a site yet to be determined. The statue would be "interactive," so visitors could sit next to it and have their pictures taken.

"I think these 10 projects should be accomplished in the next three to five years," Bell said. "Our goal is to bring more visitors to Lincoln. It is an investment in our community."

Main Street Lincoln was selected to administer Looking for Lincoln in the city of Lincoln because the program dovetails with its current mission of economic restructuring, promotion, organization and design. The group has identified three "cluster committees": the Postville, the downtown Lincoln and the Lincoln College clusters.

[Joan Crabb]

[OCT. 13, 2000]  As you may have noticed at yesterday’s market close, the Dow Jones industrials average was down almost 400 points, and the Nasdaq was down almost 100 points. By mid-morning today, the markets were bouncing back, but the trend for the past two months has been downward. Tech stocks are being hardest hit. Election year uncertainty, moderate to poor future performance predictions, as well as some third-quarter profit statements that failed to meet estimates are causes for a jittery market. Headlines like yesterday’s announcement of a terrorist attack against an American battleship, the USS Cole, in the port of Yemen, further shock the market. Yesterday’s violence and the breakdown of the peace process in the Middle East caused oil process to fly upward, and the market got hammered until the final bell.

Here at home in Logan County, fluctuations in the stock market are no longer the concern of only the wealthy. Retirement dreams, college tuition funds and life savings all take a hit when the market drops. That’s why local investment advisers have become such an important anchor to community life.

According to Dana Sydney, CFA Asset Management in Lincoln, yesterday’s market reacted to

Home Depot’s warning that their profits for the third quarter would be lower than expected. That set off a downturn for retail stocks. The events in Yemen contributed to the selling frenzy.

Usually current events don’t scare fund managers as much as changes in the predicted profit potential of businesses. World events, unless long term, may cause temporary fluctuations, but the market usually corrects itself. Sydney says that his investors are in it for the long haul and expect fluctuation in stock prices. He educates them to stay calm, and they usually do. Yesterday produced no extra phone calls from or to clients.

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Bob Neal, investment adviser for Edward Jones in Lincoln, echoes Sydney’s observations. "Our investors are conservative, and we typically get more buyers than sellers in a down market. Since the market has drifted down over the past few months, we have contacted our clients and met with them to review their asset allocation. But that is the same advice we always give."

No one is "getting out of the market," according to Neal. "We have counseled them well, and the best service we provide is to keep clients from going with their instincts. We often encourage them not to buy or sell. You can’t react to every item of news these days. Financial channels on television put out news from morning to night. It is easy for investors to overreact."

Mike Abbott is an adviser for Pacesetter Financial, which manages portfolios for investors with at least $250,000 to invest. "We don’t look at the current events," says Abbott. "The fall of the Soviet Union was an important long-term event that makes a difference to the course of business. But short-term events are not cause for a reaction in investment decisions."

[Sam Redding]

[OCT. 13, 2000]  On Thursday evening 40 to 50 people made a candlelight walk from Washington Monroe School to the Logan County Courthouse to demonstrate their concern for the prevalence of domestic violence in our communities. Domestic violence is a pattern of assaultive and coercive behaviors, including physical, sexual and psychological attacks, as well as economic coercion, that adults or adolescents use against their intimate partners to gain or maintain power and control.

In 1999 there were 153 reported cases of domestic battery in Lincoln, according to a summary report complied by Officer Diana Short of the Lincoln Police Department. This translates to an act of domestic battery every 2.38 days in Lincoln. Approximately 90 to 95 percent of domestic violence victims are women.

The Thursday event was hosted and sponsored by the Domestic Abuse and Violence Task Force of the Healthy Communities Partnership. Sojourn Shelter and Service Inc. and the Family Violence Coordinating Council provided the speaker for the evening as well as informational displays at the school.

Curtis Sutterfield, coordinator for the event, said he was pleased with the turnout and really appreciated the presentation by Judge Don Behle at the courthouse.

Sojourn provides services for the victims of domestic abuse and their children, offering assistance for emergency shelter, employment, financial situations, legal and medical situations, clothing and food, child care, counseling and advocacy in the legal system, substance abuse therapy, planning for the future, as well as individual and group counseling.

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At their presentation Sojourn presented a wish list of items that can be donated any time during the year. These items not only help Sojourn operate efficiently but provide for a comfortable stay for their clients and their children during a difficult time. Some of these items include:

• Toilet paper
• Tampons and maxi pads
• Toothbrushes
• Toothpaste
• Fingernail clippers
• Alarm clocks
• Umbrellas
• Kleenex
• Soap
• Hair dryers
• House slippers
• Bath towels
• Washcloths
• Baby wipes
• Baby formula
• Diapers
• Laundry soap
• Paper towels
• Deodorant

• Monetary donations

For more information about the mission or gifts to Sojourn, please call their hotline at (217) 726-5200

For more information about stemming the tide of domestic violence, please call Curtis Sutterfield, Domestic Abuse and Violence Task Force chairman, at (217) 732-7890.

[LDN]

[OCT. 11, 2000]  Beginning Monday, Oct. 16, the Lincoln City Landfill will be open extended hours to allow residents to dispose of leaves and yard waste, according to Donnie Osborne, street superintendent. The landfill will open at 8 a.m. and remain open until 4 p.m. seven days a week, probably until mid-December, he said. Residents may bring in leaves any way they like — in bags, boxes or pickup trucks — but they must take the leaves out of the containers and take the containers back home with them.

[OCT. 10, 2000]  The office of the city clerk in Lincoln will be open for filing petitions for nomination for the Feb. 27, 2001, consolidated primary election, with petitions accepted from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the following dates: Dec. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 18.

Petitions will be accepted for the following city offices:

• Mayor
• City treasurer
• City clerk
• Alderman Ward 1
• Alderman Ward 2
• Alderman Ward 3
• Alderman Ward 4

• Alderman Ward 5

[Juanita Josserand, city clerk]

[OCT. 9, 2000]  Registered voters expecting to be absent from the county on the Nov. 7 election day may vote in person at the Logan County Clerk’s Office, second floor, Courthouse, Room 20, Lincoln, from now until Nov. 6.

Election Authority

[OCT. 7, 2000]  Following is a list of budget requests that were heard by the Logan County Board Finance Committee on Aug. 11, 16 and 17. These requests will be compiled by the auditor and matched with the anticipated revenue for the 2001 fiscal year (Dec. 1). The finance committee will then review these numbers, make necessary adjustments and prepare a recommendation to the entire County Board in the next month. There will be a public meeting entirely devoted to budget matters in the future.

Rod White, finance chairman, 732-4793

* Paramedics: new ambulance, $90,000

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* Superintendent of schools: if office is moved, the county will have to provide all of the rental money, $20,000

* Animal control: to replace old animal-transport unit on truck, $10,000

County Board committee meeting dates for October 2000

Committee	Location	Date	Time
Board of Whole	Courthouse	Thursday, Oct. 12	7 p.m.
Finance	Courthouse	Friday, Oct. 13	8 a.m.
Adjourned Board	Courthouse	Tuesday, Oct. 17	7 p.m.
Joint Solid Waste	City Hall	Wednesday, Oct. 18	7 p.m.
Special Adjourned Board	Courthouse	Thursday, Oct. 19	7 p.m.

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