Features,  Announcements,  The Chamber Report,

Honors & Awards,  Main Street Corner News,  Job Hunt,

Lottery Numbers,  World / National Business News,

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Features

[APRIL 20, 2001]  The Tropics Steak & Pasta House at 1007 Hickory Drive, on historic Route 66, has been open under the management of Tim Dalipi for two weeks, serving a mixed menu of Italian and American dishes.

Five members of the Dalipi family are involved in the operation of the restaurant. Sam Dalipi ran former restaurants in Chicago, Peoria, Champaign and Sullivan, but says he now just works for his son Tim. Sam’s brother Jim is chef, Tim’s sister Rita is hostess and his brother Tefik works in back. In addition, the restaurant employs about 20 waitresses and three bartenders.

[Nancy Treatch and Gretchen Neville savor a bite to eat.]

Sam Dalipi was born in Albania, and the special Wednesday night was chicken Albanese, made with broccoli, red pepper, artichokes and herbs and sautéed in white wine. Italian dishes such as the house special pasta combination of manicotti, meat lasagna and cannelloni are featured on the menu. There is even a dessert called chocolate lasagna, consisting of layered chocolate cake, cream and chocolate morsels. When asked to differentiate between Italian and Albanian cuisine, both Tim and Sam Dalipi said the two are virtually identical.

The Tropics’ menu offers variety in every category. A few examples are calamari and stuffed mushrooms for appetizers; spinach, princess and julienne salads; French dip and Italian beef sandwiches; chicken Piccante, Sorentino, Francaise and Scarpariella; several cuts of steak and seafood choices; and cheesecake and tiramisu for dessert.

[The main dining rooms have been newly refurnished with some of the more significant Tropics features, like the tropical island mural kept intact. The old Coffee Shop has been made into a smoking area.]

A separate lunch menu will be available starting Monday, April 23. Tim Dalipi said it will offer a wide variety, from sandwiches to steak, and will include specials, as does the evening menu. The restaurant is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Entrees on the regular menu range in price from about $6 to $15.

The kitchen of the restaurant follows the same design as formerly but has been furnished with totally new equipment. Broilers, grills, stoves, fryers, coolers, steam tables, pots and pans — "from dishes to floor mats, everything is new," Sam Dalipi said.

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The former coffee shop is now the dining room for smokers, and the two dining rooms are newly furnished. Carpeting is green, and chairs sport a green and red paisley print on blue with red trim. New wall art features florals and Italian scenes. However, in addition to updating the look of the restaurant, the Dalipis have retained a bit of The Tropics of the past. The tropical island mural long associated with the restaurant still graces one wall, and Tim Dalipi said Lew Johnson is bringing back some of the paintings that were previously displayed. Two Route 66 signs remind diners of the location on that historic highway.

One change to the bar area is that windows have been cut in the wall so the interior can be seen from the hall and from the dining room for smokers. The L-shaped bar is still there, but wood trim has been added. Tim Dalipi expresses pride in how the bar turned out.

A full wall now separates the banquet area from the regular dining room. Entrance to the banquet rooms is from the west, near the tropical island mural. The banquet area can be made into one or two rooms and can seat 25 to 150. Refurbishment so far includes repainting and replacement of ceiling tile. The area will open in approximately a month, after new carpet and furniture are in place.

Tim Dalipi said the entire restaurant can accommodate 220 people. The changes have somewhat reduced capacity.

[Looking into the bar]

"Business is doing real well, and people have been great," he said. He describes The Tropics as a family restaurant and offers a children’s menu of several items.

The family began working on the restaurant last summer, but the lease officially began in December 2000, according to Tim Dalipi. He said one plan for the future is to redesign outside signs to update the exterior look of the restaurant.

[Lynn Spellman]

[APRIL 19, 2001]  The president of the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce updated local Chamber members Wednesday on issues before the state legislature that may impact local businesses.

Unemployment insurance tax relief, the state Chamber’s first priority for new legislation, has passed the Senate but faces difficulty in the House, according to Illinois Chamber President Todd Maisch. The two-bill package cuts the minimum tax rate in half and eliminates the fund-building surcharge passed in the early 1980s, when the unemployment insurance fund was in debt. Now the fund for future unemployment benefits has grown to $2.1 billion. "Sending money to a bloated trust fund is not a good idea," said Maisch, who hopes to convince the pro-organized-labor majority in the House that reinvesting in business creates jobs.

A bill requiring employers of more than 50 workers to provide insurance for mental health on the same terms as other illnesses will probably be enacted, Maisch said at the legislative breakfast sponsored by the Government/Education Committee of the Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce. Because the bill increases employers’ health insurance expenditures, the Illinois Chamber opposes it, but he said the bill as passed by the Senate has been revised to something that "the business community can live with."

The Illinois Chamber supports increased Medicaid payments to hospitals, nursing homes and other health-care providers, seeing a cost shift to private-pay customers if the government does not pay its share. Speaking at The Restaurant at the Depot Wednesday morning, Maisch said he hopes some of the many issues concerning health-care providers can be addressed outside the legislative process.

How state legislative districts are redrawn to comply with the 2000 census will influence the lawmaking process for a decade. Maisch said his description of the Illinois process for redistricting elicits disbelief from colleagues in other states. He described the process as potentially having three stages: First, lawmakers try to reach agreement. If there is a stalemate in the General Assembly, a commission evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats is appointed. If that commission also fails to reach consensus, two names are put in a hat and the party of the person whose name is pulled out gets to draw the redistricting map.

Whichever party draws the map, downstate districts will become larger and fewer because of the greater growth in Chicago and the suburbs. Maisch said that because of the population increase in McLean County, the representative and senatorial districts including Lincoln might expand in that direction.

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A law restricting telemarketing is likely to be enacted, Maisch said. The bill sets up a do-not-call list which telemarketers must consult and use to cull their lists four times per year, with a $2,500 penalty for each failure to comply.

Many of the issues addressed by the Illinois State Chamber this session were determined at an October 2000 meeting attended by more than 40 representatives of local chambers of commerce. Bobbi Abbott, executive director of the Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce, attended the meeting, along with Marty Ahrends of the Agriculture Committee and Wanda Lee Rohlfs of the Government/Education Committee.

Maisch distributed an update detailing progress on the nine issues defined by the group. They include initiatives in favor of workers’ compensation reform, revision of the program for testing Illinois students and incentives for cleanup of environmentally contaminated sites. Only the environmental clean-up bill has passed in one body, the Senate.

The state Chamber opposes extending the federal Family and Medical Leave Act to smaller businesses, increasing the minimum wage, allowing doctors to form price-fixing cartels and reinstating the Structural Work Act, which allowed injured workers to go outside the workers’ compensation system to sue third parties. All three bills are either dead or of uncertain passage. The Illinois State Chamber of Commerce also wants to repeal the Illinois Responsible Property Transfer Act for potentially contaminated land, saying the bill is obsolete.

Maisch praised the pro-business majority in the Illinois Senate, including Bob Madigan (R-Lincoln). Madigan spoke briefly, also citing redistricting and Medicaid reimbursement to hospitals and long-term care facilities as important issues. He said he has been involved in reviewing the retired teachers health insurance plan. Madigan disagreed with the perception that the General Assembly is halfway through the legislative session. Instead he likened it to being one period into a three-period hockey game. Reconciliation of House and Senate bills and redistricting still must be addressed.

[Lynn Spellman]

[MARCH 27, 2001]  ^"It could be as soon as next week." The statement made by station manager Jim Ash was in regard to the area’s new radio station, WMNW, going on the air. The local station, situated on a parcel of land on Lazy Row, rural Atlanta, is just about ready to begin a courtship of central Illinois listeners. Owned by K and M Communications out of Skokie, the new station will bring local radio back to Logan County as well as supplement existing stations in the 30-mile radius surrounding the transmitter.

Ash, a 19-year mainstay at the defunct WPRC and for the last two years at WUIS in Springfield, says that both the tower and transmitter are ready to span the airwaves on 96.3 FM. "We still need carpeting and some furniture and other items," Ash said, "but as soon as we get our hookup with our network affiliate, ABC, we will go on the air."

Ash reiterated that the station will primarily be music. "The format will be classic rock from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s," Ash noted. "We will have news briefs from ABC and some local news as well. Primarily we are interested in delivering music and are not interested in becoming another news station." Ash was quick to point out that with a 24-hour format geared to the Logan County area, any important breaking news will receive priority. "In the event of special alerts, inclement weather bulletins or area schools or businesses closing, WMNW will drop its music to give residents the latest information as soon as possible."

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Ash stated that as the station delves into the airwaves it will determine if any fine tuning will be done to the principal format. He also stated that any businesses interested in becoming an advertiser on the station can contact him at his home at 735-4930.

[Mike Fak]

[MARCH 5, 2001]  More than a year and a half after the first plans were laid, Lincoln’s major Internet provider, CCAonline, has broken ground for a new tower that will provide Lincoln with broadband-wireless Internet access. "Lincoln can now compete with surrounding larger cities such as Springfield and Peoria that have DSL and cable modems," says Curt Schleich, webmaster and co-owner of CCA Wireless.

This new wireless service will offer high-speed Internet service at reasonable prices that businesses and individuals can afford. While the service is new to the public, the technology has been around since the ’60s. It was previously used only by the military. Wireless solves the "last mile" communications problems that occur between house and main source, as in between house and local Internet server.

Why wireless?

The consideration to add wireless began more than two years ago when Computer Consulting Associates owners Jim Youngquist and Curt Schleich began researching for an improved means to provide better quality high-speed Internet access. Without the use of big company equipment, our area telephone lines cannot support DSL or cable modems that are used by other larger communities.

Where do you go to buy a tower and what tower do you choose?

CCA investigated "getting an antenna into the air using downtown buildings or current towers," informs Schleich, but those choices proved to be either quality or cost-prohibitive, or lacked a place for nearby equipment storage. It was soon recognized that a tower was the only option.

The quest for a tower source was the first step. After some searching a company was located that had been building towers since 1949. Plans were drawn up and engineer approved. All was falling in line with the timing of the city building code and special use applications. Then a sad thing happened. One of the partners in the tower company died suddenly. The company was shutting down. After a new search was begun, it took many months to find another provider at a much higher cost. Then there would be the special application for engineering approval, more time and fees again. Just as another company that could do the job was found, CCA received word that the original tower company was resuming business with a new assistant. The original plans, already drawn up with engineering approval, could be used.

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Dotting their i’s and crossing their t’s

In the meantime, there was also some time involved in getting approval from the city to erect the tower. Soon, CCA was approved as one of several tower sites under the city’s new Telecommunications Tower Ordinance. CCA is open to adding other antennas for other businesses. At this time the tower will sport two antennas. One will be for CCA Wireless and they have one renter, Illinois Paging, scheduled to go up later. Currently, there is room for one more antenna on this facility.

Schleich is excited about bringing this new technology to Lincoln. Because it is new technology he could not say just how many users the wireless will be able to support on the first antenna. As with their online business, he plans to "closely monitor equipment for bandwidth and how much the service is used."

When asked about what this project has cost besides a lot of patience and planning, Schleich responds, "By the time we’re all done it will have cost between $20,000 and $25, 000."

You can log on to www.ccaonline.com for more information about wireless technology. Schleich says you can also find cost and sign-up information. There are already about 70 sign-ups on the waiting list. The sign-ups will be notified via e-mail when the tower is up and service has been initialized. Then "sign-ups will be contacted in turn for site evaluation and equipment setup," he says.

Welcome to the 21^st century, Lincoln!

[Jan Youngquist]

Announcements

[APRIL 20, 2001]  Congress repealed the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) June 30, 2000. A new Workforce Investment Act (WIA) has replaced it. The Logan County Illinois Employment and Training Center (IETC) now houses two offices:  Illinois Department of Employment and Security Office (IDES), "the unemployment office," and Logan County Workforce Office (WIA)

Effective April 30, 2001, the offices will be at the following address:

120 S. McLean St., Suite B

Farm Bureau Building

Lincoln, IL 62656

The new e-mail address is ietc@abelink.com.

Phone and fax numbers remain the same: phone (217) 735-5441 and fax (217) 732-2658.

Staff members are Fred Wiemer, Rod Lewis and Jan Gleason.

Please feel free to contact any of the staff for employment and training services. The staff looks forward to serving you.

The Chamber Report

[APRIL 20, 2001]  With a growing number of empty storefronts just waiting for development, the Chamber of Commerce hopes to spark an interest in area individuals who have considered purchasing a franchise business. A Franchise Start-Up Workshop, sponsored by the Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce, will be on Wednesday, April 25, at 6:30 p.m.

Franchise businesses allow owners to sell goods and services that have instant name recognition and to obtain training and ongoing support to help them succeed.

 The two-hour workshop will be in the conference room of the Chamber office at 303 S. Kickapoo St. (second floor, Union Planters Bank). Bill Wilkerson, with the Small Business Development Center, will present the workshop.

For more information or to register for the conference, call the Chamber of Commerce, 735-2385.

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Other upcoming events

April 26 — Office professionals luncheon

Always a sold-out event, this luncheon brings bosses and office professionals together for lively entertainment, a generous buffet lunch, free office product samples and door prizes!

June 8 — Chamber roundup golf tournament, auction and dinner

The Chamber of Commerce is a catalyst for community progress, bringing business and professional people together to work for the common good of Lincoln and Logan County.

Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce

303 S. Kickapoo St., Lincoln

(217) 735-2385

Fax (217) 735-9205

www.lincolnillinois.com

chamber@lincolnillinois.com

[Provided by Bobbi Abbott, executive director of Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce]

Honors & Awards

[APRIL 19, 2001]  Congratulations to James Rusk, who has been named Abraham Lincoln Memorial Hospital April Employee of the Month. He has worked in the dietary department at ALMH since 1998.

Rusk’s nominators state that he "is very compassionate with the patients and their needs. He’s willing to lend a hand without even asking for his help—he just jumps right in. James does a great job and you can always count on him to follow up on things."

Rusk was born and raised in Bloomington and currently resides in Lincoln. He enjoys spending time with his family, and he also enjoys cooking.

[ALMH news release]

Main Street Corner News

[APRIL 21, 2001]  Please mark your calendar for the following meetings and activities that pertain to you:

•  Monday, April 23, 5:30 p.m. — National Historic Preservation Week Committee meets at Eckert's

•  Tuesday, April 24, 5:30 p.m. — Design Committee meets at Main Street office (Note location change)

•  Tuesday, April 24, 7 p.m. — Looking for Lincoln Master Plan Committee meets in Union Planters Bank Conference Room.

•  Wednesday, April 25, 5:30 p.m. — Economic Restructuring Committee meets in Library Annex

•  Thursday, April 26, 8:30 a.m. — Festival of Trees Committee meets in Farm Bureau Building

•  Thursday, April 26,  7 p.m. — Lincoln City Council meets (agenda includes approval of new city budget) in council chambers

•  Monday, April 30, 5:30 p.m. — National Historic Preservation Week Committee meets at Eckert's

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•  Tuesday, May 8,  8 a.m. — Mornings on Main at Sorrento's

•  Wednesday, May 9, 5:30 p.m. — Main Street Lincoln board meets at the office

•  Thursday, May 10, and Friday, May 11 — Illinois Main Street Conference at the Hilton in Springfield. Conference cost is $60. It's suggested that if you have not attended the Main Street Basic Training class, you attend the one offered at 10:30 a.m. to noon on Thursday.  Awards banquet is Thursday evening. Cost is $30 additional. Please have reservations to Wendy by Friday, April 27.

mailto:manager@mainstreetlincoln.com 

Job Hunt

Now Lincolndailynews.com makes it easy to look for a job in the Logan County area
with our new Job Hunt feature in the Business section.

Employers, you can list available jobs by e-mailing ldn@lincolndailynews.com. Each job listing costs $10 the first week, $20 for eight days to three months. There is a limit of 75 words per announcement.

Help Wanted:  Part-time night time supervisor at Lincoln Public Library

Work Schedule:  Week one:  Monday-Thursday 3-8 p.m., Friday 12-6 p.m., Saturday 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m.

                           Week two:  Monday-Thursday 3-8 p.m.

Hourly rate is based on experience and qualifications.  A basic knowledge of computers is required.

Contact Richard Sumrall at 732-8878, or applications are available at 725 Pekin St.

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