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Still Waters,
the
em space, Where They Stand,
By
the Numbers,
How We Stack Up,
What's
Up With That?
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Want
a historic structure?
Hey, Lincoln, I got one for you
By Mike
Fak
[SEPT.
6, 2001] The
old school bell casts a shadow on the Walnut Grove School House. For
50 years it has patiently waited for the call to summon rural
children back into the building for another day of learning.
[Click
here to view pictures]
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The
schoolhouse owned by Lon and Nancy Simpson sits on a section of
their property between Remington Seed company and their home on
Route 10. The Simpsons purchased the structure in 1993 from Harold
Stoll and had it moved to its new foundation and site. Originally
intended to house a small gift shop and tearoom, the schoolhouse for
the past several years has been rented out as a home by the Simpsons.
Although
the schoolhouse has seen modernization in plumbing, electricity and
a modern basement that creates living space for tenants, the
upstairs schoolhouse is as it was 100 years ago. The original tin
ceilings, flooring and woodwork, as well as blackboards, easily
represent the same appearance students in 1902 would have seen on
their first day of school in the building.
The
Simpsons have maintained the old schoolhouse and have, in effect,
probably saved it from the fate that hundreds of such structures
have met over the years.
Often
these one-room schoolhouses would be situated in a grove of trees in
the middle of a stretch of farmland. Each of those schools would
serve the educational needs of the farm children in the immediate
area. As time went on, farms became larger and rural families fewer
and farther between. Consolidation occurred, leaving the buildings
situated in the middle of nowhere — obsolete and without purpose.
There they sat until the elements or a farmer’s tractor drove them
into extinction.
[to top of second column in
this commentary]
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Records
show that few of these buildings still exist, but Walnut Grove
School still does and sits waiting to be used again, if not by
students then perhaps by visitors wanting to see what school was
like a century ago.
The
Simpsons have ideas of moving in a few years and, like doting
parents, are concerned about the future of their schoolhouse.
Approximately five years ago Mount Pulaski expressed an interest in
purchasing the school, as did the city of Atlanta. To date nothing
has come of those initial conversations. The Simpsons are not
actively seeking a buyer for the building, but in the event a group
is interested in purchasing and maintaining the school as a historic
structure, they would be willing to discuss the possibility.
In
a day when Lincoln is making a great deal about Postville Courthouse
and a well on Fifth Street, an interest in having this historic
building become part of the Lincoln tourism experience seems like a
natural to this observer.
I
am presently working on this school and can tell you a walk inside
the structure yields more antiquity and nostalgia than anything
Lincoln currently has, except the county courthouse.
Hey,
Lincoln, in the event you want to expand sites for tourism, call the
Simpsons. The old school bell is just dying to ring an opening of
the schoolhouse doors once again. It would be great if it occurred
in Lincoln.
[Mike Fak]
Reply to
Fak
(not for publication):
mikefak@msn.com
Response
to Fak's commentary:
ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com
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Economic
pie
By Mike
Fak
[SEPT.
1, 2001] I
want to give you folks a number. The number is 15,418. Go ahead and
write that down someplace. Now for the sake of analogy, let’s call
that number the economic pie. Don’t hang up on me; I’m not
giving out a recipe. I’m trying to ask a question that you folks
should answer, not I. Now some of you are sharp enough to realize
that the number is the population figure given to the city of
Lincoln for the 1990 census. That number is, for want of a better
explanation, all the potential consumers this city has to offer.
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Yes,
we can add some for travelers or visitors during one of our
promotions, but we can subtract when all of us seem to head out of
town on vacations or to find the alleged "super" bargains
in Springfield or Bloomington. We could subtract for toddlers or
seniors who don’t get out and about anymore. Just for the sake of
clarity, let’s stay with the number 15,418.
Our
city seems to be in the midst of an argument over whether we are for
economic development or are stifling it with our rules and
regulations and, most importantly, our attitude toward new business.
My
question to all of you is: Does an auto parts store when we have a
half dozen, or a Casey’s when we have eight such stores already,
really constitute economic growth at all? Is adding a business
of a type that has already met a saturation point in this town
really what we should call economic growth? Yeah, I’m for free
enterprise and creating a new tax base and creating new jobs. But if
everything that comes to Lincoln adds just enough to offset what we
eventually lose in a similar business leaving, are we really
growing?
Remember
the number 15,418. No matter what business comes to Lincoln, that is
all the economic pie there is for all the retail businesses to
absorb.
Now
new business blood can stimulate prices. There is no doubt of this.
Sometimes those new prices are short-lived, as we see another friend
of the community give up on trying to keep just enough of those
15,418 customers to stay in business. Again I have to ask, "Is
that growing?" Or are we simply changing the names of the
players involved in getting business from the 15,418?
[to top of second column in
this commentary]
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Economic
growth, to me, isn’t seeing more of the same type of retailers we
already have in Lincoln coming to town. Economic growth, to me, is
seeing the number 15,418 change to a higher number. More people mean
a larger pie to take an economic slice from. More people mean some
major retailers might look differently on us. Having a 100-year
stagnated population number doesn’t excite most major retailers
into believing growth is around the corner.
We
as a community need to determine what economic growth really is. In
my mind it is little factories and widget companies that not only
take up our unemployed workforce but also cause others to come to recognize
the opportunities those companies present in the city of Lincoln.
Changing the number 15,418 will allow new like businesses to come to
Lincoln and prosper, without meaning some of them have to close.
I
cringe when I hear the words that Lincoln is a bedroom community.
Those are the words spoken by every little town across America that
has given up on the prospect that it can attract new non-retail
business. Yes, the job is tough. We can’t just look in a catalogue
and order this kind of factory and that kind of manufacturing plant.
It can be done, however, if we put our minds and our hearts together
and decide it can be done.
Let
me know what you think. Your ideas might be just what all the rest
of us have been waiting to hear.
[Mike Fak]
Reply to
Fak
(not for publication):
mikefak@msn.com
Response
to Fak's commentary:
ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com
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This
is the em
space, a staff writer’s section with observations about life experiences in Logan County and
elsewhere. Enjoy your visit.
—
Mary Krallmann
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That could be arranged
This year on
Labor Day, a trip to my brother’s house was long overdue. When a
scheduling change freed up my mother’s weekend, we quickly put together
plans for the visit.
Originally,
it wasn’t my family’s habit to travel when three-day weekends came
around. We stayed home, out of the traffic. An extra day off from school
was a treat in itself. We didn’t need to go anywhere, especially not to
see each other, since we lived in the same house.
When jobs
and the passages of life took us to separate locations, our schedules also
shifted from school calendars to business calendars. We began to break
with tradition and make occasional trips on holidays, when there was a
better chance to get together. To justify the departure from policy, we’d
say that we stayed off the busiest roads or avoided the busiest times of
the weekend.
Now a
three-day weekend provides a basic opportunity for family time. To adapt
lyrics that came to mind during the recent trip, precious and few are the
weekends we three can share.
This time we
had to get reacquainted with the premises at my brother’s house. The
trees in the back yard had grown noticeably, giving it a more complete
canopy of green. He said that a loud chirping out there proved to be a
chipmunk.
Inside,
there were new developments in every room, with redecorating still in
progress. One of the more useful additions for guests was the set of
mirror tiles on one wall. If you have to wait your turn for time in front
of the bathroom mirror, you can always catch glimpses on the living room
wall.
That room
also serves as a guest bedroom, with the long couch as one sleeping place
and your choice of floor space for another (bring your own bedding). I
think my mom was surprised one morning to see my feet where my head was
the night before, but it was darker that way, avoiding a night light, so I
switched.
Coming from
the recent balloon fest in Lincoln, I noticed a balloon jigsaw in a puzzle
catalog on the coffee table. The jigsaw didn’t just picture balloons; it
was in that shape. True to form, the puzzle included special-shape pieces,
such as a kite.
The town had
a Chicken & Corn Fest on Sunday, but we enjoyed our sale-priced corn
on the cob, fresh from the nearest grocery store, the evening before.
Visiting at
my brother’s church, I almost managed to drop the collection plate as it
went by, but he came to the rescue as I attempted to pass it along and put
in my offering while filling out a guest card balanced on a hymnal, along
with a service folder, newsletter and notebook.
Returning
from church, we passed a mural painted on a building and saw the area’s
statue of choice — yellow, green and purple giraffes standing in for
Chicago cows or a Lincoln watermelon.
On the way
back from a walk to the park that afternoon, I stopped to respond to a
couple in a van. They were looking for the town festival site. Gesturing
in the general direction, I told them I’d just come from there and it
was down that way. I figured they’d find it when they saw the car-lined
streets. I’d gone just to take notes on unusual license plates, not to
hear the featured Boyzz from Illinoizz. My mom and brother thought the
strangers asking local directions from another stranger was the best part
of the report.
We capped
the family-style weekend with a night of table games. It took only two
attempts to win triple solitaire, so we moved on to a version of rummy
packaged in what looks like a small suitcase. As my mom put it, I got the
highest score, but the low score was the winner. My brother worked out
complex solutions, taking apart multiple sets and runs and reconstructing
them to include more playing pieces that he wanted to get rid of, but in
the end Mom won three games out of six.
When it comes to the six regular
holidays, only two make guaranteed three-day weekends, so this one almost
had to be a winner. When you see a prospect on the schedule, it’s as my
brother titled his CD of hymn arrangements, "That Could Be
Arranged..."
[Mary
Krallmann]
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Where
They Stand
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Where
They Stand is a commentary section that poses a question about a
specific issue in the community. Informed individuals present their
position with facts, opinions or insights on the issue. The
following commentaries have been printed, unedited, in their
entirety, as they were received. If you have further comment on the
issue, please send an e-mail message, complete with your name,
address and telephone number to ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com.
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By
the Numbers
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Population
estimates in Logan County
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| 30,798 |
Total population,
1990 |
| 15,380 |
Rural population -
49.9%, 1990 |
| 15,418 |
Urban population -
50.1%, 1990 |
| 2,875 |
Projected births,
1990-1998 |
| 2,736 |
Projected deaths,
1990-1998 |
| 3,143 |
Persons below poverty
level - 11.8 % |
| 258 |
Average marriages per
year |
| 135 |
Average deaths per
year |
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Alexis Asher
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| Logan
County high schools: 1960-2000 |
| 1962 |
Middletown
High School consolidated with New Holland |
| 1972 |
Atlanta
High School became part of Olympia School District |
| 1975 |
Elkhart
High School consolidated with Mount Pulaski |
| 1979 |
Latham
High School became Warrensburg-Latham |
| 1988 |
New Holland-Middletown
High School consolidated with Lincoln Community High School |
| 1989 |
San
Jose High School consolidated with Illini Central (Mason City) |
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