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The
facility will house an athletic and convocation center and a greatly
expanded Lincoln College Museum. The new facility will offer
increased opportunities for regional and sectional tournaments and
other competitions and will quadruple the available museum display
space. A donation of $4,850,000 is being contributed from
individuals, foundations and corporations.
Other
Illinois FIRST grants announced by Ryan:
• $150,000 to Farmer City to construct a new storm sewer. This project
was initiated by State Sen. Claude "Bud" Stone, R-Morton.
• $50,000 to the Rochester Unit School District 3A for tennis court
lighting and a press box and bleachers for the soccer fields at the
Rochester Sports Complex. $50,000 is being contributed from the
Rochester Youth Athletic Association and Rochester Athletic Booster
Club. This project was initiated by state Sen. Larry K. Bomke,
R-Springfield.
[to top of second column in this
article]
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• $20,000 to Cazenovia Township to purchase a road maintenance vehicle.
The township is contributing $25,000. This project was initiated by
Stone.
Illinois
FIRST funds are not part of the state budget’s General Revenue
Fund. Recently, lagging tax collections brought on by a slowdown in
the national economy and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 have
forced the governor to order spending cuts in the General Revenue
Fund that amount to less than 2 percent of total spending. Illinois
FIRST monies are derived from separate accounts in the state budget
— the Road Fund and the Fund for Illinois Future — as well as
through the sale of state bonds.
[News
release]
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"We’re
one of very few communities of our size that has a local daily print
paper, a local daily Internet paper, a local radio station and local
community TV," according to Mike Fak, company spokesperson for
Log-On. The new status "should allow us the time to produce
documentaries with a local interest for our viewers," explains
Fak. "In the last two years we have learned a great deal about
what this community enjoys and what it has an interest in. We just
hope to get enough funding to cover the events and activities."
Funding
As
a not-for-profit corporation, Log-On Productions will be able to
receive tax-deductible donations and apply for grants that will help
them expand some of the valuable community services they already
perform. They intend to seek state and federal funding in the way of
grants, but don’t feel they can depend on these sources. The
company estimates that their income will break at about 35 percent
from area businesses; 20 percent from individuals; 15 percent from
sales, videos, DVDs, etc.; and 30 percent corporate support.
The
three principal employees of the production corporation, Tim Rogers,
Jim Ash and Mike Fak, have over 50 years of audiovisual, news
reporting and communications experience. Jim and Tim began Linc-On
when the local radio station, WPRC, closed. At that time we had no
more local news being broadcast. Local noted newspaper columnist
Mike joined the pair later. With his usual positive candor he says,
"I’m looking forward to doing both voice and visual. I think
that’s the cat’s keister."
While
each of the men brings his own talents and expertise, they’ll all
tell you every bit of it is a collaborative effort. Somehow they all
just do what they do and every job gets done well. In their most
distinguishing roles Ash is writer, on-camera narrator, producer and
handles new development. Technology supervisor Tim Rogers spends his
time behind the scenes and camera and brainstorming. He’s known as
"the savant idea man," with ideas popping out of him at
just the right time. He conducts filming, editing and production.
Fak lends face, voice and character in addition to production and
promotion for the company.
Community
TV
There
is very little original programming being done at the local level in
our nation. Only 15 percent of the country has community TV; of
that, 7 percent is in California, with Ohio and New York providing
most of the rest. "Mostly it is news and not so much the local
news at that," states Fak. The whole field of community TV is
only 20 years old. "We’re going to try to take a leap in
community communications. We will see how far we will go," he
says.
Linc-On
recently received a county award from the Logan County Emergency
Services and Disaster Agency/911/Local Emergency Planning Committee.
The award was in recognition for excellent coverage and the quality
of their productions of the "Patriotic Expression"
gatherings at the Logan County Courthouse.
The
new company is looking forward to doing much more of just that sort
of community documentation and involvement. Ash explained, "We’re
hoping to be able to produce a lot of local programs like
documentaries and biographies. We’d like to be able to help the
schools out as well. We’re thinking of ourselves like a learning
tool. We can teach the kids how to do it and let them do their own
shows. We’ll let them handle it, and we’ll just give them some
guidance."
The
company will also be producing some commercials and video
presentations. They are particularly interested in working for other
not-for-profits to help out them by offering lower cost. The local
blood bank is on their production docket.
Word
has gotten out about a high-profile project. A one-hour documentary
on both Central and Lincoln Junior High School is in the planning.
It will celebrate the history of the buildings and the people who
have passed through their hallways. It is expected to take a couple
of months in production. Both of the school principals, District 27
Superintendent Robert Kidd and teachers are said to be excited and
pleased to see this done. The extent to which it will be produced is
based on some funding. "It has $2,500 starting base," Fak
stated. "It will be done no matter what, but more funding will
increase the quality."
With
lots of experience on their side, the new company is hoping to
upgrade their equipment soon. It will enable them to produce
higher-quality productions. At the top of their list, Fak says,
"We would like to have a more sophisticated camera than the one
that we have. There is equipment out there that will enable us to do
a much better job. The camera we are looking at has audiovisual
dubbing with more diversification capabilities. Added equipment that
will enhance quality of what we’re going to air."
Forthcoming
projects
A
documentary currently being worked on using financial support from
their present advertising base is "1000 Miles From Home."
It explores the personal and financial repercussions to our
Midwestern culture from the events of Sept. 11, 2001. Exploring
personal feelings, the effect on local factory orders, a renewal of
patriotism and concern for personal safety are just a few of the
topics that will be touched on in this one-hour story.
[to top of second column in this
article]
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Another
planned documentary is "Inside The Dome, The Story Of Logan
County’s Courthouse." It explores the building of the
structure and tells its history to present day. It will also explore
the basement and take the viewers up inside the huge dome amidst the
staging and gangplanks where technicians work to keep the four,
10-foot tall clocks in working order.
Another
special program is "Forty Acres and A Mule." This one-hour
report will explore the small family farm in Logan County. It will
discuss commodity prices, grain production and the struggles smaller
farm owners are facing in this day and age of mega-farms.
There
are also hopes to embark on an ambitious four-hour mini series:
"The History Of Logan County." Using archival photographs,
local personalities for voices, it will bring a greater
understanding of the heritage of our area.
Shows
that found a success and will be carried over:
•
Local news — A 15-minute nightly feature.
•
"The Fak’s Machine" — A one and a half-hour live
call-in show to discuss community issues.
•
LCHS sports — Lincoln High School football games, Lincoln High
School boys and girls basketball games.
•
"Around The Town" — A show that highlights events and
milestones in the viewing area.
•
"Coaches Corner" — Interviews and discussion with area
coaches with different sports backgrounds.
•
"The Chamber Report" — Show hosted by the Lincoln/Logan
Chamber of Commerce to promote business and tourism events.
•
Special events — Includes such programs as live election night
coverage, Meet the Candidates, Logan County Fair, Art and Balloon
Fest, tribute to the victims of the WTC disaster, the Christmas
parade, and many more special events endemic to the viewing area.
•
"Home and Garden Show" — An hourly, once-a-month show
hosted by a local greenhouse operator with tips as well as advice
available for call-ins.
•
Religious services — The company currently has three local
churches televising services on weekends and has invited all
denominations to become involved in this program
•
"Community Message Board" — A rotating message system
that promotes all charitable and special events in the viewing area.
Programs
intended to be developed and air with available funding include:
•
"Under 21" — A show completely developed and controlled
by the youth of this community under the guidance of school faculty.
Promotes an audiovisual curriculum as well as a journalism class to
help the community’s youth produce other programs, including
coverage of minor sports and academics that currently receive little
notoriety.
•
Special classes in augmentation with the area colleges, televising
classroom courses that are taken at home for residents of any age.
•
"Issues in Our Town" — A show that will give a half hour
to each side of a key issue facing the community. It was
experimented with in a program dealing with a school referendum and
allowing all five mayoral candidates in the past election to have an
opportunity to convey their message.
•
"The Oasis Report" — A monthly program developed by the
Lincoln Senior Citizen Center to keep local seniors abreast of news
that is important to them.
•
"Looking At The News" — A program allowing local
newspaper personnel to discuss community stories and how they were
covered. The critique will include both newspapers, the general
media, as well as the programs on our own Channel 15.
•
"The Sports Reporters" — A half-hour, once-a-week show
featuring area sports personalities discussing area athletics.
•
"The Farm Report" — A half-hour-per-week program hosted
by the local Extension service to discuss issues and news important
to area farmers.
•
"Milestones" — A half-hour, every-other-week show that
focuses on major milestones in the lives of viewers and their
organizations.
•
"The People Speak" — A taped half-hour show for which
all viewers are invited to create a five-minute segment on issues
they wish to discuss on access television.
There
are many more plans on the back burner for other series. The goal of
Log-On Productions is to create a morning-to-late-evening television
station that will produce and broadcast programs that are of local
interest to the Lincoln and Logan County viewing audience.
Log-On
is in need of researchers. Volunteers can work from home if they
have a computer and Internet connection. Log-On will soon open an
office at 5 Arcade, across from Guzzardo’s. They continue to
receive mail at:
Log-On
Productions Inc.
1102
Keokuk St.
Lincoln,
IL 62656
[Jan
Youngquist]
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“There
are three major requests that we receive from users,” says Curt
Schleich, chief rechnology officer at CCAonline. “The first
request is that we do something about all the unsolicited junk
e-mail that people receive from sources, selling everything from
financial services to pornography.” These unsolicited e-mail
messages are commonly referred to as spam. The second request,
according to Schleich, is to do something about all the viruses that
are floating around the Internet that come down to innocent users as
attachments to e-mail messages. And the third request is to provide
filtered, family-friendly Internet browsing that will lessen the
threat that children can browse the wrong Internet sites and see
content not meant for their eyes.
The
two new optional services CCAonline will offer are designed to
address all three of these issues. First, users can purchase an
e-mail filtering service from CCAonline that is designed to filter
out all the virus-laden messages, keeping them from even coming down
to the user’s computer. The service, a spam filter, will catch the
unsolicited messages before they come to the user’s computer and
will quarantine them. The user can go to his own private quarantine
web page, view the messages that have been held, delete or read
them, select individual settings for automating the processes, and
not be bothered with spam messages ever again.
[to top of second column in this
article]
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The
second new service that CCAonline offers is designed to filter out
the selection of websites that might contain offensive or
undesirable content. “Many parents of young children and
teen-agers have asked us to help them supervise the content their
children can get into on the Internet,” said Jim Youngquist, president
of CCAonline. “This new service will help prevent them from
purposefully or accidentally viewing harmful content.” The
filtered service works by looking ahead for site content, and using
reserved keywords, prevents the user from going to restricted sites.
Both
Schleich and Youngquist mention that these two services probably
will not be perfect. Spammers and those who put up pornography
websites are continually trying to “market” their products and
will occasionally find ways to evade detection.
Both
the e-mail filter and the website browsing filter are optional
services. Users who desire these services may contact CCAonline and
request them for an additional monthly fee.
[LDN]
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All
meetings are in the chamber of commerce conference room at 303 S.
Kickapoo St. unless noted otherwise.
Thursday,
Jan. 3, through Tuesday, Jan. 8 — Chamber Institute
Friday,
Jan. 4 — Ambassadors meeting, noon
Thursday,
Jan. 10 — Government/Education Committee, 7:30 a.m. at Al’s Main
Event
Tuesday,
Jan. 15 — Chamber Marketing Committee, 8:30 a.m. at Grapes &
Grounds
Wednesday,
Jan. 16 — 3rd Wednesday Morning Mixer, 7:30 a.m. at a
location to be announced
Thursday,
Jan. 17 — Chamber board meeting, 11:45 a.m.-1 p.m.
Friday,
Jan. 18 — New members luncheon at the Depot at noon
Monday,
Jan. 21 — Martin Luther King Day
Tuesday,
Jan. 22 — Tourism board meeting, 5 p.m.
Thursday,
Jan. 31 — Technology Committee, 8 a.m.; Executive Committee, noon,
Blue Dog Inn
Saturday,
Feb. 2 — Chamber annual dinner (mark your calendar now!)
[to top of second column in
this section]
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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.
Bobbi
Abbott, Executive Director
Lincoln/Logan
County Chamber of Commerce
303
S. Kickapoo St.
Lincoln,
IL 62656
(217)
735-2385
chamber@lincolnillinois.com
www.lincolnillinois.com
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The
Chamber Report