Features

[OCT. 15, 2002]  As of 5:30 a.m. Thursday, Casey’s General Store at 1100 Fifth St. will be open for business and celebrating with three days of free samples, prizes and special promotions.

[Photos by Lynn Spellman]

In the words of area supervisor Sandy Barr of Atlanta, the store offers "a little bit of everything." In front are the fuel pumps. Inside, the shelves are laden with juices, lunchmeat, cheese, diapers, frozen and canned foods, soft drinks, beer, and cigarettes, to name just a few. Altogether, Casey’s stocks 1,500 retail food and nonfood items, Barr explained, making it a "mini grocery store."

In addition the store offers a snack bar with sandwiches and homemade pizza and doughnuts. The pizza recipe calls for fresh vegetables as well as fresh-made dough. Morning specialties include breakfast pizza, sandwiches and hash browns.

Grand opening activities run for three days, from 5:30 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 17, to 11 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19. Twinkie the Kid, a walking Hostess Twinkie, will be there, complete with hat and bandana. Prizes to be distributed include bicycles as well as other goods. "Our vendors have been really, really generous" in donating prizes, Barr said.

Casey’s itself is providing other prizes and giveaways, such as balloons and free samples of soft drinks and pizza. And there are specially priced items, including soft drinks.

The manager of the new store is Paula Morrow of Lincoln. She and assistant manager Tammy Goff, also of Lincoln, have been training for two months at a Casey’s in Bloomington. The 20 other employees have been in training almost as long — 1½ months. Among other procedures, they have been learning to make the pizza and doughnuts the company prides itself on.

Barr said the store is fully staffed, although she is still accepting applications because "you never know." Store hours are from 5:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily.

On Wednesday, Oct. 9, the new building passed its final inspection by Casey’s. At that time the district manager and maintenance supervisor checked and approved every feature. Construction of the building began in June.

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Finishing touches include brick sidewalks along Fifth and Madison streets and sodding beside the walks. Barr explained that brick was chosen for the sidewalks because the store is in a historic area, with Postville Courthouse State Historic Site just across Madison Street. With many workers on the job, sodding was completed in a single afternoon. Eddington & Sons of Springfield did the brickwork, using over 8,000 bricks in the process.

Barr, Morrow and Goff all agreed that service to customers is the company’s No. 1 priority. "Without them, we wouldn’t have a paycheck, now would we?" asked Goff. Barr said service is emphasized in the ongoing teaching program for employees.

[District manager Dianne Cooper of Lostant stands with Lincoln store manage Paula Morrow of Lincoln and area supervisor Sandy Barr of Atlanta]

The trio said other goals of the chain are producing good products and maintaining a family orientation. "We pride ourselves on clean stores," Barr added.

The corporate headquarters for Casey’s General Store is at Ankeny, Iowa. Of the now 1,286 stores, 95 are privately owned franchises. The Lincoln operation is one of the nearly 1,200 stores owned by the company.

Casey’s is primarily a Midwestern and small-town company, but it is branching out from its traditional base, Barr said. The firm has stores in Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Minnesota and South Dakota. Among nearby cities, there are two locations each in Bloomington, Normal and Decatur and three in Springfield. "Anything is possible in the future," Barr said, regarding directions of growth.

The new store is not the first Casey’s location in Lincoln. An earlier store located at the corner of Limit and Tremont streets failed after several years. Barr said she trained at that location. She said scouts select Casey’s sites and she does not know their criteria, although she considers Fifth Street a prime location.

"I’m really excited about this," Barr said of the new operation. "I can see the growth in Lincoln. I was born and raised here."

[Lynn Spellman]

‘Back Talk’ airs Fridays on WMNW

[OCT. 9, 2002]  ATLANTA — A new health program, "Back Talk," airs Friday mornings from 9:30 to 10 on FIX 96 WMNW radio, Atlanta. The program can be heard at 96.3 FM.

Hosted by Frank Adubato of 1st Choice Chiropractic in Lincoln and chiropractors Amyas Kabir and Wayne Christenson of Kabir Family Chiropractic Center in Bloomington, the show features helpful advice on topics ranging from headaches, back and neck pain, fatigue, and arthritis to digestive disorders, female problems, muscle spasms and more. During the program listeners are welcome to call in their questions at (217) 648-5510 or toll-free 1 (877) 963-9669.

[WMNW press release]

Sangamon Street is the coming place

[SEPT. 13, 2002]  Sangamon Street was a busy place in the 1850s, bustling with hotels and other businesses to serve the travelers who came in on the train. Almost 150 years later, the historic street is once again bringing folks to downtown Lincoln, not just for an overnight stay but as a place to live.

[Click here for more photos]

Above the businesses on South Sangamon there are now 21 apartments. According to Larry Steffens, who has developed 14 of them, there could be a lot more if everybody who owned property on the street decided to turn the upper stories of their businesses into living units. He estimates there could be 46 housing units on the block between Pulaski and Broadway alone.

[Photos by Jan Youngquist]

The newest apartment, already rented, was remodeled by Steve and Susie Fuhrer. It’s located above Health and Fitness Balance, also remodeled by the Fuhrers, which is next door to Susie’s Blue Dog Inn.

The new apartment, like many others on the block, preserves as much historic appeal as possible. Windows the size of the originals were installed in the foot-thick brick wall in front, providing a view of the courthouse dome and the mural across the street. The brick has been cleaned, tuck-pointed and sealed.

It wasn’t possible to save the original wood floor, so the new apartment is carpeted except for tile floors in the kitchen and bath. The apartment is a gracious blend of old and new — the old brick wall and a brand-new all-electric kitchen.

Above her Blue Dog Inn, Susie said, the floors are in good condition, but the Fuhrers have no plans to develop that space right now. Originally the Illinois Hotel, the upper floors are divided into 34 small rooms and a suite. If times get better, the Fuhrers might think about building more apartments.

Dwight Smothers, who owns Flounders, thinks he could fit eight apartments in the space above his nightclub, but he’s not ready to do that right now, either. He did remodel the front of his building about four years ago and put in new floors.

"If things pick up, we might think about making apartments upstairs," he said.

Across Pulaski Street, Dale Bassi and partner Dr. Larry Crisafulli are completing the last of six apartments in the building at 201-205 Sangamon. They have also created new street-level space, which now houses a group of new and old businesses.

Again, the developers have kept many of the historic features, including brick walls and hardwood floors. Two of the front apartments have lofts. All are rented.

"We’ve developed 4,000 square feet up and another 4,000 square feet down," Bassi said. Bassi has no concrete plans to do anything more on Sangamon Street now, but he’s open to ideas for further development there.

In the corner building at street level are Franz Express, with shipping and copying services, Coffee With Einstein, and Lan Café, which offers Internet access and gaming. To bring even more people to Sangamon Street, Coffee with Einstein holds open mic night on Thursdays and has live entertainment most weekends.

The newest business, AMP Studio, is a digital photography studio owned by Adam May, whose motto is "pictures about people."

The Steffens family owns several businesses on the ground floor below their apartments and rents space to two others, Closet Classics resale shop and A. Lincoln General Store, which sells both new and consignment items.

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The family operates Grapes and Grounds, which sells wines and specialty coffees, Capone’s restaurant, and Eckert’s, Inc. decorating studio. Grapes and Grounds has recently been incorporated with Capone’s.

Capone’s is giving folks another reason to visit Sangamon Street, with a full lunch menu Monday through Saturday and a dinner menu for the evening. It also features live jazz or blues Wednesday, Friday and Saturday evenings.

Steffens bought the property on the south half of the block and began developing it five years ago. His 14 apartments include efficiencies, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units; the largest has 1,300 square feet of space.

His own home, a former warehouse above Closet Classics, includes 4,500 square feet of living space on the second floor, a 500-square-foot library on the ground floor and another 4,500 square feet in the basement.

Historic features preserved in the Steffens buildings include the oak woodwork and the pressed tin ceiling in Eckert’s.

The Steffens family also maintains the park between Sangamon Street and the railroad track, and Larry painted the mural on the back of the Neal Tire building. The mural gives tenants and visitors an idea of the bustling place Sangamon Street was in the early history of Lincoln, during the decade when Abe Lincoln himself christened the new town.

Many of the buildings depicted in the mural were hotels — the Spitly Hotel, C & A House, the Illinois Hotel, the Western Hotel and the Monroe House. Other businesses include Dutz Paints, Boots and Shoes, and the Lincoln Volksblatt, an early German-language newspaper.

Bassi says "living above the store" has been a tradition in downtowns since the turn of the last century.

"It is the best use of downtown space in towns like Lincoln. If you bring people downtown, you bring life downtown. There is no replacement for bringing people here."

[Photo provided by Adam May]
[Click to enlarge]

Bassi is a member of the Economic Restructuring Committee of Main Street Lincoln, which has a $20,000 grant from the state to find ways to bring more businesses downtown.

"We still need more shops downtown. We need to point to smaller niche market stores, specialty stores like Merle Norman. We’d like to see a shoe store or a women’s clothing store. We won’t see another J.C. Penney store here.

"We need more stores like Abe’s, Beans and Such, and Prairie Years. We are trying to find other little businesses that can make it downtown."

[Joan Crabb]

Announcements

The Chamber Report

Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce

Bobbi Abbott, Executive Director

303 S. Kickapoo St.

Lincoln, IL 62656

(217) 735-2385

chamber@lincolnillinois.com
www.lincolnillinois.com

Honors & Awards

Main Street Corner News

Main Street Lincoln

Cindy McLaughlin, Program Manager

303 S. Kickapoo

Lincoln, IL 62656

Phone: (217) 732-2929

Fax: (217) 735-9205

E-mail: manager@mainstreetlincoln.com

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Classifieds

Lost on Friday evening, Oct. 11: two Labs, one chocolate (Treudie) and the other a black (Tasha). Both lost in the area of Grand Avenue. If found, PLEASE call 732-4620. Thank you. Reward.

For sale: AKC golden retriever puppies. Shots, wormed, health guarantee. Males and females. $200 ea. (217) 245-6365.

I have a very good used trumpet for sale. $200 or best offer. Contact me at 735-2765 or e-mail nitdenboys@yahoo.com.

To place a classified ad, e-mail ads@lincolndailynews.com or call (217) 732-7443.