Construction on the only overpass in Springfield’s rail improvements project is expected to commence in early 2025 after federal officials announced $157 million in final grant funds. The federal allocation, announced by U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Springfield, and by U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Springfield, and Tammy Duckworth, D-Hoffman Estates, also will help pay for construction […]
Dean Olsen
Dean Olsen is a senior staff writer for Illinois Times. He can be reached at:
dolsen@illinoistimes.com, 217-679-7810 or @DeanOlsenIT.
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A roadmap for future development
Creating more affordable and market-rate housing, developing areas currently set aside for surface parking and catering more to walkers and bicyclists are among scores of suggestions in a newly released master plan for downtown Springfield and the Mid-Illinois Medical District. The costs of those suggestions aren’t included in the 278-page document, the first-ever long-term plan […]
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New sheriff to enact reforms voluntarily
The newly appointed Sangamon County sheriff plans to file Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain information from public agencies that have employed applicants for jobs as county deputies and correctional officers. Sheriff Paula Crouch also said she will mandate in-person visits to current and past employers, when possible, as part of a more-thorough background […]
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Making Springfield a distribution hub
A second large warehouse project to receive city approval in the past three months underscores Springfield’s growing footprint in the logistics and distribution industry, local economic development officials say. “It’s a nice diversification of our employment base,” Ryan McCrady, president and chief executive officer of the Springfield Sangamon Growth Alliance, told Illinois Times. “We have […]
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Finding a way forward
Never in his 26½-year career had he seen it before. Springfield Police Chief Kenneth Scarlette, 48, said he and one of his deputy chiefs were driving in an unmarked car on South Grand Avenue to get lunch on the city’s east side when a young man on the side of the road, without provocation, spotted […]
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Two new cochairs announced for Massey Commission
The Rev. T. Ray McJunkins says he will always back the Massey Commission, but the panel’s work to reduce racial divisions and restore trust in the police will go on without him as a cochair. He resigned the unpaid, volunteer post amid calls for his departure after a 24-year-old female former staff member of Faith […]
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Massey Commission off to a rough start
A prominent local minister has been asked to resign as cochair of the Massey Commission because of allegations that he groped Emma Shafer, a 24-year-old social-justice activist and organizer who died in July 2023. The Rev. T. Ray McJunkins, 61, who recently celebrated 22 years as lead pastor of Union Baptist Church, 1405 E. Monroe […]
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Six east-side businesses receive grants
Six businesses were awarded $280,000 in grants by the Springfield City Council on Sept. 17 from the city’s share of sales taxes on adult-use cannabis sales. The unanimous vote on the allocations, which were part of the council’s “consent agenda,” came more than two years after the first round of allocations and after a September […]
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Police, protesters clash at demonstration
The sister of a woman critically injured in a Sept. 5 collision between a motorcycle and a car driven by a retired Springfield police officer says she appreciated the public apology of the city’s police chief but was disappointed by the mayor’s video response to the incident. Chief Kenneth Scarlette and one of the deputy […]
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City council delays vote on prohibiting “public camping”
The Springfield City Council delayed a vote Sept. 3 on a controversial ordinance that would make “public camping” illegal and heard three hours of complaints from people who said the measure would be counterproductive and cruel to people experiencing homelessness. “This is not a motivation to get off the streets,” Joshua Leingang told the council […]
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Regulating ‘public camping’
A proposed ordinance intended to help police get rid of homeless encampments on public land would declare them illegal and make violators subject to as much as $750 in fines and two years in jail. The proposal, scheduled for emergency passage by the Springfield City Council at its 5:30 p.m. meeting on Sept. 3, has […]
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Advocates for reform attend jail committee meeting
A Sangamon County Board member on Aug. 20 withdrew, for the time being, her formal proposal for a series of reforms that would increase scrutiny and oversight of the hiring of new sheriff’s deputies. Springfield Democrat Gina Lathan said the actions called for in her resolution – drafted in the wake of the July 6 […]
