Don Durbin wistfully recalls his early years on the family farm. He stalks through the tall, windswept grasses and points to areas where his children once brushed ponies and petted hogs. But the century-old farm has lost much of its charm since the city of Springfield seized it nearly 30 years ago. There are still […]
Todd Spivak
Posted inNews
Clearing a hurdle
Garrison Group Inc. is inching forward with its plans to build a shopping center on the site of the old Esquire Theatre property on South MacArthur Boulevard. The city’s zoning commission recently greenlighted several zoning variances for the project. They include requests to build closer to the street and reduce the number of parking spaces […]
Posted inNews
Got water?
Since he was a child, Brett Dixon’s drinking water had come from the brick-lined well in his family’s front yard. Their home — a quaint stone structure tucked behind a row of blue spruce on Route 97 — is a former schoolhouse from the Civil War era. Dixon marvels that children wet their whistles from […]
Posted inNews
excursions 4-21-05
Learning about the human body may conjure bad memories of impenetrably thick textbooks, anatomy charts with words too big to pronounce, and a creepy skeleton hanging in the corner of a classroom. Forget all that. A museum exhibit now showing in Chicago offers a unique opportunity to more readily understand and appreciate the vast complexities […]
Posted inNews
Finally
Some 25 years after the idea was first hatched to honor Abraham Lincoln with his own presidential museum, folks will finally get a chance to see what all the fuss has been about. The doors swing open to the public on Saturday in advance of a big dedication ceremony that many hope will bring President […]
Posted inNews
Security concerns
Paulette Roberts, a veteran caseworker at Helping Hands, is well known for her derring-do. When fights erupt, as they inevitably do at Springfield’s cramped and crowded homeless shelters, it’s often Roberts who bounds into the center of the action. But last Thursday night, as the emergency overflow shelter prepared to close its doors, sending dozens […]
Posted inNews
Class acts
The lone contested race for the Springfield School Board features two North Side residents with professional backgrounds in science and records of community service. Both vow to work as advocates for the most troubled schools in District 186. Even the candidates, Erin Conley and Brad Mills, admit that there isn’t much to distinguish them. “There’s […]
Posted inNews
Out, but not down
It was six years ago this week that Rep. Larry McKeon, the first and only openly gay state lawmaker in Illinois, outed the homosexual siblings of three Republican legislators. McKeon lashed out at his colleagues for blocking legislation to protect homosexuals from various forms of discrimination. Once the votes were tallied, he hastened to the […]
Posted inNews
Canned news
The Champaign-based sister station of WCFN-TV (Channel 49), which will begin airing a half-hour news broadcast in the Springfield market next month, was singled out in a New York Times story this week for advancing what some experts consider government-sponsored propaganda. The Bush administration’s efforts to promote its agendas through media manipulation came to a head […]
Posted inNews
Razing the roof
Homeless for seven years, Nancy has spent much of this winter huddled under blankets on the front porch of a derelict building in downtown Springfield. The semienclosed wooden porch offers some shelter from the wind and snow, she says. And it’s conveniently located across the street from St. John’s Breadline, where she takes two meals […]
Posted inNews
First step
Ward 7 Ald. Judy Yeager has heard the complaints for years. The southern stretch of MacArthur Boulevard, with its vacant buildings, giant parking lots, obnoxious signage, and abundance of payday-loan stores and auto-parts shops, has long topped the list of grievances from concerned constituents. “I get a lot of angry phone calls and a lot […]
Posted inNews
Moving forward
Discussion continued this week between leaders of Ministerial Alliance and the Boys & Girls Club of Springfield over how to proceed with the construction of a new $4 million East Side community center. Members of both groups met for an hour and a half on Monday to broach a wide range of issues, including the […]
