River Down, Sales Tax Now May Be Going Up

The Monroe County Flood Prevention District, a three-person committee appointed by the Monroe County Board of Commissioners, approved a recommendation Tuesday night to impose a 1/4 cent sales tax in order to pay for area levee upgrades. The proposed tax hike now goes before the Board, which can authorize the increase without public referendum, for approval.

Earlier this year, the Illinois General Assembly passed SB836 and SB2052, authorizing the formation of flood protection districts by the three counties in the Metro East. These new districts have been expected to seek to raise revenues needed to fund levee repair work--taxes that will start being collected in the spring of 2009--allowing them to pay for levee repairs now and be reimbursed by sales taxes later.

The new districts are part of a regional effort involving Madison, St. Clair and Monroe counties as well as 25 cities and villages to restore certification for the five levees between Wood River and Columbia that protect the Metro East’s flood plain. This flood plain is home to more than 150,000 people and 50,000 jobs. The regional effort is needed because the infrastructure of roads, transportation, and jobs in the American Bottoms is a shared resource and because the five levees represent an interdependent system that is hydrologically connected.

Developer Appeals Columbia Crossing Decision

As expected, developer G.J. Grewe last Thursday filed an appeal challenging dismissal of his suit against the City of Columbia over the stalled Columbia Crossing project.


Grewe's appeal will be heard in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, which has jurisdiction over such cases. To overturn the earlier decision, Grewe must show the trial court made a legal error that affected the decision in the case. The court of appeals makes its decision based on the record of the case established by the trial court; it does not receive additional evidence or hear witnesses.

The City of Columbia has already spent $200,000 defending against Grewe's lawsuit and has another $350,000 budgeted for this current fiscal year.

Sinda Declines Administrator Post

Former Collinsville City Manager Hank Sinda won't serve as Columbia’s interim city administrator after all. A narrow majority of the City Council failed to approve the terms of his contract last Monday night.

Sinda, 66, of St. Charles, MO, was appointed earlier this month by Mayor Kevin Hutchinson to temporarily fill the position vacated by Anthony Traxler, who resigned effective August 6th. Sinda was to serve on a part-time basis until the fiscal year ends next April; Traxler’s salary is included in the budget until that date.

Illinois Treasurer Supports Economic Gardening

Economic development in the next generation will require "less time hunting" and "more time nurturing entrepreneurs," a nationally-recognized expert told a Southern Illinois group assembled this morning by State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias. Jack Schultz, founder and leader of the Boomtown Institute, shared insights he has gained helping small towns in 44 states compete for their piece of the economic pie against larger communities.

Economic Development staff from Columbia joined representatives from Waterloo, Red Bud, and Valmeyer in attending the all-day workshop at Rend Lake Resort where various programs for financing businesses and supporting local community development efforts were explained in detail by the members of the Treasurer's staff responsible for administering them. Among the programs detailed at the workshop were the following:

• Community Planning & Development Assistance
• Economic Opportunity Programs
• Small Business Development Centers
• Tax Credits
• Tax Incentives
• Tax Increment Financing

Schultz urged attendees to recognize that if entrepreneurism "has not been a town’s focus, then it’s time for a paradigm shift." He contends that the Millenial generation will be "the greatest group of entrepreneurs in American history." Towns that recognize the strength of the entrepreneur and learn to encourage him or her, he claims, will find themselves on a positive growth curve.

City's First Hotel Now Open

The Hampton Inn - Columbia--the city's first hotel--opened August 12th. In the trade, this is called the "soft opening" preceding the official ribbon-cutting ceremony, dignitaries and all, on Tuesday, August 26th.

Illinois tourism continues to be a significant tool for economic development statewide. The Travel Industry Association of America reports that state and local tax revenues grew by 5.5 percent last year, generating over $2 billion from travel spending--the highest level ever. The Illinois Bureau of Tourism estimates that Monroe County captured $10.8 million of this revenue in 2007, up 9.9 percent from the previous year.

Aldermen Seek More Consistency in Facade Improvements

Monday evening, Columbia's City Council asked the Civic Progress Committee to re-examine their proposed new guidelines for the Main Street Facade Program to better incorporate historic preservation.

The program provides matching funds--dollar-for-dollar up to $3,000 as funds are available--to encourage Main Street property owners to enhance their buildings' "curb appeal" with improvements such as painting, awnings, shutters, plaques, window boxes, step/sidewalk work, landscaping, planters and benches. Committee members had recently streamlined the guidelines and application, as well as reflecting recent changes in state regulations that impact such programs, and were offering the updated document for approval.

Aldermen Candace Hejna and Jim Agne asked for more--they requested that the final guidelines also address design standards that will assure historic preservation of buildings along Main Street and bring greater consistency to the built environment. While the facade program has been growing in popularity with Main Street property owners, some community members have questioned whether the point of the grants is just to promote any improvement or, rather, to enhance the consistent character of the historic central district.

Mayor Kevin Hutchinson referred their request on to the Ordinances, Planning & Zoning (OPZ) Committee for review next Monday evening.

Wal-Mart About to Debut 'Small Box' Stores

According to a report just released by the International Conference of Shopping Centers, Wal-Mart will roll out a convenience store concept called Marketside with a ten-store launch in Arizona this fall. The 15,000-square-foot units (about one-tenth the size of regular Wal-Mart stores) will compete with Tesco’s newly launched Fresh & Easy concept. Wal-Mart projects that Marketside will blossom with approximately $10 billion in annual sales from up to 1,500 stores nationwide. Since this store size is smaller than Harres Furniture (23,000 SF) here in Columbia, this new move by the retail giant may have a sizable impact upon a pending local ordinance seeking to restrict “big box” development.

Wal-Mart is most likely responding to the growing backlash against "big box" retailing by aggressively moving to outflank its critics. Not that the controversy is hurting sales--Wal-Mart saw profits rise 17 percent in its fiscal second quarter, which ended July 31st. Net sales rose 10 percent to $101.6 billion, from $92 billion a year ago, and its same-store sales in the U.S. grew 4.5 percent (excluding fuel sales) year on year. These glowing numbers encouraged the company to raise its full-year earnings forecast, but at the same time, it cautioned that sales would be slower in the third quarter—somewhere between 1 and 2 percent—as the money from the tax rebates that helped drive sales in the second quarter gets used up.

Cameras May Help Nab School Arsonist

Someone poured gasoline on the side of the Columbia High School building around 11:00 p.m. Sunday evening; fortunately, damage was limited to the steel entry door and some blackened brick.

The Columbia Police Department is investigating, and officers have several leads from the surveillance images provided by cameras posted in the area. Wednesday's scheduled start for school will not be postponed.

Though controversial in some quarters, Columbia's surveillance cameras continue to prevent crime. Posting of cameras several months ago in chronically-victimized traffic circles, for example, reduced vandalism to nil.

Should Columbia Embrace 'Opportunity Urbanism'?

Joel Kotkin, the influential author and Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University, has articulated a new vision of how urban economies should evolve that challenges the likes of Richard Florida. Kotkin calls his new notion "Opportunity Urbanism", a concept that stresses a region's ability to create jobs, offer affordable housing, and present entrepreneurial openings to a growing and highly diverse population as the surest signs of urban vibrancy. His emphais on a city's ability to provide opportunity for a broad spectrum of citizens rather than on the area's ability to attract the wealthiest individuals or the people with the highest skills is a strategy that may make more sense for the Midwest--and for Columbia in particular.

Kotkin argues that seeking ways to keep the doors of opportunity and homeownership open to the working and middle classes is better economics and more in keeping with American values than what he percives to be the preoccupation of "superstar" cities to boost their attractiveness to elites. He argues that "one of the primary historic roles of cities has been to nurture and grow a middle class--to be an engine of upward social mobility."

New Community Partnership: Safe Routes To School

Today was the kickoff for a new partnership between the City of Columbia and local schools. Illinois Safe Routes to School (SRTS) is a partnership approach to improving conditions for students who walk or bike to school.

The program has three main goals:

1. To enable and encourage children, including those with disabilities, to walk and bicycle to school;
2. To make bicycling and walking to school safer and more appealing, thereby encouraging a healthy and active lifestyle; and
3. To facilitate projects and activities that will improve safety and reduce traffic, fuel consumption, and air pollution.

The broad team of community stakeholders organized this morning will work to develop a School Travel Plan by the end of September. Projects and activities will be identified in this plan to benefit primary and middle school students (grades K-8) in both public and private schools in Columbia.

Following development of the School Travel Plan, Illinois Safe Routes to School can fund infrastructure improvements to the physical environment, as well as non-infrastructure projects.

Historic Trolley Tour: See What Your Grandparents Saw

This Saturday is the date scheduled for the annual historic trolley tour of historic landmarks in Columbia, part of the Columbia Daze festivities:

Saturday, August 16th

9:00, 10:00, and 11:00 p.m., 1:00 and 2:00 p.m.

Board in parking lot at Columbia City Hall – 200 S. block of Main St.

$8.00 per person

Sponsored by the Columbia Heritage & Preservation Commission - “Keeping Columbia’s History Alive”

This tour is a great way to learn Columbia's history through a guided tour of landmark historic buildings. Each tour is conducted on a historic replica trolley with members of the Monroe Actors Stage Company in period costume serving as guides.

Another Way to View the Flood Maps

FEMA and IDNR held a series of open houses about two weeks ago to display preliminary versions of updated flood insurance rate maps. Local officials, property owners and resident from Madison, Monroe and St. Clair counties had the opportunity to comment and/or correct the maps and learn about flood insurance options and requirements. A very limited number of local business and property owners took advantage of these opportunities.

Fortunately, an alternative means for accessing this information remains available online at www.illinoisfloodmaps.org. Here is how to access that information:

1. Click on the county (Monroe, probably) that is of interest;
2. Scroll down to the "index panels" and click there;
3. Find the bold alpha-numeric code in the maps blocks;
4. Return to the list of panel numbers and click on the corresponding last three-four digits.

There is information on how to interpret the maps on FEMA's website with a description of the new Monroe County Digital Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) as well as a tutorial on their Map Service Center page.

Thanks to Patrick McKeehan at the Leadership Council Southwest Illinois for these directions.

Sinda Hired as Interim Administrator

Following the resignation of Anthony Traxler weeks ago, the Columbia City Council in executive session last week approved hiring Henry "Hank" Sinda as interim city administrator. The 66-year-old former Collinsville city manager, a resident of St. Charles, MO, will fill the position on a part-time basis until April.

Sinda has a long record of public service working for cities across the Midwest; he currently is the principal in Sinda & Associates, Inc. He has taught public administration classes at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and has worked to promote professional city management in the Metro East. The Illinois City/County Management Association recognized Sinda in 2005 for his instrumental role in forming the Southwest Illinois City Management Association (SWICMA), an organization formed to provide information sharing and networking opportunities on municipal issues, to improve City services and strengthen professional management.