Reifschneiders Encourage Locals to 'Embrace the Grape'

Here is a photo (courtesy The Republic-Times) from yesterday evening's ribbon-cutting at Reifschneider's Grill & Grape on Columbia's Main Street.  The restaurant has been open now for several weeks and has been a welcome addition to Columbia's older business district--at least judging by the crowds gathered there each evening.

The ceremony, sponsored by the Columbia Chamber of Commerce, kicked off an evening of fun that included Twi-Night Out in C-Town and the debut of live music outside on the patio.  Owners Danny & Heather Reifschneider invite the community to visit them at 608 N. Main to enjoy good food and "embrace the grape"--as their theme states it.

Reifschneider's is just one in a series of new eating places opening along Main Street, a small boom that includes Who Dat's Southern Food and a regional restaurant (name to be released) opening a branch here next month.  These dining spots join long-term vendors like The Lantern, Joe Boccardi's Ristorante, Thai House and Gruchala's to make Main St. a place to consider whenever lunch or dinner rolls around.

Columbia Wins Inaugural Home Town Award

The City of Columbia yesterday received the inaugural award in a new category established for the Governor's Home Town Award program to recognize the community's outstanding volunteer spirit.

Mayor Kevin Hutchinson and representatives from five local volunteer efforts accepted the first-ever "Outstanding Community Volunteerism" award as part of a ceremony held at the Governor's Mansion in Springfield. Governor Pat Quinn announced 26 projects as 2010 Governor’s Home Town Award recipients. The awards recognize the contributions of thousands of Illinois’ volunteers for their hard work and dedication towards improving their communities.

Projects recognized in Columbia's award were the following:

Art on the Bluffs
The Art on the Bluffs Art Walk was created to highlight Columbia's art and architecture during the community's sesquicentennial. Ten months of meetings culminated in historic Main Street's transformation to an "Art Walk" staffed by more than 100 volunteers. Sixty‐seven professional artists lined the street both outside and in thirty‐one locations. The Kid's Area was a great success, as children were encouraged to actively participate in creating a variety of artwork, including using recycled materials as well as painting a large mural. The broad range of artists, musicians, and dancers assured all of the 2,500 patrons attending would find something of interest and enjoy the Art Walk.

Friends of the Library
In 10 years Columbia's population has doubled, causing an increasingly cramped children's area in the Library. The Friends of the Library recognized the need and decided to hold a Holiday House Tour to raise funds for additional space. Volunteers solicited hosts for the tour and goods for the raffle, prepared refreshments for the registration point, created promotional materials, and sold tickets. The Tour raised $3,597. The funds provided a larger space for the children's area with fixtures scaled to their sizes and needs.

Kiwanis Car Show
The Annual Columbia Kiwanis Car Show has evolved into a yearly event with 100% of the proceeds used to fund the Kiwanis Educational Enrichment Program at Parkview Elementary. Better known as K.E.E.P., the program fills a gap in the educational process for at risk youth between the 2nd and 5th grades who were in danger of falling behind in reading skills. $5,000 has been donated annually for after‐school tutoring. The success of the program has been determined through increased standardized test scores in reading. Consequently, the school district worked the reading program into their budget. Now funds from the K.E.E.P. program assist in tutoring in mathematics.

Besides the long‐term educational benefits to the area children, more than 250 cars, music, and good food combine for the largest show in the area.

Play Commission
When Columbia was named "A Playful City" in a national recognition program for communities creating an agenda for play, they celebrated by having "A Play Day". The free day was full of activities and fun including Frisbee Golf, Punt/Pass/Kick, Parachute Toss, Yarn Spider Web, Recycle City and many more. A scavenger hunt was held to help participants "discover" Bolm‐Schuhkraft Memorial City Park. Attendees had the opportunity to become "Park Pals", a program to engage young citizens to read and obey park rules, control litter and report abuse or safety issues.

Sand Bank School Restoration
The historic Sand Bank schoolhouse would likely have been demolished if not for the efforts of volunteers. The one‐room white clapboard school, built in 1855 was in poor repair and up for sale. A retired high school principal and his friend purchased the school. Carpenters donated their skills to straighten the eastern wall of windows and reconstructed the foundation of the old coal shed. A local philanthropist provided funds to meet the immediate need of roof repair. The Monroe County Highway Department cleared the overgrowth of weeds that had overtaken the site. Others donated the septic system, concrete, and window glazing.

An innovative partnership was created with the high school Construction Trades classes. Students gutted the inside of the building, helped run electricity, installed plasterboard, and assisted in the heating and cooling system. The students learned valuable skills through hands‐on experience as well as helped to save a historic icon of education.

Columbia's Hampton Inn Has New Owner

St. Louis-based hotel owner, operator and developer Midas Hospitality has announced the acquisition of the Hampton Inn hotel in Columbia.

Announcement of the acquisition of the 77-room hotel marks the third acquisition by the company in the last 90 days. Midas recently announced groundbreaking for the Fairfield Inn & Suites in Paducah, KY (scheduled to open 2nd quarter, 2011) and acquisition of a new Candlewood Suites in Champaign, IL (scheduled to open in December, 2010) just last month.

Midas Hospitality, co-founded by David Robert, President, and J.T. Norville, CFO, was established in 2006 and has quickly become a premier hotel management group in the Midwest. Midas has developed, opened and managed numerous properties including Crowne Plaza, Four Points by Sheraton, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites, Candlewood Suites, Hampton Inn and Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott, among others. Midas holds a growing portfolio of 11 hotels in 6 states serving 6 different global brands.

The Hampton Inn Columbia opened in August 2008 under the ownership of Columbia Hospitality, LLC. Kurt Furlong, SVP Sales and Marketing, states: “We are extremely excited to add the Hilton brand to our Midas family.”

Open House Will Preview Aging Assessment

The Columbia Plan Commission will hold an open house on October 25th, at which time members of the public are invited to review Building Maturing, Livable Communities, a draft community assessment, and offer their comments.

Increased life expectancy is creating record numbers of people aged 65 and older. While this age group represented only 13% of the population in 2000, it will comprise about 21% of the population in 2030. The group expected to grow most rapidly in the next 30 years is the one aged 85 years and older.

Over the past several months, members of Columbia’s Plan Commission have been assessing the local community's readiness for the impact of an aging population upon various aspects of community life. In this task, the Commission has used assessment tools provided by the Area Agency on Aging of Southwestern Illinois. While identifying challenges confronting Columbia in the various areas assessed, the Commission also hopes to identify many of the positive features that already make this city a very desirable community for the aged—and for other citizens—now and in the future.

Public input is encouraged as the Commission prepares its final report. Copies of the Commission's draft document are available for download from the City website, at City Hall or from a number of other locations around town, including the Monroe County 'Y' and the Columbia Senior Center.

The open house will be held from 7:30 to 9:00 p.m. in the second-floor Auditorium at Columbia City Hall, 208 S. Rapp Ave.  Members of the Plan Commission will be on hand to answer questions or accept comments, and additional copies of the draft document will be available.  The Auditorium is handicapped accessible.

Columbia (Once Again) Named Playful City USA

For the second year in a row, Columbia has been named a Playful City USA--once again, the only city to be so recognized in the St. Louis metropolitan area.

Playful City USA is a national recognition program honoring cities and towns across the nation committed to taking action for play.  Columbia was selected, in part, for its deployment of the popular Park Pal program--cited as a national "best practice"--as well as for the strong supporting role of the community's nine-member Play Commission.

Each of the 2010 Playful City USA communities has demonstrated creative commitment to the cause of play in the areas of quantity, quality and access. Quality relates to the number of usable, open playspaces. Quality involves subjective factors that encourage repeated use and make playspaces engaging, exciting, interesting and fun. Access entails the ability to get to a playspace (roads, trails) and a lack of barriers to the playspace (cost, safety, traffic, locked gates, equity).

Playful City USA celebrates and highlights these unique initiatives developed by communities across the country. A primary goal of Playful City USA is to encourage cities and towns to share creative ideas, concepts and programs in an effort to increase play opportunities for children.

Draft Assessment Ready for Review

The Columbia Plan Commission has prepared "Building Maturing, Livable Communities," a draft community assessment of services for the aging in cooperation with the Area Agency on Aging of Southwestern Illinois. The agency is assisting seven other Metro East communities, such as Edwardsville and Waterloo, in completing similar assessments.

Members of the Plan Commission--an advisory body to the Columbia City Council--began the community assessment last year to focus upon the Columbia community and its readiness for the impact of an aging population upon various aspects of community life. Increased life expectancy is resulting in record numbers of people aged 65 and older--while this age group represented only 13% of the U.S. population in 2000, it will grow to comprise about 21% of the population in 2030.

The 28-page draft document is available online from the City's website and copies are available upon request from the City Clerk's office.  Interested residents are invited to review the document and offer their comments and/or criticisms; the Plan Commission will host an open house to more fully review the report at a yet to be determined date in the near future.

Making Sustainability Sustainable Here

Sustainability has been defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Given the limited amount of natural resources, the current economic crisis and society’s growing concern for good stewardship, cities everywhere must work hard to achieve their potential as environmentally responsible communities.  While many of the nation's larger cities are already pursuing sustainability, it's often harder for smaller cities to do more with less.

To that end, the City is seeking to improve its energy efficiency, increase recycling and develop a general sustainability plan to direct the "smart growth" of Columbia over the next 20 years through development of a program called Columbia’s Sustainable Total Efficiency Plan (CSTEP), which leaders hope will serve to guide the city’s growth in an energy efficient, environmentally responsible, economically vibrant manner. The City of Columbia proposes to implement this program via a four-pronged approach:

I. Development of a community-wide energy efficiency program reducing emissions coming from existing buildings, ensuring new construction maximizes energy efficiency, and improving transportation options;

II. Retrofitting an office building owned by the City as a demonstration project (which is initially conceived as an efficiency and conservation program but which may eventually include a renewable energy aspect) for other commercial property owners within the city;

III. Establishing a whole-neighborhood building energy retrofit project using a sustainable business model that will identify and help fund cost-effective energy upgrades for a large percentage of the older building stock along Columbia’s Main Street;

IV. Supporting a “challenge” program that will identify ways for homes and offices to recycle more and use less energy, recognize exemplary achievement, and reward cooperative effort towards community goals

The City of Columbia will seek funding through all available regional, state & federal grant and loan programs to help the community and participating homes & businesses evaluate, plan, finance and implement activities that leading to greater sustainability in Columbia & Monroe County.