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.

City Seeks to Purchase American Legion Park

The Columbia City Council is seeking to purchase the ball fields and other recreational areas within American Legion Memorial Park in order to maintain their public use.  The City hopes to finance half the purchase with an Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development (OSLAD) grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR).

American Legion Post 581 has been providing athletic fields for community use since 1958.  With the aging of the group's membership, it has become increasingly difficult for the Legion to physically maintain the fields, so negotiations were begun to transfer the land to City ownership in order to maintain its recreational use.  The 17.1-acre parcel is used by more than 1300 young people annually through programmed sports programs.

Financed by a percentage of the state's Real Estate Transfer Tax, OSLAD grants can fund acquisition of land for new park sites or park expansions; up to 50% of approved project costs can be reimbursed.  Grant applications are submitted statewide and funds are awarded annually through a competitive process. Lands acquired with OSLAD funds are required to be operated and maintained in perpetuity for public outdoor recreation.

With 117 acres of open space, Columbia ranks near the minimum national threshold for open space, but much of that land is currently undeveloped for recreational use; hence, the American Legion Fields are an outstanding local resource for the community--one that the City hopes to preserve for future generations.

Columbians Tour the Past in Jerseyville

Members of Columbia's Heritage & Preservation Commission (CHPC) made a trek last Saturday to Jerseyville to see how another community in Southwestern Illinois is preserving its heritage.

Hosted by members of the Jersey County Historical Society, the Columbia contingent spent several hours in Jerseyville exploring one place which conveniently brings together several historic properties: the Cheney Mansion, a museum & research center, a pioneer log cabin, and the Lone Star School.  The one room school, which was moved to the Historical Society site and restored to the original condition, was of particular interest to Columbia's visitors since they are currently involved in restoration of three historic school buildings. 

CHPC Chair Dennis Patton took particular interest in the brick courtyard surrounding the Lone Star School, which shows locations for every one room school located in Jersey County at the beginning of the 20th Century.  Jersey County Historical Society members sold engraved bricks and benches for the courtyard to raise more than $37,000 to help defray costs of moving the school to the site.  Patton is exploring a similar idea to commemorate one room schools across Monroe County--this brick courtyard will surround the new Monroe County Welcome Center in Columbia's Stone Arch Park.

The members of the CHPC enjoyed many other aspects of the Jerseyville historical complex, as well.  Among other things, Jerseyville was a staging point in the clandestine, grassroots movement known as the Underground Railroad--the route of slaves escaping captivity in the antebellum South. One highlight of the museum is an Underground Railroad Quilt accompanied by posted explanation of its code. Secret messages in the form of quilt patterns are believed by many students of the era to have aided slaves escaping the bonds of captivity in the Southern states before and during the American Civil War.


Pictured above, right:  CHPC Chair Dennis Patton discusses the brick courtyard around Lone Star School in Jerseyville with Patsy Halemeyer, a volunteer with the Jersey County Historical Society, while CHPC Vice Chair Linda Roider looks on.

Main Street Dining Expands With Opening of New Restaurant

Columbia's dining opportunities will expand next month with the opening of Reifschneider's Grill & Grape at 608 N. Main St., next to the ever-popular Tiny's Pub & Grill.  Along with perennial favorite Gruchala's, regionally cited Joe Boccardi's Ristorante and family favorite The Lantern Restaurant, Reifschneider's will help to reorient Main Street as a destination in what many are hoping is the start of a retail resurgence.

The new restaurant will be operated by Danny & Heather Reifschneider in a building leased from Gregg Crawford and with financial assistance from the City of Columbia's revolving loan fund.  Heather--also the proprietor of Vida Verde Salon & Boutique, elsewhere on Main Street--grew up in the food service industry; her father owns Miller's Crossing in Chesterfield.  Reifschneider's will pattern its service, quality and menu after Miller's Crossing with prices that meet the expectations of Metro East customers.

Renovation for the restaurant is being completed on the former Main Street Bar & Grill to provide inside seating for 60 patrons (plus additional seating at the bar) and to create new outdoor seating accommodations for as many as 76 customers.

Welcome, Sandra's Art Depo!

Columbia's Main Street community is working to develop--through venues like the annual Art Walk event--an image as a local center for the arts.  A new business hopes to embellish that image: Sandra's Art Depo.

Located in the building owned by Tammy Mitchell Hines on N. Main St., the business officially opened yesterday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony hosted by the Columbia Chamber.  Owner Sandra Reynolds traded in her career in sales after 30 years for a paint brush and the opportunity to help other artists discover their own talents.

Sandra's Art Depo specializes in decorative art in various mediums, lessons for adults and children, and art sales for home and office--the gallery features a selection of art from various artists in the metro area.  Call Sandra at (618) 281-2060 or register online for lessons.  She says: "Join a class, learn to paint, and see the world in a new way."


Pictured above: Tim Gutknecht (Columbia Rotary Club); Alderman Jim Agne; City Administrator Al Hudzik; "Hutch" Schlafly (Chamber President); Sandra Reynolds; Marsha Han (Roosters Health Food); Bill Meyer (First National Bank of Waterloo); and Sarah Arendell (Edward Jones).