One of Editor & Publisher’s ‘10 That Do It Right 2021’
Partly cloudy skies. Widespread frost likely. Low 29F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph..
Partly cloudy skies. Widespread frost likely. Low 29F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph.
Updated: April 5, 2024 @ 3:07 pm
The eternal flame burns brightly on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
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Questions about insurance coverage for local ambulance calls … why WILL has made some changes to its classical music programming … whatever happened to a festival that was planned for Savoy … and the busy history of The Hickory in dowtown Champaign.
The Hickory, at 12-16 E. Washington in Champaign, may be the only local commercial building in which mules and automobiles were sold at the same time. When it was constructed in 1914, horseless carriages were still something of a novelty and most folks got around on horseback or by buggy.
It was built to accommodate several auto dealers on the first floor — and initially, at least, a mule trader occupied the west portion of that floor. The second story was devoted to automobile storage, according to the building’s renewal developer, Michael Markstahler, who named it The Hickory when he bought the building from Leon Jeske in 2007. Hickory Street runs along the structure’s east side.
Cars, of course, were the wave of the future in 1914. “The storage business was so good that a second-floor covered bridge was built over the west alley to drive cars through to the next building on the west for additional storage. We have left the remnants of that on the exterior west façade of the building,” Markstahler said.
The automobile dealerships faltered and failed in the Great Depression, though the auto-storage business continued for a while after that. In 1935, a new A&P billed as “the midwest’s largest supermarket” opened on the first floor, Markstahler said. A&P left the site in 1955 for a new location with a parking lot — another automobile-related change in the building’s history.
In the decades after that, the building housed a wide variety of businesses and organizations including trade-union offices, the Little Beaver Archery Range, Champaign County Democrats, Cotter-Twin City Glass Company, the Interlocking Farm and Home Store, some HVAC contractors, Automated Business Services, R&M TV and Appliances, and a Western Tire Auto store. B Lime, and Compete Care Pharmacy and Convenience Store, were two of the more recent commercial tenants.
Markstahler and his wife Janice Juraska own the building, which currently houses 18 loft-style apartments and three first-floor storefronts: Tattoo N’Seven (12 E. Washington), Raff Co. Clothing Studio (14) and Planted plants and gifts (16).
“Rooftop solar panels go up so quickly, but what’s involved when the house needs a new roof? I would guess they would increase the cost, as well as the chance of roof leaks.”
Aaron Mendoza, sales specialist and project manager at Roofs By Rodger, said “your reader is indeed correct that solar panels greatly increase the cost when it comes time to replace the roof. They are also spot-on with their concerns about leaks. Expect to pay between $3,000 to $12,000 (extra), depending on the size of the roof and complexity of the solar panel system, to remove and reinstall the solar panels when the shingles need replacing.”
Mendoza said solar panels also may void the roofing manufacturer and installer warranties if leaks that compromise the roofing system can be traced back to the installation of the solar panels. “Locating the source of a leaky roof can be a tedious and expensive task when solar panels are involved. Solar panels may have to be removed and reinstalled in order to inspect the roof below, which as mentioned earlier can become costly.”
The eternal flame burns brightly on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
“The eternal flame on campus is never lit. Just curious as to why.”
Never? UI Facilities & Services spokesperson Steve Breitwieser says “the eternal flame is connected to the campus electrical network and illuminates nightly when the rest of Lincoln Hall’s outdoor lighting turns on. Staff will periodically check the status of the flame to ensure its regular operation.”
A gift from the Class of 1912, the eternal flame lamppost is located between the English Building and Lincoln Hall. Campus legend has it that “a lover’s kiss will bring eternal bliss” — meaning that if you kiss your lover under the flame, your relationship will last forever.
“WILL’s 101.1 FM frequency used to broadcast 24-hour classical music and 90.9 had music along with the news programs, etc. Now 101.1 is Illinois Soul, and 90.9 still has a mix of classical and news programs. What prompted this change?”
This question is from a classical music fan who attended “Mike in the Morning” Haile’s recent presentation on the history of local radio, sponsored by the Champaign County History Museum. Moss Bresnahan, executive director of Illinois Public Media, addressed this very issue in his letter to listeners in the April edition of WILL’s Patterns magazine:
“One of this past year’s priorities has been broadening our audience: identifying who we may not have served extensively in the past and how we can reach them now. We spent a great deal of time out in the community having conversations and surveying residents to find out what kind of programming appeals to them. This groundwork led to the exciting launch of Illinois Soul in 2024, as well as expanding the topics at our 2023 News, Brews & Beatz events.
“We also launched the 24/7 classical stream to help make classical music accessible to new listeners who are more tuned in to the digital space. We have also been working on reaching a younger audience through new video formats that highlight our programming in different social media spaces,” Bresnahan wrote.
“An event called The Human Festival was to take place in Savoy in May of 2020, but it was indefinitely postponed due to COVID-19. Are there any plans to try again? I was looking forward to running its 5K Human Race on Willard Airport’s runways!”
Village Administrator Christopher Walton said there are no firm plans to go forth with that particular event at this time. The pandemic’s early days “changed so many things, including unique community events like the one your reader inquired about.
“The village is excited to bring new events to the Champaign-Urbana-Savoy community, with much of that programing coming from our Parks and Recreation Department. Willard Airport, and the amazing people who keep it going, are wonderful community partners.”
“I spotted this unique bird two Sundays ago in SW Champaign, at Legends. I’m not sure if it is a pigeon or dove, and it has the leg band marked ’15.’ Can you find out the exact ID and backstory of this guy?”
The bird appears to be a domestic pigeon — and likely belongs to someone in the vicinity who keeps pigeons, according to T.J. Benson, principal research scientist at the Illinois Natural History Survey.
“There’s a long history of selective breeding of pigeons for various traits, which accounts for its difference in appearance from a typical Rock Pigeon. Those that keep and/or breed pigeons often use specialized bands to keep track of individuals.
“In contrast to migratory birds, for which banding is federally regulated, there is no large-scale tracking of bands for domestic birds – or resident game birds like ring-necked pheasants, northern bobwhite, or wild turkeys for that matter, although state regulations do apply to all wild birds.”
“Last weekend’s feature on the AMT building prompts me to ask: do AMT and Carle Ambulance take everybody’s insurance? What are the chances that I might call 911, request an ambulance, and then be stuck with the entire bill because they don’t work with my insurance company?”
Greg Chance, Regional CEO of Medics First/Advanced Medical Transport East, said “AMT East accepts all forms of medical insurance — Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance plans that provide coverage for ambulance services. As a not-for-profit, AMT provides a generous financial assistance program for individuals without insurance or patients who need assistance with co-payments or deductibles.”
Brittany Simon, spokesperson for Carle Health, said coverage may vary from one insurer to the next, and Carle Arrow Ambulance is “committed to serving the emergency care needs of all community members and accept(s) most insurance providers.” She said policy-holders who have questions about their insurance coverage for emergent care or ambulance-transportation services should ask their insurance provider about their personal benefits coverage.
She noted that Carle Health does offer financial assistance for patients who qualify and more information about the Carle Health financial Assistance Program is at Carle.org.
I asked both Simon and Chance if they had an ambulance-call “base rate” they could share with us. AMT’s Chance said “our base rate is variable, depending on what level of prehospital healthcare service was provided, as well as the number of miles the patient was transported.”
On behalf of Carle Arrow, Simon said “we work to offer transparency in our pricing and the base rate is typically dependent the on level of service, the care provided, any medications administered and the distance of transport.”
“Do local grade school students still get the Weekly Reader publication? When I was a kid in the 1960s, it was a wonderful introduction to current events and the wider world.”
Oh, does that bring back memories! It’s hard to know which was my favorite part of elementary school in the ’70s: the Weekly Reader, or those little cartons of chocolate milk. (Ours was a strictly-skim-white-milk household.) The Weekly Reader is part of what kindled my interest in news and newspapers.
A quick web search for Weekly Reader took me to the Scholastic Publishing Magazines+ page. Weekly Reader ceased publication in 2012, when it primary competitor, Scholastic, bought the paper and merged it with Scholastic News publications.
A story in the New York Post at that time said “Weekly Reader and its predecessor My Weekly Reader … was read by two-thirds of all kids in grammar school at its peak and hit a high of 13 millions (sic) subscribers across its editions for pre-school through 12th grade.”
Print and digital subscriptions to the Weekly Reader’s successor publication, Scholastic News, are available for grade 1 through 6 classrooms.
A few weeks ago we answered a Mailbag question about whether there were any elm trees on campus, and it turned out there are just over 200 — the vast majority of which had been planted in the past few decades. Longtime residents may recall that Dutch elm disease and “elm yellows” killed virtually all local elm trees in the 1950s.
Steve Breitwieser of the UI’s Facilities & Services group had noted that there are two “large” elm trees on the UI campus, and we wanted to know whether there was a chance one or both of them had survived both disease outbreaks of ~70 years ago.
“An exact age is extremely challenging to assess because of various factors, but estimates based on the overall size of those trees would place them at ~75+ years.” He said one is located just northwest of the Architecture annex, and the other is on the east side of Orchard Downs along Race Street.
“How much of C-U MTD transit funds will be allocated as ‘guaranteed income’ to American Airlines to increase direct flights to Willard Airport?”
C-U MTD Managing Director Karl Gnadt said “none of the minimum revenue guarantee is for American Airlines. It will be used to attract and incentivize a new leisure airline. And the amount of the potential MTD contribution has not yet been determined by our Board of Trustees.”
Longtime multimedia reporter Kathy Reiser is the author of Kathy’s Mailbag, which runs in full every Friday on news-gazette.com and in part in Saturday’s News-Gazette. Submit your questions here.
What’s next for an historic building on the UI campus … recycling in Philo … and a new bank that’s coming to the site of a former bank in Champaign … and remembering Shelby Motors.
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