I once again had an opportunity to hear Mayor Cole give the State of the City Address for Carbondale. This was his fifth such speech and of course, the first of his second term as mayor. The speech was held at the Carbondale Civic center and was presented by the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce. A portion of our lunch expense went toward a $1000 scholarship for a Carbondale Community High School student who chooses to attend SIU after high school. Lunch was provided by Great Boars of Fire and was excellent, as usual.

Mayor Cole opened by recapping some of the accomplishments of the last year. His re-election topped the list. He also spoke of the “Country Club Road Agreement” in which Carbondale and Murphysboro are going to work together to develop the land between the cities. Another highlight concerned an agreement between Carbondale and SIU where the city and the university are going to increase the cooporative efforts to bring more students into the area. At times the city and university have butted heads over this issue, but Cole and Poshard (SIU’s President) both assured us that conflict is in the past.

We continue to map out a course for growth and revitalization.

One of the more interesting changes to city policy concerned Habitat for Humanity; the City will now wave all fees associated with permits and building when a Habitat for Humanity home is built in Carbondale.

There were four major points that the Mayor discussed about the coming year. First was a “Workforce Training Program” in which the city would share the salary expense with a local employer who is interested in hiring a high school student for a semester for the purpose of giving the student real world work experience and training. I thought this sounded like a great program, however all of the examples of this program in action were retail and service oriented. It seems to me, that our economy, nationwide, is changing to a more knowledge and specialized skill economy. Some sort of specialized training opportunities could’ve been mentioned, computer programing, business development, etc.

The second project was spurred, I’m sure by the media’s overwhelming Green Push. He has asked the community to develop an education program for businesses to help them be more energy conscious. He said, “Responsibility that supports profitability.” He postulated that all businesses would be happy to save $1000 dolars in utility bills if it only cost them $100 in more efficient electronics and the like. He added that the city would do an extensive audit of itself in order to set the example. I think this sounds great. I look forward to the results of the audit.

Third was the proposal for an online community driven website, something “myspace-esque”. Again, another good idea. Carbondale and Southern Illinois are a little behind the times in marketing and community development. I’m not saying that these community development sites are the ‘be all end all’ but there is certainly value in them. Companies are spending thousands of dollars and man hours adding content to these communities. I plan for Splattered Ink to be in the running for development of this new site.

The last major point was really exciting for the creative/arts community in Southern Illinois. As most of you know the Varsity Theater has been vacant for a couple of years now. After a good deal of discussion, Kerasotes has decided to donate the property to the city. Thank you Kerasotes! The property will become the Varsity Arts Center and will be the new home to The Stage Company!

That’s some of the highlights from this years State of the City Address. Overall it was a good one. I’d love to hear what other people in the community thought. Post your comments below.