Kathy's #Mailbag, July 19, 2024 (2024)

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How many vape shops are there in Champaign County … what’s happening with concessions at Clinton Lake … why Champaign needs “park ambassadors” … and what’s next for a couple of Housing Authority apartment buildings. These questions and more in this week’s Mailbag.

2025 Fourth of July Parade

Last week’s Mailbag included a question about whether the theme and grand marshal family named for the 2024 Champaign County Freedom Celebration will be carried over to 2025, as the 2024 parade was rained out on July 4.

Spokesperson Diane Ducey did answer the question, but I inadvertently left out a key sentence from her reply as I cut and pasted some copy just before last week’s deadline. The sentence missing from the Mailbag was “the short answer is ‘yes!’ ” So … yes, next year’s theme will be “America Celebrates the Pride of the Heartland,” and four generations of the Alvin Decker family will serve as grand marshals. My apologies for the omission.

Hazardous waste collection registration by phone

Readers may have seen Sam Lisec’s story in Wednesday’s paper about the household hazardous waste collection that’s set for Saturday, Aug. 17, in the southwest parking lot at State Farm Center.

While most participants reserve their time slot online athhwevent.simplybook.me, the City of Champaign’s environmental sustainability specialist, Nichole Millage, says those who do not have internet access may call 217-403-4780 for help with registration.

Many townies and UI alumni of a certain vintage can look at a picture of this building and “sea” its original occupant in their mind’s eye. The Sea Merchant was one of the fancier restaurants in town between about 1976 and 1990 — and the site of countless family celebrations.

In response to our Now & Then post on Facebook this week, Lex Tate recalled “It was a destination and a rare place: most nice restaurants of that era were steak and baked potato. The interior was boat-themed, with lines, canvas and rough wood.” Mary Hubbell remembers enjoying happy hours with her dad after his shifts on the railroad, “with 10-cent shell-on shrimp and hunks of cheddar from a huge wheel.”

Undated menus in the Champaign County Historical Archives’ collection show Sea Merchant offered prime rib or top sirloin plus an Australian lobster tail for $10.95, Alaskan King Crab for $9.95, and a “mess of fried clams” for $3.95. Sunday brunch menu faves included crab crepes, a crab omelet, and the Sonora and mishmash omelets.

Ned Kelly’s, a Australian-theme restaurant named after the bushranger (outlaw) of the same name, had another long run there. Some readers fondly recall Ned’s skillet cookie, cactus fries and baked sweet potatoes. Others mentioned the Jeep and alligator (or was it a crocodile?) in the entryway — which were ’grammable decades before Instagram made that a thing.

Ned Kelly’s opened in early 1993 and closed at the end of 2006. A News-Gazette business article quoted manager Harsha Gurujal saying the restaurant was the victim of a 20% increase in steak prices and stiff competition from restaurants on Prospect Avenue.

The Timbers, operated by Johnny and Cheryl Lee, took Ned Kelly’s place in about 2007 and lasted for two years. Nikki Marie’s, an Italian restaurant owned by their daughter Nicole Lee, opened for what turned out to be a short run in 2009. The Lees previously had operated The Possum Trot in Oakwood and Outer Banks in Pesotum.

A Montana Mike’s franchise came after Nikki Marie’s, in 2010, filling a niche for "a reasonably priced steakhouse with large portions,” with “everything … fresh and homemade,” according to a News-Gazette article on its opening. Co-owner Greg Schmidtknecht said its 2012 closing was due partly to a soft economy and partly to location. Although some other steakhouses in Champaign-Urbana attracted plenty of patrons, “we couldn't get them to this side of town,” he said in an article by business writer Don Dodson.

Toro Loco, owned by Martin Fuentes, had a built-in Urbana customer base when Fuentes moved his former El Toro operation a few blocks north to the larger building on Cunningham Avenue in late 2012. The restaurant’s name changed with the move, but the menu stayed essentially the same.

Dodson wrote that “the new name, which translates as ‘crazy bull,’ was chosen because Fuentes said the work involved nearly drove him crazy.”


“I see ‘park ambassadors’ at Sholem Pool, and mostly they seem to sit in the far corner of the pool. It seems like a waste of taxpayer dollars.”

“Their role specifically at Sholem Aquatic Center is to be present to help intervene if there are altercations between patrons, serving as a backup to aquatic staff,” according to Sarah Sandquist, executive director of the Champaign Park District. “Ambassadors wear a bright-colored shirt and tend to station themselves close to the manager's office so they can react to situations in a timelymanner.”

Having the ambassadors on hand allows the lifeguards to focus on watching the swimmers at all times.

In general, Sandquist said park ambassadors are there to “ensure parks are safe by patrolling the grounds, enforcing regulations, and providing education and assistance to visitors. They work in partnership with Champaign Police Department and will call for backup if necessary. In addition to being scheduled on-site at Sholem, they also patrol the parking lot and surrounding Centennial Park every hour.”

Sandquist said ambassadors may work in any Champaign park, and have hours specifically scheduled at Hessel, Centennial, West Side, Douglass and Beardsley parks. The FY25 budget for the program is $100,000.


"A new vape shop seems to open just about every week in Champaign County. How many e-cigarette retailers are there in Champaign County now?”

Yeah, it might make you wonder when the numbers will get to the point of saturation and shakeout. Just in the Village of Savoy, with about 9,000 residents, there are three vape shops within a 1.8-mile stretch along U.S. 45, plus other tobacco and e-cigarette supply retailers.

Illinois Department of Revenue spokesperson Maura Kownacki says it’s hard to pin down a countywide number, based on how the state licenses and registers businesses in its record-keeping system. “Vape shop” is not a classification the state uses. Under the state’s cannabis law, “vape shops aren’t selling what qualifies as cannabis — or shouldn’t be,” Kownacki ssaid. “They are selling products derived from industrial hemp or tobacco.”

In the broader category of other tobacco products (OTP) and/or cigarette tax licensing and registration — which would represent non-cannabis stores — 177 retailers currently have these licenses in Champaign County.

“This number would include your classic gas station/convenience stores, Walgreens, stand-alone stores specific to OTP, ‘vape’ shops, etc. Any further categorization of these shops’ activities is not required for registration purposes,” Kownacki said.

“We enjoy visiting Clinton Lake and oftentimes would grab grub at Boondocks, which is totally gone. Is anything going to take its place? And if so … when?”

Jayete Bolinski, spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, says Clinton Lake State Recreation Area’s concessions area “will host a revolving schedule of mobile food trucks” this summer. “Local food truck vendors offering delicious made-to-order lunches, dinners, snacks and desserts will be visiting throughout the season” — but not every day of the week.

Park visitors are encouraged to check the funatclintonlake.com website for the most current food truck vendor schedules. Information on longer-term plans for Clinton Lake concessions is not available at this time.

“There’s acircular array of posts, seemingly with an anemometer in the middle, along the north side of CR 1100Neast of First Street. And large misters are in operation at a different array just east of there. What’s that all about?”

Lisa Ainsworth, a UI and USDA research scientist, said the installations are part of the SoyFACE (Soybean Free Air Concentration Enrichment) facility located on the university’s South Farms. Ainsworth is the director of that facility.

She said “this innovative research site simulates future climate conditions by manipulating carbon dioxide levels, ozone concentrations, temperature, soil moisture and vapor pressure” within a limited area. Established in 2001, research at SoyFACE studies how changes in the atmosphere impact the productivity and quality of Midwestern crops, including soybeans.

The circular arrays monitor environmental conditions and use fumigation equipment to adjust greenhouse gas levels on experimental plots that can be compared to plots grown in today’s conditions. The project website at soyface.illinois.edu includes a video that explains the experimental setup.

As the world's longest-running FACE facility, SoyFACE “plays a pivotal role in advancing our understanding of climate change impacts on agriculture and developing strategies to mitigate its effects,” Ainsworth said.

“What is the City of Champaign’s process for managing weeds on brick streets?”

The city does not have an articulated procedure for managing weeds on brick streets, said Kris Koester, administrative services manager with Champaign Public Works. “They get driven over and perhaps removed during winter snow/ice plowing operations,” he said.

“Roughly 10 years ago, the housing authority acquired the twin beige apartment buildings on the NE corner of Third and Park Streets in Champaign. They were renovated for use as a homeless shelter for displaced families. Now they are boarded-up on the first floor. What’s next for these two buildings?”

Lily Walton, executive director of the Housing Authority of Champaign County, said the property is boarded-up “because it is getting ready to undergo a pretty significant renovation. It has been used in the past years as an emergency shelter for families, and in order to continue to make that property a viable housing asset for the community it needs some significant renovations.”

Each of the two buildings has 12 units, and they will continue to be used to provide emergency shelter for families after the dwellings are renovated. Walton said she expects the rehabbing to be complete by late winter or early spring. American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds from Champaign County, and the cities of Urbana and Champaign, will supplement HACC funding for the project.

“Are there any Redbox video kiosks left in Champaign? I saw they filed for bankruptcy and figured my DVD-rental options might be dwindling soon.”

That seems like a pretty safe assumption. Variety, the entertainment industry trade paper, reported last week that “Redbox’s network of 24,000 DVD rental kiosks and its streaming services will be shut down after its parent company, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, converted its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case to a Chapter 7 liquidation proceeding on Wednesday.”

As of Thursday morning of this week, the kiosk location-finder on Redbox’s website showed no locations in our area. The CVS store at Neil and Green, and the Walgreens at Springfield and Mattis, still had Redbox kiosks just outside the main entrances and they appeared to be working. I was unable to find a date by which all such kiosks will be disconnected and hauled away.

If you’re tempted to just keep any DVDs you might have rented from them in recent days, remember: The company may still have your credit card number.

“Does the UI or one of its affiliates still hold a fall sale of used household goods?”

Yes. It’s the University YMCA’s Dump & Run® sale that “keeps over 30 tons of used, quality goods out of Champaign-Urbana’s dumpsters and landfills each year by making these available to students and community members through the Big Sale,” according to the University Y’s website. The next sale is set for Aug. 24-25.

Several early August collection days offer townies and others a chance to contribute unneeded household items to the sale. Collection days and hours include Monday, Aug. 5, noon to 4 p.m.; Tuesday Aug. 6 through Friday, Aug. 9, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; and Monday, Aug. 12 through Friday, Aug. 16, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Drop items off during those hours at the UI Stock Pavilion. Free pickup may be arranged for extra-large items such as couches or tables. (All items should be clean and in usable condition, of course.)

Find details at universityymca.org/what-we-offer/programs/dump-run.

By the way, the Y’s website says the UI runs its own version of Dump & Run in May. The University YMCA is not involved and does not receive items or funds from the May program.

“When a property owner creates a retaining pond or other environmental feature that attracts wildlife, do they have any responsibility to install barriers or obstacles that would reduce human-wildlife conflict?”

No, they do not, according to Champaign Zoning Administrator Kat Trotter. She said there is nothing in the Zoning Ordinance or Property Maintenance Code that speaks to the wildlife barriers for environmental features on private property. Nor are there any requirements in the Manual of Practice or Subdivision Code that involve installation of street-crossing barriers for wildlife.

“What used to be in the building whereLaBambais now, on Glenn Park Drive in Champaign? Was it a steak restaurant, maybe like a Ponderosa?”

Old city directories do not show a building at 1905 Glenn Park Drive through most of the 1980s. Then in 1987, the Illinois Bell phone book lists David Beard’s Catfish King restaurant in that spot. By 1990, it had been rebranded as Cat Fish King. The building had been repurposed as La Bamba West by the time the 1991 phone book was published.

“The damage from Monday night’s derecho was pretty devastating, mainly to trees, especially along East Illinois and East California streets in Urbana. Are they sure it wasn’t a tornado that hit that localized area?”

Ed Shimon, warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Lincoln, says they’re sure. “Wind damage from an event like a derecho can have pockets of 100-plus-mph winds due to the pulsing nature of the descending air channels in the storm and the rear-inflow jet (RIJ),” he said.

“Tornadoes tend to pull upward on trees and debris as damage is occurring. That tends to loft the debris and toss pieces of debris hundreds of yards away or more at times. The damage from a derecho can be as devastating, if not more than some tornadoes, but the damage and debris is usually closer nearby. Also, treetops usually get shredded by tornadic winds as the tornadoes' rising air in the funnel pulls up on the tree during demolition.”

He said that particular part of Urbana may have seen more damage because it’s a long-established neighborhood with many older trees that “do tend to have weaker structure over time.”