Poplar Camp Beach

 Poplar Camp Beach opens for the season May 24 and is a "swim at your own risk" facility as lifeguards will not be on duty at all times. This is not just a problem for Poplar Camp Beach. There is a nationwide shortage of lifeguards with roughly a third of public swimming facilities shortening hours due to a lack of lifeguards.

William Lo

 William Lo, Executive Director of the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce and General Manager of New Kahala, was the recipient of the Outstanding Service in Leadership award during the Asian Pacific American Heritage Month ceremony in Chicago today.  If you haven't joined it, check out the Southern Illinois Eats page he moderates on Facebook

Energy Study

 The city announced today it received a $400,000 grant from the Department of Energy "to  conduct a comprehensive pre-feasibility study of what our community has been calling “The Energy Sovereignty, Security, & Democracy Proposal”, a revenue-positive and replicable rural energy system model that fosters equitable American self-sufficiency and lasting prosperity for our Nation’s recovering energy communities,".

That is good but I cannot help wondering what good a pre-feasibility study will do. Shouldn't it at least look at the feasibility of a rural energy system model. Studies often get done and then tossed on the shelf.

Brown Bag Concerts

 The Carbondale Main Street Brown Bag Concerts feature The McDaniels this Wednesday at Noon. If you cannot catch them in person, CMS will stream the concert live on its Facebook page.

Southern Illinoisan

 Figured since I subscribe to the Southern Illinois digital edition, I ought to start reading it again. The first couple of pages are local news which is pretty good. One of the few places you can find local news. However, checking out the editorial page, oh my gosh. When I got the paper edition of the Southern, the editorial page was somewhat balanced, with one moderately liberal columnist, one moderately conservative columnist and Doonesbury relegated there from the comics page. 

Today the editorial page features two conservative columnists, one of which argued that unions are bad for business and for the economy, and Mallard Filmore, which is kinda like Doonesbury except conservative and lacking Donnesbury's satirical touch (and decent art).

Zoning Board of Appeals

 The Zoning Board of Appeals has a meeting next Wednesday with two items on the agenda. One deals with a request for a setback variance while the other deals with  structure size in areas zoned low density residential. 

Graduation

 Apparently some people did not realize this is graduation weekend as I had one person ask "Why are there so many cars in the Arena parking lot?" Just a reminder to expecting this week

1. more people than usual driving the wrong way on one way streets

2. really long waiting times at restaurants in town. The parking lot in front of Mary Lou's was packed this morning.