Author: joeward7

Bruce Rushton
The Illinois Times

The Springfield City Council on Tuesday trimmed asks from Mayor Jim Langfelder, scaling back an ordinance that would have given the mayor the power to declare an emergency and ban sales of guns and alcohol.

The council also tabled a measure authorizing $2 million to be spent for a shuttered hospital that the mayor has been eyeing since last fall, when he suggested that the old Vibra hospital building at 701 North Walnut Street could become a homeless shelter.

“The ordinance as originally drafted was terrible,” Ward 9 Ald. Jim

Brenden Moore
The State Journal-Register

Springfield Mayor Jim Langfelder said he plans to formally declare a local state of emergency Wednesday in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The move comes after the Springfield City Council voted Tuesday to codify Langfelder’s emergency powers, which now include the ability to set a curfew, make individual purchases of up to $100,000 without city council approval and sign off on previously-appropriated expenditures.

Langfelder would have to notify the council of such purchases within 24 hours of authorizing

Bruce Rushton
The Illinois Times

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The council convened one day after Gov. JB Pritzker signed an executive order closing bars and restricting gatherings to 50 people – Mayor Jim Langfelder kicked things off by reading the part about the Open Meetings Act. “Public bodies are encouraged to postpone consideration of public business where possible,” Langfelder recited. “When a meeting is necessary, public bodies are encouraged to provide video, audio and/or telephonic access to meetings to ensure members of the public may monitor the meeting.”

The Chicago City Council’s Tuesday meeting was canceled. Two school districts in Illinois have announced that they’ll hold electronic meetings. In Springfield,

Bruce Rushton
The Illinois Times

Perhaps the wisest thing that Gov. J.B. Pritzker said during last week’s budget address came near the end, when he talked about why he wants to increase funding for the Department of Children and Family Services.

“There is an old saying that the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago,” the governor said. “And the second best time to plant a tree is today.”

It is too bad that Pritzker wasn’t at the previous night’s Springfield City Council meeting, when aldermen took a hatchet to the municipal budget and hacked away money for

Brenden Moore
The State Journal-Register

The Springfield City Council passed Mayor Jim Langfelder’s $130.1 million fiscal year 2021 budget proposal Tuesday evening, which holds the line on taxes and is without significant cuts to city services.

The corporate budget, which does not include the cost to run City Water, Light and Power, is about $4 million more than last year’s ask. Much of the increase comes from employee salaries and benefits along with the continued climb in required contributions to the city’s police and fire pensions.

CWLP’s $293.3 million proposal went untouched by council

Brenden Moore
The State Journal-Register

Another proposal from Mayor Jim Langfelder to explore placing a cap on the number of cannabis dispensaries within city limits was met with stiff resistance by members of the city council Tuesday evening.

Langfelder, long wary of the expansion of recreational cannabis sales, proposed a resolution asking the Springfield Planning and Zoning Commission to study the merits of an ordinance that would limit the number of dispensaries to five citywide and to just one per ward.

This, Langfelder said, would prevent a proliferation of cannabis dispensaries

Noelle Forde
WICS NewsChannel 20

It’s an effort decades in the making, city leaders pushing for Springfield to get a second lake.

Right now, the city is working on an environmental impact study for the project, known as Hunter Lake.

City officials say this lake has been 50 years in the making. At the city council meeting on Tuesday, aldermen approved a $90,000 recreational study by the

Brenden Moore
The State Journal-Register

The Springfield City Council approved a contract Tuesday evening with the University of Illinois’ Office of Recreation and Parks Resources to conduct a study of recreational demand on a second lake.

The council voted 7-2-1 to approve the ordinance, which authorizes the spending of up to $90,434 on the study. Alds. Joe McMenamin and Erin Conley voted “no.” Ward 6 Ald. Kristin DiCenso, who works for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, abstained.

The study was requested by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which last year

Brenden Moore
The State Journal-Register

It was a debate years in the making. But, when it came time Tuesday evening to debate a resolution endorsing the retirements of three of City Water, Light and Power’s four coal-fired units, it took just minutes for the Springfield City Council to make their decision.

Council members voted unanimously to support the nonbinding resolution, which supports CWLP’s recommendation that Dallman Units 31, 32 and 33 be retired in favor of purchasing additional power from other sources, such as

Brenden Moore
The State Journal-Register

The owners of Obed and Isaac’s Microbrewery & Eatery have purchased the former Paris Cleaners building, 910 South Grand Ave. W., with plans to convert it to a neighborhood “snug” pub.

COURT and KAREN CONN, proprietors of the eponymous hospitality group that operates the popular downtown microbrewery along with The Inn at 835 and Wm. Van’s Coffee, took possession of the property late last year. It had been vacant since July, when the dry-cleaning business closed after 110 years in business.