Author: joeward7

Steven Spearie
The State Journal-Register

Anger, then confusion, then resolution. That seemed to sum up Tuesday’s committee of the whole meeting. The tumult stemmed from the city’s attempt to annex a number of properties that were considered “holes in the doughnut,” that is, completely surrounded by Springfield, but not considered to be in the city.

About 25 or so people attended the meeting to protest the ordinances after receiving letters from the city about the proposed annexation. Included were single-dwelling homes and multi-acre properties in places like Curran and Gardner Township.

Steven Spearie
The State Journal-Register

Springfield Mayor Jim Langfelder doesn’t know if or when he would bring in a replacement for Val Yazell, who was terminated as the city’s economic development director Thursday.

“It’s under review right now,” Langfelder said Monday. “People are asking who are you bringing in? I didn’t intend to bring in anybody currently, but eventually, that’s always a possibility.”

Langfelder said he’s meeting with each of the office’s seven employees. There are two other vacancies in addition to Yazell’s.

“We’re assessing it,” Langfelder added. “There’s no timetable at this point.

Steven Spearie
The State Journal-Register

After a lengthy and spirited discussion and some soul-bearing by its sponsor, the Springfield City Council passed on a 6-4 vote a landmark maternity/paternity/adoption leave ordinance for city employees Tuesday.

It gives all employees, union and non-union, four weeks paid leave after the birth or adoption of a child.

Meanwhile, an ordinance authorizing the execution of a development agreement between the city and Legacy Park Sports, LLC for a sports complex site behind Scheels off

Steven Spearie
The State Journal-Register

The Springfield City Council unanimously approved the nomination of Roy Williams Jr. as Ward 3 alderman Tuesday two weeks after voting him down on “emergency passage.” The vote was bumped up to near the start of Tuesday’s meeting.

After the vote, Williams, the president of the board of directors for the Faith Coalition for the Common Good, was swiftly sworn in by Judge Rudolph M. Braud Jr., an associate judge on the Seventh Judicial Circuit Court.

Williams’ mother, Arlene Brandon, held the Bible for the swearing-in.

Bruce Rushton
The Illinois Times

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ROCK ‘EM SOCK ‘EM ALDERMAN: Ward 2 Ald. Shawn “Rabbit Punch” Gregory never has shied from a fight. “Willie (that’s the alderman’s given first name) told us that he is a very good fighter and could hold his own,” cops reported in 2002 when interrogating him about a parking lot encounter with a sheriff’s employee who was much bigger. A friend back then said that the future alderman, accused of brandishing a pistol, had no fear. “I know Shawn, and he won’t back down from anyone,” the friend told detectives, who found it hard to believe that

Cap City
Illinois Times

Steven Spearie
The State Journal-Register

The full Springfield City Council will take up on the debate agenda next Tuesday the question of paternity/maternity leave for city employees and the future of a sports complex in the Legacy Pointe development.

The committee of the whole sent both items, along with an ordinance setting parameters on a cannabis tax collected by the city, through on Tuesday.

The long-discussed sports complex, covering 90 acres and with multi-use indoor and outdoor facilities, is sure to stir lively debate though a developer’s agreement is still being hammered out.

Scott Dahl, director of the Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau, said the Legacy

Bruce Rushton
The Illinois Times

Eyesores can last years in Springfield. Consider 2809 Poplar Avenue.

In lieu of shingles, a sheet of plastic is nailed to part of the roof. A green notice posted by city inspectors who declared the building unsafe has faded from the sun. Roxana Talley, who has lived next door for two decades, said that the last resident moved a couple years ago after spending the last year or so living in a shed in the backyard because the house wasn’t habitable. When he turned 62, Talley says, he moved into a high-rise apartment in another part of town.

No one appeared in administrative court in July 2019, after the city found scores of

Bruce Rushton
The Illinois Times

When it comes to fire departments, I have street cred. I am junior fire chief emeritus for Elmhurst Elementary School. My yearlong reign, won by virtue of writing an essay on how to survive house fires, stretched from 1973 to 1974. For a solid week, a fire engine, siren blaring, picked me up at home and delivered me to school each day. Before that, I was a victim, having stuck my leg down a drainpipe at a demolished laundromat after wandering from the mobile home where I spent formative years. It took the better part of an afternoon, and a jackhammer, to extricate me. Firefighters were there the whole time – while I bawled, they gave me candy and let me wear one of their hats, but it was way too big.

That’s the thing about the fire department: They always show up, no matter what,

Steven Spearie
The State Journal-Register

The Springfield City Council voted down the appointment of Roy Williams Jr. for Ward 3 alderman in a 6-3 vote at its meeting Tuesday. Mayor Jim Langfelder had put forward the nomination of Williams, a community organizer and U.S. Army veteran, on Friday.

The former Ward 3 alderwoman, state Sen. Doris Turner, D-Springfield, was appointed to fill the seat of former Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, in the 48th Senate District of the Illinois General Assembly. Turner had served in that seat since 2011.

Voting for Williams’ appointment were Ward 2 Ald. Shawn Gregory, Ward 4 Ald. John Fulgenzi and Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin.

Because the resolution was moved to “emergency passage,” Williams needed