respublica

Nashville Hornets State Champs

Congratulations to the girls baskeball team of Nashville Illinois for winning the state championship in Class 2A last night. They beat the number one ranked state team, Champaign St. Thomas More.

When Dale was the pastor in Venedy Illinois we were right down the road from Nashville which was the county seat and we were in Nashville many times for grocery shopping or what not. We were in the Okawville school district at that time which was also down the road from Nashville. Both high schools had a long tradition of winning basketball teams, both boys and girls. 

Funny, many of the names of the players on this year's championship team are the same as the names of those who played when we lived out there. Likely they are the children of those players.

So Congrats, Nashville, what a thrill for the girls and the city.

Tuesday numbers

In just one month (December the first month legalized video gambling went into effect) Metro East gamblers spent 4.5 million dollars on 35 newly legal machines throughout the area. The amount gamblers lost was 400,000. Statewide 91.8 million dollars were played and of that total, 7 million was lost. 

Actually 400,000 as a loss on 4.5 million played sounds like pretty good odds, but I am not a gambler so I may have this completely wrong. Taverns and veterans posts and small restaurants look to do pretty well with these video games. 

More numbers

The Clayton School District recently voted to cut 1.2 million dollars out of its budget. The cuts will be permanent.

The Miners Institute Theater in Collinsville will have nothing more done to it for at least 3 years, it will, for all intents and purposes, sit idle. At issue is 190,000 dollars in TIF funds the Recreation District would have to prepay in order to return ownership to the Miners Institute Foundation. It's been tough sledding for years and years with the Miners.

Food Network to feature area restaurants

St. Louis isn't often featured on the Food Network or HGTV, two popular cable networks, but in the near future 2 local restaurants will be center stage.

On December 10, Roadhouse 61 in Webster Groves will be part of an episode of Diners Drive-Ins and Dives with host Guy Fieri. This is big! Really big. Guy's program brings a huge boost to the restaurants he visits and often ends up in one of his books. Fans of the show often take plan vacations around visiting places he highlights.

And, in early 2013, Restaurant Impossible will air a program on its makever of the Caseyville Cafe. In fact, Chef Michael Irvine and crew will be doing the makeover today and tomorrow. 421 S. Main in Caseyville.

Quite the image in this headline

From the Belleville News-Democrat:

Reptile wraps itself around O'Fallon. The story doesn't really reflect the headline, but the thought of a snake big enough to circle O'Fallon is creepy.

Metro East restaurant health scores

St Clair and Madison County health departments most recent inspection scores for eating places are online. There are not any explanations as to what the violations are which kept each place from getting a perfect 100 percent, but the lists for each city are worth a look.

My first reaction was, "oh boy, Spring Garden." And, under the heading of East Side Health District is found, Diana's Bakery in Collinsville. Where is this place? Never heard of it.

Gambling now legal in Illinois bars and restaurants

Yesterday the new law allowing bars and restaurants in Illinois to have video gambling machines went into effect. State legislators passed this law back in 2009 and expect the tax revenue to be around 375 million dollars a year which will then be used to fix bridges and schools.

Not every local city in Illinois is going to allow this type of gaming and some, like Collinsville, plan to put the question to voters on the November ballot to get a feel for how residents feel about this. Here's the irony in the local gambling issue, cities with casinos like Alton and East St. Louis are wary of competition to the casinos since these businesses have been a source of good tax revenue over the years. Collinsville has Fairmount Park Race Track's competition to keep in mind.

What's ironic is that the state and presumably Gov Quinn passed the legislation allowing veterans halls, bars, restaurants to have the poker, bingo, slot video gambling machines, but Gov Quinn vetoed legislation allowing the 2 or 3 Illinois race tracks to do the same. The obvious place for the new gambling machines would be in places where gambling has always been allowed. But sorry Fairmount Park, everyone else can have this revenue but not you.

This is all very weird.

Good bye K-Mart

K-Mart is leaving Fairview Heights and the city aldermen will vote to demolish the entire section of retail buildings from Office Max to Petco in order to create a new development tentatively named, Fairview City Centre.

Centre spelled Centre. I guess using the French spelling adds to the allure. But in any case my own experience has been that that particular K-Mart was one of the most depressing retail stores in the metro area. I'm surprised it has taken them so long to close. I'm old enough to remember when that building was a Venture store which predated most of what retail now stands in Fairview.

We shall see if the new Centre will be as successful as the "Shoppes" across the highway has been.

Oh this is rich, Metro east commuters

If it isn't bridge or highway work downtown making the trip into St Louis tough on Metro East people, now Metro is going to be doing track work.  MetroLink trains will not operate in Illinois between College and Shiloph-Scott stations from 8 p.m. until the end of service October 1-4 and October 7.

So one more alternate route taken away. Have tickets to the Cards game this week? Mwahahahaha

As if the constant car break-ins isn't enough

Now St Louis drivers have to be aware of young men on overpasses hurling large rocks at cars on I-64 in Illinois. And not missing cars down below in many cases.

Oh no, not the MLK

Beginning Monday IDOT will begin working on the Martin Luther King Bridge, closing the westbound lanes from 9-6 each day from the 10th to the 14th. September 17th the eastbound lanes will be closed 6 am to 3 pm and then on the 18th to the 21st one eastbound lane will close from 6 am to 3 pm.

You'll notice IDOT does not work at night and keep things closed all day and night as MoDOT often does, but it's still going to be a problem for people who use the King as a way of avoiding the Poplar work downtown. And, MoDOT is about to begin doing things on the eastbound lanes so that could be a double whammy. 44 people, 44.

One thing that has interested me is seeing how IDOT seems to be able to do things like move all those concrete road dividers in massive numbers without messing up the traffic flow, at least on 55/70 just east of downtown where the new bridge is going up. Unlike MoDOT which doesn't seem to be able to do anything without shutting things down completely.