City of Champaign Updates

Here a few highlights of recent updates for the City of Champaign:

Grant awarded to the Champaign Fire Department again for unmanned aerial systems. From the Daily Illini:

Champaign Fire Department receives $5,000 grant
The Champaign Fire Department received a $5,000 grant from Marathon Petroleum Company early this January to enhance its Unmanned Aerial Systems program.

Randy Smith, Champaign deputy fire marshal, said in an email the grant will be used by the fire department to upgrade equipment and provide additional training for pilots in the UAS program.

“Advancements in UAS has provided a new opportunity to provide lifesaving information during emergency operations including hazardous materials response, natural disasters, water/ice rescues, large fires and live fire training exercises,” Smith said...

This grant was also awarded to the Champaign Fire Department in 2013 and 2016.

More at the full article here. Possible regulations on vaping nicotine devices were studied by the City Council in a study session, though no immediate action was being taken:

Champaign council not yet ready to regulate e-cigarette market
The city council isn't prepared to take significant steps to regulate vaping or the sale of electronic nicotine delivery systems just yet.

But during a study session Tuesday, council members agreed the city should do something to regulate products high in nicotine and support efforts to curb nicotine addiction in teenagers, and directed staff to draft an ordinance banning e-cigarette use where tobacco cigarettes are not allowed...

Summer Phillips, outreach coordinator for the Douglas County Health Department, called the use of e-cigarettes among youth an "epidemic." She said she's currently working with 26 area high school students who are "in a desperate situation." But she warned that more stringent regulations on e-cigarettes and other nicotine delivery systems may do more harm than good, and prevent people who are trying to quit cigarettes from having a less harmful alternative...

Phillips said there's no process in place for dealing with increasing addiction among children, because many stop-smoking methods such as patches and nicotine gum have regulations that ban their use by teens. She said, currently, the best way to help a teen addict quit is counseling, which may not be effective for heavily addicted people...

Both council member Greg Stock and Centennial High School teacher Bill Behrends said the Champaign Unit 4 school district doesn't currently have cohesive rules on vaping at school. Stock insinuated there "might be stealth efforts" by school officials to draft policies on vaping, but as a staff member, he said he's unaware of what that could be.

More at the full article here.

There was also a bit of an update on "The Yards" development in downtown Champaign. The project hit a snag when one of the government bodies part of the collaborative planning project, MTD, was unable to acquire a couple federal grants towards their part of it. The main gist of this update is that in spite of that speed bump, other players from the University of Illinois and the City of Champaign are still optimistic that planning will go forward. More on that at a News-Gazette article earlier this week here.