City of Champaign Roundup

I have a few news items for the City of Champaign government to catch up on. In this post are tidbits about the small business incentive program, the Bradley bridge update, a response for more public accessibility to the police review board meetings, and nuisance issues. There's also a recent post on Garden Hills planning and coverage of what many residents show to be an overdue need for city prioritization here: Garden Hills Fights Neglect.

First on the small business incentive program (more information on that program here at the city website). From the News-Gazette:

Champaign council OKs more funding for small-business program
...
The program, which started in May 2016, helps small businesses by covering start-up costs and providing counseling and related services. If accepted, business owners can get up to $7,000 to cover legal services related to starting their business, marketing and branding it, or to cover capital equipment costs.

So far, 59 local business have participated in the program, using about $161,000 of the total $230,000 the council allocated two years ago.

On Tuesday, Tina Ansong and Small Business Development Center Director Don Elmore — whose organization provides services necessary for small businesses to qualify for program funding — asked council members to consider allocating $105,000 to get money to 15 more approved applicants.

And though council members agreed to do so, Will Kyles quickly pointed out to his fellow members that the program hasn't reached out to the number of minority-owned businesses that he expected. He reminded council members that it was after feedback from community coalition meetings urging more investment in African-American businesses that the incentive program was born...

Council member Clarissa Fourman was more stern in her remarks, but agreed with Kyles that the program hasn't done enough to reach African-American business owners. She questioned why a program set out to primarily help African-Americans has "morphed into benefitting white women," who made up more than half of the grant recipients.

More at the full article here. On the Bradley bridge update:

Dozens turn out for open house on Bradley Avenue bridge replacement
When the Bradley Avenue bridge crossing Interstate 57 was built in the 1960s, that part of west Champaign was largely a rural area...

On Thursday night, about 60 people who live near the Bradley bridge turned out at Parkland College for an open house regarding the span's upcoming replacement.

Miller said work on the $5 million project will begin Wednesday. That's when the affected portion of Bradley will be closed.

Motorists will need to take a detour — by way of either Staley or Duncan roads — and the MTD's pink route will temporarily be rerouted.

"The bridge probably won't come down until the middle part of April," Miller said.

Motorists who travel down Interstate 57 may also be affected from time to time, as the construction plan calls for occasional lane closures, but only at night.

When the project is completed by this Thanksgiving, a whole new bridge will be open for traffic.

Full article here. And finally from Tom's Mailbag on the Citizen Review Subcommittee, a response to a question about why meetings were canceled and frustration about trying to attend:

Meanwhile, here's a response to this week's question from Emily Rodriguez, who chairs the citizen review committee on police, which will review investigations of citizen complaints:

"Thanks for reaching out. The Citizen Review Subcommittee schedules a monthly meeting to review complaints, and the meetings this reader has referred to have been canceled because there were no complaints to review. The CRS is a mechanism for accountability, and we've invested time and effort into fine-tuning the procedure by which we hear and consider citizen complaints. That is our core task, and I'm confident in our process.

"It seems that the heart of this question, though, is about public outreach. This reader is seeking opportunities to address and observe the CRS subcommittee in public, and that is exciting. Public outreach is key component of the CRS mission. We know our community benefits from seeing CRS efforts among our neighbors and that being in public allows the CRS to do our job better. For these reasons, in an open meeting, the Subcommittee voted on and agreed to draft a community outreach strategy. This outreach strategy would (a) inform our neighbors on the complaint process, (b) create regular opportunities to take public input and questions from our neighbors in public settings, and (c) expand the locations where complaints can be filed.

"We're excited to begin that conversation with Champaign as soon as possible. Thus far, we've researched outreach strategies that have been adopted by citizen review boards of comparable cities. We have a good understanding of the decisions points and which strategies seem to show the most promise — but we also know our CRS structure is unique, as are the needs of our community. We're working closely with the Office of Equity, Community and Human Rights staff to determine how to best use the resources at our disposal. Community Relations Manager Rachel Joy has been a key resource in shaping our plans. In the months to come, we plan on presenting an update on our efforts to the Community Coalition. Here, we will seek a handful of community members to work more closely with the strategy drafting process.

"I very much appreciate this question, and I hope they keep coming."

Full Tom's Mailbag article here. More information on the Citizen Review Subcommittee at the city website here. Oh, and one more thing...

A last minute additional item, speaking of complaints. The nuisance department would like us to be less of a nuisance:

Champaign code-compliance manager: Nuisance complaints clogging priorities
Keep your lawn mowed, your weeds cut and trash picked up.

That is, if you don't want to be the target of nuisance complaints.

It would make Champaign Code Compliance Manager David Oliver's job a little easier, at least.

Dealing with the high volume of nuisance cases is keeping his office from focusing on its priorities, he said at Thursday's Neighborhood Services Advisory Board meeting, where he sought direction from board members.

Right now, Oliver said, the city's property-inspection process is "complaint-driven."

And not only do the vast majority of complaints come in the peak season of May through September, but they're also almost always about nuisances like tall grass, weeds and trash.

Oliver said that while nuisance cases generally can be resolved pretty quickly, last year, such complaints accounted for 84.25 percent of his office's caseload. 

Full article here.