Parkland Debt Forgiveness and Updates

This post includes information and links on the latest from the Parkland Board of Trustees including a debt forgiveness program, tuition freeze, vacancy applicant interviews, and more.

The Parkland Board of Trustees made some news recently with an announcement of a debt forgiveness program called the Cobra Comeback program. WCIA had coverage a couple weeks ago:

The BOT also approved Cobra Comeback; the program gives former students a chance to restart their education by removing financial holds preventing registration. For each course returning students earn a C or higher, the cost of current tuition per credit hour will be removed from their past-due balances. There are eligibility requirements:

• Good academic standing
• Debt of no more than $2,000
• Non-enrollment at Parkland during the past academic year

More at the full blurb here. More information at the program web page here. The Board of Trustees also enacted a tuition freeze for the year mentioned in the same article. The News-Gazette had a lot of additional details on the tuition freeze in their article a couple days later. It included a bit of an overview on Parkland's funding as well:

Parkland supports its costs largely by state funding, tuition and property taxes.

Parkland’s property tax rate has remained fairly steady in recent years, Ramage said. It’s currently about 53 cents per $100 of a property’s assessed value.

But state funding has declined quite a bit over the past two decades. It’s improved since 2016, but still covers just 9 percent of Parkland’s budget, which is “woefully down” from 27 percent in 2000, according to Ramage.

That full article here.


Other Updates:

The News-Gazette had an update on Parkland's solar farm:

Two years after receiving board approval, a building permit was issued in February for the 8-acre solar farm.

The 2-megawatt field will be located in the northwest corner of campus...

The project was initially going to be built in 2018 by SolSystems LLC of Washington, D.C., which would pay to build the solar farm and earn renewable energy certificates that it could sell.

The project was delayed because “the state of Illinois was somewhat delayed in their awarding of rebates and solar renewable energy certificates,” said Jim Bustard, Parkland’s director of physical plants.

More at their Just Askin' column here.


Parkland's Public Safety police chief is in the running for an appointment for an Urbana City Council vacancy. He recently introduced himself and gave his pitch to the City Council. More on that in a recent Cheat Sheet post here.


A previous Cheat Sheet post had alerted readers to a vacancy on the Board of Trustees and the application process (now closed) back in January. Parkland's press release page has announced a list of the applicants here:

The Parkland College Board of Trustees has selected the following individuals for interviews at a special Board meeting on Tuesday, March 10, 2020. The interviews will take place during open session in the order in which their applications were received. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m., with 20 minute interviews for each candidate.

Maureen Banks, Champaign
Mark Dixon, Urbana
Michael Foellmer, Champaign
Erin Nuss, Gibson City
Barbara Schurter, Champaign
Bradley Uken, Mahomet

Full press release here.

City of Champaign Updates

This post follows up on this week's City Council (agenda and video) and Human Relations Commission March and February meetings. It also includes some links about parts of Downtown Champaign being added to the National Registry of Historic Places.

There was a Cheat Sheet post previewing the City Council meeting here with some additional background. The Council Bill involving an intergovernmental agreement with the University to install Smart Sensors was delayed again awaiting feedback on privacy and data security concerns from City staff. The northern 40 acre half of a Unit 4 property was annexed into the city to help improve options for the district to eventually sell it for development. The other half has some additional use restrictions that were covered in detail during the discussion of the item here. The News-Gazette had coverage yesterday:

About 40 acres of farmland once intended to be the site of the new Central High School on Olympian Drive has been annexed into the city of Champaign...

After the 2016 referendum, whose projects did not use that land, was approved, the board went back to the Atkins family, he said, and it agreed to loosen the restrictions, allowing for a middle school, elementary school, administration building or athletic fields at the site.

Unit 4 bought both tracts of land in 2014 for a total of $3.2 million.

Full article here. Other items on the agenda were passed swiftly and unanimously. The City Manager had a statement about preparedness for the coronavirus here. She explains the intergovernmental Regional Emergency Coordination Group facilitated by the Champaign County Emergency Management Agency. She explained that municipal and public safety members had met that afternoon in their policy group to discuss the coronavirus situation and preparing for the possibility of local cases soon. There will be weekly meetings on the subject led by Champaign-Urbana Public Health District addressing needs of informing the public.


Human Relations Commission:

The March Human Relations Commission had a couple presentations that might be of interest. One was an overview of the Census 2020 starting at around the 7:18 minute mark in the video. One highlight was how to identify legitimate census workers and warning signs for scammers at around the 14 minute mark.

The rest of the HRC meeting focused on a presentation (at the 24:35 minute mark in the video) and public comments on proposed changes to the City's Human Rights Ordinance updating the language on protecting people from discrimination around gender identity, updated terminology on transgender issues, and clarifying language. The main presentation was by Laura Hall, Assistant City Attorney. Kris Koester the City's LGBTQ liason and a couple local LGBTQ group representatives from Uniting Pride (UP) and the University of Illinois LGBT Resource Center spoke in favor of the changes after.

The February Human Relations Commission had an overview on the upcoming Disability Resource Expo and a discussion on equity issues in Unit 4. The Disability Resource Expo overview began at the 5:25 minute mark in the February video here. More information at the Expo website here. The time and location will be March 28, 9am-2pm, The Vineyard Church, Urbana, IL.

The Unit 4 equity discussion began at the 10:50 minute mark in the video here. The minutes from that meeting had notes of the Commissioner comments during that discussion available here on page 2 of the PDF.


Historic Downtown Champaign:

Last month there was some local coverage on portions of both the downtown Champaign and Urbana areas being added to the National Register of Historic Places. There was a previous Cheat Sheet post with links and more information for Urban's addition here. WCCU had coverage on Champaign a couple weeks ago:

The Downtown Champaign commercial district is receiving some honorable mention.

The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places...

The Downtown District contains 63 structures in total and covers more than 19 acres.

For property owners, the main benefit is access to a 20% income tax credit.

That full article and video segment here. Smile Politely had additional details from the City's press release including a map of the specific area here.

Urbana City Council and Ward 6 Applicants

This week's Urbana City Council meeting video is online (video here, agenda here). A previous Cheat Sheet post had a preview of some of the topics here. Before the regular Committee of the Whole meeting the Council had a Special Meeting that included approving a couple Mayoral staff appointments (more information on that here) and recognizing local women leaders and women's history month. The city had a facebook post with images here:

The News-Gazette had additional coverage of one of the appointments and how it relates to Urbana's new approach to developing a new Master Plan for the City:

The longtime CEO of Fox Development Corp. has been hired by the city of Urbana for three years to rewrite its comprehensive plan, which was last updated in 2005.

Andrea Ruedi will be paid $150,000 a year to develop the comprehensive plan, which is Mayor Diane Marlin’s next big project after eliminating the city’s structural deficit...

Ruedi will begin immediately, immersing herself in the city government’s activities, and the city will begin developing the new comprehensive plan this summer.

That full article available here. The appointment, discussion of the Master Plan and the rest of the brief Special Meeting is available at the beginning of the City Council meeting video here.


Committee of the Whole:

After the Special Meeting the City Council came to order for its Committee of the Whole meeting. In general they voted to recommend the remaining agenda items to the City Council for final approval. There were some other highlights worth pointing out:

• A housing property Rosecrance wants to return to the City was delayed as the agreement wasn't ready yet (more details here).
• Public Participation (direct link here) included a couple statements read into the record about equity and subdivision sewer problems. There was also a Neighborhood Watch leader Tammy Masters on local safety concerns in County Squire neighborhood in Ward 6 and issues to consider in appointing a new Alderman for it.
• Coronavirus preparation discussion between the Board and the a representative with the fire department. The conversation dealt with concerns with staffing backup plans in case of illness.

Four of the applicants for Alderman for City Council Ward 6 were in attendance to introduce themselves and why they believed they should be selected for the vacancy. A fifth member had a written statement read into the record due to a personal schedule conflict with a surprise second honeymoon. The City Council appeared sympathetic to not breaking that date. The applicants came from various backgrounds and perspectives. From the City's facebook post:

• William Colbrook, Chief of Police/Director of Public Safety Parkland College

• Thomas Hebert, Manager and Golf Teaching Professional, Just Fore Fun Golf Center,

• Andrew Miller, Software Engineer, University of Illinois,

• Joseph Smith, retired City of Urbana Civil Engineer,

• Darius White, Executive Director, Urbana Business Association.

That post available here. The video of their statements to the City Council here with Joseph Smith's written statement read afterward. The Mayor described the choice as a difficult one, but one she hoped to have ready by the regular City Council meeting next Monday March 9th.

Champaign City Council / C-U Fresh Start

Last week's study session had a presentation on the C-U Fresh Start program that tries to stop gun violence locally. The presentation and discussion covered possible changes as the program has evolved and processed feedback over the years. The full video of the Study Session is available here. The full written report on the C-U Fresh Start program is here and includes a short history and overview. There was a roughly 30 minute presentation on the program, how it's structured, and how it operates (direct link here) followed by a Q&A with the City Council members at the 31:40 mark in the video.

Public participation (at the 50:30 mark) included many of the people who work with the program or its leadership in various capacities and shines a light on many of the dedicated people from different walks of life, from police to service providers and many others. Critical community members and people doing work behind the scenes spoke from the formerly incarcerated to those who have experienced various sides of gun violence and impacted communities. Trauma expert Karen Simms spoke a bit about her work and recommended reading a report on urban violence and trauma available here from the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority.

The City Counsel members gave their impressions afterward (at the 1:31:30 mark) and unanimously agreed to direct staff to continue working with the program. WCCU had coverage last week:

After the discussion, Champaign City Council said they supported the program and are interested in seeing how it evolves in the coming years.

This year, CU Fresh Start looks to strengthen police-community relations, provide additional engagement options for CU Fresh Start participants, and launch a media campaign to reinforce the focused deterrence message and highlight the success of the initiative.

They are also working to establish a job partnership for participants—something that is still lacking. They are looking to work with several local organizations to help fill the service gap.

Full article with video segment here. The News-Gazette had additional coverage and highlights from the Study Session here.


Regular City Council Meeting This Week:

Tomorrow, Tuesday March 3rd, the City Council will be having a regular City Council meeting (agenda here) which will include revisiting an intergovernmental agreement with the University of Illinois for Smart Sensors (more on that at a previous Cheat Sheet post covering the last regular meeting). The vote was postponed to look at privacy and data protections involved in the project.

There will also be a public hearing and a vote on annexing the Unit 4 property off of Olympian Drive (resolution information here with explanation on page 13 of the PDF file). Excerpts:

The purpose of this Council Bill is to approve an Annexation Agreement with Champaign Community Unit School District No. 4 (Unit 4) for property Unit 4 owns at 75 W. Olympian Drive. Six votes are required for passage...

Overview. The subject property is owned by Unit 4, having been acquired by the District in 2014. The land is undeveloped agricultural land and is presently zoned AG-2, Agriculture pursuant to the Champaign County Zoning Ordinance. The subject property is contiguous to the City of Champaign city limits along its west, south, and east boundaries. To the west lies the Ashland Park subdivision. Adjacent properties on all other sides are undeveloped agricultural land...

At present, there is no development imminently planned for the subject property. Prior to any future development, the land will be both annexed and subdivided. Upon annexation to the City of Champaign, the zoning pattern outlined in the Area General Plan will attach to the property. Meanwhile, dedications of rights-of-way for the street connections shown in the Area General Plan (along with other local streets internal to the development) will occur as a part of the subdivision process. Subdivision will also trigger construction of the extension of Neil Street from its current terminus northwards to Olympian Drive.

That full informational packet (including maps) here. The property was purchased when plans were being made to build a new Central High School on the North end of Champaign instead of the later referendum projects that expanded Central High School at its current location. More on that from an older Unit 4 press release here:

At a special meeting Monday night, the Champaign Unit 4 School District Board of Education unanimously approved the purchase of 80 acres of land for a new high school on Interstate Drive next to the Ashland Park subdivision.

The purchase price for the land amounted to $3.2 million. The District will use funds set aside from the county-wide 1% sales tax for the purchase of new land, and will seek to supplement these funds with the sale of excess property. The Promises Made, Promises Kept Committee, comprised of community members, has been overseeing the funds from the 1% sales tax to ensure they are being used as promised.

That full press release here. More background on the old site selection here. The old information site for these plans is archived on the Unit 4 website here.

Urbana Alderman Applicants

At tomorrow's Monday night Urbana City Council meeting, the applicants for the Ward 6 alderman vacancy on the City Council will have an opportunity to introduce themselves and speak for a few minutes. The City of Urbana's facebook page had a quick overview:

The City of #Urbana has received five applications from residents seeking to replace Ward 6 City Council member, Harold “Dean” Hazen, who resigned his seat effective February 25, 2020. The applicants are:

• William Colbrook, Chief of Police/Director of Public Safety Parkland College

• Thomas Hebert, Manager and Golf Teaching Professional, Just Fore Fun Golf Center,

• Andrew Miller, Software Engineer, University of Illinois,

• Joseph Smith, retired City of Urbana Civil Engineer,

• Darius White, Executive Director, Urbana Business Association.

Mayor Diane Wolfe Marlin has been interviewing applicants. They will be invited to give a 3-minute public statement before the City Council at the Committee of the Whole meeting on Mar. 2, 2020. Mayor Marlin expects to bring appointment to the Council at the Mar. 9, 2020 City Council meeting, where the new Council member will be sworn in upon approval.

That post is available here. WCIA had similar information from a press release here.

Urbana Mayor Diane Marlin will interview candidates privately before they each address the public at the March 2 city council meeting.

A selection is expected by the next city council meeting on March 9. Once that person has been announced, they will take their seat after being sworn in at that same meeting.

Full WCIA blurb here. The News-Gazette also explained the vacancy in a bit more detail:

Five men applied to replace Dean Hazen as alderman of Ward 6, which covers much of the southeast part of the city...

Hazen stepped down this week to focus on his full-time job as chief of public safety at Richland Community College in Decatur, a position he’s held since February 2018.

Hazen was elected in 2017 to a four-year term and was the lone Republican on the council.

His replacement will fill the seat until May 2021, following the next city council election that spring.

That full article here. More on Hazen's resignation at an earlier last month in the News-Gazette:

Urbana Mayor Diane Marlin announced the Ward 6 alderman’s resignation will take effect Feb. 25...

After Monday’s city council meeting, Hazen told The News-Gazette he’s resigning so he can focus on his full-time job as chief of public safety at Richland Community College in Decatur, a position he’s held since February 2018.

“I’m working full-time, and it’s conflicting with my schedule in a way I can’t change,” he said. “I accepted a very demanding position and want to give it 100 percent.”

That full article here. More information on what else will be discussed in tomorrow's meeting on the agenda here. Other highlights include approving the ARMS intra-governmental agreement on updating the current records system used by many local police departments to Federal standards until it can be replaced. More on the ARMS updates from a previous Cheat Sheet post here.

There will also be a presentation on the city's consolidated action plan required for various Federal housing grants and agencies for local programs. A recent Cheat Sheet post explained the general action plan concept for Housing programs when the City of Champaign was going through its process earlier this January:

The Annual Action Plan is a document mandated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that outlines local affordable housing and community development needs and identifies strategies for addressing them. The plan identifies activities that the City expects to undertake through direct action or through the provision of funding to other entities. In addition to outlining housing and community development strategies, the Annual Action Plan includes the City’s application for the federal grants received from HUD. These grants, the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and the HOME Investment Partnership (HOME), fund the majority of the affordable housing and neighborhood improvement programs provided by the City. The City of Champaign receives CDBG funding directly from HUD and HOME funding through the Urbana HOME Consortium.

That Cheat Sheet post is available here.