County Weekend Roundup

The News-Gazette had a few county government related updates this weekend. From Saturday:

Sheriff announces changes to tornado-siren policy
Champaign County Sheriff Dan Walsh has tweaked the county's criteria for sounding the tornado sirens in Champaign, Urbana and Savoy, in the wake of a nasty storm two weeks ago that damaged homes in west Champaign.

Walsh said Friday that, after consulting with a local meteorologist, he added the following as a reason to sound the sirens:

"If a trained spotter sees a wall cloud with rotation — the spinning up in the air — approaching our area, we will sound," he said...
Walsh said the additional criteria would not have changed the decision not to sound the sirens on June 10.

"We still intend to use the sirens only when a tornado threat is imminent, not when conditions are ripe. A tornado or straight-line winds can still occur and cause significant damage with no advanced warning," said Walsh, who oversees the county's EMA.

More here at the full article, including more information on the previous protocols this adds to. This is following up on the local concern over the lack of sirens sounding with two small tornado touch downs confirmed after a recent storm. A link to recent news coverage here and a County Board meeting where it was brought up here.

New head of the Champaign County Economic Development Corporation:

Champaign County economic agency promotes from within for top job
The Champaign County Economic Development Corporation has promoted Carly McCrory to be its new executive director.

Currently the assistant director, McCrory will officially start July 1 after current executive director Craig Rost steps down.

"We felt she was the best match for our organization and our community, that her existing knowledge of the organization and of Champaign County gave her assets that other candidates didn't have," said Bruce Knight, the EDC board's chair. "She demonstrated a strong passion and commitment to the mission of the organization and to making Champaign County stronger economically."

McCrory has been at the EDC for almost six years, first as communications director, then as assistant director since July 2016.

Before the EDC, she worked for Tuscola Economic Development Inc.

Nine people applied for the executive director position in the statewide search, Knight said, and three were interviewed.

"She stood out clearly as the strongest candidate," Knight said.

More at the full article here. And from today, an update about Champaign County Forest Preserve summer programs:

More at the Champaign County Forest Preserve District website.

Camps and Papers

A little oddball county news roundup:


Champaign County summer camps

From the News-Gazette today:

Registration for the Champaign County Forest Preserve District’s summer camps at Homer Lake and Lake of the Woods in Mahomet opens on Thursday. Space is limited in these camps, so district officials encourage signing up early by visiting ccfpd. org, where you can also see a list of programs. There are too many to list, but here are a few examples: Grossology, July 17-20 Learn about some of the grossest things in the forest preserves, like slime, scat, vomit and more as camp instructors teach campers how some of Illinois’ yuckiest animals protect themselves and more.

Outdoor Adventure, June 12-15

Practice skills that have been used by generations of nature explorers, learning about plants and animals in the forest preserves, or discover how to track animals and more.

Superheroes, June 26-29

Many superheroes have names and powers modeled after animals, like Spider-Man or Black Widow. Discover what makes these animals so super.

Article link here.


Former County Board Member no longer deleted from the system:

Also from the News-Gazette (bottom of the article): 

James gets his papers

Stan James of Rantoul, a former Champaign County Board member who had trouble with the federal bureaucracy over the question of his citizenship, is officially a citizen of the United States of America.

He got the word Thursday evening — more than three months after he applied — when an official from the State Department called to tell him that his passport finally was on the way. For James, who was born in Germany but spent about 99.67 percent of his life in the United States, the passport is proof of his citizenship and will allow him to retire and receive Medicare and Social Security benefits...

The government apparently had a problem establishing James’ citizenship because it had two different birth dates for his father, who joined the Air Force as a teenager and apparently lied about his date of birth in order to enlist.

A followup of the original story here: http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2018-02-14/tom-kacich-its-red-tape-fiasco.html