CITY BEAT: DOWNTOWN DECATUR’S CENTRAL PARK HAS ALWAYS BEEN PART OF MY LIFE

     Considering all of the snow we received last Sunday and Monday (7 1/2 inches where I live in Decatur) the photo of Central Park on the front page of this week’s Decatur Tribune probably should have been a snow scene, but I chose the “warmer weather” view by Steve Huss.
     I think I’ve seen enough snow pictures this week. It’s time for some “green tree” photos of Central Park with the fountain operating and the streets around the park completely dry. This week’s “Scrapbook”,  on pages 4 and 5 of the print and online editions of the Decatur Tribune, is about the history of Central Park which has evolved from a snake-infested patch of land in 1855 to the centerpiece of the core area.
     Central Park has always been one of my favorite places and the personal connections to my life go all the way back to when I was a kid visiting the downtown area as part of my mom’s shopping excursions.
Mom loved downtown Decatur and Central Park and, driving to the core area of the city was the highlight of her week. (She usually had a carload of ladies with her to spend the day shopping in the many retail stores of the core area of the city.)
     When I was in high school, our junior prom was held in the ballroom of the Orlando Hotel. There was no air conditioning in the hotel so several of us walked the two blocks from the hotel to Central Park to view the old fountain and feel a little cooler with some errant fountain spray.
     When I was a teenager and got my driver’s license, trips around the Transfer House (it was in Lincoln Square then) visits to Central Park and Steak ‘n Shake on Eldorado and on North Main were part of my teenage years.

     Two of the Decatur Tribune office locations had perfect views of Central Park — first on South Park Street and next on North Park Street.
     For a quarter-of-a-century my office views every day were of the park — and what was happening in the park.
It was while my office was on South Park that the bowl in the old fountain was destroyed. (I ran out from my office to protest its destruction but was too late.)
     Later, when the Tribune office was located on North Park Street, and the fountain had become an eyesore with its stagnant water with some people using it for a public toilet, I wrote an editorial about its deplorable condition.
     I decided, after a challenge from the city manager who had read the editorial, to do something about it.
     I started a 5-year campaign to raise funds to build a new fountain and collected nearly a quarter-of-a-million dollars, meeting the challenge of the city manager. The city council approved the construction of the present fountain, which was designed locally and built by union labor.
     Of course, there’s always some people who complain about any project and the “new’ fountain still has its critics.
I really didn’t see anybody else stepping up to get rid of the sewage trap that the fountain had become before the present fountain was constructed.

     • THE NEW FOUNTAIN was dedicated in 2002 and when I was elected to my first term as mayor the following year, I pushed returning the Transfer House to Lincoln Square to open the park to more green space around the fountain.
     The idea was eventually shot down by the State of Illinois (they controlled Main Street at the time) because they said it would bring too many people downtown. (I thought that is what we wanted to happen downtown.) All the publicity about the Transfer House, which had been condemned by the city because of multiple problems due to its age, resulted in the council that served with me, to its credit, authorizing spending the funds to repair the structure and update several parts of it.
     It that hadn’t been done, the symbol of the city, the Transfer House, might have been demolished like so many other downtown structures in recent years.

     • FIFTEEN YEARS ago, I moved our newspaper’s editorial offices from North Park Street to our present location on the fourth floor of the Millikin Court Building at 132 South Water Street.
     While I have a great view of the west part of downtown, including Lincoln Square, I no longer see Central Park out my windows.
However, each day as I walk to the downtown post office I usually walk through Central Park.
During warmer weather when the fountain is operating I often see people on the park benches watching the water show in the fountain, or people posing for photos in front of the fountain — and I feel a little tug at the heartstrings knowing that I contributed a small part to the long history of Central Park.
     Sometimes, I pause and reflect on all of my experiences over the years that have happened in and close to the park — dating all the way back to my childhood.
     Central Park is an important part of our community — and in my life.

     • OUR HEARTS and prayers go out to the families of two 10-year-old boys in Mt. Zion who were critically injured in an ATV-related accident on Fort Daniel Road on Sunday while enjoying the snow. (Story on page 22 of print and online edition.)
     One of the boys, Jack D. Brinkoetter, was pronounced deceased at Decatur Memorial Hospital shortly after his arrival. The other 10-year-old is in critical condition in St. John’s Hospital in Springfield as I’m writing this column.
     Prayers for his recovery — and also for the Mount Zion community directly impacted with this heartbreaking news.
This is some of the saddest news I’ve received at the Tribune in a long time.

     • THE RECENT passing of David Wilhour of Decatur stirred a lot of memories and I talked with Brian Byers on WSOY’s Byers & Co., last week about how we remember Dave who was so positive and community-minded.
     During all of the decades that I have edited this newspaper, there has never been anyone who has written to me as oftenm with such a positive tone, as Dave Wilhour.
     When I was finished with last Thursday’s appearance on Byers & Co. the first thing I did when I returned to the newspaper office was look up the last time Dave sent me an email.  What I found is the subject of my “Viewpoint” column on page 3 of the print and online editions of this week’s Decatur Tribune.

     • I join Brian Byers on WSOY’s Byers & Co. every Thursday morning at 7:00.

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