CITY BEAT: SOME OF THIS AND THAT FROM HERE AND THERE

    • COINCIDENCE — Back in the Oct. 15th edition I printed a photo of three Decatur High School girls walking downtown in the 1940s on the front page of the Tribune.
     I did not know their names.
     Well, Tribune reader Peggy Rothe sent me an email last week with the following information:
     “Dear Paul,
     “This morning, I was going through saved cards and other memorabilia, determined to thin out the filled secretary drawer.
     “I came upon this article (the picture of the three girls in the March 27th 2019 edition of the Tribune), saved because Beverly McMillan was the daughter of dear friends, Erma and Dean Gorham.
     “Of course, I didn’t discard it!
     “Then, this afternoon, I opened the Tribune and saw the same picture. Thinking you might not know the girls’ names, I thought I’d write to tell you them.
     “How surprised I was to see that the original came from the Trib, and that you already knew their names!
     “I had never thought about how much Decatur High brought life to the downtown area.
     “When I was a sophomore, the last year we were all downtown, it was easy to walk through town and stop for a soda or at the library on the way home! Thanks for more memories!”

     • THE NAMES — Back in 2019, when the photo of the three high school girls ran on the back page of the Tribune, Richard Keeler of Aiken, South Carolina, saw the article and sent me an email with their identication. Left to right, the girls are: Patricia Edwards, Beverly McMillan and Nancy Hayes (Hayes Hatchery).

     Richard wrote: “They were 1946 graduates and their pictures can be found in the 1946 Decanois Yerbook. I am a January, 1947 graduate and knew these girls. In fact, I had several dates with Pat Edwards in high school so I know what she looked like in 1946.”
     The girls were members of a Decatur High School class that graduated 80 years ago next spring.
That means, if they are still with us today, they are in their late 90s.
     Those teenage girls, and the excitement and energy all of those high school students brought to the downtown era in the 1940s, can be seen in this photo shot so long ago.
     If anyone has any additional information about Pat, Beverly or Nancy, email me at [email protected].

     • INTERIM CITY MANAGER— The Decatur City Council has named Melissa Hon as Interim City Manager for the City of Decatur. She will assume the interim role on November 1, 2025, or earlier if current City Manager Tim Gleason leaves the position before then.

     Hon currently serves as Deputy City Manager in Decatur since being hired in February 2025. She came to Decatur from the City of Bloomington, IL where she served as Director of the Department of Community Impact & Enhancement. She had been with the City of Bloomington since 2016, and before that she worked for the City of Peoria, IL for 15 years.
     Additionally, the Council hired a search firm to help find candidates for the next City Manager position. Arndt Municipal Support Inc. will first meet with the Mayor and Council members to determine what they seek in City Manager candidates. Then the firm will create the job announcement, advertise the position, and recruit candidates.
Best wishes to Melissa Hon in the interim position. It will be interesting to see if she will be a candidate for the permanent position.
     Considering the tension that is presently on the council and the reason that Tim Gleason gave for resigning and moving on — it may not be what Hon is looking for right now.
     I was mayor when City Manager Steve Garman left the position and I met with the four assistant city managers about filling the position on an interim basis.
     As I mentioned during my regular Thursday morning appearance on WSOY’s Byers & Co., only one of the four expressed any interest in being an interim, and possibly later, in being the appointed city manager.
Sometimes, city managers who have a difficult time serving the desires and needs of all council members, they cause those who work with them to not be enthusiastic about stepping into their shoes — even on an interim basis.
Certainly, Tim Gleason’s departure from the job, and the reason he gave for leaving it (the actions of one city councilman) will play into any future decision of manager prospects.
Hon has a strong background working in municipal government and certainly could be a candidate for the city manager’s job — if she has a desire to do so.

     • MORE TAX? As I’m writing this column, Illinois lawmakers are headed back to Springfield for three more days of the Veto Session this week.
     Lawmakers may still consider a proposed $1.50 delivery tax on nearly every package delivered to Illinois homes.
I guess some members of the General Assembly are running out of ideas on what to tax — since about everything is taxed these days — so, to even consider assessing a $1.50 delivery tax is an insult to all citizens.
What are they going to suggest taxing next — rays of sunshine!
     I’ll give our lawmakers credit for having more sense than to tack on a delivery tax. (Okay, I admit my fingers are crossed on this one.)
     By the way, during the 2025 spring session, 436 bills passed through both chambers of the General Assembly and were sent to the Governor for final action. Of those measures, four bills were vetoed, including two total vetoes, one reduction veto, and one amendatory veto.
     Yikes!!!! Another outbreak of new laws when many citizens aren’t paying any attention to the old laws!

     • QUOTES of the week:

     “No nation has ever taxed itself into prosperity.” – Rush Limbaugh

     “No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.” – Gideon J. Tucker

     • I JOIN Brian Byers on WSOY’s Byers & Co. every Thursday morning at 7:00 for the “City Hall Insider”, something we’ve been doing for over 22 years.

* * * *

FOR MORE stories and more “City Beat” and editorial comments, SUBSCRIBE to the print or online editions of the Decatur Tribune by using the “Subscribe” prompt at the top of this page.  You will find many stories and columns about Decatur and Central Illinois each week. The print edition is $50 for 52 issues (one year) and the online edition is $30 for one year.  The combo rate (both print and online editions) is $65 per year.  You can also subscribe to the print edition via USPS by sending $50 to: Decatur Tribune, P. O. Box 1490, Decatur, Illinois 62525-1490.