Metro East Area News Briefs

Chronicle Media

Students gather round Izzy the Goldendoodle in Lovejoy Library. (L-R) Fairen Woolard and Aleah Glodich and Austin Uhls of West Frankfort; Brooke Snyder of Alton; and Christa Becherer of Kaiserslautern, Germany. (Photo courtesy of SIUE)

Therapy dogs visit students during finals week

Finals week in college often brings increased stress as students.

Studies show interacting with therapy animals increases oxytocin and reduces stress. 

On Monday, Dec. 10, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville students petted, hugged and visited with a couple of dogs from CHAMP Assistance Dogs in the Morris University Center’s Goshen Lounge.

Four-legged friends with Got Your Six Support Dogs are also bringing stress relief to students Monday-Thursday, Dec. 10-13 in Lovejoy Library’s Friends Corner.

East St. Louis re-lighting streets as anti-crime measure

It may not be as spectacular as the annual Way of Lights Christmas display at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows, but for many East St. Louisans, it may be even more a holiday wish come true.

Street lights are back on along heavily travelled areas of three major thoroughfares — Broadway, Collinsville Avenue and Third Street — at the request of residents and business people who say that the town’s often dark streets are contributing to its notoriously high crime rates.

In all, some 76 street lights are being repaired and relit over just a 60-day period, according to Mayor Emeka Jackson-Hicks.

The lighting improvements are part of new crime-fighting efforts suggested Oct. 30 during the mayor’s Collaborative Conversation on Crime meeting.

“One of the most resounding requests was for the city to light up the community by repairing street lights,” Mayor Jackson-Hicks said. “We have made great progress since the community meeting. Many (city-owned) lights have been restored. We are also working closely with Ameren to make sure that their lights are repaired.”

A summary of progress on the streetlighting initiative at the Chronicle’s deadline follows:

  • Broadway: Forty-seven lights from Third street to 18th Street: Thirty-seven lights repaired; five awaiting fixtures; five awaiting Illinois Department of Transportation and Ameren Illinois approval for cable work.
  • Collinsville Avenue: Sixteen lights from State Street to Broadway repaired.
  • Third Street: Eight lights repaired.
  • Intersection of Broadway and Collinsville Avenue: Five lights: four repaired and one awaiting a fixture.

In conjunction with the program, the mayor is asking East St. Louisans to report street light outages, with pole numbers, to Ameren at 800-755-5000.

As a second phase of the new illumination project, the mayor is now asking residents to make sure their porch lights are lit at night.

East St. Louis to get 500-year flood protection

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is launching a $95.2 million Mississippi River levee improvement project to protect East St. Louis from 500-year flooding.

The Southwestern Illinois Flood Prevention District Council (FPD Council) sees The East St Louis Deficiency Correction Project — as it is officially termed by the Army Corps  — as the first step in a long-range plan to provide protection against 500-year flooding across the entirety of the Metro East’s. American Bottoms area.

The FPD Council in February announced completion of a 10-year, $74,629,856.18 program of improvements to ensure protection from 100-year floods across Metro East’s vast network of five Mississippi River levee systems, spanning Madison, Monroe and St. Clair counties.

The council is currently awaiting certification of those levees by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for protection against 100-year flooding.

That will ensure continued participation by American Bottom property owners in FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program — a necessity for both the protection of existing property and economic development in the region, according to the FPD Council.

However, given what appears to be a trend toward increasingly severe and frequent flooding on the Mississippi over recent years, the council believes protection against water levels that are thought to occur, on average, once every 100 years, may not be enough.

The area experienced record or near-record flooding in 1993 and 2011, with significant flooding again in 2014 and 2017.

The East St. Louis levee improvement project was formally announced, Dec. 18, by The St. Louis Metro East Levee Issues Alliance (LIA), a group of Metro East political and business years who work to secure funding and legislation for levee improvement.

It is expected to begin in 2019 and be completed by 2020.

In addition to the East St. Louis Levee, formally known as the Metro East Sanitary District Levee, the Metro East levee system, consists of the Wood River Levee, Chain of Rocks Levee, Metro East Sanitary District, and Prairie du Pont and Fish Lake Levees.

The SIFPD is a special taxing district, consisting of Madison, St. Clair, and Madison counties, established in 2009 to plan, provide funding, and oversee improvements.

Among those on hand for last week’s announcement: LIA chair Gary Hoelscher, U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, retired Illinois State Sen. William R. Haine, East St. Louis Mayor Emeka Jackson-Hicks, Col. Bryan Sizemore of St. Louis District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Madison County Chairman Kurt Prenzler, Monroe County Chairman Bob Elmore, and FPD Council President Ron Motil, as well as numerous local office holders, business people and labor union representatives.

Cahokia Mounds developing AR system

Under its new “Back to the City of the Sun” program, the Cahokia Mounds Museum Society (CMMS) plans to convey new research and understanding of Metro East’s famous 11th-century Native American settlement site, through a 21st century augmented reality (AR) system.

Using a $100,000 Digital Projects for the Humanities grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the museum society plans to create a functional prototype of an augmented reality application that will be available for smart phones and other platforms, as well as a new educational website and education materials package — all slated for release in 2020.

“Once the multi-year project is complete, (Cahokia Mounds) will have cutting-edge technological interpretive tools that will enhance visitor experience by giving them the opportunity to visualize what the ancient site may have looked like,” Lorie Belkamp, CMMS executive director, explained.

“Using the application, as visitors look through the lens of their device from the top of the 10-story Monks Mound, GPS tracking will identify hotspots which, when activated, will enable visitors to ‘see’ structures, once visible on the pre-Columbian landscape, superimposed on the modern landscape,” Belkamp continued.

The new website will provide additional content as well as video about Cahokia Mounds and associated sites.

The new augmented reality system is being developed in conjunction with Schwartz & Associates Creative of St. Louis.

The grant to Cahokia Mounds is one of 20 Digital Projects for the Humanities announced Dec. 12 by the NEH.

Growing post-high school program aids young people with intellectual abilities

Lewis and Clark Community College (L&C) has announced its popular “College for Life” program, for adults with intellectual disabilities, will expanded to the college’s N.O. Nelson Campus in Edwardsville in fall 2019.

Developed as a “lifelong learning” course for young people with disabilities, following high school, the College for Life program is intended to promote personal enrichment, independence, and employment.

“Many College for Life students transition to work after two to three years, but there is no end to the program,” said Kathy Haberer, director of L&C Student Development and Counseling. “Students can continue as long as they would like.”

Curriculum is student interest-driven. Classes mix academics with hands-on activities, ranging from reading, math and foreign language to pop culture, healthy snacking, sewing and scrapbooking.

The current program on L&C’s Godfrey Campus is at full capacity. The expansion to the Nelson campus will open 24 new spots.

Edwardsville High School will assist in referring students to the new Nelson Campus program.

The new two-campus program will launch with two instructors and three aides; “floating” between at the Edwardsville and Godfrey campuses, according to a college statement. Dedicated space will be provided for the program on N.O. Nelson.

The program is open to qualifying residents of Madison, Jersey, Macoupin, Greene, Calhoun, St. Clair, Randolph, Clinton and Bond counties.

Persons on the program’s current waiting list will get the first chances to enroll.

Funding for the expansion comes from a $272,000, three-year grant from the Illinois Council on Disabilities, issued through the Southern Illinois Transition Project.

Access to employment opportunities are facilitated through the college’s ongoing partnerships with Challenge Unlimited and the Madison County Transition Council.

A Challenge Unlimited Jobs Club meets in Fobes Hall on the college’s Godfrey Campus every Friday.

A leader in college-based programs for students with intellectual disabilities since 1991, L&C launched its College for Life project, as part of its groundbreaking Supported College Transition program — developed in 2007 to provide specialized non-college-credit programs for students with learning disabilities.

With L&C’s assistance, John Wood Community College in Quincy, launched a College for Life program in 2016.

Minimum College for Life tuition is $475 per semester, which includes three courses. Students can take more.  Most families pay out of pocket for the program, though a small scholarship fund is available through the college for new students.

The college plans an informational meeting on the program next Spring.

For more information, visit www.lc.edu/disability.

 

 

–Metro East Area News Briefs–