The village of St. Joseph finalized Joseph Hackney as their pick for Village Administrator at the board meeting on June 22 and released additional information on Hackney the following day. 

“I’ve been impressed with this position and really take value in what the Village Administrator does for the community. I want to demonstrate to the governing body what I can bring to the community,” stated Hackney.” 

Hackney attended undergraduate and graduate college at Eastern Illinois University. While completing his graduate program in 2017, Hackney received an internship working with the city of Arcola, Illinois, and Bill Wagner, a long-term mentor to the new Administrator. 

“I fell in love with the profession ever since. I owe it all to Arcola and Wagner for where I am today,” said Hackney.  

Joseph Hackney has been the City Administrator, Zoning Administrator and Code Enforcement Officer in the City of Valley Falls, Kan. since June of 2019 and will be the Village’s first administrator in the history of St. Joseph.

“I got a lot of experience at those two positions, and shortly after the opportunity to come back to Central Illinois presented itself and St. Joseph looks like a very wonderful community,” said Hackney. 

While the Village of St. Joseph was looking to hire a village administrator for the past 12 years, after a few rounds of interviews, Hackney seemed the best fit for the city of St. Joseph. 

“Joseph proved to be the best fit for St. Joseph. His character, passion for local government, and experience in team leadership were all qualities that we were looking for to help move the village to the next level,” Village President Tami Fruhling-Voges stated.

Hackney will handle day-to-day operations like Human Resources management and helping the Village board implement their goals.

“In city management, you’re involved with many things, not just one, you’re a generalist. You have to constantly be learning new skills and that was super appealing to me,” said Hackney.

Village President Fruhling-Voges mentioned that much of the community improvements are delayed due to there being no responsible party. With Hackey’s credibilities, she is hoping for change.

“I know the city has some major sewer expansion goals,  that is something that is going to take some close management,” said Hackney. 

Hackney stated that with him as village administrator, there will be better public communication, advancement of projects, consistent enforcement of the policy, while also having the ability to seek out available grants for other projects.  

While the Mayor and Trustees oversee the Village’s goals, expecting the Village Board and Mayor to handle the day-to-day operations is not a reliable way to run the community.  

“The government sets the big picture. I’m more like a driver, they tell me where they want to go and I drive. I make sure the car is running smoothly and in the right direction,” mentioned Hackney. 

The new hire explained his role and the proactive ways he is looking to make a change. 

“I’m a strong believer that the issues St. Joseph will inevitably face, another community has already faced and overcame,’” stated Hackney. 

As issues like sewer expansion approach the Village, Hackney will address those problems, adopt the best practice from other communities and try to create procedures to help overcome these struggles.

“I think there’s a real opportunity to build upon the success of this community. Looking at the communities around St. Joseph likes Mahomet and Savoy, they have a good foundation and I’m looking forward to building upon it,” said Hackney. 

Hackney is set to begin on July 26, 2021. Hackney will make $75,000 annually.

The post St. Joseph hires their first Village Administrator appeared first on SJO Daily.

The Museum of the Grand Prairie is hosting its annual “Summer in the Schoolhouse” program, a historical twist on different subjects with a learning atmosphere much of the late 19th century. 

While the Museum’s mission is to preserve and interpret the natural history of Champaign County and East Central Illinois, the Schoolhouse associated with it serves as a space for the “One-room schooling” aesthetic that mirrors the teaching styles of the late 1800s. 

“One-room schooling was the main means of education in this area,” said Patrick Cain. 

Patrick Cain is the Public Programs of Visitor Services Coordinator at the Museum of Grand Prairie, which is where the summer in the Schoolhouse program runs. 

Cain identifies the school house as a “teaching tool” or “artifact within itself.” 

The program takes place once a week for the month of July with students enrolling from, roughly, grades pre-k to middle school. 

“We don’t have specific ages for lessons because much like when folks used to attend one-room schools in the area, there were no separate grades. You could be five years old sitting a couple of desks away from a 15-year-old but you would all be taught at the same time,” said Cain. 

Cain recalls having a deep connection with history due to growing up alongside this program.  

“As a student who used to come here in my younger days and as someone who now works here, when we have these first person interpretations, when they walk into that schoolhouse, it takes them back in time to make them feel like they’re really there,” said Cain. 

The program takes on a 19th century classroom where volunteers take the role as “Schoolmasters”, or late 1800s teachers.

The main purpose of this program is to help bring local history to life, while also having school children identify the past in comparison to the present day learning environment. 

While the repercussions of COVID-19 were at an all time high this past year, the Schoolhouse program was not able to return for July 2020, giving the Museum alternative opportunities to engage the community kids in historical learning. 

“We did a number of virtual and remote opportunities for their program due to the restrictions of the pandemic this past year. For each one of our permanent exhibit spaces, we have used this app to create digital exhibits with content related to one-room schooling,” said Cain.

Museums, historical sites and libraries across the country use the app Clio to pinpoint 40,000 different entities which highlight certain historical points of interest.  

“We conducted Facebook live tours of our spaces because people weren’t able to come during the pandemic last year. We brought the museum to them,” said Cain.

The summer in the Schoolhouse program is set to take flight on July 2nd, 2022, every Friday through the month from 10-11 a.m.

Some of the tours have also been posted on Youtube. 

Friday, July 9

SUMMER IN THE SCHOOLHOUSE: READING & WRITING

Museum of the Grand Prairie, Lake of the Woods Forest Preserve, 10-11 a.m.

Jump back in time to 1890 and see if you can keep up with a 19^th century reading and writing lesson!! Class will be taught by our own school marm or master, straight out of the past. Costumes welcome; see you at summer school! FREE. Space is limited. Registration is required by July 8 at ccfpd.org. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Current public health guidelines will be followed; see CCFPD’s Covid Guidelines and Waiver for In-person Programs. Programs may be cancelled due to weather or COVID-19 related concerns. For more info: (217) 586-2612 or pcain@ccfpd.org.

Registration Link: https://anc.apm.activecommunities.com/ccfpd/activity/search/detail/1430 

Friday, July 16

SUMMER IN THE SCHOOLHOUSE: HISTORY

Museum of the Grand Prairie, Lake of the Woods Forest Preserve, 10-11 a.m.

Jump back in time to 1890 and see if you can keep up with a 19^th century history lesson!! Class will be taught by our own school marm or master, straight out of the past. Costumes welcome; see you at summer school! FREE. Space is limited. Registration required by July 15 at ccfpd.org. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Current public health guidelines will be followed; see CCFPD’s Covid Guidelines and Waiver for In-person Programs. Programs may be cancelled due to weather or COVID-19 related concerns. For more info: (217) 586-2612 or pcain@ccfpd.org.

Registration Link: https://anc.apm.activecommunities.com/ccfpd/activity/search/detail/1431 

Friday, July 23

SUMMER IN THE SCHOOLHOUSE: ARITHMETIC

Museum of the Grand Prairie, Lake of the Woods Forest Preserve, 10-11 a.m.

Jump back in time to 1890 and see if you can keep up with a 19^th century arithmetic lesson!! Class will be taught by our own school marm or master, straight out of the past. Costumes welcome; see you at summer school! FREE. Space is limited. Registration required by July 22 at ccfpd.org. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Current public health guidelines will be followed; see CCFPD’s Covid Guidelines and Waiver for In-person Programs. Programs may be cancelled due to weather or COVID-19 related concerns. For more info: (217) 586-2612 or pcain@ccfpd.org.

Registration Link: https://anc.apm.activecommunities.com/ccfpd/activity/search/detail/1432 

SUMMER IN THE SCHOOLHOUSE: GEOGRAPHY

Museum of the Grand Prairie, Lake of the Woods Forest Preserve, 10-11 a.m.

Jump back in time to 1890 and see if you can keep up with a 19^th century geography lesson!! Class will be taught by our own school marm or master, straight out of the past. Costumes welcome; see you at summer school! FREE. Space is limited. Registration required by July 29 at ccfpd.org. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Current public health guidelines will be followed; see CCFPD’s Covid Guidelines and Waiver for In-person Programs. Programs may be cancelled due to weather or COVID-19 related concerns. For more info: (217) 586-2612 or pcain@ccfpd.org.

Registration Link: https://anc.apm.activecommunities.com/ccfpd/activity/search/detail/1433 

The post Summer in the Schoolhouse to offer educational opportunities through July appeared first on SJO Daily.

The towns of Oakwood and Mahomet have prepared for their local farmer’s markets to take flight this summer. 

Tami Helka, library director for the Oakwood Public Library was given the opportunity to oversee Oakwood’s Farmer’s market for this year. 

“With Oakwood being a smaller town especially since we don’t have a grocery store here and our only other source being Dollar General, having local and homegrown produce is the biggest thing to offer to the community,” said Helka. 

Helka worked to advertise different vendors, bringing about 21 unique businesses to the Oakwood Farmers Market this past Wednesday night. 

“Our biggest obstacle is that we were hoping to get food trucks so that we could offer some dinner options to our customers and we haven’t had any businesses that would be interested in setting up,” said Helka.

Although Helka described this as a minor inconvenience for the market, there are only a few other local restaurants that have pizza and ice cream including truck stops with other foods.

The Oakwood Farmers Market prefers finding vendors who strictly work out of their homes with no storefront. 

“Our motto is homegrown homebase homemade, we want it more out of the home but if they are a small business out of a store we welcome them as well,” mentioned Helka. 

Walter Pierce, Chamber Director of the Mahomet Area Chamber of Commerce, mentioned that the Mahomet Farmer’s Market abides by similar values. 

“At the chamber we support the local businesses downtown with events like the soda Festival that will bring 400+ people to Mahomet, so this Farmer’s market is mainly for those home-based businesses that need a way to market their goods and services,” said Pierce.  

While hosting a local market may fuel home-grown businesses, Pierce explained the many downfalls of organizing these events. 

“The market in Mahomet should be very very busy. We have 15,000 people in our zip code so people are certainly getting the word out there, we just aren’t seeing the crowds,” said Pierce.  

The Mahomet Area Chamber of Commerce decided four years ago to bring back farmers markets, making it a relatively new function for the Mahomet community, compared to the markets of Urbana and Champaign. 

“We’re competing with Urbana, they usually get a lot more business and produce than us but that’s just because they’ve been around a lot longer,” said Pierce. 

Another complaint to the market, specifically the vendors, is the lack of specific produce in comparison to the large-scale grocery stores that get their produce from interstate commerce. 

“What garden is producing tomatoes in the first two weeks of June?” said Pierce. 

Pamela Johnson, owner of “This Week With Pamela” will be selling her work of image transfers and other crafts at the Mahomet Farmer’s Market this year. 

“It’s been a blessing that I have Mahomet’s Farmers Market because it’s so fun to get out there and meet new people,” said Johnson. 

Johnson mentioned the struggles of creating reasonably priced customized pieces when her resources are costly.

“One of the problems is the cost of Lumber and it not being as accessible in different seasons for when my customized orders come in,” said Johnson. 

Johnson wants to provide unique, affordable home decor to the community while also fostering friendships. 

“Being able to go down the street on a Saturday morning was great, not even from a business standpoint but just from being a part of the community and wanting to do more,” said Johnson.

Area Market Details

Mahomet Farmer’s Market
The Depot at 401 W. Oak St. 
Saturday mornings from June 5th – October 2nd
List of Vendors Here

Oakwood Farmer’s Market
Oakwood City Park
Wednesdays from 5-7pm
Find More Information Here

Homer Farmer’s Market
Downtown Homer
Wednesdays from 4-6pm
Find More Information Here

Urbana Farmer’s Market
Lincoln Square Mall, Urbana
Saturday mornings
Find More Information Here

Champaign Farmer’s Market
Downtown Champaign Neil and Market
Tuesdays 3-6 p.m.
Find More Information Here

The post Farmer’s Market supports the community and local businesses appeared first on SJO Daily.