Springfield Mayor Misty Buscher wants to promote the city’s operations coordinator for state and federal grants to head the Office of Planning and Economic Development. Mayor Misty Buscher plans to nominate Amy Rasing, who curren tly w orks as the city’s grant manager, to succeed Val Yazell as director of the Office of Planning and […]
Dean Olsen
Dean Olsen is a senior staff writer for Illinois Times. He can be reached at:
dolsen@illinoistimes.com, 217-679-7810 or @DeanOlsenIT.
Posted inColumns
Amazon hub is coming to Springfield
It appears that Amazon, one of America’s Big Five technology companies, will open and operate a planned $20 million warehouse and distribution center in 2025 at North Dirksen Parkway and Bissell Road in Springfield. The company, based in Seattle and suburban Washington, D.C., didn’t respond to a request for comment. But Sangamon County property records […]
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An alternative to the ER
As many as 70% of patients who seek care in the emergency rooms of Springfield Memorial Hospital or HSHS St. John’s Hospital could be served quicker, and at less cost, by a new outpatient facility scheduled to open in early January. That’s the view of the future co-medical directors of Springfield Clinic’s Urgent Care Plus, […]
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Problems at Poplar Place
Dignitaries from Springfield and the state were all smiles during a recent grand reopening of Poplar Place, a formerly run-down rental housing complex for low- and moderate-income people on the city’s east side. But Katherine James, 52, a Poplar Place resident with physical disabilities, said the renovations – costing $46.5 million in funding and financing […]
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New life for Poplar Place
Tameika Thurman says she has enjoyed living in Poplar Place the past five months with her 11-year-old daughter and their dog, Coco. “It’s peaceful. I don’t have any problems,” said Thurman, 27, a single mother and Lyft driver who was born and raised in Chicago and moved to Springfield a year ago. The lack of […]
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A roadmap for future development
Creating more affordable and market-rate housing, developing areas currently set aside for surface parking and catering more to walkers and bicyclists are among scores of suggestions in a newly released master plan for downtown Springfield and the Mid-Illinois Medical District. The costs of those suggestions aren’t included in the 278-page document, the first-ever long-term plan […]
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Rail project receives final piece of federal funding
Construction on the only overpass in Springfield’s rail improvements project is expected to commence in early 2025 after federal officials announced $157 million in final grant funds. The federal allocation, announced by U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Springfield, and by U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Springfield, and Tammy Duckworth, D-Hoffman Estates, also will help pay for construction […]
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Making Springfield a distribution hub
A second large warehouse project to receive city approval in the past three months underscores Springfield’s growing footprint in the logistics and distribution industry, local economic development officials say. “It’s a nice diversification of our employment base,” Ryan McCrady, president and chief executive officer of the Springfield Sangamon Growth Alliance, told Illinois Times. “We have […]
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Six east-side businesses receive grants
Six businesses were awarded $280,000 in grants by the Springfield City Council on Sept. 17 from the city’s share of sales taxes on adult-use cannabis sales. The unanimous vote on the allocations, which were part of the council’s “consent agenda,” came more than two years after the first round of allocations and after a September […]
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Springfield doctor returns from mission to simulate Mars
Back from a 378-day NASA simulation of life on Mars, Dr. Nathan Jones says the mission at Johnson Space Center in Houston was a success, and he has no regrets about the time away from his family in Springfield. “I missed out on a lot, but I still believe it was worth it,” Jones, an […]
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Hands-on mental health training
The recent revival of a program at Packard Mental Health Center that gives young doctors hands-on experience treating patients in a state psychiatric hospital will benefit the public in Springfield and throughout Illinois, supporters of the relaunch say. “This will help create that pipeline of future psychiatrists to serve both in our state-operated facilities and […]
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City council moves Frito-Lay project forward, despite objections from neighbors
Almost two dozen neighbors of what is expected to be a large Frito-Lay distribution center along Interstate 55 near the Chatham exit left a Springfield City Council meeting frustrated July 16. The council voted 6-3 in favor of zoning variances allowing the project to move forward. Voting in favor were Alds. Chuck Redpath of Ward […]