Purple & Gold Auction

[KippJones]

Agreed Tere... sometimes you go to an auction and it' the same ole. Which, in some cases the P&G is. The format & many of the faces are, but the items up for auction were outstanding once again. I put bids on several "silent auction" items and was able to come away with a couple. I thought Karissa & Ephraim did a great job with their speeches too. With the earlier date (much like last year), you really only get to meet/interact with the football team (and that's okay). But looking at the footballer's, they look ready to take on just about anyone... had a few brief chat's with quite a few of them and they're pretty upstanding young men too. The men's & women's soccer teams, some members of the volleyball team & possibly the swimmers(?) were also in attendance.

Anyone else choose the steak for dinner? Was that not one of the biggest, juiciest steaks you've ever had? Great job by Sodexo! Compliments to JB & Jerry (Cremer) who've retired & come back time & again, to see that this event gets done right... MJ, Matt (Tanney), Kelsey and the entire P&G committee.. your hard work & commitment are extremely noteworthy. Keep up the great work!

[Neckfansince71]

My wife and I Once again enjoyed the night. There was some really "sweet" framed sports memerobilia available at the silent auction and the live auction included a Bank's jersey as well. Our neon sign was in the live auction this year and it was really fun to see how the bidding went. We walked out with a Painted Rocky stepping stone. Kipp, the steak was really good, and tasted similar to a Red Ox dirty steak IMO! The entire night beverages were free. Sat with 3 other couples and enjoyed finding out who they were in the WIU/Macomb area scheme of things. They were surprised that we had traveled down for the P & G and were staying the night. The two speakers did a great job telling their stories and the snipits of video were very entertaining with some good banter. Met a number of volleyball players and football players. They were all, let me repeat, they were all very classy and nice to talk to. I know that does not equate to W's and L's in the immediate future but will equate to W's when they enter real life.
Saw Kipp as we left but did not see Tere.

So despite the MAP grant problems and the state of Illinois problems there seems to be a positive vibe permeating from Western Hall! At least on the athletic side of things. I also got to watch some of the scrimmage from the union parking lot. I found the rotation of wr's, backs, quarterbacks, etc. to be very interesting. Hammonds was kept out of the scrimmage due to minor injury.

Only construction I saw was just north of the tracks. It looked like they had left up an old stone gas station and were paving around in connection with Adams Street. Can anyone clarify this. Hanson looked good painted and all the fencing around the field is black. The top back of the stands were painted white to duplicate east stands. Will have Rocky "eyes" stenciled on it. No work on the bypass at present and no equipment parked and waiting. No work on CPA either. I think the problem with union porch is finally going to be addressed. If it's a spring fix don't be surprised if tables with umbrellas make their appearance until then. It was hot of course but things really looked good for the start of school. That's all for now! jc out!

[ST_Lawson]

Only construction I saw was just north of the tracks. It looked like they had left up an old stone gas station and were paving around in connection with Adams Street. Can anyone clarify this. Hanson looked good painted and all the fencing around the field is black. The top back of the stands were painted white to duplicate east stands. Will have Rocky "eyes" stenciled on it. No work on the bypass at present and no equipment parked and waiting. No work on CPA either. I think the problem with union porch is finally going to be addressed. If it's a spring fix don't be surprised if tables with umbrellas make their appearance until then. It was hot of course but things really looked good for the start of school. That's all for now! jc out!

Section just north of the tracks (he's talking about this area, if you're not aware: https://goo.gl/maps/QqZ4m) - So, they've torn down much of what was there...old auto repair building, some other old storage buildings that weren't being used anymore. The deal with the "old stone gas station" (that's the one with the Mt. Dew machine right next to it in that streetview) is that...well...that's what it is. It's old enough and "historic" enough that there's a lot of legal issues with tearing it down. The town's plan is to remodel that area (and a lot of the area for the few blocks to the west of there eventually) into a town "welcome center" type place. They're going to remodel the old gas station to look like it did when it was first built and use it as a informational center/welcome center for the town. The area around there will be parking, green space, part of bike path/lanes that will eventually work its way over and connect to campus, and possibly a bit of new service/retail-type establishment(s). Currently the only buildings in that view that are left there is the small old gas station and the old Rockin' Robin's/Rockin' Records building (RR moved to another location so the building is currently for sale).

The full plan for the revitalization of that area can be found here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/128 ... .Study.pdf ("Adams Gateway" section starts on page 24), but here's a couple of the artist renderings from that section.

Here's the area he's talking about...what it's eventually supposed to look like:


Also, here's the area they're working on now...where Adams meets Lafayette. It's been torn up most of the summer and are still working on getting all the concrete poured:

There is an agreement between the city and the university that, even though that specific area isn't on campus and therefore wouldn't be managed by the university, the city will build it, and the university will manage the landscaping (purple and gold flowers maybe?) along with the lighting (like the new light posts that are being put up around campus) and the signage (think "Welcome to Western Illinois University" right there on Lafayette). The "brick" is supposed to eventually look like the "brick" pattern and color that was used on the Sherman Hall circle drive. It's essentially look like a really nice little 1 block section of campus right there where it's easy to see.

Essentially, that whole area that's right there...across from the train station, central to town, very visible to anyone driving through town or heading to Western...will look MUCH MUCH nicer within about a year.

There's lots of other grand ideas in the plan (just like Western's Master Plan)...many of which could take 20, 30, 40 years to happen (if they ever actually do), but it's nice to have ideas of where/how to grow and improve whenever possible.

Bypass and CPA - currently "on hold" due to state financial situation being FUBAR. Who knows what'll happen at this point. The bypass is probably a bit more likely to happen in the short-term due to the ground already having been somewhat prepared/cleared, property having been purchased, etc. (as you can see here: https://goo.gl/maps/h8dNk)

If anyone is curious, I'll try to get over to the Adams street area maybe this coming weekend to get a few photos of how things are going over there.

[vatusay]

most likely won't notice any asphalt until next year on bypass.



Hopefully they let the other two lanes next year. Wouldn't count on it, though.

[WIU0812]

Definitely would be interested in seeing what all has been done at the Adam St job.