Rameen: Coming up on City Spotlight, we're on location for the first appearance for Chrisman on City Spotlight.

We sit down with Chrisman Mayor, Danny Owen, who gives us an overview of Chrisman location, public works and economic development in Chrisman.

Then we talk education in Chrisman with Jim Acklin, interim superintendent of Edgar County CUSD 6.

Jim shares a little history of Edgar County CUSD 6 and an overview of facilities in the school district.

It's the 22nd community to be featured on City Spotlight, and we're talking Chrisman, next on City Spotlight.

[music plays] City Spotlight is supported by Consolidated Communications.

CCI is honored to salute the cities and their leaders in the area, as well as providing TV, Internet, and phone service for the local homes and businesses.

We live where we work, and are proud to support the communities we serve.

More information available at consolidated.com.

And hello, and welcome to another edition of City Spotlight.

As you can see.

We are on location for this latest episode here in season nine and we are doing our first episode here on Chrisman.

Yes, our 22nd community here on City Spotlight.

We're taping this episode here on November 28th.

In our first segment, we're at City Hall.

And pleased to welcome to the program for the first time, the Mayor of Chrisman, Danny Owen.

Danny, pleasure to have you on.

Danny: Thank you for having me on.

Rameen: Great to be here.

And we'll have two segments in this episode.

First, we'll talk with Danny about the community, get an overview.

But as I mentioned, Danny's a first time guest on this first time episode.

Danny, tell us about yourself.

Danny: Well, I lived in Chrisman for 56 years.

Well, I was a young man.

I started out working for the city, worked for them for eight years, left.

Came back, and I've been mayor for four terms.

Rameen: Four terms.

So you're from Chrisman?

Danny: Originally from Georgetown.

Rameen: Okay.

Georgetown.

Danny: Moved to Chrisman.

Rameen: Okay.

Moved to Chrisman.

Very good.

Four terms as mayor, what has made you want to be mayor all these terms?

Danny: Well, Chrisman's great town.

It's full of great people and I feel like somebody needs to here that's going to do good things for them and make sure it's going good.

Rameen: Fantastic.

Great to be her, and looking forward to learning about your community that you lead.

I always start these first time episodes on new communities telling about where our communities are located.

So Chrisman, located in the northern part of Edgar County.

You have a couple of roads that- Danny: We do.

Rameen: ... go through and around the town, US36, 150, and also Illinois Route 1.

Talk about the location of where you guys are.

Danny: We are in a great spot right here at the Crossroads 1 and 36.

You know what?

If we need stuff other than what we can get in town, Danville's close, Champaign's close, Terre Haute, Paris is close, so we've got good roads to get there.

Rameen: Fantastic.

You read my mind.

If you hadn't said it, I was going to say you have plenty of roads to get to something if you don't have it.

But it's great to be able to have roads accessible to and from your community.

Very good.

Let's start off talking about public works in your community, how the public works is the guts of the community.

May not be the sexiest thing to talk about, but they're very- Danny: Very important.

Rameen: Very, very important.

Let's start with roads.

How are the roads in the community?

Danny: Our streets down are actually pretty good shape.

We oil and shape them every year.

We have a program.

We do so many streets one year.

And the others the next year.

And it keeps them in real good shape.

Rameen: Okay, very good.

Any notable buildings that have been worked on.

Or you're planning to work on in the downtown, or along other parts of the community?

Danny: Chrisman's a little town.

Even the big towns, a lot of them are struggling to keep businesses.

Ours are filling up.

We had a few vacancies.

We have one up here on the corner.

They're putting a lot of time and effort into it, and it's going to be a great building.

Rameen: Fantastic.

Also involved in public works would be water and sewer.

I happened to be getting some video before I taped the segment with Danny.

I saw some pipes over there by Centennial Park.

What's going on there?

Danny: So our sewer plant was put in in the seventies, so it's really aging.

And our transmission line, the service line to the sewer plant.

So we're putting in new lift station pumps and redoing our sewer plant, so we can be in compliance with the state.

Rameen: That doesn't happen every decade or you just mentioned there 50 years.

Danny: No.

It does not happen.

Rameen: How big is that for Chrisman to be able to make that improvement?

Danny: It is very big.

And you know what?

It should take care of the town for years and years and years.

They shouldn't have to worry about it.

Rameen: Fantastic.

And the buildings are doing fine as you said.

We'll talk about overview of the businesses, but let's reemphasize in a community of this size, just how important and vital it is to try and stay on top of public works.

Danny: Infrastructure is very important for every town.

Big or small.

We just completed a project and brought water from Paris.

And they get it from Indiana.

So we had wells and the water.

It wasn't real good, but now we have great water and we don't have to worry about pumps, operators, all that.

When it gets here, it's ready to use.

Rameen: And to be able to...

So you're getting water from some somewhere else, but it does the job.

Danny: It does a great job.

Rameen: Okay, very good.

Have we covered everything on public works?

Pretty much.

Water, sewer, roads pretty good?

Danny: Chrisman's in very good shape.

Rameen: Okay.

Danny: Very good shape.

Rameen: Anything in those areas?

Obviously, you mentioned the lift station, anything we're taping at the end of 2022, November 28th when we're taping?

Any other public works projects that you're maybe thinking about?

And give a little insight into our viewers that you might be looking at for the new year.

Danny: Well, the sewer plant, completing that, that'll be a major thing for the upcoming year.

But on down the line, I hope city council, whoever's here, we do need to put some new playground equipment and redo our parks.

We have two parks.

Centennial Park down off the highway, and the City Square Park.

Rameen: You read my mind.

As I drove through the community and getting shots of the community, I noticed two parks.

You have Centennial Park right there across from the- Danny: High school.

Rameen: ... senior high school.

You also have... What do you call this downtown park here?

Danny: The City Park.

Rameen: City Park?

Danny: Chrisman Park.

Rameen: Being all dolled up for the holiday season.

Important to have parks in your community.

Danny: Absolutely.

Rameen: Okay, very good.

What would you say are the strength of the community?

Danny: Very good, the people that live here.

There's a lot of good people here.

It's very good.

They all work together and help, but jump in if we need help.

And it's a good community.

Rameen: That's a fantastic comment.

For communities to have... You have your city council, yourself, you have other people that are leaders, but the expression, it takes a village to- Danny: It takes everybody working together to get stuff done.

Rameen: And do you find that the community is receptive to suggesting ideas?

Danny: Absolutely.

If they have an idea, our community club is great and they jump right in and help us do a lot of stuff we couldn't do.

Rameen: Very good.

I think it would be safe to say, based on what I've seen in the community, driving around, getting shots that you're seeing in this episode, one of the strengths of your community is the schools.

Danny: Our school is a very good school district.

You know what?

It's still very strong.

A lot of people move here for the school district, and it's very important for communities to maintain their school.

That's part of their identity.

Rameen: Correct.

Danny: And we have a great school system.

Rameen: Fantastic.

Communities of this size to have schools that- Danny: A lot of them have lost them, and they've consolidated, but we've maintained.

Rameen: That's a whole another episode right there.

Danny: Oh, yeah.

It is.

It is.

Rameen: The consolidation.

But Chrisman obviously, you we'll hear from Superintendent Acklin in the next segment.

Congratulations are in order.

A couple months back again, we're taping here near the end of 2022.

Couple months ago in September, you guys celebrated your Sesquicentennial.

I got it out of my mouth.

150 years.

Danny: 150 years.

Rameen: What was that celebration like?

Danny: It was great.

A lot of people came from out of town.

A lot of people who used to live here came back.

A lot of organizations and groups jumped in and helped us and did a lot of the work, which we couldn't got it done without them.

And it turned out great.

It was great.

It was wonderful.

Rameen: What does that mean to this community?

A lot of communities are around that age, 150 years.

I know a couple of other communities in our area that we've had on City Spotlight who are going to be celebrating their Sesquicentennial, so you beat them.

I won't name those communities, but what does that mean for this community to be able to hit the 150 year mark?

Danny: Any community that can stay viable and stay in operation and people still come, it's wonderful.

It's a big achievement because a lot of little towns aren't so lucky anymore.

Rameen: All right, very good.

I think I might have skipped over it, but I want to get an overview, and paint the picture for our viewers.

Some of the economic development, your businesses, as I came from the South to Chrisman today, up Route One, that four-way stop there.

I noticed some agricultural related businesses.

Danny: We still have Massey Ferguson down on the intersection.

They do real good.

We've got several restaurants in town.

We've got one up on the west side of the Square.

They are wonderful.

Used car lot down in south end.

They do quite a bit and several small businesses up around the Square.

Some new ones starting.

So it is working out good.

Rameen: You have a Horizon Health Clinic.

Danny: We have doctors in town and two banks in town, which is pretty impressive for our town no bigger than we are.

Rameen: Yes.

Got to have banks.

No matter how many it is.

Very good.

And got to ask you this question, moving forward, you're looking for more businesses to- Danny: Absolutely.

Absolutely.

We're always looking for businesses.

Rameen: Any particular area of business you're looking for?

Not by trying to reveal anything, but what is something that maybe Chrisman could benefit from having in the future?

Danny: Well, a good hardware store, a big one would be nice.

That would help a lot of people.

Rameen: It goes in relation to the agriculture.

They go hand in hand, don't they?

Danny: And stuff for handy work around the house.

So that would be nice.

Rameen: I am trying to move forward and not ask the COVID related question, but talking with you for the first time, how refreshing has this year been compared to the previous two years?

Danny: The previous two years was hard for Chrisman.

I know it was hard for everybody in the country.

Rameen: It was.

It was.

Danny: I think everybody, they the mindset now, let's go, let's move forward and be great.

And you know what?

I think it's working out good.

We went to Terre Haute.

We had to go over there Friday.

Stores were packed, so people's ready to go.

Rameen: Right.

Right.

What are you looking forward to in the next year for Chrisman?

You've got 150 years under belt for the community.

I'm not asking you to predict the next 150 years, because you and I obviously won't be here.

But the excitement of the new year for this community, 2023 is right around the corner.

Danny: It is.

We've got a city election coming up.

That'll be good.

We'll get people to run for mayor and council, and get the sewer plant fixed, repaired, replaced.

Some of the little jobs we're working on, we've got some major storm sewers that we're working on.

It carries water from the whole west end of town out town.

So we have a lot of things on the table to get done Rameen: And a lot of those things we look forward to following up with you in the near future.

And pleasure having on for the first time, the mayor of Chrisman, Danny Owen.

Danny, it's been a pleasure, and thank you for sharing what your community's about.

And we look forward to following up on all those things, and obviously all those public works projects you have in the works.

Danny: In the works.

Rameen: In the works.

Very good.

That's Danny Owen, the mayor of Chrisman.

And coming up next here on City Spotlight, we're going to talk Chrisman schools with Jim Acklin.

He's the interim superintendent of Edgar County CUSD 6.

But first, let's take a look at some of the upcoming activities going on in Chrisman.

[music plays] And we're back here on City Spotlight.

This first time episode here on Chrisman.

We've changed locations, and we're going to now talk about education in Chrisman.

And to help us out for this first time, talking about Chrisman Schools is the interim superintendent of Edgar County Community School District 6, Jim Acklin.

Jim, it's a pleasure to have you on the program.

Jim: Yeah, thanks Rameen.

Thanks for having me.

Rameen: Great to be in Chrisman.

Great to learn about the school district here that you lead in here in Edgar County.

Going to get an overview of the schools here in Chrisman.

Before we do that, Jim, your first time guest here on City Spotlight.

Tell us about yourself.

Jim: Okay.

This is my 42nd year in education.

Rameen: Wow.

Jim: I was 23 years or so as a teacher and then got into administration, spent I think three years as a principal.

And this is my third stop as a superintendent.

Been in three different school districts as a superintendent, including Chrisman's schools.

Rameen: And before we started taping, you mentioned from this area.

Jim: Yeah, I was raised in Paris, so it's nice to be back in Edgar County.

I feel like I'm back to my roots, so to speak.

Rameen: Wow.

40 plus years.

Congratulation on serving all the students in all the places you've been to.

What does that mean to you on a personal level to continue to be an educator for 40 plus years?

Jim: Well, I've got colleagues that tell me I'm too dumb to know when to quit, but I've got a great love for kids.

I feel like I still am moving this district forward in a positive direction.

As long as I feel like I'm doing those two things, then yeah, 42 years really doesn't sound that long.

Rameen: Wow.

Probably gone as fast as this- Jim: It's gone by incredibly- Rameen: As this segment will be.

Jim: .... quickly.

It's gone by incredibly quickly.

Rameen: All right.

Very good.

Glad to be here.

Glad to be talking with Jim here at... We're taping here again on November 28th at Chrisman junior/senior high school.

And this school district is labeled Edgar County Community School District 6.

Jim: That's correct.

Rameen: So it's not just Chrisman students that are in these schools.

Give us a little history of this school district.

Jim: Yes it's Chrisman, and Scottland, and the surrounding rural area.

We're not a big district geographically.

We're about 88 square miles.

Rameen: And you're one of... Again, Paris and Kansas have school districts in Edgar County.

Jim: Correct.

Rameen: So you guys serve the northern part of the county.

Jim: As well as Shiloh to our west, yes.

Rameen: Right.

Okay.

Very good.

As we tape here late November end of 2022, roughly how many students are in your school district?

Jim: We're about 295.

We've been right at about 300 since I've been here.

This is my sixth year.

Rameen: Okay.

All right.

Very good.

All right.

Thank you for those numbers, and let's talk about the physical part of the school district, which obviously you got to have buildings to serve the students and for the teachers to work in.

And obviously you have an office here on the junior high wing.

You have basically two locations.

Let's first talk about the place we're taping at here, the junior/senior high school, which is on the north end of town.

Jim: The high school was built in 1906.

It's been very well maintained.

It's in great shape for an older building.

Rameen: That's incredible.

To have a building still going a hundred plus years later.

Jim: In order, the elementary was built this down the street from us, different campus.

It was built in 1968.

And then the junior high wing was added to the high school wing.

That's the wing we're currently sitting in.

I believe in 2002, so it's about 20 years old.

Rameen: And sometimes when you pull up on the internet looking for the junior high, it's labeled Chrisman Scottland Junior High.

Give us a little history about that.

Jim: The Chrisman School District consolidated with the Scottland School District, I believe in the early 1970s.

And Scotland had an attendance center.

The junior high was there, up until the time that this junior high wing was built.

Rameen: And for folks at home maybe going, there's a Scotland and Illinois, where is Scottland?

Jim: It's pretty much due east of us.

We think of ourselves as being right on the state line.

But Scottland's even a little bit closer.

Rameen: Correct.

Jim: Pretty much straight down Route 36 and then just maybe a mile off of Route 36 to the north.

Rameen: Yeah.

We're pretty much on the very eastern part of Central Illinois, so- Jim: We are.

Rameen: East Central Illinois.

Jim: We are.

I actually managed to get tied into driving a school bus route one morning when we couldn't find anybody else, and we were way back in the hills and hollers.

And picked up young lady, and I was teasing her.

I said, "This can't be Illinois.

You must be in Indiana."

And she said, "Well, that sign right over there is the Indiana State line.

So yes, we're right on the edge of the Indiana border."

Rameen: And the two buildings that you have, the junior/senior high is all pretty much together.

Is that correct?

Jim: Yes.

Yes.

Rameen: And the elementary school, although there are signs that still say grade school, you basically have two campuses.

Jim: Yes.

Rameen: Let's talk about the two buildings and any maintaining done recently to the building?

Jim: Oh, absolutely.

We are the beneficiary of the county sales tax for school facilities, which can only be used to improve your school facilities.

Can't be used for salaries or anything else.

In the time that we've had it, we've managed to save quite a bit, but we've also managed to take care of a lot of deferred maintenance in both buildings.

At the elementary building, we had a complete upgrade a couple of years ago of our HVAC with individual heat pumps, is what's referred to in the trades as a mini split system.

So that each teacher has control of his or her own destiny as far as the climate in their classroom.

No air conditioning prior to that.

So that's been a huge improvement.

Rameen: Wow.

Jim: Also using federal COVID dollars.

Last year, I think I've got the timeline correct, we had new windows put into the elementary building.

Much more weather resistant, much more efficient in that regard.

So those are the two main upgrades we've had done there, although we've also added some security cameras and upgraded what we had going on there for the school security aspect.

Over here on this campus, most recently, this past summer, we had a $460,000 project.

Again, county sales tax money, a new parking lot.

It was all gravel before.

We've got a nice new asphalt parking lot.

Rameen: I believe I'm parked in that right now.

Jim: You are.

You are.

We've also had some deferred maintenance done in this building.

We are planning, with the addition or the help of a state school maintenance grant, to have the same mini splits that we installed in the grade school put over into the high school wing in phases to replace the right outdated window units.

So that should be of a help to us as well.

Rameen: If I can stop you for just a second.

Obviously you mentioned the age of the high school, and you said over the years, it's done a tremendous job of maintaining.

What are the challenges of maintaining a building this old?

Jim: Well, yeah.

When you look at something that was built in 1906, there were replacement windows that were put in the mid to late seventies, but that was long enough ago.

You're talking 50-ish years ago.

Right?

Rameen: Right.

Yeah.

Jim: That was long enough ago that they've reached the end of their useful life.

So at some point in time, we're going to have to replace those windows.

We're hoping with the same quality windows that we put into the elementary building.

One other project that we're really excited about is that we're going to get solar panels at both campuses, which will save us quite a bit on our utility costs over time.

And you're looking at maybe a 35 year lifespan on those.

So for the next generation at least, that should be very beneficial to the taxpayers of this school district.

Rameen: And the solar panels, that's one of the next things on the radar?

Jim: Well, that's interesting.

We've been working with a vendor for about three years, and because of COVID and some other things that are going on legislatively in the state, it's been put on hold.

I was just this morning talking to the representative from Solar Shift, and we're still cautiously optimistic that we're going to break ground on that prior to the ground getting too hard because of cold weather.

Rameen: Okay.

Very good.

Thank you for the update and overview of the physical aspects of this school district.

This school year, I'm taping with you for the first time.

And obviously, we all know what the last two years have been- Jim: Frustrating Rameen: ... for everyone.

Jim: Yes.

Yes.

Rameen: Not to reflect too much on those previous two years, how has this year gone to this point as we tape again here on November 28?

Jim: No, I'll be happy to speak to that.

I would say, first of all, this year has a much more normal feel to it.

If there is such a thing as normal- Rameen: Yeah.

What is normal?

Jim: ... in any school district.

I think that people feel... And when I say people, I'm talking about adults as well.

Students seem much less anxious about things.

It's been a much more pleasant start for everyone as compared to the last two years.

But I would be remiss if I didn't add the fact that we were, in person, every single day for the last two years...

I need to back up.

The governor sent us home, everybody, at the end of 2020.

So that was remote learning.

But that next year, and then I guess last year, the years run together in my head, we were in person every day.

The only deference that we made that first year is we let students out at about two o'clock rather than three to give teachers time to deal with the remote learning piece.

We had some folks that told us at the beginning of that year that we would be all sent home by Labor Day.

And I said, "Well, I feel like we need to try."

And the days turned to weeks and the weeks turned to months.

There was a time last year where we actually had to have an adaptive pause for about four days simply because we had so many staff members on quarantine.

We couldn't find enough subs.

So we hit the pause button.

We did remote learning, and then they were back in session.

So I wouldn't sit here and tell you that there was no learning loss for the kiddos in our school district, but we feel very good about where we are as compared to perhaps some other districts that chose remote learning or chose an every other day approach where we were in person, in session, every day.

Rameen: Pretty remarkable.

Since we've all endured the COVID 19 pandemic.

It's not gone away.

Jim: No.

Rameen: But from when it started to hear the stories from all those communities and school districts, everybody was in their own unique boats.

Jim: Yes.

Yes.

Rameen: Thank you for that.

Jim: Correct.

Rameen: Thank you for that perspective.

In our last minute or so, Jim, just wanted to...

I see you wearing the signage that is the Chrisman Cardinal.

As I was driving to Chrisman today, can't not notice the signage along Pennsylvania Street, Cardinal Nation.

What is Cardinal Nation?

Jim: Well, we've got a pretty rich history as far as athletic success.

At current times, not what we were maybe 10 or 20 years ago.

But hope to get back to that at some point in time.

We've got a former coach that's still with us and alive in the community, Roger Beals.

Hall of Fame coach in basketball, but he was probably known to cross country geeks such as myself, more for what he did in cross country because they won multiple state titles under his tutelage.

Yeah, it's a fun place for me to come to work to every day because even though I was an outsider when they were having that success, I've got memories of the Chrisman athletic success back in the day.

Rameen: Athletics is just one of the programs, and we've run out of time, but that leaves more for the next time that we tape.

Jim Acklin, the interim superintendent of Edgar County Community School District 6.

Pleasure having you on City Spotlight.

Jim: Thank for- Rameen: And we look forward to many more times.

Jim: Thanks for being here.

The time flew by.

I hope you come back.

I've got a lot more to tell you about- Rameen: Told you.

12 minutes goes by pretty fast.

Jim: Yes.

It does.

Rameen: Thank you so much, Jim.

And that'll do it for our very first City Spotlight episode on Chrisman.

We've been on location.

Thanks for watching.

City Spotlight is supported by Consolidated Communications.

CCI is honored to salute the cities and their leaders in the area, as well as providing TV, Internet, and phone service for the local homes and businesses.

We live where we work, and are proud to support the communities we serve.

More information available at consolidated.com.

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