Decatur City Council approves two honorary street designations | #citycouncil

The city council voted unanimously Monday to name the block surrounding the Staley Museum “Staley Square” and the 1000 block of South Webster Street in honor of Jefferson and Booker Joyner. 

Per city ordinance, up to five honorary street designations can be made per year. The two applications were reviewed by a five-member committee last week, which unanimously recommended the two designations be offered. 

“I think that… both of these applicants meet the requirements of the ordinance, which is that the council is not especially interested in honoring people who just do their job, but who go above and beyond for a long period of time to benefit the community in some unique way,” said city manager Scot Wrighton.

In some ways, the Staley designation is a continuation of honoring the vision of A.E. Staley, a titan of industry who was one of the major proponents of building Lake Decatur 100 years ago. 

Were it not for A.E. Staley, Decatur would look very different than it does today,” wrote Laura Jahr, director of the Staley Museum, in her application. 

Jahr pointed out that there is currently no street named for Staley, that the company he founded now goes by a different name and a bridge once named for him now has a different name. 

As part of Lake Decatur’s centennial celebration, Basin 3 — between U.S. 36 and Illinois 105 — has been renamed “Staley Basin.”

Brothers Booker and Jefferson Joyner lived next door to each other on Webster Street for more than 50 years. They both worked as operators for Wagner Castings Co. and both raised their families in Decatur. 

In her application, Sharolyn Bates wrote that their family’s legacies are still felt across the community. 

Jefferson and his wife, Catherine, were foster parents for more than a decade. Catherine and Booker’s wife Sarah started a community garden in the 1970s that to this day still helps feed families in the neighborhood. 

Booker coached the Stonettes softball team and was known for loading up the neighborhood kids in his pickup truck to take them to watch the games. 

“The Joyner family was well known in the community because they showed love to all,” Bates wrote, adding that they “grew up as one big family because of the bond they had.” 

The honorary street signs will be manufactured and installed by the city’s sign shop. There are currently six other honorary street names in Decatur. 

The council also entered into a $200,000 grant agreement with the Community Investment Corporation of Decatur to administer a program that will assist residents with housing counseling, financial counseling and credit building.

Though the CICD has provided such services since 1999, demand is expected to grow beyond current capacity due to a number of city programs rolled out in recent years to encourage home ownership among low- and middle-income people in Decatur.

In 2022, the city entered into an agreement with the Central Illinois Landbank on an “abandonment to rehab” initiative, which aims to rehab vacant properties and prevent them from deteriorating to the point where demolition is necessary.

That program’s initial aim was for the city to identify 10 vacant homes to purchase and then rehab with the goal of selling to first-time homebuyers. The first house to be rehabbed under that program, located at 439 S. Maffit St., is now listed on the market for $64,900.

Community Development director Cordaryl Patrick told the council that the counseling program would help support the city’s existing initiatives.

“As those homes become available, we need to have a pipeline of folks ready to actually purchase those homes,” Patrick said. “So this is part of the entire ecosystem… all these players has to be working together.”

The grant is being funded through a portion of the city’s American Rescue Plan allotment. Patrick called the $200,000 a “pilot” of sorts. The CICD had initially sought $433,520 over three years. But it will be revisited next year, Patrick said.

In other business, the council:

• Approved an ordinance prohibiting the use of groundwater from and around the site of a former gas plant at 515 E. Main St. as a drinking water source.

The site is owned by Ameren, which operates a substation on site. The agreement, known as a “ground water ordinance,” is a tool used by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to remediate properties that have been contaminated by chemicals.

There are similar agreements in place at other sites across the city. In any case, there are no wells at or near the facility and all are serviced by the city’s water services, which is sourced by Lake Decatur.

• Voted to allow all the city’s housing rehabilitation programs to be eligible for the contractor’s loan fund. Previously, the program, which provides access to capital for smaller contractors, was only for the owner-occupied rehabilitation program.
• Approved an agreement with San Jose-based OpenGov, Inc. that will allow Decatur bars and restaurants to pay their food and beverage taxes online. Currently, all taxes must be delivered in-person or via mail. The platform will cost about $86,777 over four years to implement and maintain.