Kathy’s #Mailbag, May 16, 2025 | Business

Drop in a question of your very own BY CLICKING HERE or by emailing Kathy Reiser at mailbag@news-gazette.com.

This week, Kathy’s Mailbag is brought to you by the letter “why”: Why auto-pay is no longer an option for Champaign County property taxes … why the National Guard’s armory in Champaign is up for bid … why traffic flow may soon change on some of Urbana’s “state streets” … and why the newly reconfigured I-57/74 interchange still has some circular ramps.

“I’ve had my Champaign County property taxes on ‘auto-pay’ for years, with the installments debited from my checking account on the due dates. I understand those long-standing arrangements are no longer valid. What’s up with that?”

Champaign County Treasurer and Collector Byron Clark confirmed that automatic bank drafts (auto-payments) are no longer an option for property tax payments in Champaign County. He said this change was made by the previous administration, and taxpayers were notified of it in the Tax Year 23 insert that went out with last year’s bills.

“While we know this was a popular option for some residents, continuing the program is simply not feasible under our current staffing levels. The system required a significant amount of manual oversight and corrections. And with the volume we’re handling, we don’t have the capacity to process those payments reliably or efficiently. That said, we’re continuing to offer a range of flexible payment options, including online, in-person and by mail.”

Property owners who prefer to pay with a check sent by U.S. Mail may have noticed that two different mailing addresses are printed on the back of each of this year’s payment coupons: one in Urbana, one in Springfield.

The Urbana addresses listed on the coupons are primarily for benefit of those paying in person, but Clark said payments may be mailed there as well. The payment coupon for the first installment lists his office’s current location at 1776 E. Washington (the Brookens Center) and the second installment’s coupon reflects the planned move to the Bennett Administrative Center, 102 E. Main, effective July 1.

As for the P.O. Box in Springfield, Clark says that address “has been used for years and continues to serve as our official mailing address for payments,” Clark said. “It’s tied to our third-party processing partner and remains the most efficient and secure way to ensure timely posting.

“Most importantly, payments sent to either the Springfield P.O. Box or our Urbana office(s) will be processed without issue, and we will receive and process payment no matter where they are sent. For mail-in payments, we do recommend using the Springfield address.”

Of course, he said, participating local banks also are an option for paying Champaign County property tax bills. More than two-dozen banks and credit unions with a location in Champaign County are authorized “collector banks.”

Links to online payment options are at co.champaign.il.us/treasurer/treasurer.php

The first installment of 2024 property taxes is due on or before June 5, and the second/final installment is due on or before Sept. 5 of this year.

“What happened to Apricot Lane boutique? Did they close, or just move to a new location? Half my wardrobe came from there!”

Owner Stephanie Williams closed her Champaign store April 30, and Guth & Associates has put a “for lease” sign in the window of the former boutique at 1005 S. Neil St. in Champaign.

A post on the Champaign store’s Facebook page referred local customers to the uptown Normal location, 206 W. North St., “for all the styles and brands you have come to know and love! This isn’t goodbye, it’s just finding each other!”

Another recent post said the Champaign store’s social media accounts will soon be closed, but that the boutique will hold pop-up sales from time to time in Champaign-Urbana. The post refers customers of the former Champaign store to @apricotlanenormal on Instagram and the apricotlanebloomingtonnormal page on Facebook.

“I see signs near the UI campus about a Lincoln Avenue Corridor Study. Is it too late to participate?

That depends on what the reader means by “participate.” The Champaign County Regional Planning Commission is now accepting feedback on the study’s final recommendations for the stretch of Lincoln Avenue between Green Street and Florida Avenue in Urbana. Most of the planning process took place in 2023 and 2024.

The CCRPC website says the overarching goal of the study was “to identify ways to increase transportation safety, mobility and multimodal connectivity in this high-priority north-south corridor bridging the City of Urbana and the UI campus.”

The final recommendations include:

— Constructing on-street bike lanes on both sides of Lincoln Avenue for the entire length of the corridor

— Reconfiguring the Lincoln Avenue roadway to three lanes — one lane in each direction plus a center left-turn lane — and rehabilitating the entire roadway

— Converting Oregon and Iowa Streets to solely right-turn-out, and Indiana Avenue to solely eastbound turn-in

— Converting Nevada Street and Vermont Avenue access from the east to solely right-turn-in/right-turn-out

— Converting and consolidating all crosswalks outside of signalized intersections into mid-block crossings with rapid rectangular flashing beacons (RRFB)

— Adjusting signal timing along the corridor to accommodate roadway changes

— Relocating Lincoln Avenue bus stops between Iowa Street and Ohio Street, and the northbound bus stop at Oregon Street

The study’s full report and recommendations are available online at ccrpc.org/lincoln.

The deadline to offer feedback is Friday, May 30. Between now and then, written comments may be sent to

J.D. McClanahan, CCRPC Planner II, 1776 E. Washington St., Urbana 61802 or via email to jmcclanahan@ccrpc.org.


“In the paper a few weeks ago, I saw a call for bids to purchase the Illinois National Guard armory in Champaign. Why is the property being sold?”

Major William “Dutch” Grove with the Illinois National Guard confirmed that the Illinois Department of Military Affairs is accepting bids on the Champaign armory through late June.

He said ING armories are important for training, staging and equipment storage. “The addition or construction of new armories, or the divestiture of armories like the Champaign armory, is an ongoing process that ensures Illinois National Guard soldiers have modern platforms to support the training and functions of the unit while being strategically placed throughout the state to support local authorities when needed.”

Construction of the Art Moderne-style armory was a Great Depression-era project of the Works Progress Administration; the Urbana armory also was among the 13 WPA armories built around the state. Construction began on the Champaign armory in April 1937, and the facility was dedicated in June 1939. It cost $225,000 to build, according to a Preservation and Conservation Association historic property inventory.

“The Illinois National Guard has had a strong presence in the Champaign-Urbana area for decades, and will continue to house units at the Urbana armory well into the future,” Grove said.

The newspaper notice said potential bidders may contact Kevin Little at 217-761-3601 to schedule an appointment to view the property or to find out more about it. Bids are due by 4 p.m. on Wednesday, June 25.

“It was such a treat to see Rudy Frasca flying around in his vintage warbirds back in the day. What became of the planes after Rudy died?”

Peggy Prichard, one of Rudy’s children, told me the Frasca family still owns and maintains several WWII aircraft at their airport in Urbana. “These planes were flown in airshows locally and around the country by Rudy and his sons for many years. The family also held fly-ins and open houses at Frasca Field and performed flyovers for special events.

“Rudy stopped flying several years before his passing in 2020 and his sons, while still active pilots, no longer perform in air shows. The family does pull out vintage aircraft on Veterans Day and for special events held at the airport, and the Frasca boys still fly the warbirds around the area during the summer months,” Prichard said.

The Frasca family included eight children – five boys and three girls. “Most of us learned to fly early-on, including me, but my brothers Joe, Tom, Bob and David were the pilots who flew the warbirds in various shows and fly-bys. My oldest brother Joe was an accomplished aerobatic pilot who died in a plane crash in 1991. We sold FRASCA International in 2021 but still own the airport and airplane collection. My brother John still runs the (flight) simulator company.”

“Recently, CN seems to be using the Bradley Avenue crossing as part of the railyard. Why has the frequency and length of closures at Bradley skyrocketed over the past two to three years?”

This exchange with a reader began several weeks ago, after we answered another reader’s Mailbag question about train-related backups on Market Street — about a quarter-mile west of the Bradley Avenue crossing. “I have worked on Oak Street near Canadian National’s Champaign Yard for the past 40 years. At times, the train cars stay stalled until a worker on foot exits the train and makes switches while traffic on Bradley languishes. There has certainly been a greater inconvenience to the traveling public in recent years.”

He also mentioned rush-hour backups on Bradley and noted it’s a “rough situation for working families in this neighborhood — and this is not a rare occurrence.”

CN Railroad spokesperson Michelle Hannan told me “there has been no recent change in operations at this location. The schedule of trains in one area fit into a much broader network that requires round-the-clock synchronized operations that are vital to the nations’ economy. Based on our scheduling commitment to our customers, transporting products from one end of the continent to the other, we operate our railroad 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”

Hannan said members of the public who have concerns about the railroad’s operations may contact the CN Public Inquiry Line at 1-888-888-5909 or by email at contact@cn.ca.

I also checked in with Cayli Baker at the Illinois Commerce Commission, which has some — but not total — regulatory authority over railroad safety in Illinois. She said only the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and Surface Transportation Board (STB) have the authority to address blocked crossings. 

“The ICC does not have regulatory authority over blocked crossings in Illinois, and in 2008, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that the statute prohibiting rail carriers from blocking a crossing (is) unconstitutional and preempted by federal law.”

Baker said the FRA has an online portal for blocked-crossing complaints, at fra.dot.gov/blockedcrossings/. “While the ICC does not have authority over blocked crossing(s), we still recommend that complaints be filed with both FRA and our agency via icc.illinois.gov/Complaints.

ICC staff review FRA data and these complaints to identify specific crossings and railroads, and work with the railroads, FRA, municipalities, highway agencies, metropolitan planning organizations, school districts, etc. to determine actions that could mitigate the blockages. This could include the railroad voluntarily changing operations or rules, conducting safety events, or building new infrastructure.

Baker said the ICC will follow up with CN on their current operations. The ICC is aware of the City of Champaign’s efforts to study the location for a possible grade-separation project. Federal funding was secured earlier this year. The ICC’s Crossing Safety Improvement Program provides assistance to highway agencies and railroads for similar bridge and rail crossing safety projects around Illinois.

FOR ONLINE VERSION ONLY:

For anyone who would like to delve a little deeper into the issue, Baker said the latest federal preemption ruling was the subject of a State of Ohio petition to the U.S. Supreme Court. It was denied in early 2024, but the filings provide a wealth of information on the matter. They are available here.

“On the sixth floor of OSF Heart of Mary Hospital in Urbana, south side, there are two rooms where metal louvers have replaced a large window pane. Are these some kind of special rooms?”

OSF spokesperson Tim Ditman says those are reverse-isolation rooms reserved for people who have contagious illnesses such as COVID or tuberculosis. “As it was explained to me, the rooms are specially designed to prevent airborne illnesses from getting in and out. What the reader saw on the outside of the building helps with that.”

“Any update on the Hope Village tiny homes project for people who are medically fragile and have no permanent home?”

Big, yellow earth-movers were doing their thing this week at the Hope Village site off of Federal Drive in Urbana, just north of Champaign’s Carver Park subdivision.

Claudia Lennhoff, executive director of Champaign County Health Care Consumers, said construction of the homes is about to begin. “We anticipate that most of the construction should be completed by the end of this year. We anticipate starting to accept residents around the end of this year or by early next year” — assuming that construction proceeds more-or-less on schedule. “We will be able to provide updates to the community a bit later this year.”

The project is a collaboration among Carle Health, Champaign County Health Care Consumers and the UI, with grants from the State of Illinois and City of Urbana.


”I understand the I-57/74 interchange is being rebuilt to eliminate the cloverleaf design, which has circular ramps that result in a lot of tip-over accidents. So why were only two flyover ramps built, with two circular ramps remaining?”

It’s not so much the circular shape of the ramps that posed problems; it was their tight radii. IDOT engineer Kensil Garnett said the two new circular ramps have larger radii than the old ones. He said the larger ramps will be much safer and easier for drivers to negotiate.

The two flyover ramps were built to eliminate two small, “geometrically deficient” inner-loop ramps that were at the southeast and northwest quadrants of the old interchange configuration. The other two small, geometrically deficient inner-loop ramps, from the northeast and southwest quadrants of the old interchange configuration, are being replaced with ramps on a much larger radius that will allow large and small vehicles alike to navigate them more easily.

“Eliminating two of the inner-loop ramps eliminates the weaving movements where two adjacent inner loop ramps merge along either I-57 or I-74 with traffic exiting and entering either interstate in very close proximity,” he said.

“If we were to have used two more flyover ramps and bridges, that would mean we would have two more levels of bridges stacked above what we are currently constructing. This would put the tallest bridge twice as high as the tallest bridge we are constructing, and it would not be possible to geometrically tie-in these ramps within the constraints of the Mattis Avenue bridges over both interstates and the U.S. Route 150 bridge over I-57. These tall structures would be difficult to construct and maintain. This would also give the interchange a much larger footprint with more impacts to the surrounding area.”


”Driving by Memorial Stadium the other day, I noticed that all of the pine trees behind the horseshoe have been removed. Any idea why?”

The white pines southeast of the horseshoe at Memorial Stadium were in declining health, said UI Facilities & Services spokesperson Steve Breitwieser. “Two dead trees were removed last year as a safety precaution, and the set on the southwest side was beginning to show similar symptoms, which also necessitated their removal.”

The campus Tree Replacement Policy, at fs.illinois.edu/trees/, requires auxiliary units to install replacement trees for those that are removed. The Division of Intercollegiate Athletics will be planting similar types of trees there in the future, which will help reestablish tree canopy coverage in that area, Breitwieser said.

Railfans, this one’s for you:

A few weeks ago, we answered a reader question about train horns, and that item drew a response from Jon Roma, a railroad aficionado and long-time friend of the Mailbag. Specifically, the early May answer had addressed the federal rule that requires locomotive engineers to sound two long, one short, and one more long blast of the horn as they approach a grade crossing.


“The whistle signal you discussed is only one of what was once a long list of different whistle signals that date to an era before radio. Communication between a train’s locomotive and its caboose — or between the locomotive and the body of a passenger train — thus took the form of audible signals and visual signals, the latter conveyed during the day by hand signal, and at night by lantern.”

He said some whistle signals announced what the engine crew was doing or had just done. Others were answers to signals received by the engine crew — these typically by hand, flag or lantern. Some other whistle signals were instructions from the engine crew to the conductor or flagman at the rear of the train. Still others involved communication between trains.

“The train crew (conductor and flagman) didn’t have the benefit of a loud whistle to get the attention of the engine crew – and it’s not likely they could have heard a distant whistle over the sound of a working steam locomotive. They did, however, have hand, flag and lantern signals. On passenger trains, there was a communicating whistle that extended the length of the train. Engine crews were expected to periodically inspect their train, and to look for signals conveyed by other crew members. In case of emergency, the train crew had a brake valve that they could open to stop the train.”

Roma said few of whistle signals remain in use today, simply because most communication is done by railroad radio; the Federal Communications Commission has allocated 97 VHF channels for railroad use.

“Radio became universally available on locomotives in the ’70s. Furthermore, with the elimination of cabooses, train crew members occupied the lead locomotive, and there was no longer a need for end-to-end communication. The caboose was replaced by a device called an ‘end of train device’ that conveys information about brake pressure and motion to the engine crew.

Radio communication also eliminated the need for telegraph operators at local depots, as well as the use of train orders to convey instructions regarding trains’ movement authority from a train dispatcher to trains via a telegrapher along the wayside. “This information is now conveyed directly from dispatcher to train. In some cases, technology like centralized traffic control allows the dispatcher to simply convey movement authority to trains via a wayside signal displaying colored lights.”

Roma said hand and lantern signals are still used today when crew members are within the line of sight. “It is sometimes more expedient when there’s heavy traffic on the radio channel. I have been told that some locations — like at the Norfolk Southern yard in Decatur — use the standard hand signals, but also have an additional set of hand signals unique to that yard.”