Rameen: Coming up on City Spotlight, the focus is on Effingham.

We'll talk with the Mayor of Effingham, Jeff Bloemker, and Norma Lansing, President and CEO of the Effingham County Chamber of Commerce.

We'll discuss the opening of the John Boos and Company wood manufacturing facility, as well as updates on other economic development, such as the Koerner's distribution facility and the new Meijer's.

We'll also talk about things going on with the Effingham County Chamber, and we'll wrap up the show with a feature on the opening of the new John Boos facility.

We're talking Effingham next on City Spotlight.

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Rameen: Thank you to all of you for joining us for this latest episode of City Spotlight.

Today, we are talking Effingham.

We'd like to welcome back to the program, the Mayor of Effingham, Jeff Bloemker- Jeff: Hi Rameen.

Hi Rameen, great to be here.

Rameen: And welcome back, Norma Lansing.

She's the President and CEO of the Effingham County Chamber of Commerce.

Pleasure to see you again, Norma.

Norma: Well, thank you so much for asking me to ... And the mayor, to ask me to be a part of the program today.

Rameen: Glad you to have you guys here.

As we tape on September 29th.

And we saw each other exactly one month ago, August 29th at the new John Boos and Company wood manufacturing facility there on South Banker Street.

Quite a few people in attendance, such as yourself and other community leaders, former employees of John Boos were there.

The Lieutenant Governor of Illinois was there.

What were your guys' impressions of that day?

Jeff?

Jeff: That was a big day for Effingham and, of course, or state representatives were there as well, Dave Reis and John Cavaletto.

And of course, Sanguinetti was there, the Lieutenant Governor.

Huge day for Effingham.

We've been ... We were ...

The city staff was talking about this the other day.

They've been working on that for 20 years.

Rameen: Wow.

Jeff: John Boos is our oldest employer and been around forever.

I had the pleasure of growing up with the family that owned it at the time, The Gravenhorst and The Wolfers, throughout my life.

So, I've heard about John Boos and known about it and watched it evolve over the years, but to see them ... To be able to be the mayor at the time when we were able to make that transition and we worked on this.

When my administration came into office, we started very regular negotiations and conversations with the John Boos team about "How do we get this done.

It's time to get it done."

And we were able to do that and to see them create that, the kind of facility ... That's a world class wood manufacturing facility, as you saw.

Just blows my mind what they're doing in there right now and to know that's there on South Route 45 in Effingham just really makes me proud.

Rameen: Norma, your impressions?

You were there also.

Norma: Absolutely.

It's a wonderful facility.

The other thing, I think, that's unique there is the amount of technology that a wood manufacturing plant actually has.

So, it's grown up, I guess, if you wanna call it that, from the original thought of the heavy lifting and all of that to very highly technical.

We're seeing that across the manufacturing arena.

That manufacturers are usually much more technology.

So it's not about just a factory job.

It is a career.

A technical, highly technical career.

And so that's something we're promoting.

Jeff: You know, the other aspect is most people don't realize is they're a metal shop.

They moved it first.

It's right across the street now.

They're side by side there on South Route 45, South Banker Street.

But that metal shop, they do all types of stainless.

Particularly for kitchen applications in commercial arenas.

I think the Dallas Cowboy stadium is one.

Out in New Jersey, all ...

They have five or six or seven arenas where they've gone in and installed their stainless steel kitchens.

And so they specialize ... And that's a booming part of their business as well.

Rameen: We'll have a feature later on in the program talking with the president of John Boos and Company, Mr. Emmerich.

And some numbers here to throw out at you.

130 years in Effingham.

The new facility is $16 million and 116,000 square feet.

So, people will get a look at it.

It was a wonderful tour and it was amazing to see what some of the former employees saw also.

We ran into some former colleagues.

So it was a pleasant experience for everyone.

Jeff: Yeah.

Sure was.

Great day.

Rameen: Okay.

Norma: I'd like to make one comment, and I think people ... From my side of the table that I see a lot of questions about is, yes, there's still a retail outlet.

The same location on East Fayette in Effingham and I think people really need to understand that that retail outlet is still there.

It's very popular.

My goodness, on a Saturday morning it's crazy how many people are there looking for things.

So, be sure and stop by that John Boos outlet in Effingham on East Fayette.

Jeff: Yeah.

People ...

It's a destination for people that say, come to the Fun Fest or come to Effingham from, for other reasons.

They'll make it a point to go to that outlet.

You can't turn on a food show, try it sometime.

Turn on a food show and you'll see the John Boos cutting board sitting there in the kitchen.

It's fascinating.

Rameen: There was a comment during the press conference about, "Has anybody here not watched a food show?"

And there was only a few select few so it got a few chuckles.

You're absolutely right.

It's ... John Boos is a worldwide thing.

Very good.

And so moving forwards, there's a lot of other things going on in Effingham involving economic development and please, both of you, if you wanna chime in on any one of these.

So, we'll start with the industrial park and the new Koerner Distribution facility.

Jeff: Boy, that's one that, again, that's ...

The Koerner family's been looking at trying to create a new facility there, world class beverage distribution facility for many years.

I think I'm the fourth mayor.

Paul Koerner, the CEO, said to me ...

He said, "You know, you're the fourth mayor I'm gonna work with on this thing.

Let's get it done."

And we, just like with John Boos, we started it and we started negotiating and consistent conversations.

We've got a progressive city council and we got it done.

They're putting together .

..

It's impressive.

It's a tilt-up building so it's concrete.

I mean, it is going to be a beautiful facility in a high profile spot there in our Industrial Park and it's ...

They're making a big investment.

They're gonna be consolidating some of their other sites around the state to there in Effingham because of our convenient location and transportation resources.

But it is going to be a beautiful, world class beverage distribution center.

We're gonna be really proud of it.

Rameen: Very good.

Opposite end of town, Meijer's project.

How are things going there?

Jeff: Well, it's still progressing along, of course.

We ... That was a big one.

We've been on your show here a few times and we kind of had to hold back on announcing.

We finally announced it and ... Meijer's typically is slow to develop.

That's just ... We knew that going into it.

And when we researched it, they're activities in the past.

So it's still on track.

They've been in front of our plan commission, their site's been approved and still moving along quite well.

I think you'll probably look at them start constructed in 2018.

Late next year.

Rameen: Okay.

So next year.

Look forward to that.

Panera Bread.

Next place on the list.

Jeff: You wanna talk about that?

Norma: Sure.

Well I can tell you they're gonna be opening October 18th.

Rameen: Alright.

Norma: So that's the official word from yesterday that we got.

That's their opening day.

Rameen: Alright.

So just a few weeks after folks have seen this at home.

Norma: Great.

Jeff: It's coming up.

It's coming right along.

It's looking like a Panera Bread.

High profile area right there.

We're just proud as can be to have that kind of high profile brand not only in Effingham, but for the region.

And we see that type of brand will bring people from Charleston ... Rameen: Absolutely.

Jeff: ... From 50, 60 miles away to come to Effingham to shop.

We'll have the Meijer's.

We've got the Menards and the Walmart.

And they can eat at place like Panera Bread or Chili's.

Rameen: That's another name right on the list there.

So Chili's.

Jeff: Yeah.

Rameen: Awesome.

Very good.

Jeff: We're turning Effingham into a restaurant and retail hub as we've talked about over the past couple years.

Rameen: Another ... Other additions, Smoothie King.

Another one.

Jeff: You wanna talk?

Rameen: Just going down the list.

Norma: No.

I don't really know that.

Jeff: So, yeah.

That's by ... That one's being done by my friends, The Brandenburger's, Noah and Holly Brandenburger.

They're big health nuts.

They're into the fitness craze and ...

I work out a little bit, but not to the extent they do.

And I really wasn't aware of what a Smoothie King is, but as you research it and get into it and talk to younger crowds about it, it's a big deal.

And you can do everything from have a ... One of their smoothies shakes to replace a meal to something that augments your workout and that type of thing.

So we're excited to see that come along as well.

And that should be ...

I think they should be open either next month or end of November.

Rameen: Okay.

Something to look forward to there and we chatted about this just before we started taping, Jeff.

The K Bowl site, the long time bowling facility there in Effingham.

56 years, unfortunately had to close this month.

We're taping here at the end of September.

Tell us what's moving forward with that site.

Jeff: Yeah, you know, I think that's a sign of how our culture's kind of shifting from, to different types of activities.

Bowling, when I was growing up, was a big deal.

And obviously in the generation before.

But that's kind of changed.

The K Bowl's a place that when I was a kid, I hung out there and was in bowling leagues and so forth.

They've decided, the Keller family's decided to close that.

They'll probably tear it down.

That really that whole site there, we have our convention center and the Holiday Inn hotel and so forth.

That site's could accommodate another hotel.

So I think there's gonna be a lot of thing in play there at that particular site, but more than likely the K Bowl will be torn down and my guess is you'll see restaurants go in there.

Maybe two restaurants or it could be a restaurant and a retail.

Rameen: Right.

Jeff: But it's in play right now and we're excited about it.

'Cause it's one of the most high profile spots in downstate Illinois, in terms of interstate access.

Rameen: Yeah.

High traffic area.

So there's obviously something there for people to check out.

Jeff: Yep.

Norma: People who like to eat TGIFriday's will be happy to know that TGIFriday's will remain.

It won't be torn down.

That's part of that cable complex, but that part of the facility will remain standing.

Rameen: Yeah.

Thank you.

Jeff: Glad for that.

Rameen: Good information there.

Thank you.

Norma: Yeah.

Rameen: South Town Business District.

Jeff: That's something that our city, our economic development team is working on currently.

They've got our friends from St. Louis, economic development resources working with them on that.

The business district's ... And I think we've talked about this in the past, are replacing the TIF districts.

The TIF districts are going away.

In a few more years, they'll expire.

We're using the business districts to replace the TIF districts.

The business districts are a little more flexible, but it's a 1% tax on retail on certain items.

It creates a fund you can use for everything from rehabbing buildings, redevelopment to infrastructure issues.

And so it just ends up creating that fund that the city can fall back on to help incentivize businesses.

South Town, is an area there for Effingham that needs help.

It is ...

It's a blighted area, but there's actually a lot of energy going on down there right now.

And the city's trying to do everything we can to help incentivize that, help energize that.

And it's happening as we speak.

So it's a big deal to put one of theses business districts together.

We've already have one out on Keller Drive.

We have one that's called the Triangle Business District.

It's kind of centrally, more centrally located.

Now this helps address the South side.

Rameen: Alright.

So different locations.

Business districts replacing the TIF districts.

Very good.

The liquor license for the ...

It looks like a movie theater.

Jeff: Yeah.

Wow.

That just happened recently a couple weeks ago.

RMC, they've had a cinema down at our mall for as long as the mall's been down there.

Big, big asset and resource for our community.

They're facing challenging times right now with Netflix and people streaming and staying at home with their big screen TVs.

So they're trying to compete with that and trying to create more of a broader entertainment experience for people with the big stuffed chairs and that kind of thing.

And so they came to us and said, "Hey.

Would you be willing to let us sell alcohol in a very controlled, managed ...

In a controlled and managed manner?"

We researched it.

They have several other communities that do this.

And so we thought it made sense and we were happy to be able to grant them that liquor license.

You can only two beers per movie.

You can only buy one beer at a time.

So it's controlled.

In our research, I talked to the mayors in the other communities that do this and they say they wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

So we were happy to be able to help them compete in an evolving industry.

Rameen: Alright.

Thank you for that update as well.

Last thing here before we get into some chamber talk here.

Residential developments.

Jeff: One of the challenges that Effingham faces, and I think a lot of communities do probably in central Illinois, is you're doing industrial prospecting.

Or course, one of the things that a company wants to look at, says, "Where can our people live?"

Not only do you have the workers, does the workforce there, but do you have places for them to live?

We bring people from other locations to move to Effingham, is there some place for them to live?

Little bit of a challenge for Effingham.

We recognize there is a deficit there, when my administration started and we've been working on that.

We've pulled the community together, the building community and the home builders and developers and so forth.

And been looking at way to incentivize that, but interestingly enough, since we threw it on the radar and started talking about a lot, the free market has stepped up and it's doing its job.

We've seen a lot of developers that have just dove in and they're building condos and apartment complexes and duplexes and things like that and addressing this need.

So it's been an interesting dynamic.

We didn't have to incentivize them.

They saw the need and it's working out quite well and so we're happy to ...

I don't know if you have anything to say about that, Norma, but it's been interesting to see that develop.

Rameen: That's something that we touch upon in the spring when we had our Effingham in Focus program, so thank you for the update on that.

Norma, let's talk about what's going on with the Chamber here.

We're a few months left in 2017.

Talk about somethings going on with the Chamber.

Norma: It's been an exciting year.

It's our centennial year this year.

Rameen: Congratulations.

Norma: We've had a lot of fun with that.

We had a summer celebration with the community.

We've just done a lot of different things to celebrate 100 years of serving the Effingham county businesses.

So that's been exciting.

We also, this summer, we're a top three in the country finalist for Chamber of the Year.

Rameen: Awesome.

Norma: So, we didn't win, but to be one of three in the country is pretty- Jeff: Very proud of- Norma: ... Fabulous.

So we're excited about that.

Our focus, obviously, in the last three months of the year, we're getting almost there, is really ... We've actually create ... We're actually have a lot of some education and training coming up.

We're trying to look at gearing up for 2018 sales, with a couple of sales trading seminars we have coming up.

Obviously, then the other ... You know, the holiday season's approaching, so we're gonna have ...

I'm sorry.

We're gonna have a shop local campaign that we're working on.

We'll have ... Our downtown group puts on a fabulous hometown Christmas event on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

We bring Santa to town and we have free carriage rides and it's a very ...

Pretty much a free evening for the community and lots and lots of people come to that.

It's a fun evening.

So we've got, like I said, gearing up for that last push of the year.

Trying to help the businesses be ready for what's coming in 2018.

Talking about just today somethings with the payroll changes that are taking place.

Trying to be an education resource.

We've done a lot in that area this year to really help businesses understand how to be more productive.

Jeff: Did you mention manufacturing deals?

Norma: I haven't.

Yeah.

Next Friday, or next Thursday is our Effingham Country Manufacturing Day, 5th annual.

Rameen: Very good.

Norma: That is become a model for communities across the state.

We were one of the first communities in Illinois to really embrace Manufacturing Day, which is a national program.

So this year we have, I think, 13 manufacturers that are opening their doors to high school students.

We have over 300 high school students from 20 different schools ... Rameen: Wow.

Jeff: Big deal.

Norma: ... Around the region.

So that's a big area.

But really the emphasis is, I mentioned with John Boos, is to help not just our young people but everybody looking at job seekers, understand that manufacturing careers are very good careers.

They're ... Lots of, most of them are highly technical these days.

So they may not ...

The change ...

The focus that's changing with the worker is that they're learning much more technical skills.

So we're really proud of that.

Joe Emmerich from John Boos was one of the .

..

Came up with really good thing to tell people about, that manufacturing jobs are very good jobs.

So, that's the message that we wanna get, not just to our young people, but to the people that are looking for jobs from all over this region.

Look at manufacturing.

'Cause it's not just that on the floor job.

There's the office work.

The accounting, the sales, the marketing.

All those pieces of it, you can find in manufacturing.

Rameen: Absolutely.

Norma: We're excited.

Rameen: Those comments also kind of ...

Things we talked about in our Effingham in Focus.

Talking about CEO class, Ctech, so thank you for those comments and obviously, that's very important skills for everyone to utilize and grow with.

Pleasure having you guys on and we look forward to catching up with Effingham and maybe an update on the police department in the beginning of 2018.

Jeff: Yes, sir.

Rameen: Best of luck as Effingham finishes 2017.

Norma: Thank you.

Rameen: Jeff Bloemker, the mayor of Effingham.

And Norma Lansing from the Effingham Chamber of Commerce.

Please to have you guys on again.

Jeff: Always a pleasure to be at EIU.

My alma mater.

Rameen: Alright.

Jeff: I was glad to be with you, Rameen.

Rameen: Great to see you guys.

Thank you.

Norma: Thank you.

Rameen: And coming up next here on City Spotlight, we'll have a feature on the new facility at the John Boos wood manufacturing facility on South Banker Street, but first let's take a look at some of the upcoming activities going on in Effingham.

[music plays] Joe: My name is Joe Emmerich.

I'm president and CEO of John Boos and Company here in Effingham, Illinois.

I'm excited about this day because this facility has been in the planning for almost a decade.

And we're extraordinarily excited that the time is coming where we've moved in.

We still have some operations to work on and some other equipment to connect, but it's time to get moving.

So we're extraordinarily pleased that this day is finally here.

The last 130 years, if you think about that, we expand back clear to 1887.

This is the third century that we've been in operations.

Kind of phenomenal, isn't it?

One of the interesting things that we're gonna see here this afternoon is we've invited all of our employees that have worked here before that have retired and I think they represent something like 1,200 of employments.

It's an amazing amount of employment our retirees have been here.

While they're retired and don't get to work here because of their retirement, they certainly were, formed a good base and even some of them know that while they worked here, we always thought about building a new facility that would expand our needs and give us a larger platform to work off of.

Speaker 5: Hey, Mike.

Speaker 6: Yeah.

Speaker 5: This is the guy who trained me.

Speaker 6: Yeah.

I trained this guy, now look who's wearing a suit.

Speaker 5: ... on the end of it.

It's also beveled.

You got, beveled original.

Speaker 7: And that we're actually doing stuff on too.

Speaker 7: That's our OG etch.

Yeah.

Oak, walnut, cherry ... Or Oak, maple, cherry.

Speaker 5: Yeah.

This is cherry in here?

Speaker 6: Yes.

Evelyn: I take a look and this is truly the American story.

This is a business that started off over 100 years ago.

You know?

Family owned and now we have this.

And neighbors and brothers, sisters, cousins, everyone in the community could participate and work.

This is just absolutely phenomenal.

Very much part of our 21st century.

You know, you folks have been in Effingham for a while 130 years and the governor and I would firmly like to thank you for believing in Illinois and knowing that Illinois is truly one of the greatest states in these United States.

You know, you're a premier manufacturer of wood and stainless steel food service products and that includes the Boos block.

And I just messed one up and actually, yeah, got one right.

But that block is known all over the world.

I think the food shopping network kind of showcases you guys from time to time.

Joe: John Boos is a manufacturer of ... We have two facilities.

One is a wood working manufacturing facility.

We manuf acter cutting boards and butcher blocks for the food service industry as well as for a lot of homes folks that ...

They enjoy the culinary arts at home.

We also have a facility that manufacturers stainless steel food service equipment.

We've done a lot of work in the food service industry.

That facility ...

Excuse me.

That part of the business is actually started in 1962.

So it's young compared to what the old wood working business has been.

We're a national company.

Okay?

We sell throughout the United States.

We sell into Canada.

And over the last three or four years, we've actually started selling overseas into Europe.

Europe is a base for growing.

We ship over there by the container loads.

Our brand isn't quite as recognized as we'd like over there yet, but that is a market that we look forward to fulfilling a lot of needs in over the next decade or so.

Rameen: This new facility, what will it be able to do moving forward?

What are some of the highlights, technologies and just what's in here?

Joe: Well, first thing it's gonna do is allow us to give the space in an organized fashion.

Something we didn't have in our 10 year old facility where we ... Over the previous years, though the insightfulness of a lot of others, that have added on and added on and added on.

So now we're in a clear span building.

It's gonna help us create efficiencies, but most importantly the technology that we've employed is when you get to see it, it gets to be phenomenal how we can detect what's going on in the wood better than a human eye can detect and all through the aid of technology.

Speaker 7: The first two racks are about finished goods.

Yeah.

And then beyond that is virtually more of our.

To the left of here is mostly cutting boards, mis-drill, that kind of stuff.

So we can put the smaller UPS loads, UPS load can come straight down this conveyor, get weighed, wrapped and go straight into the UPS load.

So as we get into more, you know, internet sales and things like that, we're in the process of basically being able to turn those a lot quicker than it gets to .... Speaker 5: Yeah.

It looks great.

Speaker 7: We still have our customers that do full truck loads.

Speaker 5: Yeah.

Speaker 7: More and more it's getting into LTL shipments and things like that.

Speaker 5: Yeah.

Speaker 7: So we gotta be quicker.

That's the nice thing about this is our cycle times are gonna get so much better with the new plant.

And just give us more capacity to go with it.

Joe: The one thing the new facility is gonna allow us to do, if we look around us, this facility is on a 15 acres patch of land.

The facility across the street is also our .

.. Metal working facility is on 12 acres.

We've been able to combine over a period of years, something we look forward to for a long time.

We have now about a quarter million square feet on the roof on a 27 acres campus.

We think that's really exciting 'cause that just opens up a lot of possibilities.

If you also look around on the property that we're standing on, there's a lot of room for expansion there.

So we think we got a good footprint and good platform for which the company can grow for perhaps the next 100 years.

Jeff: Is it with great honor, excitement and anticipation that we stand here today to witness the transformation of Effingham's older manufacturers, John Boos and Company.

I grew up with the member of the Gravenhorst and Wolfer family.

And have been privileged to have a special vantage point as John Boos and Company has evolved and flourished.

The wood manufacturing advances being deployed on this site are world class and are a classic example of why Effingham is the shiny diamond in downstate Illinois.

Thank you to John Emmerich and Mr. Lou Kenner, for the continued confidence and investment in Effingham.

And you thank you to Lieutenant Governor Sanguinetti for being here to share this great day with Effingham.

Thank you.

Joe: This building is 116,000 square feet.

In addition, we have a separate space for wood burning boiler.

We have our dry kilns located on the property as well.

The wood burning boiler, we use the wood waster generated from production to create heat, which creates steam and we use the steam to run our lumber.

So, we're in the green business.

We've been in the green business for 40 or 50 years.

Rameen: What will be happening with the old facility?

Joe: The other facility is going to be leveled.

Many of those buildings are very, very old.

Need some attention.

We've certainly outlived its useful life.

And if we could only be as good as some of those buildings, we're, that'd be awesome.

Rameen: Why should the residents in Effingham, the residents of Effingham county, why should they be excited about this day?

Joe: They should be excited because we're ... Over the years we've provided a lot of employment for the community of Effingham.

A lot of people have worked here.

Many for all their life and we have second and third generation people working here.

Maybe their grandpas worked here for a number of years.

Their dads worked here and now they're working here.

And I jokingly told somebody when she had a baby 16 years ago that I was gonna give her an application for her son.

And she laughed and she goes, "No.

No.

No."

Well this summer her son came to work here as well.

Whether it's generational or not, I'm not quite sure, but it's a very steady employee, employer here in Effingham County.

Rameen: A lot of businesses in Effingham.

This addition to Effingham and the already very busy and bustling Effingham economic community.

What is ... Talk about this addition.

Joe: Okay.

So this addition is yet another mile post for Effingham.

Something new.

It shows that Effingham is thriving.

Effingham County is doing well.

It's a great place to live.

Great place to raise a family and are extraordinarily proud that if we could locate this facility in here in Effingham.

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[music plays]