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

We'll talk with Ed Dowd, Executive Director of the Mattoon Chamber of Commerce about downtown revitalization in Mattoon, changes for the cross-county mall and new developments between Walmart and the interstate.

We'll also talk education in Mattoon with Lake Land College President, Dr. Josh Bullock about the 50th year of classes at Lake Land.

New programs being offered at Lake Land.

And we will remember former Lake Land College President, Dr. Robert Luther.

We're talking Mattoon next on City Spotlight.

Thank you to all of you for joining us for this latest edition of City Spotlight.

Today we're talking Mattoon and in this first segment, we're going to talk about economic development.

To help us out with that, we'll welcome to the program Ed Dowd, he's the Executive Director of the Mattoon Chamber of Commerce.

Welcome back to the program Ed.

Ed Dowd: Thank you very much it's great to be here.

It's exciting all the different, unique things that are happening in Mattoon.

So I'm excited to be here.

Rameen: Excellent.

Not your first time.

But your first time to this studio.

We talked two Summers ago, very, very hot August day, I still remember it.

So climate control studio.

Ed Dowd: It's a lot nicer here.

It was a little warm the last time we talked.

This is great though.

It's a great atmosphere.

Rameen: Glad to have you on and there's a lot going on with economic development in Mattoon and we're going to start in the downtown, obviously where the chamber is.

But tell us all the things that are going on in the downtown area.

Ed Dowd: It's fantastic we have so much revitalization going on in downtown Mattoon, on 17th Street between Hunan and Common Grounds we have two new businesses just opening up.

It's Sapphire Spa and there's also the Wild Rose Boutique.

Just great new businesses, established business owners and we're thrilled to have them down here.

We also have next Helms Chiropractic on the block past the depot, we have Mattoon Flower Shop, which has been around for probably 50,60 years.

They are moving downtown because they're so excited about the revitalization down there.

So we're thrilled to have them down there.

Another new addition that they just signed a lease actually.

The old Bidwells Candy Shop it's going to be Luigi's which is going to be a fine dining Italian restaurant.

It's just great all the different mixes and new businesses coming downtown.

Can't be happier.

Rameen: There's in recent years, there's some new additions as well.

Japanese restaurants.

Another place for people to eat in downtown Mattoon.

Ed Dowd: Correct.

And what the nice thing is, downtown Mattoon at night used to be just pretty much dead.

Now we have a couple of restaurants opening up.

We have Artsy Chic Studio so we have a lot.

We're starting to get more nightlife down there, which is something we're very excited about.

It's going to be great.

Rameen: And obviously we touched upon on recent Mattoon episodes, the Heritage Park.

Continued new things in the downtown area.

You also wanted to mention, Celebrate Downtown Christmas event that will be happening in December 1st.

Ed Dowd: Yes.

Last year it exceeded our expectation, we had 3 to 5,000 people downtown.

We have a lighted parade that's going to be exciting.

We're expecting a bigger crowd.

It's December 1st, we'd love to have everybody down to check it out.

Rameen: Let's shift over back to the east and new ownership for the Cross County Mall.

Let's talk about this exciting news.

Ed Dowd: Rural King has bought the Cross County Mall, I think it's official either this week or next.

What we're excited about that, it's a local entity who's going to be owning it.

They have more of a vested interest in keeping it here in Mattoon and growing it.

The former owners were from Texas and not saying that they weren't interested in filling it but they didn't have the same vested interests that Rural King does.

Rural King is planning on moving their corporate headquarters out there, which will be great.

We'll have 200 people in there all the time and they're also really planning on focusing on filling it back up and giving better rates and things so that it will be easier to fill up.

So we're just thrilled to have them down there.

Rameen: There's two parties.

You mentioned that Rural King and Rural King is Mattoon.

There's two people benefiting from this.

Rural King is obviously expanding what they're doing and the mall like you've mentioned, a local entity is ... Talk about those positives for both Rural King and for the mall and the surrounding community.

Ed Dowd: Rural King is growing so much in this retail environment.

It's unusual that a company is growing but Rural King is growing.

They're expanding all the time, different states and everything.

Their corporate headquarters just weren't quite enough where they were located.

Their current corporate headquarters so they wanted to expand.

They're going to be moving out to the mall.

They're also keeping their headquarters and they're not changing anything there, they just going to make it more business oriented.

So that's not changing, we're just adding additional resources to it.

If you're a retailer, think about it as a retailer, if you're thinking of coming to Mattoon and being in the mall, who wouldn't want 150 to 200 people at your doorsteps every day as employees of Rural King right there in the mall.

It's a win-win for retailers and it's a win-win for Rural King.

So we're very excited.

Rameen: Fabulous.

Great news for the Cross County Mall there.

Let's move a little further east and more retail stores just popping up.

We just have bunches of them already in Mattoon and they continue to develop.

Tell us about the new mall west of the Cracker Barrel area.

Ed Dowd: We're very excited with that also.

Everyone has always talked about Starbucks and they've finally come and it's been a rumor for a long time.

So there'll a Starbucks, there'll be a case jewelers, there'll be a Great Clips, there'll be an AT&T center and another center who hasn't officially signed yet but we're thinking it's going to be some kind of healthcare development center.

It's great, anytime we can get more retail and Thompson Thrift who has done a beautiful job with all the retail establishments, they're building it.

We're really excited.

Rameen: Time has certainly flown by since mayor Grover and Kyle Gill when they were on, they were talking about just the start of the process and now it's coming to- Ed Dowd: It's coming to fruition and they're looking like it might be by the 1st of the year, it might be completed so it might be exciting.

It's exciting.

Rameen: So folks in Mattoon that are watching this episode they're seeing this in the middle of November, it's right around the corner.

Ed Dowd: Right around the corner.

That's correct.

Rameen: Excellent.

Still more development to talk about over that area of Mattoon.

We obviously have the nice beautiful new walk-in Sarah Bush Clinic there.

And there's some continued development there on Dettro Drive.

Ed Dowd: Yeah.

Copper Creek Cottages, which just opened up which you and I talked a little bit about, a beautiful building, it's just incredible.

If you get a chance to see it, you just have to stop by.

They're also developing a new business professional, kind of mini mall I guess you'd call it right between them and the new Sarah Bush Clinic, which is going to be geared toward professional services.

I think, I believe a chiropractor has already signed on board and they have three or four other potential establishments.

Again any time we see growth, it's a fantastic thing for Mattoon.

Rameen: Before we talk about a few other things, Ed what does it say about Mattoon in the last couple of years when we talked for the first time two Summers ago, there has already been a bunch of businesses popping up and some more.

What does that say about the direction Mattoon is going?

Ed Dowd: We're just so thrilled, I'm just so thrilled that Mattoon is growing despite of the state and the things going on in the state and the budget impasse and things like that.

Mattoon is able to keep steady and keep growing.

We're kind of just not letting the state bring us down, so it's just great that businesses are saying, "We like Mattoon, we want to develop here."

It's just an exciting opportunity for Mattoon to continue to grow.

So I'm thrilled.

Rameen: Are there any projects moving forward into 2018 calendar year that you can speak of?

Any other things there with the economic development that you can speak of?

Ed Dowd: Nothing that we can speak of but there are few more things in the works.

Again, everything is exciting.

The quality of life is another big thing especially with millennials and one other things they're working on for the future is a really nice dog park that they're talking about developing.

So we're thrilled to have that.

And of course you know about the bike trail that's going to go in between Charleston and Mattoon, it's going to be paved.

There's consideration for possibly even expanding it all the way out possibly the Paradise Lake Mattoon.

So there's just a lot of exciting things going on in the works.

Rameen: Charleston for a second, there was a recent hometown winner of the Governor's Award.

And that's part of their future plans that they've mentioned that, the bike trail linking Charleston and Mattoon.

So that's something very exciting to look forward to.

Ed Dowd: Exactly.

We're very thrilled to be able to connect the two cities by a longer paved trail.

This can bring people from Chicago for a day trip possibly.

Who wouldn't want to have a very nice paved trail where they don't have to worry about traffic, and they can take a day trip and come down to our area, and you don't see the different areas and just enjoy Mattoon and Charleston.

So we're thrilled.

Rameen: I've heard there's a large biking community in this Charleston and Mattoon area, so it's very exciting for them.

We just talked about the mapping program.

We just talked about that or ... Ed Dowd: A little bit.

The mapping program, what we're doing, the Illinois Institute of Rural Affairs through Western Illinois University, they are involved with what's called the mapping program.

What they do is they try to get a group of people together, we currently have 80 people from Mattoon who are involved with this mapping program.

What we do is we try to get a diverse mix of people.

We have kids all the way from high school, all the way to retirees, who are coming together at meetings and we are trying to figure out what we can do to improve Mattoon.

We're going to come up with five or six different actionable plans that we think we can do to improve Mattoon.

One of the things was the dog park we were talking about.

Another thing is really developing businesses and workforce development to try to get the jobs filled where they are right now.

Like LSC Communications, Donnelley's which is formerly Donnelley's, Mars Pet Care.

A lot of those companies they don't have the ability to fill the positions they have now.

So we're trying to figure out ways to really work with EIU and Lake Land to make people understand that these are great jobs at great companies and we need to fill these positions and then possibly recruit other industries and businesses to Mattoon.

Rameen: So open up opportunities for individuals and businesses and companies.

Ed Dowd: Exactly.

Rameen: Very good.

In the last couple of minutes we have with you Ed and we appreciate your time here.

Any upcoming chamber events that you want to talk about?

Ed Dowd: Chamber events, yeah.

We have our Winter Swing coming up.

Actually it's not till February but we're very excited about it.

You can sign up now.

It's an event where we get probably 2 to 300 people.

It's kind of a fun event.

Where you play putt putt golf at different establishments and it's just a way to break the Winter doldrums so we're excited about that.

Our annual dinner will be coming up soon where we pick the citizen of the year and we're going to do a small business of the year, also this year.

Something that we haven't done in the past.

But we think it's really important to recognize small business owners and small businesses who are the life blood of the community.

We're excited about that.

Rameen: We're taping this here in the beginning of November, folks at home are seeing this in the middle of November, so the calendar year 2017 is wrapping up.

When you get to the end of the calendar year, what are your thoughts, the excitement of what's transpiring also the excitement of the future?

Ed Dowd: One thing that I'm thrilled about is our Chamber Bucks program where all the money stays in Mattoon.

We've gotten a huge a commitment from the industry partners in our area.

We're going to have over $100,000 that's kept locally through our Chamber Bucks program and it's built and it's grown throughout the year.

We're just so thrilled that they are investing their time and efforts and they think it's important to re-invest in the community.

So they're giving their associates these Chamber Bucks to spend locally.

Like I said $100,000 is a huge goal and we're going to reach it this year.

We're very excited.

Rameen: Wonderful things going on with the Mattoon chamber and obviously all the economic development and businesses.

Executive Director of the Mattoon Chamber of Commerce, Ed Dowd it's been a pleasure having you on City Spotlight again.

Ed Dowd: Thank you so much.

It's very, very great to be here.

I'm thrilled to be here.

Rameen: We'll see you in 2018 to talk more about the Mattoon businesses.

Ed Dowd: Awesome.

Thank you.

Rameen: And coming up next here on City Spotlight, we'll shift gears and talk education in Mattoon.

With Lake Land College President, Dr. Josh Bullock.

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

We're back here on City Spotlight as we continue this episode on Mattoon.

We're going to shift gears from talking Mattoon businesses to education in Mattoon and we'd like to welcome back to the program, the president of Lake Land College, Dr. Josh Bullock.

Welcome back to the program Josh.

Josh Bullock: Thank you for having me today.

I appreciate it.

Rameen: It's becoming an annual tradition to have you on in the Fall semester to talk about Lake Land and it's an exciting year for Lake Land as it's your 50th class of students.

Tell us what's been going on to this semester.

Josh Bullock: It is.

Interestingly September 6th 1967 the first students walked through what even weren't our doors at Lake Land College because we were spread all across Mattoon.

We were in churches, we were in old shops.

We were everywhere.

So the first group of students walked in 1967.

We're spending this year celebrating that group of students.

We had our homecoming in October, which was a fantastic success.

We had The Henningsens most of the folks know Henningsens from the area.

Nashville recording artist they played our concert.

Their last show together as a group.

And they played at Lake Land College.

Brian Henningsens the patriarch of the band, the father.

Brian is a Lake Land College grad, and he met his wife at Lake Land College.

We were joking that day that really, their family is around because of Lake Land College.

We have things set up throughout all of the remainder of the year, culminating in our 50th Spring commencement, which it's been a really, really great time.

Especially exciting is the Laker Fight Song.

Laker Loyalty Fight Song was written back in the 1970s and it was written by a Lake Land College faculty member at that time.

And really not a lot was done with it and it wasn't until recently we had the idea that, let's bring that Fight Song back on.

We were blessed to work with Dr. Horney who's retired from Eastern and he helped us take that original song and put it into a beautiful piece of music.

That was recorded here at Eastern about a month and a half ago and I'll tell you I was there for the recording.

It literally made the hair on your neck stand up.

It was such a beautiful experience.

The students were so engaged in recording it for us.

So there has been so much going on for our 50th and we're excited to continue it on through the remainder of the year.

Rameen: I have a personal experience and affection for Dr. Horney I was a music minor here at Eastern when I was a student and, fortunate to have the tutelage of Dr. Horney so I know what he was capable of and congratulations on having him come in and work on that Fight Song.

Josh Bullock: Thank you.

Rameen: Great experience there.

Before talk about former president Dr. Luther.

Let's expound a little bit about what Lake Land and Eastern's relationship is and working together you and Dr. Glassman.

Talk about some of the things that you guys collaborate on.

Josh Bullock: We continue to collaborate on a number of projects.

One that's just started this Fall at Eastern was the Criminal Justice Program where we collaborated extensively to bring that program to Eastern Illinois University in partnership with Lake Land.

There probably isn't a week that goes by that we're not emailing or texting or phone calling on, "Hey we have an idea on this, we have an idea on that."

So we're going to continue to partner in that way.

We really fill it's important to ensure students have opportunity here locally and that those opportunities locally will get them either go from Lake Land to Eastern or directly to Eastern and hopefully stay here when they graduate.

Because we know we have a labor shortage and we have a lot of talent.

We want to make sure those talented students stay in our area and to have those opportunities to gain a skillset here that fits what our local businesses needs are.

We know more exciting things are going to come out and hopefully this time next year, we'll be sharing some additional exciting partnerships.

Rameen: Fantastic.

Look forward to the future and cannot stress enough how wonderful it is for Coles County to have two higher forms of education in Mattoon and Charleston.

Great to hear they're working together.

Lake Land is where it is today because one of their former presidents Dr. Robert Luther.

He unfortunately passed away earlier this Fall and the things that he contributed to Lake Land are probably need a whole show to talk about what Dr. Luther contributed to Lake Land.

First question for you Josh, what have you learned from Dr. Luther and what you've talked with him over time?

Josh Bullock: Dr. Luther when I started at Lake Land College the board of trustees asked him to be my mentor and so I built a really strong working relationship with Dr. Luther and a friendship.

We owe a lot to Dr. Luther.

Lake Land College today if you look at the number of buildings that are on campus, eight or nine structures in total have been erected in Dr. Luther's time.

The campus beautification projects and enrollments grew exponentially during his time.

The thing I always learnt from Dr. Luther first and foremost is that our number one mission is to take care of our students.

If we take care of our students and give the students opportunities that again meet local need, that's what it means to be a community college.

Every decision he made, he really reinforced that with me.

Every decision he made he asked himself, "Will it benefit the students?"

That's one of the greatest takeaways.

But what an incredible individual, very giving to the community.

We wouldn't have Lake Land College as it is today if it wasn't for his nearly 20 years at the college and what he was able to accomplish.

Rameen: Long serving president at Lake Land, you mention the number of buildings that were erected during his tenure at Lake Land.

One thing I have done in the notes here that we're going to talk about, he definitely stressed innovation with the staff at Lake Land.

Josh Bullock: He did.

Lake Land College is one of the first colleges in the state of Illinois to do online learning, and it was because of Dr. Luther.

Computers had just come out, they were really starting to get to the point where they were getting on people's desks and he said, "Why don't we start looking at this as a tool for students to learn."

So we were one of the first.

If you look at everything we have from sustainability on backwards, Dr. Luther really fostered innovation.

That's something he taught me as well, is the importance of being out on the forefront, taking risks, taking calculated risk to make sure if you're going to try something, be comfortable with failure.

It's going to take you four or five times to try something or more before you get something that really works and clicks.

He did truly bring an innovative culture and it's still there at Lake Land College today because of him.

Rameen: And that innovative culture has kind of developed over the years from Dr. Luther to now.

Enrollment, what would he think about today's enrollment at Lake Land?

Josh Bullock: We actually had a lot of chance to talk extensively about enrollment at Lake Land.

Although enrollments have been down for us, and they were down slightly this Fall.

We far surpassed the state average for community colleges and I think it's because of what we offer for our student experience.

Typically, this year we had over 35% of the graduating class come to Lake Land, last year it was 40.

We know that by Spring time it will be closer to 50%.

Of those students who go on to college, we're almost 60% of those who go on to college from the graduating classes.

From his perspective enrollment was critically important but he also recognized that we're not an enrollment driven institution, we're a success driven institution.

So it's not about necessarily the number of students you bring into the institution, but it's about the number that are successful and reach their outcomes coming through the institution.

Enrollments are critically important to all of us in higher education but more importantly to me is the success of the students who graduate.

Rameen: One thing that the success has been attributed to and in your excellent enrollment numbers is 'cause of your affordability and the small class size.

And that's something that you continue to emphasize.

Josh Bullock: It is.

We froze tuition fees again this year for our students.

Students can attend Lake Land College all in for an entire year, books, tuition fees, everything for under $4,000.

And that's the fourth lowest in the state right now, for tuition.

Our tuition is the fourth lowest in the state.

It's important for us to keep it that way.

We know there's a lot of rural poverty throughout the east central Illinois and our goal is to make sure that every student has the opportunity to get an education, if that's what they desire.

Rameen: Let's talk a little bit, have you talk about Explore Lake Land.

Tell us about that please.

Josh Bullock: The Explore Lake Land program was established to help reach out to those adult students.

We know the 18 to 24 year old students are adults but these are really the students who've been out of education for a while or have not participated in education.

We have an event on November 28th at the Kluthe Center in Effingham in November 30th on campus in Mattoon.

It's a chance for adult students those who have been out of school for a while to come back and learn about Lake Land.

Just with an environment that there's no pressure, they can come in and talk to faculty, they can talk to our recruiters, they can see what's available.

The good news is for those students who qualify, if they come to the events we will give them a credit hour, tuition remission for up to three credit hours.

They can take a class at Lake Land College tuition free.

They can try it if they're hesitant if they don't want that risk, they can come to the event, learn about what we have to offer and try a class on us.

Those would be really good events for anybody who's out there just thinking about going back.

I'll tell you about 64% of our students right now are over the age of 24.

So we often hear from somebody, "Gosh I'm too old to go to college."

You are never too old to go to college.

Many, many adult learners, we've had students that are in their 80s that are back at Lake Land College taking classes to learn just because learning is part of their life.

Rameen: So you got a wide variety of student ages.

Josh Bullock: A wide variety.

Rameen: Excellent.

Can't not not talk about Lake Land with you, about the new programs.

What new programs are going on at an institution like Lake Land or Eastern for example.

Tell us about the new programs at Lake Land.

Josh Bullock: We have a number of new programs at Lake Land and the interesting part is when we develop a program because we're so community focused, we look for that immediate community need.

For us we've got three programs that we're really proud that have been launched, Medical Assisting.

As we've talked to local clinics and hospitals we realize there's a tremendous need for medical assistance.

There really was not an area of service in the community from any other colleges.

So we decided let's work on that and we started our medical assisting program this Fall.

One of the others is tele communicators.

So all those dispatchers.

I never realized what a shortage there is of 911 dispatchers.

It's a tremendous skillset.

Somebody who has a very mellow or disposition or demeanor to handle that level of stress.

So we've worked with our counties to say, "Let's put a program out there that's going to help with that."

Then we have new programs such as welding program in Effingham.

That program is for adults, you can come to class twice a week during the week, then you spend evenings at Effingham High School where we've invested with them on a beautiful welding lab, used by the students during the day and used by Lake Land College in the evening and we know there are jobs readily available.

Those jobs start out paying a very, very good wage.

A very livable wage.

So if you can come in and take those programs and start with one of the employers, you can be on to a good livelihood.

Rameen: From new programs to new physical things we see at Lake Land.

What are we going to see at Lake Land?

Josh Bullock: Lake Land, we've improved the campus quite a bit.

We're actually at this point in time working on a capital development process as well with our board of trustees.

Proud of our new Veteran's Park.

If you drive on to campus just adjacent to the John Deere Tech building Ag Tech building is a beautiful new park with walking paths, with flower gardens, with trees.

That was a generous donation by the Podestas.

Willie Podesta Young who is the daughter of Dr. William and Margaret Podesta.

Dr. Podesta was one of our trustees back in the early days and most people don't realize Lake Land College is built on a good chunk of Podesta land.

It really fit well to have that park as part of our new facility.

Just a lot of good things going on with facilities around the campus.

We try to maintain the beauty of the campus.

If you have not been out there, I encourage people to come out and just walk the grounds.

320 acres of beautiful grounds to walk in with a lot of walking paths, there's a lot of things to see.

Rameen: And the final minute or two that we have with you Dr. Bullock, let's talk about some of the accolades that Lake Land has received recently.

Josh Bullock: We were just notified about a month ago that we were nominated as one of the top 150 community colleges in the nation by the Aspen Institute.

That for us is much like Eastern with the U.S. News & World Report.

That is the cr me de la cr me of recognition for our community colleges.

It only happens once every two years and out of the 2,000 community colleges in the United States, they recognize the top 150.

So that for us is really positive.

We continue to be recognized for the sixth year in a row by the Center for Digital Education.

We were recognized as one of the top 10 community colleges in the nation for use of technology to enhance the student learning experience.

That for us again, it speaks to who we are as a community college in being innovative and technologically advanced.

We now have every student who comes into Lake Land College has their own virtual machine.

They can log in anywhere from the world and do their lab work.

If they're working on a CAD system, they can do their CAD system work right from their laptop at home.

That's part of that recognition and we continue to be one of the top 100 community colleges in the nation by CNN Money.

You couple that with what we have, the Eastern Illinois University as being one of the top regional universities in the nation.

Is recognized by U.S. News & World Report and you can't help but believe that our region Coles county is so poised for growth and prosperity because we have these fine institutions here that are available to our residents.

Rameen: Higher education is obviously doing very well locally here in Coles County and congratulations to the 50th class here at Lake Land and here's to the best of the next 50 at Lake Land.

Josh Bullock: I may not be there for the next 50 but hopefully.

Rameen: Thank you for all of your comments today.

The president of Lake Land College Dr. Josh Bullock, we appreciate your time here on City Spotlight.

Josh Bullock: Happy to be here.

Rameen: Thank you so much.

And that will do it for this episode here on Mattoon on City Spotlight, we thank you for your time and we'll see you next time.

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