A short , albeit productive meeting was held Tuesday night as the Carmi City Council voted to welcome a new restaurant by creating and awarding a new Class B Liquor License.
Alderman Steve Winkleman was the lone “No” vote as the City Council welcomes Mr. Jalapeno to the Carmi Crossings Plaza, locally known as “the strip mall in front of Wal-Mart”. A short discussion prior to the vote revealed all of the city’s current restaurant liquor licenses are spoken for which required the vote to be not only for issuance, but also to create the class B license for restaurant only. Alderman Sheila Headlee made the motion; it was seconded by Jeremy Courson. Mr. Jalapeno is expected to open within the next couple weeks. No specifics are known with regards to hours or days of operation, but it’s expected they’ll mirror sister restaurant Guadalajara Mexican Grill in Grayville.
With the first Christmas Lights of Hope in the books, former alderman and mayoral candidate Lance Yearby provided city representatives with results from the display held at the Fairgrounds. Not counting Christmas Eve and Christmas Day when there was no suggested donation and therefore nobody counting traffic, Yearby says, “I want to thank everybody first for helping us out and being involved. This year was very successful. So our attendance this year…that we know of, is 2,277 cars and $14,456.”
He says Christmas Elves, the parent non profit is already working on plans for next Christmas and expects the display to grow exponentially despite and maybe because of the success over it’s first year. Yearby says $1,000 has already been donated to Carmi Unit 5 Schools to help distribute some bags before Christmas break. He says Pam Haywood is heading up the food program through the schools and anticipates it to be up and running within the next week. Additionally, Yearby says he’s hoping to potentially create a haunted trail to coincide with the Halloween holiday and Burrell’s Woods would serve as an ideal setting.
All told, the City Council meeting was adjourned in just about 15 minutes. Council will reconvene on January 21st.
