Elks Eye Harrisburg For Tourism Development

In one of the bright bits of news out of Harrisburg since the Leap Day Tornado struck killing seven, the Harrisburg Elks recently briefed the Saline County Tourism Board on plans for a new family-oriented resort on the city's east side.

Called Elkside, the five-fold plan will be located on 11 acres at 220 S. Missouri St. that last housed the Lakeside Bar & Grill.

The Harrisburg Elks Lodge 1058 has bought the old Lakeside Bar and Grill between Sam Jones Lake and Missouri Street in Harrisburg with plans to turn it into the new lodge hall. Flooding in the spring of 2011 damaged the existing building and the Elks have plans to build a new 8,400 square foot lodge that can be rented to the public as a banquet hall.


In order to help finance such a building the lodge has plans to create five new businesses on the 11-acre property. Those include a swimming beach on the lake members intend to have open by Memorial Day, fishing in the lake, a concessionaire to take money and sell refreshments, a pavilion with fireplace using the old Lakeside Building structure that may be rented for events and a campground of 20 sites with most being able to support RVs.

The only problem right now is financing.

"Honestly, we don't have the wherewithal at this point to continue with actually putting electrical into the ground because we've got all these other things going on. If we can come up with a grant we can match I believe our trustees and membership would quickly jump on the chance at developing that," [Elks member John] Gardner said.

The tourism board suggested they talk to the Southeastern Illinois Planning and Development Commission.

They should also check out state's Tourism Attraction Development Program grants through DCEO. As of last month only one grant had been awarded in this program, but they were still taking applications with the assumption that funds would be released later this fiscal year which ends June 30.

If the Elks pay property taxes on this project, and I'm not sure at this point, then they and the city should look at the possibility of tax increment financing. The flooded and shuttered bar and grill would certainly qualify as blighted. A number of aspects of this project would qualify for TIF reimbursements.

In a separate project state officials announced $1 million to raise Missouri Street above the 100-year flood plain to allow better access to Harrisburg Medical Center. The street runs from Route 13 south to the hill at Gaskins City where the hospital sits. However the street for the most part is located just outside the levee. Construction is expected to start as early as August and finish by the Spring of 2013.

State Parks to Accept Online Reservations, Maybe

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources is finally entering the 21st Century with an online reservation system for campsites and picnic shelters, at least according to the Associated Press. I guess it's so long phone and snail mail.

Instead, the department says that starting July 7 reservations for 2010 can be made online for most campsites and other facilities, including 67 Illinois state parks and other state sites. Online reservations for shelters can be made online for 51 sites.

Too bad no one told the agency's webmaster.

Campsite Reservations are made at the site level. Each site maintains it's [sic] own campsite availability as well. Please contact the site you are interested in directly for mail-in and telephone reservations. E-mail reservations are not accepted.

Nothing like confusion to help bring tourists to Illinois.

Crab Orchard Refuge Updates

I attended last night's annual meeting of the Friends of Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge. There are were a number of projects I heard updates about, some were new, some I just knew were in the works.

Here's a summary:

• Bogard Point Fishing Area — While there is already a fishing dock and benches at Bogard Point on the west side of Wolf Creek Road on the north shore of Crab Orchard Lake, the Friends approved a bid last night night to pay for a new 690 feet long walking path to extend from the existing parking lot, as well as five new picnic tables.
  
  
• Bike Trail — The Friends has a committee working on developing bike trails inside the refuge and a surveying class at SIU-Carbondale is helping to do some of the planning work. They are generally looking to develop the first leg from the old northeast entrance of the refuge at Timmons Station Road on Marion's southwest side then following the old railroad grades across the north side of the refuge over to Wolf Creek Road. They are currently working on a grant to help cover the costs of doing this and replacing some of the bridge crossings.
  
  
• Devils Kitchen Campground — The campground at Devil's Kitchen Lake will reopen next year on Memorial Day as a primitive campground. Amenities will include the shower building and plus another 9 or 10 tent camping sites.
  
  
• Turn Lanes on Route 148 — Refuge Manager Dan Frisk told the group that the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Illinois Department of Transportation have worked out a plan to provide turn lanes on Route 148 in front of the Visitors Center. As part of the project the intersection of Pigeon Creek Road and Route 148 will be realigned to match the entrance with the visitors center. Construction on this project should begin next summer.

The Friends of Crab Orchard NWR meets the first Thursday of every month at 6:30 p.m. at the refuge Visitors Center at 8588 Route 148 South.

Marion Campground Opens

The Marion Campground and RV Park won't be finished until next spring, but the first campers arrive this weekend.

Advertised as the "premiere RV park in Southern Illinois" the developers plan on 58 full service sites and 27 pull-through sites.

When everything is finished, the park will include a convenience store, laundry and shower facilities, plus amenities such as satellite television and wireless internet available at each site.

The new park is located off of Seventh Street just north of Main Street east of Exit 53 on Interstate 57.

The website is easily remembered as www.MarionCampground.com.