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Chester Council approves solar eclipse camping

Posted February 01, 2016 10:00 pm

By Pete Spitler Staff Writer

As anticipation continues to build for the 2017 total solar eclipse, Chester officials are making plans of their own.

During Monday's meeting of the Chester City Council, a proposal was approved to allow camping in Cole Memorial Park as part of the city's participation in observing the event.

"It sounds like pretty much a big to-do and I'm kinda looking forward to it," said Chester Mayor Tom Page in a follow-up interview with the Herald Tribune. "I hope there's plenty of stores that make available the glasses to view it.

"If it gathers a lot of people in town for it, I'm looking forward to it."

The path of the August 21, 2017 eclipse is directly across Southern Illinois. It is expected to occur at 1:21 p.m. in Chester and last for 2 minutes and 40 seconds.

"The epicenter is near Makanda," said Cynthia Lawder, a member of the Chester Tourism Commission who presented information to the council about the event. "It will last a little longer there at 2 minutes and 41.6 seconds."

The council discussed the upcoming event at length during its meeting, with Chester Recreation Director Patti Carter also in attendance.

"I think (camping) was a no-brainer for (the council), but I don't think they realized how big the solar eclipse could be," Carter told the Herald Tribune.

Carter said camping in the park will be free of charge, but she needs an idea of how many people to expect. Those interested in camping should contact the City of Chester Recreation office at 618-826-1430.

Other plans for the eclipse include a viewing area on the multipurpose field at the Cohen Complex, with the outfield areas of the baseball/softball fields designated for school students.

Vendors are also a possibility.

"We're making sure we get information out to the public," Carter said.

Lawder noted that NASA has been publishing that the eclipse will last the longest in Southern Illinois and Best Western Reids' Inn already has some bookings for the event.

She also mentioned possibly collaborating with the science teachers at Chester High School.

"I've already contacted the science department at the high school," Lawder said. "The big thing we need is early education on what you do and don't do (during an eclipse).

"Hopefully, the teachers can put on seminars about this."

Lawder noted that the last occurrence of a total eclipse was July 29, 1878.

"No one's ever seen it and nobody may ever see it again," she said. "If everything goes to plan, the American Queen (riverboat) will dock in time for it."

In other action, the council approved Lorin Mott as a new employee for the maintenance department.

"We're not going to have a parks superintendent, but Randy (Eggemeyer) is going to assume responsibility for the parks," Page said. "Lorin is going to be one of the many hands to help him with that."

The council also approved authorizing the execution of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Federal Excess Equipment Cooperative Agreement with the Chester Fire Department.

"It's kind of like federal surplus property," Page said. "It's property issued that the (IDNR) puts out saying they don't want it anymore.

"We can have it, but it has to be put in service in a year."

Roundup

The council approved an invoice from J.T. Blankinship Inc., in the amount of $5,818.81, for engineering services for the Motor Fuel Tax section of the Swanwick Street repaving project in front of Chester High School.

Chester Fire Chief Marty Bert said his department received 10 calls for service in January, with its first call of the year being a tractor fire on Jan. 13.

The next meeting of the Chester City Council is scheduled for Feb. 16 at 7 p.m. It is open to the public.

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