Gifts of Land to Allow Du Quoin to Turn Alleyway Into Street

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Thanks to gifts of land from Walmart, Inc. and Chip Banks Chevrolet owner Chip Banks and his father Bill Banks, the City of Du Quoin will be able to widen an alleyway that runs north and south behind Mc Donald's Restaurant and Pizza Hut into a street.

Du Quoin Street Commissioner Kathy West told the city council last week that at the outset of this plan, the city began a dialogue with Walmart to grant an easement to the city to widen the alleyway. She said the discussions evolved into a decision by Walmart to gift a 4-foot-wide and 80-foot long land tract to the city to accomplish the project.

Similarly, the Banks family owns the large land tract between Walmart and the Du Quoin Furniture and Mattress store west of Mc Donald's and has generously gifted enough property from that tract to complete the project.

The first phase of construction will start on the south edge of Mc Donald's and run north to Van Buren Street. The second phase will be to continue the widening north from Van Buren.

The work will create a better northbound route for Walmart, Mc Donald's and Pizza Hut customers. The land gifts are valued at well over $100,000. The cost of the first phase of construction is put at between $80,000 and $100,000.