Category Archives: City News

Manual shooting for Class 2A state championship

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Story on the Journal Star Web site

By RIYA V. ANANDWALA
OF THE JOURNAL STAR
Posted Mar 12, 2010 @ 10:44 PM
Last update Mar 13, 2010 @ 12:24 PM

PEORIA — The cheering for the Manual High School boys couldn’t have gotten much louder Friday evening as the hometown team beat Breese Central to move on to the state championship game.

Manual won a close game, 39-38, and will play Saturday night for the Class 2A championship.

“It means a lot. They (Manual) have worked very hard to get there,” said Stormie Crus, 17, of Manual.

The night brought together Manual fans from different parts of the state. Some were Manual graduates, some Peoria residents and others just enjoyed the basketball game.

Julie Walker, 35, of Peoria came to watch the game with her husband and 5-year-old son.

“I graduated from Manual High School. He (her husband) was from the rival team,” Walker said. “But I married him anyway.”

At different times, Walker’s grandfather was a Manual coach, and her father, an assistant coach.

She hopes her son will play for Manual when he grows up.

“He (Weston) is a shooter. He is going to be the next Manual star,” she said.

For many, the game also was about enjoying the evening with family.

Marcia Tupper, 47, of Peoria chased her children outside the arena, who had a good time at the March Madness Experience.

Cheryl Williams, 43, of Peoria said, “Our team is faster, we hope for speed.”

There was a new rhythm in Manual’s cheerleaders squad, too. The girls sparkling in orange shouted a new slogan along with their regulars – Google Plays in Peoria – to which the fans hollered, too, swaying orange placards echoing the slogan.

Among the Manual fans were Jim Bixby, who was a student counselor at the school, and his wife, Susie Smith, who is a tutor at the school.

For Bixby, “Manual athletics are very special.”

“They have been a great catalyst for a number of men and women to achieve great (things).”

The couple has missed many Manual games, but they were happy to watch the team play Friday.

Smith loves watching Manual games. She feels the team has grown.

Bixby said, “They are well-coached.”

Med students’ dreams come true on Match Day

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U of I College of Medicine students simultaneously find out where their residency programs will be

Story on the Journal Star Web site

By RIYA V. ANANDWALA
OF THE JOURNAL STAR
Posted Mar 18, 2010 @ 10:18 PM

PEORIA — Sheema Khan had a dream Tuesday night. She was at the Match Day ceremony along with her family, where she opened the envelope and found out that she had been selected for the medical residency program at St. Joseph Hospital in Chicago for obstetrics/gynecology.

That dream came true for Khan, 25, at 11 a.m. Thursday, when she and 49 other medical students from the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria gathered at the WeaverRidge Golf Club to learn where they were headed for their residency programs.

“My family is thrilled,” said Khan, who was born in Chicago and raised in Peoria.

The countdown began 10 seconds to 11 a.m. and family members took positions with cameras to capture the moment.

During this 58-year-old tradition, medical students across the country simultaneously open their envelopes at exactly 11 a.m. CST to find out what will be the next step in their medical careers.

“This is one of the terrific class. They deserve getting their choice,” said Pedro De Alarcon, William H. Albers professor and chair, Department of Pediatrics.

This year, six local medical students have been selected for a residency program.

Cole Dooley, 26, is one of them. A resident of Peoria, Dooley will go to St. Vincent Hospital at Indianapolis for a transitional year and University of Florida in Gainsville to pursue his residency in anesthesiology.

“I was expecting (it). (I am) very excited,” said Dooley, whose wife, a physician at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, will be moving with him.

From October until December, students rank residency programs according to their preferences, and the programs list their requirements, such as grades and recommendations.

The top students in the class almost always get the first program of their choice. The second mostly get close to their preference and so on.

For Thomas Santoro, the associate dean for graduate medical education, this day is “the culmination of four years of hard work.”

Santoro was proud that seven out of 50 students have decided to stay in Peoria for their residency.

Riya V. Anandwala can be reached at 686-3194 or ranandwala@pjstar.com.

Peoria-area medical students headed to residency programs

Fred C. Dooley: Anesthesiology residency program at University of Florida College of Medicine – Shands Hospital.

Chadrick R. Evans: General surgery residency program at University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria.

Sheema Khan: Obstetrics/Gynecology residency program at St. Joseph Hospital in Chicago.

Molly K. McMorrow: Pediatric residency program at University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria.

Shilpa Narayan: Pediatrics residency program at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

Joshua D. Troyer: Orthopaedic surgery residency program at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics.

Re-routed Saint Francis entrance confuses some

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Story on the Journal Star

By RIYA V. ANANDWALA
OF THE JOURNAL STAR
Posted Feb 24, 2010 @ 07:59 PM
Last update Feb 25, 2010 @ 08:32 AM
PEORIA — Some people are struggling to navigate the newly opened road entrance to the north parking deck of OSF Saint Francis Medical Center.

“I am confused right now,” said Alice Barrett of Ransom, who had come to the hospital Wednesday with her granddaughter Alice Devera. A hospital official explained to them how to get to the north parking deck, but Barrett was still trying to understand.

The new road entrance to the parking deck is part of the $280 million Milestone project, a nine-story, 440,000 square-foot addition to the hospital.

Changes include a new road entrance to the north parking deck off Berkeley Avenue. Drivers no longer have access to the parking deck through Armstrong Avenue.

Drivers to the hospital face another change that began Wednesday: A new traffic light instead of a three-way stop sign at the intersection of Berkeley Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue, said hospital spokeswoman Shelli Dankoff.

Dankoff urged people to ask questions about the entrance and visit the medical center’s Web site, www.osfsaintfrancis.org, for an interactive map of the new entrance.

People are asking St. Francis security supervisor Pat Donlan to direct them to Knoxville or to the parking deck.

“It has been challenging,” Donlan said. “There is some confusion.”

Security officials were out on the street at 5 a.m. Wednesday. They plan to direct people all through the remainder of the week and probably on Monday, too.

While temporary signs have been put up around the hospital, the permanent sign board will go up once the weather gets better, said Director of Security Skip Alwes.

Alwes added the new entrance will “make the (traffic) flow much easier.”

The section of Armstrong Avenue that used to lead into the north parking deck was permanently closed as of Wednesday, but the section of road in front of Easter Seals and leading to the hospital’s Forest Park building will remain open.

Some people took the changes well. They included Adam Porch, who has lived in Peoria for 47 years.

Porch said this is a small change, and there are bigger problems in Peoria to worry about.

“It is for the greater good,” Porch said.

Dunkin’ Donuts sweetens to area again under new plan

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By Riya V. Anandwala
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

11/13/2009

Dunkin’ Donuts, which pulled out of the St. Louis area in early 2000, is returning early next year with a new strategy for success in the Midwest.

The national chain plans to open its doors to more franchise owners with fewer stores. Under the strategy, not only could franchisees agree to standard 10- to 12-store deals, but they also could agree to two- to four-unit contracts.

Reggie Wright, the director of franchising in the Midwest for the company, said this approach will allow Dunkin’ Donuts to move into the St. Louis market less aggressively than in the past, and drive sales in the next three years.

Traditionally, Dunkin’ Donuts has never signed a franchise owner for fewer than five stores, Wright said.

With a huge base on the East Coast, Dunkin’ Donuts has been rapidly signing franchise owners in the Midwest. The company announced several deals this year with franchise owners in Ohio, Tennessee, Minnesota and Mississippi. Based in Canton, Mass., the company has grown from 7,988 shops worldwide in 2007 to 8,835 stores, including 6,395 in the United States.

Dunkin’ Donuts’ strategy is largely a response to the economic downturn, according to Scott Watkins, a senior consultant in market and industry analysis with the Anderson Economic Group.

He added that several companies are exercising flexible agreements with franchise owners in order to grow.

However, he says Dunkin’ Donuts could run into managerial and cost challenges with its new approach. Under its standard system, fewer franchise owners handle more stores, and there are fewer people for the company to manage, he said.

Dunkin’ Donuts plans to open its first three stores in the St. Louis area by early 2010, and one by the end of spring. Two stores would be at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, one in Kirkwood and another in Rock Hill.

Wright said the company is looking to sign one more franchise owner for the St. Charles area, which would complete its activity in St. Louis for the next three years.

The two Lambert stores, owned by Deli Enterprise’s Milan Patel, will occupy 550 square feet in East Terminal and 380 square feet in Terminal A.
Patel, who has a four-store deal with Dunkin’ Donuts, plans to open the East Terminal store in early 2010.

Baskin Robbins and Dunkin Donuts will be housed in a single store in the East Terminal, Patel said.

His other two stores are at the Baltimore airport.

Michael Geller, who has a 12-store deal with the company, plans to open his Kirkwood store in mid-January. Construction began a few weeks ago.

Geller, a Washington University law school graduate who has lived in the city for several years, said the St. Louis area was a natural choice.

His location, he said, will be very different from the ones that were in the area previously.

He plans to open his second location, in Rock Hill, by the end of spring, which will be followed by other locations in the region, he said.

In the 1990s, Dunkin’ Donuts had as many as 12 to 13 stores in St. Louis. In 2001, the last of the franchised shops shuttered, and there have been none in the area since.

The company’s renewed interest in the St. Louis market isn’t striking fear into its competitors. Neither Starbucks, Krispy Kreme nor locally owned doughnut shops seemed worried about the chain re-entering the market.

While Krispy Kreme would not comment on another company’s strategy, Starbucks said that choosing coffee is a personal choice.

Starbucks has 75 stores in Missouri; Krispy Kreme, 7.

Erma Klepzig, who owns Donuts Stop Inc. on Lemay Ferry Road in south St. Louis County with her husband, said she is aware of people who like Dunkin’ Donuts, but she also knows people who like The Donuts Stop.

“Nobody hurts us,” she said. “We are doing fine through the recession and will continue to do so.”

City picks Third Street to sell sponsorships

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Riya V. Anandwala
IBJ staff
Indianapolis officials have picked locally based marketing firm Third Street to raise money by selling sponsorships,
advertising and naming rights for city-owned properties.Third Street was one of 15 local or out-of-state firms that responded to a city request for information issued in April.

The cash-strapped city hopes to raise $500,000 a year after the sponsorship program launches this fall.Third Street was formed early this year. Its president is Sean Smith, the former director of marketing at Chicago’s WXRT-FM
93.1, where he established a reputation for building non-traditional revenue streams. One campaign, called “The 93 Days of Summer,” created a brand around events the station helped stage during warm-weather months.Smith said Third Street will solicit input from Indianapolis residents before nailing down its sponsorship strategy for the city.

“There are literally 1,000 ideas,” Smith said. “But our very first step would be engaging citizens of Indianapolis and getting
their feedback on what they feel.”

City officials declined to comment prior to finalizing the deal tomorrow. Firms that competed for the work included local
agencies MZD Advertising and Hirons & Co. Chicago-based sponsorship powerhouse IEG was among the out-of-town bidders.

Details on the Third Street contract were not immediately available. But in its proposal, Third Street said the city would face
no upfront costs. The agency would take compensation in form of commissions and trades depending on individual deals it
reaches. Third Street said it even would consider receiving some compensation in the form of municipal bonds and free rounds of golf at city courses.

In the 10-page proposal Third Street submitted to the city, the company wrote: “When the words ‘city sponsorship’ are
mentioned, the immediate instinct of most people is to think about plastering a corporate logo on the side of a building. That is not how Third Street thinks.”

Specific ideas in the proposal include:

- Signing an insurance company to underwrite a portion of the cost of salting the city’s streets in the winter.

- Teaming with the city’s Office of Sustainability and Department of Public Works to launch a sponsored green-roof effort for city-owned properties.

- Getting a national household-cleaning-products company to sponsor street cleaning and graffiti removal throughout the city.

Smith and the company’s other two principals – David Jones and Andrew Thompson – all are Indiana University graduates.
After working in Chicago for more than a dozen years, the trio decided to return to Indiana and start their business here. The
name of the business comes from the Bloomington street where they first met.

Even with the economy in recession, Smith is confident sponsors will jump aboard.

“Great ideas typically find funding,” he said.