What Tri-Cities readers were talking about in 2015
"Talk of the Town" took on a theme of sorts in 2015. Readers wanted to talk about their favorite things and share with others in the Tri-Cities area.
Of course, I was encouraging that dialogue while throwing in some of my own thoughts on such a wide-ranging topic. Part of it might be we simply needed a positive outlet to get away from the flow of bad news in the world and the monkey business of the political process.
Either way, it was another year of local names, faces and places for the column. Today we take a look back at some of what we were talking about.
Loving new places
While enjoying being informed about restaurants that unfortunately close, readers love to hear about new ones, and a few certainly popped up in the column - far more than we can list here.
But Shakou in St. Charles brought a new sushi joint to town, while Abby's Breakfast and Lunch introduced a good breakfast spot located in St. Charles' downtown district. Buona Beef opened on the city's west side as another choice for beef sandwiches, burgers and fries.
McAlister's Deli opened on the west side of Geneva, and a new French restaurant, Hache Moderne Brasserie, opened in the downtown location that formerly housed Urban Grille. Buttermilk on the east side was starting to establish itself as a popular breakfast spot.
That mall dilemma
We can't seem to stop worrying about what's going to happen at the nearly empty Charlestowne Mall site, mainly because not much is going on there. It was the topic of some of the first columns in 2015, and it hasn't faded from the radars of readers who would like to have a grasp on what fate awaits the mall, which continues to operate with a few anchors, a couple stores and a movie theater.
We have something to say about the mall yet again, but we'll save it for a few days for the first column in 2016.
Leaving Faith behind
Ruth Clapper, the founder of Faith Christian Academy, decided to make her retirement from the school official after more than 30 years. She tried to retire once before about eight years ago, but she and her husband ended up returning to run the school.
The school, under the Faith Christian name, officially closed with Clapper's retirement. Some parents were hoping to keep it alive as Geneva Christian in the future at the same Kaneville Road location.
Love our celebrities
All sorts of speculation occurred about Hollywood star Jenny McCarthy and her husband Donnie Wahlberg possibly moving into St. Charles.
Turns out, they did just that. Their reality TV show provides viewers with some highlights of the area, and an inside look into their lives. So, if they were looking to have a low profile in these parts, the TV show kind of hurts that strategy.
A new celebrity
Even though he doesn't live in St. Charles any more, Jeffrey Austin had plenty of folks around here excited about his journey to the finals of "The Voice" as a singer for Gwen Stefani's team.
The St. Charles North graduate was especially popular at Blue Goose Supermarket, where cakes with his image as the frosting were being sold.
Plus, Austin performed a free concert at the Arcada in late October, just before he began his march through the competition.
His interaction with rock superstar Stefani was great to watch, especially their duet of Stevie Nicks' "Leather and Lace."
Educational and fun
Batavia library director George Scheetz sure had a great idea when he went through the process to have Batavia earmarked as a Pecha Kucha city. The event features entertaining, educational - and short - presentations on topics ranging from history, to music, travel, architecture, food and anything in between.
If you want to check it out, there's another one coming up Jan. 21 at Riverview Banquets in Batavia.
Candy hits the mark
In another column asking for mentions of favorite places, candy seemed to stand out. The new Rocket Fizz store in St. Charles has quickly become one of our favorites. We are, in fact, addicted to the taffy at this place.
And the All Chocolate Kitchen in Geneva keeps growing and gaining popularity as Chef Alain Roby and his wife Esther have created a real winner on Third Street.
Townhouse Books and Café in St. Charles also remains a favorite place for people to have lunch and some quiet time with books.
Goodbye to a Viking
Geneva lost one of its great Vikings when Weldon Johnson passed away. In addition to running Viking Office Supply for so many years, Johnson locked his place in city legend by dressing up as a Viking for years to march along the Swedish Days parade route.
He got involved in as many community and fundraising events as he could, from the "60 Men Who Cook" event to "Dancing with the Geneva Stars," where he forced his aching knees to cooperate for a quickstep routine with partner Joanne Buckley a few years ago.
Chipping in, indeed
Joanne Spitz, Melinda Kintz and others kept the CHIP IN (Community Helpers Impacting People in Need) organization going full steam, collecting used prom dresses to distribute to girls who might not otherwise be able to get a dress for their high school prom.
The organization has its fingerprints on all other sorts of projects to help homeless Batavia students, or those facing a transition in housing and dealing with poverty, cope with these issues.
That's a big number
We had a little fun in asking our mayors to envision their cities 50 years from now.
Elburn Village President Dave Anderson raised a few eyebrows with his answer, declaring that he envisions his village as a city of 50,000 people by 2065.
That would make the cities of Batavia, Geneva and St. Charles "eastern suburbs of Elburn," he added. We suspect he was only half-joking on that one.
Thanks for reading
To all readers of the Daily Herald, and this column in particular, thanks for another great year of keeping in touch. Continue to send messages to me via email or through Facebook Messenger. Unfortunately, my Twitter account is set up only for my full-time job, so that option would not work for "Talk of Town" stuff.
Have a happy and safe 2016, and keep reading!
dheun@sbcglobal.net