Talk of the Town: Springfield Sangamon Growth Alliance & the YMCA
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Talk of the Town is a public service program produced by Midwest Family Springfield. Airing Saturday mornings on 92.7 WMAY and Sunday mornings across 92.7 WMAY, 98.7 WNNS, 97.7 WQLZ.

and 1025 The Lake. The mission of the show is to provide listeners with new information on the great organizations and people in the Springfield-Sagamon area who work to make things easier for others throughout our community and make it an even better place to live. The intent of this program is to be timely, topical, entertaining, and informative.

Good morning, good morning, good morning, and yes, you are correct. This is Talk of the Town, and this is your host, Trent Nelson, and what a wonderful program we have for you this lovely morning.

We'll get right to it. We have Ryan McCready of the Springfield Segment Growth Alliance. Well, he came down, as he always does, to have a chat with us about what's cooking across the community as it concerns economics, infrastructure, business. Always great to have him down to chat. And then we spoke with our great friend, Mr. Lou Bart of the Springfield YMCA, talking about all of those wonderful things you can get into across March and April and, of course, beyond.

So why don't you grab your favorite thing to eat, make sure that your drink is nice and delicious, and make sure that your favorite seat is as comfortable as when you left there and get ready because this is Talk of the Town and this is your host Trent Nelson. Let's go!

Talk of the Town, Trent Nelson.

uh, how our local community is affected by things. And boy, are there lots of things going on that we can talk about. Sir, good morning. How are you today? I'm doing great. Thanks for having me on. Well, you know, we love to do this twice a month as best we can. And well,

We've got to get down to business as per usual, sir. Let's, in our first segment, go through the wonderful city of Springfield. We'll do a quick sweep of the whole deal and talk about innovations of infrastructure around our community where there are updates since last we spoke. What say you, sir? Well, the projects are moving forward as expected. So I guess one update is there's not any slowdown, which is important. I know on the Pillsbury Mills project,

remediation and redevelopment. I know moving Pillsbury forward is finalizing their contracts for starting that cleanup of the environmental issues. That's what's called remediation, but then demolition of the structures. And so they're finalizing their contracts. You should start seeing some activity out there very soon. All the other capital projects are moving ahead as expected, whether that's the sports complex by shields, the hotel there, the two warehouses,

I know Amazon's fast at work on theirs. Frito-Lay's starting in the fall. So, so far, everything seems to be proceeding through and we all got our fingers crossed that spring's coming and that's just going to help speed everything up. Absolutely. Really looking forward to that to be sure. There's a lot going on across

across the city we're still waiting for the old state capitol building to open up so we can go through her what do you have on that since you're right across the way you know i don't have an exact update on that i know that they are uh feverishly working on that i see the deliveries of supplies going in and out of there um on the interior work and i know they're hopeful to get that wrapped up soon we're moving into field trip and tourism season here soon so we're hopeful we'll get they'll get that cleaned up and moving forward

Absolutely. And again, you know, we see lots of infrastructural innovations, whether it's up at Pillsbury or the railroad relocation or down in Shields. Of course, there is discussion all the time about new housing out west and more innovations at the airport west.

Why is it so important that the state is investing, has invested in the community and that we continue to do so? Well, it's important for a number of reasons. The state has a large footprint here. And whether, you know, if we think about the state of Illinois more as an employer and less as a

branch of government, then you can really start understanding the impact of that. If the state of Illinois was a private business that employed all these people, you'd be very, very excited to see them investing in their buildings, in their infrastructure, because it's a sign that they're going to stay. And so with the state of Illinois investing in the

buildings and the infrastructure, you know, at their facilities, that's a very good sign of their commitment to Springfield. Creates a lot of jobs here and that brings a lot of residents here and those residents spend money and support all of our other businesses. So you do want to see that money reinvested and we're very grateful that the state, you know, with limited financial resources has chosen to spend as much in Springfield as they have.

Absolutely. And again, thank you for that explanation. I think that's really important for our listeners to consider. The government functions insofar as it enables us to have better, more comfortable and in many cases, more free lives. But

As an employer, we should certainly consider our state and federal governments, and I think we are starting to see that more with some of the innovations that you hear coming from the federal government, that, wow, a lot of people are employed, and they do a lot of the...

micro functions that allow for these macro functions that we take for granted so often. What happens if we don't have some of those, sir? Yeah, that's going to be a big impact to our economy, not having those functions here in Springfield. So I know that the state's actively hiring too. So if you're a person looking for employment, they're a great place to go. But having those functions here, it's

Economic impact, we talk about it a lot when we gain employment, right? We say we're gaining 100 jobs and there's going to be 25 indirect jobs supported. But economic impact is a double-edged sword. So if you lose a job, you likely lose the economic impact of more than one job. Right.

So you have to keep that in mind. That's why retention, business retention effort that the Growth Alliance does is vital to maintaining the economy. Many times the best way to grow is to not shrink, and business retention efforts are really important, and that's why we put so much of our effort towards that. Absolutely. And again, we develop with development. It seems funny to say, right, but as we spend more money, more money can be spent, right?

And certainly, it's good to consider, as we've previously spoken about, what we gain from functions, but also what we lose when we do not see them. And of course, we have heard a lot recently about the economic impact that

certain cuts from federal government might cause or that people in the community might feel. We're going to get more into that during our second segment, of course, with Ryan McCready of the Springfield Segment Growth Alliance.

So before we get to our commercial break, of course, the host of the program would be remiss if he did not simply ask prior to this discussion, well, as an individual with your own personal experience in government as well as in your own current function, well, what are some of the, um,

that a community might face should it lose the sort of strength that the federal government's funding so usually offers to states and to communities?

Well, the federal government funds a lot of activities in the community. Of course, there's those visual things that you see like infrastructure improvements. So, you know, many times work on state highways is funded by federal transportation bills. But there's less obvious things as changes to the ag program changes.

could be made that would affect our ag community and our farming community as changes to funding social services get made that impacts employment in those services, but also impacts the people who are receiving the services. So, you know, you've heard me say before, Trent, that in an economy, nothing is mutually exclusive. You pull a lever down somewhere and one goes up somewhere. So I think we have to, you have to, the trick is making a decision

knowing, having a good feeling for what the impacts are going to be and be willing to accept those. But, you know, there is an impact. There's a lot of things swirling around right now. We just have to see what the end result is. Absolutely. And we are going to get to that again in our second segment. Talk a bit about the recently dropped job numbers from the federal policy

point of view and we're going to talk about how uncertainty we've spoken about that before sir right how uncertainty can lead to as Ryan McCready noted levers moving in other directions that maybe we are not always anticipating what do you say sir you gonna be around for that second segment I'm happy to stick around you hear folks Ryan McCready is going to continue to elucidate us he's going to continue to give us a bit of an education

And we'll talk about what's cooking across our country, across our community. And we'll do it in just a jiff. So why don't you grab your favorite thing to eat, ensure that your favorite warm drink is in your left hand, and that, well, you're about to sit down in your most comfortable seat, and we'll catch you in just a hot second. And you are correct, we are returned. This is Talk of the Town with your host Trent Nelson. And, well...

In our first segment, Ryan McCready of the Springfield Segment, Grow the Lions. He was kind enough to give us a tour around the city real quick. And then we got into a bit of the minutia about how the state and federal governments interface, how that impacts and affects communities.

And, well, Ryan McCready gave us some sound advice. While we consider the government to do functions that, well, individuals have varied opinions concerning, we must also, at the end of the day, consider both state and federal governments, as well as local governments, to be employers, and that has an impact on the economy, sir!

Well, we have spoken in the past about what uncertainty does to our local economy. We especially brought this topic to the forefront when we were discussing large increases in utility rates.

months ago and what the impact of that might be. And we spoke about how while these innovations might be painful on the surface, they must be done because, well, updating that type of infrastructure creates a type of certainty that is attractive to outside individuals as well as to outside businesses. Well, let's pump that up a bit. What does uncertainty do in a national sense?

not only for our country, but for us in particular in Springfield and Sangamon County and beyond? Well, I think it's safe to say that there is a lot of uncertainty right now about decisions, final decisions that are being made on things like tariffs and other activities, federal employment, federal funding for lots of different things. And my experience is that when there's uncertainty, we're

people get more gradual about what they're doing. And I know, you know, from dealing with the, with the business community and large businesses, when uncertainty starts to rear its head, they tend to be more careful, more gradual. They sometimes stop things. They kind of want to say, wait and see how it's all going to work out. That's, that's one of the concerns, you know, it's,

No different than if you're driving down the highway and all of a sudden you hit a foggy patch and what do you do? Right. Steal it off the gas, right? First thing that you do, you start to slow down a little bit. So that's what we have to be careful of. And, you know, we're doing the best we can to stay up to date on what's happening at the national level and trade policy and other things that it's been changing fairly rapidly lately. Right. And seeing what those decisions are and how that might impact our folks. But the underlying concern is that things

Absolutely. During a recent chat with Michael L. Thomas of Express, you know well, of course, we actually got onto this topic. And, well, a recent essay in The Atlantic, the host of this program believes, noted how the employment market right now is a bit strange.

Of course, the recent federal job numbers that just dropped sort of also bear this out. But Michael noted that in his own personal experience, he's noted this, that there seems to be...

While there are jobs open, to be sure, he noted that there are jobs in our own community open, there seems to be that people are not leaving their jobs as quickly as they were at one point not too long ago, and companies are actually also a bit slow.

hesitant to move forward. Would you say that that has something to do with the unknown nature of our current circumstances, sir? I think it's definitely impacting business decisions and business actions. Just like you see with employees, you know, this, remember the great resignation that we went through. Right. Things were kind of uncertain right now. People aren't taking risks. They take fewer risks when things are uncertain. I believe that businesses, especially businesses that are impacted by potential tariffs,

So maybe they import a component part that goes into their final product or, you know, move things. There's also final goods that cross back and forth over the border between Canada, United States and Mexico multiple times, sometimes through assembly. So, you know, all those things have to be weighed. The job numbers came in slightly. The national job numbers came in slightly less than expected. And, you know, Friday morning, it was interesting to hear Fed Chairman Powell's comments. And he was surprised.

kind of saying what we're talking about here. So we have to, we can't react on any one policy. What he was stressing is that basically everything is going to come into the mix and we're going to have to see what happens and what we do with interest rates based on that. And he was trying to

explain that there's a whole lot of changes that have been made. Some have an up arrow, some have a down arrow. You got to kind of see what the material, what size of impact they all have and what the change is going to be on the other end. But it does impact business. And like I said, you know, signs that people aren't changing jobs as quick, sign that employers aren't bringing people on as quick are definitely a sign of how people are reacting to uncertainty.

and we're all better off when business continues to invest, when they continue to hire. So hopefully things will settle down and we get a better picture of what we can expect in the next few years. Absolutely, sir, and certainly we appreciate that. We appreciate the education always, and

Well, we're wading into interesting waters, to be sure. The question that this host would be remiss if he did not ask, because he listens to the media as well as participating in it, and he often notices that we talk about tariffs. You just brought up tariffs as well. I brought them up as well. Well...

There seems to be a few different versions of what we think that this is going to accomplish. At the end of the day, why are there farmers who are getting very nervous right now as it concerns tariffs? Why are there businesses speaking out and saying, maybe we should be rethinking this policy?

Certainly, from our own experience, we perceive that the consumer ends up footing the bill just as much as the businesses who need those components. What can you tell us about all this, sir, and maybe clear some stuff up for us?

Sure. I think the global trade is very important. It's very important to central Illinois. The corn and soybean that are produced here, we can't eat them all ourselves. We have to have strong relationships to be able to export them. The ability to export to additional buyers creates additional demand, which helps prices go up. That's what concerns the ag producers. Yeah.

is the best sustained value to an industry happens on the demand side, not the supply side. So you want to make sure that there's a healthy demand for that. Global trade's very, very intricate. Tariffs in themselves aren't necessarily a bad thing and sometimes they're necessary.

- Right. - You know, if there's a trade imbalance, you know, those are things you can look at. I would encourage people to be more surgical with tariffs as far as looking for opportunities there, but also you have to always try and anticipate what the other party's gonna do in return to that. - Right. - Tariffs don't just hurt the importer, they also hurt the exporter. And countries don't pay tariffs, businesses pay tariffs.

And eventually, businesses pass costs on to consumers. How much of that they pass on depends on the competition in the industry. But a tariff against another country doesn't take any more money out of that country's budget. It's paid by businesses and their customers. So that's kind of what you have to think about. Now, I know, I'm sure, I don't know the details on tariffs. I'm sure there were some imbalances in tariff rates between us and some other countries. And I think it's good to negotiate and sort those things out and to get those things leveled out. But...

I am concerned about what this could do for prices and am concerned about what it would do to exporters in our community. Right. And again, as you noted, countries have tariff rates on different items fairly regularly. This is not some type of unknown or unutilized policy choice. But as you noted, sir, in certain industries where we give lots to the world, for example, agriculture, right? Right.

Not only are we selling and exporting lots privately, but the federal government up until recently, through U.S. aid, subsidized farmers millions of dollars. And so that certainly has an impact when you take that away.

But we have to consider, sir, that putting tariffs on some items may be reasonable and intelligent, but putting tariffs on other items might actually push countries towards nations producing items where they have favorable tariff relationships as well. And we don't want to push business away. No? Right. That's right. Yeah. You have to figure out what people's other options are and try to anticipate what their reaction is going to be.

that takes time. And it takes time to see what the impact's going to be, too. And that's part of history, right? Is that we make the decisions in the present, but often we can only hypothesize based on

prior experiences, what the future might bring from them. And then, of course, in the future, well, they're either very happy with us or very frustrated with us. And that is the story of life, isn't it, sir? Sir, these discussions are always brilliant. And we really appreciate you giving us your insight, your professional insight from not only your current work interfacing with our local business community, but of course, from your past work

in government proper. And certainly we value these discussions, value the education. Sir, we've got to let you go though because you're a busy fella. We would love to do this again as we always do. Before we let you go, can you remind our listeners where they can find out more information like that which we've just been talking about here when we're not doing so?

Sure. I hope you'll check out the Growth Alliance website at thrivenspi.org. You can learn a lot about what we're doing there, get contact email information and phone numbers from my staff and I. You can also check out our social media and our videos and information we have promoting the community and promoting developments in the community. Feel free to give us a call anytime, 217-679-3500. Be happy to chat with you.

He's happy to chat. He's a great chatter. To be sure, we are fortunate that we get to pick Ryan McCready's brain a couple times a month and learn a bit more.

and even give our own thoughts sometimes as well. Shh, don't tell anyone. Sir, we've got to let you go. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your day, and we can catch you real soon, all right? Sounds great. Thank you, Trent. Of course. Talk of the town, Trent Nelson, why don't you go out and make the best of our wonderful community, all of the great businesses and all of the great landmarks and bits of interest all around us, and go participate in the economy because...

The economy is a self-perpetuating engine and we gotta keep spending to keep her going. So go out and enjoy some ice cream, some food, go down to the shops, and well, just enjoy being with one another. And until we do this thing all over again with someone else marvelous, we hope that all of our listeners have a wonderful rest of their day and week, and we'll catch them real soon too. Talk of the town, Trent Nelson. Good morning, good morning, good morning, and

Well, you know that when we get together to talk about the YMCA, the Young Men's Christian Association, you know that we do it most often with Mr. Lou Bart.

And today is no different. He has come down to discuss how marvelous February went and what kind of great innovations we can expect across March and April. Should we decide to go down to our local Y's? You know, we got two of them in Springfield. Good morning, sir. How are you today? I'm doing well, thanks. How are you doing? Well, doing really well. Always thrilled to get to chat with you and...

Well, February, it might be the shortest month of the whole year, but certainly there's a lot jam-packed in there. Could you give us a little rundown of how that went so we can get going into how March and April look? Well, yeah. So, of course, we're finishing up our very successful winter basketball leagues. We had soccer league that finished up, too. And this is the last weekend for basketball. We have our monthly programs, very strong swimming, gymnastics programs.

Tennis has been wildly popular. We've got over 50 kids in tennis now. Wow. Yeah, it's a lot. That's awesome. It's really, you know, parents have seen the way that you teach tennis, you know, it's not just you get out there and start hitting balls. There's games, there's exercise, there's balance. And so we've got a lot of kids in cross sports that are using it for conditioning, for balance, really just to get out and get active. And it's really great to see. Yeah, that's wonderful to be sure.

Yeah. Absolutely brilliant. So with that being said, sir, well, March isn't slowing down. We know that. Give us the tea, if you would. Well, first of all, I want to say a big thanks to our staff for putting the Y, one of the best places to work in Springfield, for the Springfield Business Journal. Yay!

So we always think it's a fun, rewarding place. We're glad our team feels the same way, and so we're thankful for that. That's a nice honor that we just found out about last week. We're also having Finale 25. It's our end-of-season basketball tournament March 22nd at the Downtown Y. And that sign-up is going on right now. We're going to have it for teams second to seventh grade.

And it's a sign up by teams, not as individuals. So come with your team, sign up. It's single elimination. It should be a fun day on March 22nd. You can find that at SpringfieldYMCA.org under basketball. And it's been a minute, but we're talking about basketball still. We're bringing back adult basketball leagues. And so it's called Red League. Hey!

A lot of people are interested in that. It's going to run for six weeks, starts April the 8th. Sign up for that also at SpringfieldYMCA.org. And as you said, you know, we're starting a new month. And so new month always means new session sign up for Springfield.

for swim lessons and for tennis. This is the time to do that now. The gymnastics and swim are starting next week. And you can do that at SpringfieldYMCA.org. There's a lot of variety in there depending on skill, depending on age. You know, people ask about how old their kids need to be to swim. Really, anytime. We have...

free for members, free parent-child swim lessons for up to age three. For gymnastics, we say as soon as they can walk, they can start doing the toddler little gymnastics and get them started. And it's a great way to keep them active. So we've got all that going on. And then we will have, you know, starting at the beginning of April, we'll have spring soccer and

It starts very popular. Yes. And so signing for that is going on right now too. So we'll have spring soccer and summer camp continues to be very popular. The choices that we have, you know, great for parents to be able to plan their summers out. Some of the popular weeks start filling up quickly. But we've got a variety of camps from kinder camp to adventure camp to specialty camps to our camp on the lake, Camp Wakanta in the woods. And so that's more of an outdoors nature camp. But all those things you find and you find a whole country.

You can get the history online at SpringfieldYMCA.org and their camps. What a remarkable tranche of information that you bring to us each and every month, sir. We appreciate it so much. I do want to say the very popular YNinja sign-up. This is our third year for YNinja. It is an obstacle course, fun run. It's a Carousel of YMCA 2020.

25 obstacles planned. Kids have done it now like three years are really looking forward to it. It's so popular now that we have created some new things. There's a competitive division called Ninja, Y Ninja Pro. And then there's a rec division because the kids that are really competitive about it, you know, don't, you don't need to have them running over the ones that are there just for a good time. But there are people that really try to do it to get the best time and win the prizes.

But it's fun for everybody. You know, it's June 7th at the Carousels of YMCA. It's Saturday. Sign up for that. It's at SpringfieldYMCA.org, too. So sign up. Come out. Enjoy YNinja. Join all of the great stuff. Get your kids. Get your family members. Get involved. It's a good time. Sir, we know we've got to let you go faster than we'd like, but we've got one more question for you before we do. Well, it's a bit of an abstract one. As you know, we like to ask those. Why YNinja?

is being a part of the Y a good heart-healthy choice as well as a good communal choice? What does it provide when we all work together and all enjoy ourselves? Yeah, I mean, I think it's a place where you can have a variety of things depending on your interests. You know, you can be the...

The person that comes in just wants to work out a little bit. Maybe somebody that wants to work out, play basketball, work out with a personal trainer. You know, we've got a really good personal training staff. And then if you're, you know, families, there's the opportunity to be involved in a lot of different activities.

So it's fun to be there like on a Saturday and see the parents coming on. They'll have one kid in basketball next door, another one playing tennis or down the hall taking swim lessons. And the parents kind of bounce back and forth between all watching it or they'll walk the track while the kids are playing or taking their lesson, which is also fun. We have free childcare for members. So you can –

come in with the whole family. You don't have to worry about finding a babysitter or finding the time, you know, drop the kids off at the nursery, which they all love. And then, you know, kind of do your thing. And, you know, you're there with people who share those interests and are interested in those same things. And it is definitely a big community.

You're the first folks you come to work out, come to learn, come to participate in some action you like, and you might come away with a friend too, with a couple friends, with a whole mess of new folks that live right around you that like the same things you do. And that's a nice feeling, is it not, sir? Sure. Sir, we've got to let you go. One more time, can you remind our listeners where they can find all this lovely information online? At SpringfieldYMC.org. Also, follow our Facebook page where you'll see immediate, you know, updates.

notices on new information, new programs that we open up, new things that we're doing in the community. All that is also on our Facebook page. You heard it here first, folks. There are a lot of ways to enjoy the YMCA and there are a lot of ways to learn about it. You can find them all on the

internet. So just go on to Facebook, go on to Google, go anywhere you find information, you'll probably find the YMCA too. Sir, Mr. Lubard, we appreciate you so much. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and week. And won't you come back soon and do this thing all over again with us? Sure. Thank you for the support. We appreciate it. We love the Y, sir.

Talk of the town, Trent Nelson, why don't you go out and enjoy the Y because it's been around for over 150 years in Springfield and it's just getting started. There are two of them, one downtown, one on the west side, and so many activities, so many opportunities to learn, so many opportunities to make friends and have fun. And let's not waste even a single opportunity to do any of those fun things. So until we do this thing all over again, we hope that all of our listeners have a wonderful rest of their day and weekend. We'll catch them real soon.

Thanks for listening to Talk of the Town. We'll be back next weekend. Talk of the Town is a public service of Midwest Family Springfield. If you have any questions about today's program or previous episodes, contact the show directly at MidwestFamilySPI.com slash Talk of the Town or call Midwest Family Springfield at 217-629-7077.

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