Temporary traffic pattern change on campus Saturday for Girls on the Run event

The Girls On The Run 5K is tomorrow in parking lot 16 and surrounding areas. Foundation Drive will be closed to all vehicular traffic. Vehicular traffic will only enter and exit campus on R.L. Poorman Drive. Millennium Drive will temporarily change from one-way traffic to two-way, allowing traffic to reach all areas of campus. Lastly, Shepherd Road will be closed to vehicular traffic south of Toronto Road.  We hope this temporary traffic flow change allows for a safer event for our Girls on the Run participants and spectators, as well as allows other guests to reach their desired destination with minimal issues. LLCCPD will be present to assist with wayfinding. All regular traffic patterns will resume at approximately 1 p.m.

New signage on campus

LLCCThe college has been working toward a comprehensive signage and wayfinding plan to help everyone who enters our locations better find what they are looking for. Whether you are headed for the Trutter Center, student registration or the soccer field, Phase 1 of the signage and wayfinding project will help you find your way. The first phase consists of new wayfinding signs on the main campus and a new sign at Capital City Training Center. The signs include updated building names with addresses, new directional signs to find buildings and new signage to find services within buildings. The new signs have an attractive brick base that is similar to existing signs at the entrances to the main campus, a dark background with white letters for high-visibility and the LLCC logo throughout.

The new signs are thanks to an internal workgroup including student success, police, bookstore, athletics, facilities, PRM, academics and many others that started in fall 2018. Future phases of the exterior wayfinding scope will likely include new signage at Outreach Centers, updated parking lot banners on the main campus and new building letters on all buildings. We hope that Phase 1 and future phases will help everyone navigate our locations effectively and efficiently.

LLCC Lincoln Land Community College. A. Lincoln Commons. Menard Hall - Bookstore, Student Services, 2475 Poorman Drive. Sangamon Hall - Police, 2445 Poorman Drive.LLCC Lincoln Land Community College. Millenium Center. 2450 Poorman Dr.

Campus Parking Lot and Road Repairs

We have begun the repairs to our parking lots and drives by milling and patching the most degraded areas of the lots.  Yesterday we started the process of removing the loose paint from our curbs to ready them for new painting.  The project will pick up the pace tomorrow, when we begin work at the east end of the campus, working our way west to the main entrance at Shepherd Road.  During the project, we will be closing three parking lots at a time to perform crack sealing, apply coats of sealer and restripe the parking spots, directional arrows and signage.

Here is the tentative schedule (without specific dates due to weather changes that may occur):

1st day (tomorrow):  Close and seal Lot 19 (old tennis courts) & Lot 20 (behind Cass Gym) and the strip of spaces directly south of Lot 19.
2nd day:  Close and seal Lots 18, 16 & 15.
3rd day:  Stripe the areas sealed on Day 1.  Close and seal Lot 17 and the Facilities/Storage Building areas.
4th day:  Stripe the areas sealed on Day 2.  Close and seal Lots 9,11 & 13.
5th day:  Stripe the areas sealed on Day 3.  Close and seal Lots 10,12 & 14
6th day:  Stripe the areas sealed on Day 4.  Close and seal Lots 6, 8 and the east half of the Montgomery Hall lot.
7th day:  Stripe the areas sealed on Day 5.  Close and seal Lots 5 & 7.
8th day:  Stripe the areas sealed on Day 6.  Close and seal Lots 2 & 4.
9th day:  Stripe the areas sealed on Day 7.  Close and seal Lots 1 & 3.
10th day:  Stripe the areas sealed on Day 8.
11th day:  Stripe the areas sealed on Day 9.

As you can see, we are letting the lots “cure” for a day prior to striping each one.  During these operations, we will be seal coating the roadways adjacent to the lots being sealed on any given day.  On the final two days we will close the Main Entrance in order to apply 3 coats of sealer to the inbound and outbound lanes of Poorman Drive.  We will make use the Foundation Road entrance/exit for that period of time.  We will be making good use of the Friday closings for the most disruptive work.

The Contractor will provide traffic control throughout the project and we will be working closely with our Police Department and Springfield Mass Transit, as well.

As always, we appreciate your patience and cooperation as we maintain and improve our facilities.

Hugh Garvey
Asst. VP Construction

Ribbon cutting for new bird banding station

Biology students conduct research in new structure built by construction trades students

(Click HERE for a short video of the ribbon cuttig ceremony and demonstration.)

Ribbon cutting Rothering, Kleen, Roehrs, ShackelfordLincoln Land Community College cut the ribbon yesterday on a new structure that will house the college’s bird banding research program. In cooperation with the Lincoln Land Association of Bird Banders, LLCC biology students participate in the capture, banding and release of birds, recording information which is added to a massive data pool on bird migration patterns.

The 36’ by 24’ building with a porch and overhang was built by LLCC construction trades students, a program funded through the Illinois Department of Transportation.

Cutting the ribbon were LLCC Trustee and Board Secretary Dennis Shackelford, LLCC Biology Professor Tony Rothering, Lincoln Land Association of Bird Banders (LLABB) President Vern Kleen, and LLCC bird banding student Lizzie Roehrs.

Bird banding Rothering, Roehrs

Professor Rothering and Mr. Kleen began the program in fall of 2012 on the northeast edge of the LLCC campus and to date, approximately 11,000 birds representing 113 species have been banded. LLABB members, school groups and organizations also participate in banding activities. Until the new structure was built, all bird banding took place outside and was cancelled during inclement weather. Banders can now do research inside when needed during the fall and spring banding seasons.

Speaking at the ribbon cutting, Rothering thanked the LLCC Board of Trustees, college administrators, LLABB and the construction trades program for support on the project. He noted the significance of the collected data on international weather and climate change research.

“The LLCC bird banding station provides students with a practical scientific experience outside of the classroom,” said Rothering. “Our hands-on approach allows students to appreciate the biological importance of studying bird population and migration patterns and how they relate to the greater ecological world.”

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Prairie Restoration Update

If you walk around campus on your lunch or break, you may venture along one of our prairie areas. Take a moment and observe the native plants as you pass. You will notice that they are abuzz with activity. Bees, butterflies and other insects are constantly moving from plant to plant in search of nectar or pollen. Now take a look at the freshly mowed lawn. It appears neat and attractive but wait… something is missing. Why are the pollinators not buzzing about? Lawns are a monoculture of turf grasses that are treated to kill the dandelions, clover and any other “weed.”  Therefore, it is important that we create a balance in our landscapes.

Native areas such as ours at LLCC are vital to the pollinators, and according to the USDA, “Three-fourths of the world’s flowering plants and about 35 percent of the world’s food crops depend on animal pollinators to reproduce. Some scientists estimate that one out of every three bites of food we eat exists because of animal pollinators like bees, butterflies and moths, birds and bats, and beetles and other insects.” Take a look at the pictures and descriptions of what is blooming in the prairie now and slow down on your next walk to observe nature in action here at LLCC.

Butterfly milkweed

Butterfly milkweed

Lanceleaf coreopsis

Lanceleaf coreopsis

pale purple coneflower (2)

Pale purple coneflower

Penstemon

Penstemon

LLCC celebrates Earth Week April 21-25

Recycle your athletic shoes and small appliances, receive a free book (faculty), take a green pledge, see displays, enjoy solar snacks, tour the bird banding station and attend the unveiling of the LEED plaque for the Workforce Careers Center!

Tuesday, April 22

10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Solar snacks outside A. Lincoln Commons

10 a.m. – 2 p.m.  Free book for faculty “147 Tips for Teaching Sustainability: Connecting the Environment, the Economy, and Society,” A. Lincoln Commons

10 a.m. Bird banding tour with Professor Tony Rothering begins in front of  A. Lincoln Commons.

12:30 – 1:30 p.m. Environmental Club presentation “Everyday Living: The Green Way,” A. Lincoln Commons

5:30 p.m. “Earth Day Dinner” in Bistro Verde, $59, reservations required at 786.2432

8:30-9:30 p.m. LLCC “Lights Out” Challenge Turn off lights, computer, TV or whatever is plugged in.

Wednesday, April 23

10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Solar snacks outside A. Lincoln Commons

10 a.m. – 2 p.m.  Free book for faculty, A. Lincoln Commons

4-4:45 p.m. Green Celebration featuring unveiling of LEED plaque by LLCC Trustees at 4:30, solar snacks and displays, Workforce Careers Center foyer

All week

­Repurposed art display, small electronics and athletic shoe recycling drive, Green Your City pledge, A. Lincoln Commons

 Bird banding station open sunrise-11 a.m.

Green Cities cardboard display by the Library

Plastic bag recycling and Green Your City pledge, LLCC-Taylorville

Teracycle program and Green Your City pledge, LLCC-Litchfield

New entrance sign installed

As we welcome students back to campus for the fall semester, a new front entrance sign was completed over the weekend on the Springfield campus. Smaller, new entry signcomplementary signs will be added soon on the front boulevard, and at the entrance to campus near the Workforce Career Center.