Kathy's #Mailbag, Nov. 21, 2025

Drop in a question of your very own BY CLICKING HERE or by emailing Kathy Reiser at [email protected].

Aetna ambulance policy — follow-up

After last week's Mailbag item on out-of-pocket charges for an Aetna policyholder who found out the hard way that Carle Arrow Ambulance is not an in-network provider for the insurance company, I heard back from Joel Steinfeldt, the reader who had brought the issue to the community's attention.

The Urbana resident had been charged $1,300 for an in-town ambulance ride to Carle Foundation Hospital, and says Aetna later told him no ambulance provider within 75 miles of Champaign is in-network for Aetna. He gave me permission to quote him by name in this week's column:

"The Aetna representative you interviewed quoted their policy, but their actual practice is just to charge you and hope you don't fight it; then when you do, they referred me to a company that might be able to reduce the cost," Steinfeldt said.

"I called Aetna back after your story appeared. Now they say I only owe a co-pay of $275. I appealed the claim and will know the result in 7-10 business days. What they say to (a reporter) in public is one thing; what they actually do is different. I hope you contact the Aetna spokesperson as well for a fair chance to answer as to why what they say in public isn't matched by their actual practice. If you see the full thread on Facebook, it's clear that I'm not the only one with a similar customer experience."

I did reach out to Aetna for a response to Steinfeldt's follow-up message, and spokesperson Phil Blando said "if the member-in-question is willing to complete the attached form, we will be able to investigate (his) allegations."

The attached form was the "Authorization for Release of Protected Health Information." Of course, it's up to Steinfeldt to decide whether to submit the form and continue pursuing the matter directly with Aetna.

State of Illinois job-recruitment ads on UI radio broadcasts

"On radio network broadcasts of UI football and men's basketball, I've heard a job-recruitment ad from the State of Illinois. The first half is in English, and then the details are repeated in Spanish. ¿Por qué?"

Cynthia Johnson, a deputy director with the Illinois Department of Central Management Services (CMS), says all State of Illinois jobs require English competence, both spoken and written. However, some positions require additional language skills for the worker to be successful in the job.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2023 American Community Survey, 24.3% of Illinois residents speak a language other than English at home – an increase from 23% in 2021. Spanish is the most common, spoken by approximately 14.1% of residents.

To better understand and meet bilingual service needs, CMS surveys state agencies each year through the Bilingual Needs and Bilingual Pay process, as set by the Illinois Personnel Code.

"Currently, more than 2,000 state employees fill roles that require additional language skills, most for Spanish-language positions (78.8%), followed by American Sign Language (15.6%), Polish (2%) and a range of other languages (3.6%) reflecting Illinois' linguistic diversity. Bilingual skills are highly valued and in demand in many roles at the state, particularly in human services, healthcare and public safety," Johnson said.

And, if recent job postings are any indication, those skills also are needed in some Illinois Department of Revenue jobs relating to tax-collection.

She said the state has historically faced challenges in filling the number of Spanish-language positions needed to effectively serve Illinois residents. In downstate Illinois, most of the second-language skill demand is for Spanish speakers.

"To address this challenge, Spanish-language advertisements were developed to complement broader outreach and recruitment effort — raising awareness of bilingual opportunities and expanding applicant pools for these critical roles. These initiatives appear to be effective, as agencies across the state have been able to successfully fill positions requiring additional language skills.

"Ultimately, the state's recruitment ads in English and Spanish aim to ensure Illinoisans are aware of career opportunities in state government. These efforts have generated increased visibility and engagement among bilingual applicants. Furthermore, the state is poised to launch a second iteration of these radio spots in coming weeks.

"We encourage anyone interested in working for the State of Illinois to visit work.illinois.gov to learn about open roles, state benefits and our application resources," Johnson said.

What's going up on Prairie Street?

"Several buildings have been torn down on Prairie Street between White and Springfield in Champaign. Any idea what's going up there?"

Royse + Brinkmeyer CEO Collin Carlier said construction is underway for 12 townhomes, a 42-unit loft building and a 47-unit midrise building in the block bordered by Prairie Street on the west, State Street on the east, White Street on the north and Springfield Avenue on the south. Jana Wiersema reported on the new development in August.

Several smaller rental residences were demolished on the Prairie Street side of the block, to make way for the new development. The townhomes will be along Prairie Street with the loft building behind them. The 5-story midrise building is going up in the vacant lots at 303-305 S. State.

The complex is called The Pilot, and Royse + Brinkmeyer recently posted an informational website (roysebrinkmeyer.com/pilot) that may be of interest to neighbors and prospective tenants.

"The individual buildings are very different in unit type, look/feel, and amenities they offer. But they are all bound by the community gardens along the alleyway, which is meant to commingle residents from different stages of life," Carlier said.

How are school sports absences counted?

"Jeff D'Alessio's recent article about school absenteeism makes me wonder: are students counted as absent if they miss all or part of a school day for a school-sanctioned event?"

Mahomet-Seymour Schools Superintendent Kenny Lee told me the state's definition of "chronic absenteeism" applies to any student who misses 10% of school days within an academic year, with or without a valid excuse. Excused and unexcused absences are both counted in this total, and partial days of absence are pro-rated according to their duration.

However, "when a student leaves school for a school-sponsored event — such as athletics or an FFA event — they are not marked absent. I can't speak to how other districts count those absences."

While the state doesn't differentiate between excused and unexcused absences for the chronic-absenteeism metric, Lee said Mahomet-Seymour does track those two categories internally.

Inviting citizen involvement in 'alternative response' process

"I've been seeing purple yard signs recruiting people to join the alternative response team in Urbana. What kinds of experience, education and personal traits are they looking for in the applicants?"

Actually … the signs' invitation to 'join the journey' is not a job-recruitment ad.

Bridget Broihahn, a member of the committee that is coordinating the city's Alternative Response Task Force (ARTF) process, said "we are not looking for 'applicants for a team.' More clearly, we are asking residents to participate in the process whereby we create a new public safety model."

She said ARTF is Urbana's approach to developing "an alternative response model to traditional public safety." The group's latest session, on Nov. 6, was led by the Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP), a national expert on police-community relations and alternative response systems.

"The process has started, with one meeting already behind us. We have a panel of stakeholders in place, however, all people are welcome to join us, as the ARTF will serve all in the community. These meetings are free and open to the public. There are very specific guidelines for these meetings. Those interested should go to our website and read about the parameters of this process."

Anyone who'd like to learn more about the ARTF – including the meetings, the process and LEAP – may scan the QR code on one of the yard signs, or visit urbanail.gov/executive-department/page/alternative-response-task-force.

Is housing survey email legit?

"My landlord sent me a link to a City of Champaign housing survey. Is it legitimate? Is it only for current Champaign residents?"

"Yes, the survey is legit," said Neighborhood Services Director Rob Kowalski. "Housing supply and affordability have reached crisis-level nationally with a shortage of approximately 5 million homes nationally and with more household income required to afford those homes.

"Here in Champaign, we are seeking to understand this crisis on a local level. The city is conducting a housing study, which will be a data-driven analysis of our local shortage and affordability challenges along with specific strategies intended to address the issues" identified.

"This input will greatly supplement the data analysis and help develop some of those strategies. We would like to hear from all residents in all different housing situations, whether they've owned their home for years or they rent and are searching for their next home. We have asked rental companies to push the survey to their tenants to get more responses, as well."

He said area residents living just outside Champaign also are welcome to take the survey, as most housing experiences are similar throughout the broader community. The study is expected to be complete by spring 2026 and results will be presented to the Champaign City Council.

"We are keeping the survey open throughout the duration of the study. Readers can learn more and take the survey at engagechampaign.org/housing-study," Kowalski said.

Links to two surveys — one for residents and the other for landlords/housing providers – are provided on that website. The residents' survey takes about 5 minutes to complete.

Ogden & Burt Grain & Coal

"Found this old advertising thermometer for Ogden & Burt Grain and Coal, Champaign, Illinois – phone 9417. Does anyone have any info on the business?"

Dryer & Burt was the predecessor of Ogden & Burt in the early 1900s, but I didn't find much detailed historical information about either concern. Still, I ran across several bits and pieces of history pertaining to both firms and their owners.

The 1909 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Champaign shows Dryer and Burt's grain elevator – "formerly J.T. Davidson" – just north of the Big Four railroad tracks, on the west side of Harris Avenue near current-day Beardsley Avenue. The Big Four was the nickname of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad.

The 1909 and 1915 Sanborn maps of Champaign depict the locations of Dryer & Burt's corn cribs and the elevator, but no coal sheds.

By the time the 1924 Sanborn map was published, the business was identified as Ogden & Burt and a coal shed had been added. The firm's offices were in the Kariher Building in downtown Champaign, at the NW corner of Church and Neil streets.

Some handwritten records in the Burt family files at the Champaign County Historical Archives tell us Charles A. Dryer and Nathan "Nate" Burt also had a store and grain elevator at Deers Station (northwest of Sidney) along the Wabash Railroad. At Deers, they sold grain and coal, farm implements and general merchandise.

Some 1925 ads in the Urbana Courier show the Deers location also sold Red Crown gasoline for 20.4 cents per gallon. Charles "Chuck" Burt assumed management of the Deers elevator in the 1940s, "until grain was trucked," according to the family file.

In addition to the Champaign and Deers Station elevators, Dryer & Burt/Ogden & Burt operated an elevator in Tipton, a few miles south of St. Joseph on the C&EI (Chicago & Eastern Illinois) Railroad. Burt also served as Champaign Township Supervisor.

Ogden & Burt placed an ad for the Tipton location – J.A. Towner, manager – in the 1929 Standard Atlas of Champaign County. The Urbana Daily Courier tells us Ogden & Burt won the contract to supply the Champaign County Poor Farm with coal – 500 tons of it at $4.98 per ton – in 1934. Old newspaper articles show the firm won various other county contracts, as well.

By the time the 1940 city directory was published, Joseph A. Ogden was listed as owner of the Ogden Coal Company. Champaign's Ogden Grain Elevator was still listed in the 1950 city directory, but there was no mention of it when the 1955 directory came out.

Champaign intercity bus stop confusion

"Is the Champaign bus stop for Greyhound buses still at Illinois Terminal? I'm getting mixed info about that from Greyhound's app."

It seems the Greyhound Bus app doesn't know where the local bus stop is. On one screen, it says the stop is at a Circle K on North Mattis Avenue and says "the stop is NOT at Champaign Transit Center." A level or two down within the app, where users would buy their tickets, it says the stop is at the "Champaign Intermodal Trans Ctr."

"Yeah, those are next-level glitches," said C-U Mass Transit District Managing Director Karl Gnadt. "I have no information about the Circle K, but Greyhound has served Illinois Terminal since 1999. We've had a successful partnership with the original Greyhound including the new owners, FlixBus, since the opening." The C-U MTD owns and operates Illinois Terminal.

"The other, more subtle glitch is that they call it 'Champaign Transit Center' and 'Champaign Intermodal Trans Ctr.' Of course, neither of those are correct; it's Illinois Terminal."

Both Greyhound- and FlixBus-branded buses serve Champaign. And regardless of what the Greyhound app may say, Illinois Terminal is where the drivers keep picking up and discharging their passengers.

We reached out to Greyhound/Flixbus corporate communications nearly a week ago, and have not yet heard back.

New pregame, halftime presence at SFC

"Why is there a new person yelling into a microphone before UI men's basketball games and at halftime? Surely, there are less annoying ways to stimulate enthusiasm!"

"Creating and maintaining a home-court advantage is a top priority for the UI athletics department," said spokesperson Derrick Burson. "We are always looking for ways to enhance the fan experience, and the addition of an in-venue host allows the crowd to interact and engage with the action throughout the entirety of the game.

"While a host is new for us this season, it is common in sports venues. The activity in the arena starts with the Orange Krush student section and permeates throughout the 15,544 fans who attend," Burson said.

"Our host is timely and has great synergy with Krush and the crowd, and that partnership helps leverage the excitement to take our atmosphere to the next level. For our players and coaches — who feed off that energy — it is simply never too loud. We will continue to innovate in our efforts to make State Farm Center the best home court in all of college basketball."

N-G (Joey?) pic of the new host