Today's News

 After getting outscored 25-2 in its first two games of the 2009 season, the Vandalia baseball team enjoyed being on the left side of a lopsided final score Friday in an 11-1 win over visiting Ramsey.

And the key to the Vandals' first victory of the season being an easy one was their ability to take advantage of opportunities - along with the Rams' inability to do so.

Since I’ve put Dale Reeves, a local Civil War aficionado, in the spotlight with the photo of Civil War soldier, Pvt. John Strobel, I think I’ll leave him there a little longer.

On the same day Dale shared the Strobel photograph with me, he gave me a photo of a man by the name of Jarrett, who had enlisted on Aug. 5, 1861, at Kinmundy, Marion County. Dale said that this man was not a Fayette County soldier.

As the city begins the process of spending millions of dollars to repair streets, upgrade utilities and beautify the appearance of downtown Vandalia, it’s also time to consider carefully the city’s policies governing parking in the central business district.

Currently, the city limits parking to two hours – day and night – on Gallatin Street. Several side streets off of Gallatin Street have two-hour parking between the hours of 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., with no restrictions on overnight parking.

The effort to make below-ground improvements in downtown Vandalia has begun. In the near future, improvements to the streetscape on Gallatin Street will get under way.

And as those improvements are made using city, state and federal funds, Vandalia Main Street volunteers will begin adding their own enhancements to the downtown business district.

Main Street’s design committee plans to kick off its “Paint the Town” program sometime in April by painting the exteriors of three downtown businesses.