Mattoon Chamber Announces

 Community Trust Grant Recipients 

     Grant recipients of the 2009 Mattoon Community Trust, gathered at the Mattoon Chamber of Commerce Wednesday January 29^th.  Executive Director Mary Wetzel, along with board president Brian Titus, congratulated them in being chosen from this year’s long list of requests. 

     The trust money, set up through the will of Carrie Young, is disbursed annually for non-profit groups, projects and organizations for the “betterment of the community of Mattoon and its citizens.” The board of directors of the Mattoon Chamber of Commerce serves as trustee for the fund and meets annually to review applications and decide how the money may best be used for the most people in the community

     After review of the applications and proceeding with the guidelines of the MCT, the committee awarded grant monies to the following organizations: Coles County Council on Aging-Telecare-, Mattoon Area YMCA, LifeLinks, and the Mattoon Community Food Center.

     Since the Community Trust Fund was established in 1988, it has distributed over $500,000.00. The total amount of requests this year was $45,000.00.  

Welcome—New City Administrator Sue McLaughlin 

The Mattoon Chamber board of directors had the opportunity to meet the new city administrator Sue McLaughlin one on one at the February Board of Directors meeting.  This was great information, updates and Q&A opportunity for all. If you have not met Sue or spoke to her, please do yourself a favor and take the time to do so.

     Mattoon’s new city administrator is already putting down a root structure into our wonderful community and blending into the business climate as though she has been her for a while. We look forward to any and all endeavors the Chamber will have in working with  our new city administrator.

     Sue McLaughlin has worked in local government for 16 years.  For the past 5 years, she served as the Village Administrator for the Village of North Aurora.  Prior to that, she served as the City Administrator in Byron.  She also has an extensive background in economic development and planning and has a Master's Degree in Public Administration.  In addition, she still serves on the Illinois City/County Management Association Board as well as the Illinois Municipal League's Manager's Committee.