Thanks to favorable citizen response at a recent town meeting on the northeast side of Carbondale, the Citizens Advisory Committee has scheduled more town meetings, including one for the SIUC campus.

A meeting for the southeast side of Carbondale will be held on November 2 at the Lincoln School, Cleveland Matthews, community relations officer for the city manager’s office, said. The meeting will start at 7 p.m.

The southeast side includes any area in the city south of Main Street and east of the railroad tracks, Matthews said.

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The meetings are conducted by the Citizens Advisory Committee, a volunteer board set up to make resident concerns known to the city government.

Robert Harper, chair of the C.A.C., previously said having more town meetings depended on the success of last month’s meeting in the northeast side of Carbondale.

Both Harper and Matthews said they were pleased with the results of the meeting, which about 40 people attended. Matthews said the good turnout spurred the C.A.C. to hold more meetings.

Matthews said he encourages all southeast side residents to attend the meeting and voice concerns they have regarding the city.

Although the C.A.C. does not have any legislative power, Matthews said the committee issues a report to the city council regarding what the citizens told them.

Council members say the results of the meetings are not taken lightly.

I certainly look at these things closely, Council Member Maggie Flanagan said.

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Mayor Neil Dillard agreed.

We’re looking forward to it, he said.

One concern, raised by several people who attended last month’s meeting for the northeast side, involved a construction company’s failure to develop land in the northeast side purchased under an agreement to develop.

Council members reclaimed the land at a council meeting five days later.

Flanagan said it was probably a coincidence that action was taken so quickly after residents raised a concern about the issue.

That was something due to come up at that time, she said.

Dillard said the concerns at the meeting may have pushed action along.

That might have had influence in moving it to that agenda level, he said.

Matthews agreed with Dillard.

I think it might have had a lot to do with it, he said.

Meetings for the southwest and northwest areas of Carbondale have also been tentatively scheduled for next year along with a meeting for SIUC, Matthews said.

Although most students live in areas that will have town meetings, Matthews said student concerns deserved a separate meeting.

You can’t really include students by just using four quadrants, he said.

Matthews said the southeast side meeting will be interesting because a wide variety of people live in the area.

It’s going to be fun, he said. You’ve got public housing, rental housing and private housing and a good deal of students (in the southeast) he said.

Dillard said the meetings are conducive to getting people to talk about their concerns with the city because of the different environment the meetings present. He said having the focus of the meeting being on someone’s neighborhood, unlike a city council meeting, makes it easier to for people to voice their thoughts.

Dillard said having people’s neighbors and friends at the meetings also helps make a good atmosphere for discussion.

Tentative dates for the three remaining town meetings are:n. Northwest side, January 25 at the Senior Center

n. SIUC, March 21 at a location TBA

n. Southwest side, May 2 at the Winkler School