AlwaysQuilting

On of my DDs just told me that her husband has an interview in Effingham, Illinois. (that's 2 states away from where we are now)
Can anyone tell me the pros and/or cons about living there?

ktbb

never lived there myself, but I grew up west of there near St. Louis. One big advantage is that if you want to go to a big city, both ST. Louis and Indianapolis are in easy driving distance and another is that there are some nice quilt shops within easy driving distance as well.

raptureready

Well, other than the fact that we're going to have to turn the governor's mansion into a pre-prison transition hall, it isn't a bad place to live.
We live about an hour+ N. of there. It's cold in the winter and hot in the summer. Nice places to go from there---Shawnee National Forest, Springfield's Lincoln Museum, St. Louis, Chicago, Indianapolis, etc. are all within a few hours drive. But best of all if she's a quilter, Threads of Time in Danville Il! Great shop. I'm not real close but I don't think that Effingham is any different than any other relatively small city. There's lot's of festivals around here, the largest of which is Parke County Indiana's Covered Bridge Festival in October. She'd also be within a short drive to a wonderful Amish community in the Arthur/Arcola area.

Effingham was on Jeopardy just this last week. The catagory was something about "C" something or other. The answer was "The largest one of these religious icons, (standing or wieghing xxx) is in Effingham, Il." The question was "What is a cross."

CarrieAnne

Illinios is a beautiful state! The only bad thing is lots of cold and snow in the Winter....lol!

Lisa_wanna_b_quilter

Effingham is a nice enough town. The state of IL has its problems right now. State income tax has recently been raised. The state is broke. School districts have not been getting their funding from the state for over a year. This has led to cut backs in many, many school districts. A new cigarette tax to fund schools was voted down so I'm not sure what the next plan will be.

On the upside, housing in central IL is generally cheaper than most places.

AlwaysQuilting

Someone mentioned cheaper housing . That'd be good.
Cold and snowy, hot in summer, they're used to that.
State is broke,
income tax was raised,
smallish town,
schools broke.
All bad. They have 3 kids (2 already in school, one toddler).

I've got my fingers crossed that they don't move at all, but I know that's selfish.
He has a master's degree and lots of experience and I think that might make it even harder to land a job, because no one wants to pay for education and experience any more. He's been out of work since Thanksgiving and I'm just afraid he'll take the first offer he gets from the headhunter he's working with because he's heard how difficult its been for so many others.

Thank you for the info.

Lisa_wanna_b_quilter

The schools are having a hard time, but my daughter has been accepted to the Honors Program at the University of Northern Iowa. If your grandkids end up here, they can still do well.

Of course, you don't want them to move. No one wants family to have to move for jobs, but in this economy it happens. Look on the bright side. New shops to see when you visit them!