Small Towns, Big Deals | Rankin has decisions to make regarding police, pot

RANKIN — It’s sunup when Wayne Kaufman pulls in to the Casey’s General Store on the south end of Rankin. He steps inside and sees some of the regulars in the back, where they gather most mornings to sip steaming cups of coffee and discuss whatever’s on their mind.

“When we were younger, it was girls and cars,” Kaufman, a retired mail carrier, said with a grin.

“Now it’s girls and tractors,” joked Dean Blackford, who’s been farming west of town for more than half a century.

Eventually, the conversation turns from harvesting corn and soybeans to another crop that a new neighbor wants to introduce to the area — cannabis.

This summer, Daiven Kayne Michael Emling announced his desire to open a marijuana dispensary and cafe in Rankin and start a small cannabis-growing operation on his farm just north of town.

Reaction has been mixed.

Some residents say Rankin is already dealing with a drug problem. A business where customers 21 or older are free to smoke a joint and consume pot-laced edibles, they fear, would create more problems at a time when the village, which has struggled to staff a police department, is considering disbanding that department altogether.

Others say that like it or not, recreational marijuana is already legal in states and will bein Illinois come Jan. 1. So rolling out the welcome mat to the right operation could generate some much-needed revenue and breathe new life into a dying town.

Rankin, which sits at the crossroads of Illinois 49 and Illinois 9 in the northwestern corner of Vermilion County, has its roots in agriculture. That’s still its mainstay, although many small farms have consolidated and fewer farmers are running larger operations.

The town was named for David Rankin and his younger cousin, William A. Rankin, according to “Stories of a Prairie Town,” published for the village’s centennial celebration in 1972.

David — a land and cattle baron who served in the Illinois legislature from 1874 to 1880 — purchased 5,000 acres east of Paxton in the 1860s to grow broom corn and raise cattle for the Chicago market, but never lived in the area. William managed his cousin’s land and later amassed several thousand acres of his own.

The town grew thanks to the Lake Erie & Western Railroad, which later merged with Norfolk & Western. The company ran tracks through town and built a large roundhouse to the east.

In its heyday, the business district included a bank, bakery and butcher shop; general, clothing and hardware stores; and a lumber store, feed store and grain elevator like other small but self-sufficient towns. It also had a hotel, theater and restaurants.

According to historical accounts, Rankin began declining when the railroad maintenance shop moved to Indiana in the 1930s, prompting townsfolk to follow.

While that may be true, longtime residents remember another prosperous time when they and their neighbors enjoyed steady jobs at the Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul and factories in nearby Hoopeston, Paxton, Danville and Champaign.

“When I was growing up, there were two grocery stores, two drug stores, five gas stations, a meat market, laundromat, a bowling alley with three lanes and a snack bar and a restaurant called the Rankin Main Cafe,” said fourth-generation and lifelong resident Tom Snyder, who’s 73.

Snyder — a retired postal worker who was Royal’s postmaster for 25 years — also remembers when the town had a small medical clinic, other professional offices, two funeral homes, an egg-grading station operated by people who ran a chicken farm, four churches, a couple of women’s clubs and an American Legion.

“People could buy a house here and have a pretty good life,” said Lynn Magers, another fourth-generation, lifelong resident and Rankin’s longtime postmaster. She added that many community activities revolved around the schools and the Rankin Rangers athletic teams and clubs.

Then Chanute and a number of factories were shuttered, followed by the schools. Rankin Township High School closed at the end of the 1986-87 year, and grade 9-12 students attended Hoopeston-East Lynn 11 miles away. The grade school moved into the high school building, then closed in the early 1990s when the district consolidated with Hoopeston.

“When we lost our schools, we kind of lost our identity,” said Snyder — who along with former resident Sheri Kaufman, Wayne’s daughter — renamed a local tavern the Rankin Rangers Pub & Grub and decorated it with school memorabilia when they owned and operated it a few years ago. School trophies are on display a few doors down the street at the town library.

“We also lost a lot of businesses,” village Trustee Nancy “Joey” Mason added.

Vacant better than blight: ‘I’d rather look at a grass lot than an old house that’s dangerous’

Today, Rankin’s population — which some say peaked around 800 — is estimated at 521, according to census figures.

There are a smattering of businesses, including 4 Corners Insurance Agency, the Cissna Park Co-op-owned elevator, a family-owned tile drainage and earth-moving firm, a funeral home and Casey’s. Boone’s Firehouse closed earlier this year, but folks still gather at the Pub & Grub for a cold beer. Current owner Shane Moline also provides a small band on “Sunday Fun Days” and a community drawing on Tuesday evenings, which draw folks from neighboring towns.

Magers — who started as a postal clerk in 1982, then became postmaster six years later and “a nontraditional full-time clerk” in 2016 when the postal service did away with postmasters in smaller towns — opens the office a few hours Monday through Saturday for her 160 customers. And, hairdresser Debbie Symmonds opens Mike’s Barbershop, her late father Michael Eighner’s business, one day a week.

Village officials said Rankin struggles with the same things other tiny, rural towns do — declining property values, stagnant sales tax revenue with few or no business prospects, aging infrastructure, fewer owner-occupied homes and more rental housing and older homes and buildings that have fallen into disrepair and are causing blight and other nuisances.

Cathy Lueke lives in nearby Cissna Park, but grew up in town and owns and operates the insurance agency with Jeremy Deck. She appreciates the village’s efforts to clean up the town. The board has been buying dilapidated properties at Vermilion County’s delinquent tax auction, then has them torn down and the lots seeded.

“I’d rather look at a grass lot than an old house that’s dangerous for people to be around,” Lueke said.

“The goal is to get those properties back on the tax roll,” Trustee John Duncan said, adding the village will continue to buy eyesores at auction and raze them as funds allow.

No village police force: ‘If you call 911, a deputy is about 20 minutes away’

Meanwhile, Duncan said the ordinance officer continues to work with property owners to try to get them to fix violations. Some do, but other cases seem futile.

Two of the worst: the old high school on the south end of town and, on the other end, the grade school, which burned down in July.

Rankin also has grappled for years with keeping a police officer, though not for lack of trying.

“We’ve beat down every door,” Duncan said. “We’ve offered to train them and send them to school. We’ve tried to do an intergovernmental agreement with other towns, but that didn’t work.”

“It’s a part-time job — something a lot of people aren’t interested in,” Mason said, adding the board is considering disbanding the department and relying on the Vermilion County sheriff’s office for patrols. “We’ve had several almosts, then they decide it’s not what they want or they get a different offer.”

Some like Snyder and Magers, a former trustee, don’t think Rankin needs its own department.

“Incidents happen, but I don’t consider Rankin a high-crime area,” Snyder said. “It’s vandalism or drug activity. If you call 911, a deputy is about 20 minutes away.”

But others feel a local police presence is needed to crack down on and deter problems — from drug activity to speeding — which, they say, are caused mainly by nonresidents.

“If we had someone issuing tickets, it would pay for itself in a week’s time,” said librarian Debbie Savone, who sees motorists barreling down Illinois 49 like it’s the freeway.

Mason said it’s not just being able to pay the salary and state fee for having an officer. She said radios and other equipment are older. If it keeps the department, the village will have to pay for costly upgrades.

Pot pitch: ‘I want this town to be better for my daughter when she’s growing up’

Residents said they welcome new growth but realize chances are slim given the town’s distance from Interstates 57 and 74. Or as Dean Blackford puts it, it will come “when donkeys fly.”

At present, its only prospect seems to be Emling’s.

The 30-year-old former Kankakee County resident is licensed to use medical marijuana because he suffers from Crohn’s disease. He’s proposed opening the Garden of Eatin’, which he described as a lounge with a grill that can serve breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks and give customers a safe place to try cannibidiol, or CBD, and tetrahydroncannibinol, or THC, products with trained staff on hand to advise them.

“It’s a matter of finding a location,” Emling said, adding he’s scouting other sites, including his farm on Illinois 49 a half-mile north of town, where he lives with his family.

While he’s lined up a potential supplier, he eventually hopes to get a license to run a craft grow operation (smaller cultivation operations up to 5,000 square feet) on his property.

Emling considers Rankin a prime location because it’s central to the market he wants to serve and close to home. And he wants to help his adopted community.

“Rankin is dying,” he said. “I want this town to be better for my daughter when she’s growing up.”

Municipalities can pass an ordinance adding a 3 percent tax on marijuana sales within their borders, although the Rankin board hasn’t acted on that. Emling estimates his venture could generate $200,000 a year for the village.

“You could hire a police officer and still have money for other improvements in the town,” he said.

Concerns about cannabis: ‘It just makes folks, especially older folks, uneasy’

After sharing his plans with the board in August, the board held a special meeting to get input from community members. The forum drew 40 to 50 people, and the majority who spoke opposed it.

Their main concern: that weed would end up in the wrong hands, namely young people.

“We already have a problem here,” said Gene Hofbauer, a lifelong resident and retired farmer.

Earlier this month, he and his wife, Elsie, a retired teacher, urged the board to consider banning recreational marijuana sales, as other towns have done. The board hasn’t acted on that either.

The Hofbauers don’t have a problem with medical marijuana. But they believe recreational pot shops are better suited for larger communities like Champaign — which has a medical marijuana dispensary and a recreational one on the way — that have more resources to oversee them.

“It just makes folks, especially older folks, uneasy,” Elsie Hofbauer said.

“People get the habit, and then they have to get money to support the habit,” her husband added. “Then they start breaking into homes.”

Initially, Savone was for the idea, thinking it would boost revenue. She changed her mind when she heard about Emling’s convictions for DUI, possession of 30-500 grams of marijuana and unlawful video recording.

Emling said he’s fulfilled his court-ordered obligations and his past, which he’s been upfront about, shouldn’t stand in the way of his plans. He also believes people are spreading erroneous information about cannabis, and he wants an opportunity to educate them.

Mason said she understands opponents’ concerns but has a different opinion.

“I’m part of the flower-child generation,” she said, adding she’ll leave it at that. And, she recently took a monthlong trip to Alaska, the west and southwest, where recreational marijuana is already legal.

“I met people who said it’s like liquor used to be,” Mason said, adding the board recently approved selling hard liquor at Casey’s. “There are going to be abuses. You’re not going to avoid that.”

“My concern, is (Emling) going to be able to do what he says he will do?” she continued. “He’s a well-spoken young man. He’s very enthusiastic and tenacious in coming back to the board and answering questions. If he can prove he has the financial backing for the licensing, can purchase property or build a facility that’s well-secured, I don’t have a problem with it.”

Chicagoland vs. here: ‘I was so tired of the congestion and having snotty neighbors’

Whether Rankin will actually get that opportunity — or problem, depending on how you view it — remains to be seen.

“We’re a small town, and small towns are in a bad way right now,” said Mason, who grew up in Hoopeston and then lived in the St. Louis area for years. When she moved back, she was saddened to see how her hometown’s once-thriving economy had declined due to loss of industry and people.

“There’s not a lot of income, but we do the best we can to keep it going,” she said of Rankin. “I really have to give (village President Aaron Warren) credit. Not everyone sees it, but he works really hard ... and so do a lot of other people.”

Despite the challenges, residents said they wouldn’t live anywhere else. The town is quiet, runs at a slower pace and while everyone doesn’t know everyone like they used to, people generally are friendly and the community is still relatively close-knit.

“I was so tired of the congestion and having snotty neighbors,” said Savone, who moved from Wheaton in 2011. “People wave here when you go down the street.”

It didn’t take Savone long to feel at home and form friendships with people like library board President Beverly Overbey, who hired her to run the library. The retired teacher also invited her to the United Methodist Church and recruited her to help kids with their homework during the after-school tutoring program she runs in the church basement on Wednesdays.

On Tuesday mornings, Savone opens the library — which is housed in the old train depot and doubles as the village hall — for coffee and conversation. She also provides activities for kids.

The Methodist church provides a free meal on Wednesday evenings and runs a clothing ministry, and the Lutheran church delivers food baskets to people.

Others said the Lion’s Club uses proceeds from its popular steak dinner, held the first Friday of the month from September to May, and other events to make improvements in town, cook hot dogs for kids at Halloween and provide treat bags from Santa at Christmastime. Residents and folks from surrounding towns also look forward to the fire protection district’s annual pancake and sausage breakfast and porkchop dinner.

“What I like about this town is when someone needs help, we all pull together,” Lueke said.

When several farmers have gotten sick, she said fellow farmers lined up to help them with their field work.

“He’s usually the first one,” Wayne Kaufman said of Blackford, who stepped up when a neighboring farmer was being treated for cancer last year. “Do you know what they call him? Mean Dean. But he’s got a good heart.”

So does Kaufman, said Denise Palomo, the grain elevator secretary.

“Wayne comes in around 10:30 in the morning. Then he drives to Penfield to the Last Call (which Sheri Kaufman owns) and brings us lunch,” she said, referring to herself and Marty Cornelius, who dumps the grain trucks.

Palomo could go on and on.

“We have good people in this town,” she said. “We all help each other. That’s why I love it, and I’ll always live here.”