Barke wants to balance big and small business in Carbondale

Baseball, law and Beanie Babies might not seem like they have much in common, but they have all played a big role in the life of city council candidate Rhett Barke. Sitting at his desk yesterday, Barke pointed out several Beanie Babies that rest among the books and files in his office at the O'Neill and Barke law firm and spoke about how he became involved with the fuzzy, bean-filled critters.

While attending SIUC law school in 1999, Barke began a job as an account executive for Ty Incorporated, the company that manufactures Beanie Babies. Working for Ty, Barke worked with 140 to 150 stores that sold the beanies, including stores in Carbondale. Even though he was working full time, he was still able to graduate on time in 2001. Barke said being in law school and working 40 hours a week helped him build his time management skills. "I had to balance my schedule with school," Barke said. "I was able to successfully pull it off. I've always been able to manage my time." Before he came to Carbondale, Barke was an athlete for Illinois College in Jacksonville, playing baseball and basketball. Juggling school with sports also taught him to manage his time wisely. Barke said he was a talented enough athlete and almost had the opportunity to play baseball as a career. "I thought actually that I wasn't going to be going to law school," Barke said. "I thought I had a chance."

Having success in his senior season as a pitcher, he said he was attracting attention from some scouts, but in the end playing for a small school and not having much name recognition kept him from moving to the next level. "I think that kind of worked against me a little bit. I decided I've applied to law school, I've been accepted to law school, so why not go to law school?" Barke said he probably wouldn't have come to Carbondale if it weren't to continue his education, but in the end he was glad he did. And now he wants to get more involved in the city as a councilman. "I'm planning on raising a family here," Barke said. "I want to make sure that it gives them options as well."

One of the issues Barke said he wants to address is welcoming bigger businesses without affecting smaller ones. While working for Ty, Barke said all of the stores he did business with were small businesses. He said he hopes to apply his experience working with small businesses to the city of Carbondale. "That's one of the things that I think I do seem to know, working with those smaller stores, what it takes and what they need to have help from the city," Barke said. Barke said he knows how important the small businesses are to the city, but he thinks big businesses can be advantageous as well. He said if the customer bases for the small stores are loyal enough that they won't have to worry about losing business to the bigger stores. "The smaller businesses will always have their customer base," Barke said. "You can pretty much find everything at Wal-Mart, but there is a reason not everybody shops at Wal-Mart."

Another issue Barke talked about was the shape some of the neighborhoods in the city are in. Barke said these areas are in poor condition because he thinks the council doesn't always plan for what will happen when areas are rezoned. "Had councils in the past heard these complaints or recognized that this was going to occur down the road, we wouldn't be in some of the situations we are in," Barke said. "Some of the neighborhoods have turned into more or less run down neighborhoods." Barke said one way to clean up these places is to give both tenants and landlords responsibility. He said he thinks the landlords might have to take the first hit in fixing up the places, and that will cause them to raise their rent, but students won't mind because they will be living in nicer places.

"Both parties involved with that have to have some sort of responsibility," Barke said. "We need to make sure the properties are kept up." Barke said he wants to make sure students know that they have a voice in the community. He said he is disappointed in the voter turnout among students in the primary election compared to the amount of students registered to vote. "The students have such a voice in the community if they recognize it," Barke said. "It's frustrating because I know that the students have issues, but I think they don't know how to address those issues." If the students can come out and get their problems heard, Barke said he thinks it could improve relations between student renters and their landlords.

"Whatever we can do to get the students addressing some of those issues, I don't think that's a bad thing," Barke said. "It might help, in fact, the landlord-tenant relations." When Barke went to school at SIUC, he said he had an excellent relationship with his landlord. Eventually, his landlord helped him build the house he now lives in with his wife Shauna on Norwest Lane. Even though they are a younger couple living in a neighborhood of older people, Barke, who is 29, said he has a great relationship with his neighbors. "I've shown that neighborhood that young people and old people can co-exist." Barke said. "I wouldn't trade my neighbors for the world."