MATTOON — Jacob Dickey, a meteorologist at WCIA-3 in Champaign, was the guest speaker at a recent meeting of the Kiwanis Club of Mattoon.
Dickey was a weather watcher for Judy Fraser and a Kidscaster for WCIA as a boy. He graduated from the University of Illinois with a bachelor’s in agricultural sciences education and finished his master’s degree in professional meteorology with an emphasis in broadcast from Mississippi State University in 2020. He was the acting chief meteorologist for KSWO 7 News in Southwest Oklahoma before coming home to Central Illinois and joining WCIA.
Dickey talked to the club about his journey to becoming a meteorologist at WCIA, about the weather, and forecasting. He also teaches weather at Parkland College in Champaign and has long served as a storm chaser for the stations where he worked as an intern and at KSWO and WCIA.
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For more information about the Kiwanis Club go to mattoonkiwanis.com.
Charleston locations in 12 historical photos
Wilb Walker Supermarket
1988: Dyalene Haworth shows the ease of using E-Z Shopper grocery cart at Wilb Walker Supermarket.
Square
1980: Charleston square.
North Park house before renovation
1986: Jean Carpenter of Charleston has received a grant to repair her home. A $350,000 grant from Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs will be used to renovate about 40 homes in the North Park neighborhood.
North Park house after renovation
1986: Jean Carpenter on porch of house after renovations.
Hotel fire
1931: The Jefferies building was gutted by fire late Tuesday night. On left is the Winters’ clothing store store with the Charleston Hotel office next on the north, than a vacant room recently vacated by the Huckleberry jewelry store, wit the Rogers drug store on the corner.
Golf Course
1986: Pat Kaiser plans to open his nine-hole golf course by Memorial Day weekend if Mother nature would cooperate.
Eastern Illinois Artist’s Guild
1941: A permanent exhibit of Paul Turner Sargent’s work has been opened by the Eastern Illinois Artists’ Guild at 809 Jack St. built in 1831 by Dr. Aaron Ferguson it is said to be the oldest house in Charleston.
Downtown
1986: Downtown Charleston has been designated as part of that city’s tax increment financing district within so-called blighted areas of their cities.
Coles County National Bank
1992: Coles County National Bank declared insolvent and sold to the Eagle Bank and Trust Co. The Missouri based trust company owns banks in three other Illinois towns, Sparta, Nashville and Highland.
Charleston Plaza
1978: Osco Drug and Eisner food store soon to open at Charleston Plaza Shopping Center. The two stores will occupy 40,000 square feet in the center. A 2,000 square foot Radio Shack store is already open. Another 2,000 square foot store will be occupied by the Book Emporium to open later this year. A total of 9,000 square feet remains to be leased in the center.
Celotex Corp.
1971: Yearly production estimates for the new Celotex Corp. plant north of Charleston is about 130 million square feet of insulation boards.
Mother’s
1988: At Mother’s in Charleston grandmother winks at the patrons who come to wet their whistle. Mothers is a tavern which is known to just about every Eastern Illinois University student.
