Richard Stewart of Heiser Heating and Air, Mansfield, installs electrical boxes the new clubhouse being built at Tri-City Country Club in Villa Grove on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025.
A Villa Grove country club is eagerly awaiting a new clubhouse to replace its existing facility, which is estimated to be over 70 years old.
John Schweighart, president of the board at Tri-City Country Club, estimated that the current clubhouse was built in 1950.
“It’s time,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of issues, leaky roof and issues with the basement, kitchen flooring. And we just kept throwing money, year after year, at the building.”
The back of the new Tri-City Country Club clubhouse will be all windows looking out over the golf course. In Villa Grove on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025.
The club hopes to have the new clubhouse up and running by Memorial Day weekend, and Schweighart said the work is currently running ahead of schedule.
“It’ll be a lot more accessible,” he said. “Everything’s on the slab at one level. … It’s going from 3,600 square feet to almost 5,000.”
The club also hopes to increase its food offerings thanks to a bigger kitchen in the new facility.
Country Club President John Schweighart in the new clubhouse Tuesday.
Another component of the building will be a game room with a golf simulator, shuffleboard and a Golden Tee Golf game.
Schweighart also noted that the new clubhouse will have a large wraparound porch with great views.
“It’s closer to the action on the first tee and the number nine green,” he said. “And then we also are going to expand our practice green, probably four times as big as the one we had.”
Front view of the new clubhouse being built at Tri-City Country Club in Villa Grove, on Tuesday.
Tri-City continues to use its old clubhouse and will do so until the new building is ready, Schweighart said. Then the old facility will be demolished, which will “free up some more space for whatever is next on the agenda.”
“We’ll let somebody else worry about that down the road,” he said.
‘Stranger Things’ finale to show at Champaign theater
AMC Champaign 13, 910 Meijer Drive, is on the list of theaters that will air the final episode in the last season of the hit Netflix show “Stranger Things.”
The last episode, which drops on the streaming service on Dec. 31, will air in select cinemas on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1, with a list available at st5finale.com.
According to Variety, over 500 theaters in the United States and Canada are participating. The magazine also reported that tickets are not being sold for the screenings; instead, concession vouchers will be sold to fans as they reserve their seats to ensure revenue for local theater owners.
Reservations for local screenings are now available at amctheatres.com.
Local fans of the series will want to reserve their spots soon to avoid making a trek that’s almost as long as the roughly two-hour finale; the second-closest screening location to Champaign would be the AMC Grand Prairie 18 in Peoria.
Downtown parking discounted in December
From now through the end of the month, the city of Champaign is offering up to two hours of free parking in the Hill Street parking garage to encourage support for local businesses and restaurants.
The garage, located at the corner of Hill and Randolph streets, has over 300 parking spaces.
City officials added that it is always free to park in the garage and downtown metered spaces on city holidays and weekends.
Financial advisors up and running at new location
Local Edward Jones advisors Darrold Kennedy and Nathan Blackburn have moved their offices to 306 S. Neil St., Champaign. The new location opened on Nov. 12 and celebrated with a ribbon cutting on Tuesday, according to the Champaign County Chamber of Commerce.
