A House of Flowers by Paula has changed hands, but longtime former owner Paula Hopkins is still on board as the Rantoul store’s lead designer.
The new owners are Marlana and Chad Smith, with Marlana, a former daycare director, running the store’s day-to-day operations.
Customers will find this business at 113 E. Sangamon St. – from the goods and services to the staff – the same to the new owners, said Marlana Smith.
“Paula has worked for years to make this a fantastic business, and we just want to carry on her legacy,” she said.
Marlana Smith said another part-time driver and part-time designer have been hired to help.
Summer hours are 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays and 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.
Get your wrapper
The new Conrad’s Grill under construction at 301 E. Green St., C, is set to open in the second half of August, the company said.
The Michigan chain, which also has locations in Madison, Wis., and East Lansing, Mich., says it is not planning any other locations in Illinois at this time.
Conrad’s Grill’s specialty is Great American Tot Wraps.
These are baked balls, meat, cheese and sauces wrapped in a tortilla and grilled. They come in breakfast versions, with eggs and bacon, for example, for lunch and dinner with steak, chicken and vegetarian versions.
Sides include French bread sticks, spicy fried pickles, chicken tenders, mozzarella sticks, fried toss, waffle fries and mac-and-cheese bites.
Honored
The Big Ten+ Hire Consortium has awarded Michael Valadez, assistant director of outreach at the University of Illinois Career Center, with the 2022 New Career Services Professional Award.
According to the UI Career Center, he was recognized for developing an online document review service that allows the center to continue serving students when the campus was closed.
He was also recognized for leading the campus-wide Diversity and Inclusion Networking Exchange committee and for co-directing the FOCUS Scholars program that seeks to mitigate disparities in post-graduation outcomes for underrepresented and first-generation graduates from Illinois.
Hire Big 10+ is a network of career services professionals from Bit Ten schools.
