Last August, the state of Illinois allotted $1 million to help Livingston County, Ill., to restore the old Illinois State Police Headquarters on old Route 66 in Pontiac.

However, there’s been a snag, reports the Bloomington Pantagraph.

State Sen. Dan Rutherford, R-Chenoa, said the governor’s office has yet to provide Livingston County with either the paperwork needed to buy the land or the restoration money.

Livingston County Board Chairman Bill Flott said the county cannot proceed without the money promised by the state. [...]

“I understand money’s tight… but when it was in the budget, the governor signed it into law,” Rutherford said.

Rutherford said he has not heard from the governor’s office about the facility.

“To date, funds for this project have not yet been released,” Rutherford said in a March 14 letter to the governor. “What does the county need to do to move this effort forward?”

The state police headquarters was built in 1941 and recently was added to the National Register of Historic Places. There are tentative plans to turn it into a tourist welcome center. However, the building is not fit for occupation, and that can’t be rectified until the state provides the cash to renovate it.

As a former resident, I can assure readers that when government money is tight, the state of Illinois has a great tendency to hold on to cash as long as humanly possible. It’s not right, but this is a tactic that has used by numerous governors of all political stripes. Apparently, in the Land of Lincoln, being a skinflint is nonpartisan.

Southwest Missouri, Kansas and far northeastern Oklahoma may collaborate on boosting Route 66 tourism in their respective areas with a 48-page brochure, reports the Joplin Globe.

The city of Miami, Okla., is applying for a $50,000 grant from the National Scenic Byways Program to finance the brochure that would tout the Mother Road from Carthage, Mo., to Vinita, Okla.

The tourism brochure is designed to offer day trips for tourists to drive the historic roadway and visit attractions along the way, such as the historic Coleman Theater in downtown Miami, the Rainbow Bridge on old Route 66 in Baxter Springs, Kan., and Route 66 Drive-In movie theater at Carthage.

“We want people to make several day trips in this area,” Eller said. “Route 66 is hot.”

That’s smart marketing. Here’s hoping they can land that grant.

The Daily Oklahoman has a fascinating article about NoName Ranch in Wynnewood, Okla., which supplies beef to a number of Oklahoma City-area restaurants, including POPS on Route 66 in Arcadia.

Bruce and June Buechner own NoName Ranch (yes, that’s its name). They raise Pinzgauer cattle from Austria, and they raise them organically. That means no drugs, antibiotics, steroids or pesticides. The hay or grass they feed them isn’t fertilized. The cattle are finished with all-natural grain before slaughter.

The Buechners had several clients early, including two Irma’s Burger Shack locations (alas, neither is on Route 66). Then came POPS.

Just one month later, the NoName Ranch reputation was taken to another level with the opening of POPS in Arcadia — a product of Chesapeake Energy chief executive Aubrey McClendon.

Familiar with the NoName Ranch beef as a frequent visitor of The Coach House and Chesapeake’s proximity to Irma’s, McClendon wanted to be exclusive to those products, unlike other restaurants that feature it as a specialty item.

While it’s clear POPS had many other selling points, like its unique design, location and pop offerings, business exploded from the first day and hasn’t slowed down.

In the beginning, the Buechners arranged to sell POPS about one steer a week — roughly 700 burgers — but the Route 66 destination sold a whole steer the first day. For the rest of the month, POPS used about four or five steers a week, said Marty Doepke, POPS general manager.

“We kind of blew our projections out of the water there with just about everything, but especially with Bruce,” Doepke said.

It’s cool that POPS took the trouble to get its beef from a local supplier, instead of a, ahem, no-name corporation.

This performance by Hironobu Naganuma of Bobby Troup’s “Route 66″ is extraordinary.

It’s technically difficult, but it seems like he’s having fun. Also, it grooves like mad.