Edward "Fast Eddie" Sholar Sr.ALTON - A portion of East Broadway in Alton has been christened "Fast Eddie" Way in honor of Edward "Fast Eddie" Sholar Sr.

The renaming, which is completely honorary and will not change addresses along East Broadway, was done through joint resolutions in the Illinois General Assembly. The resolutions were sponsored in the senate by Sen. Bill Haine (D-Alton) and in the house by Dan Beiser (D-Alton) and Jerry Costello, II (D-Red Bud). It passed through the assembly in May 2016, and Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) workers placed the honorary brown signage on East Broadway on Dec. 30, 2016. 

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Sholar was the owner of Fast Eddie's Bon-Air, located at 1530 E 4th St in Alton. He died at the age of 61 on July 22, 2015. Beiser said he pushed to have the street named in Sholar's honor due to the amount of unsung charity work he did for the community. 

"In this case, Eddie Sholar was a very generous member of the community," he said. "Some of his contributions were known, but many were not. We had a little piece of state road named after him to honor that. Eddie [Sholar] did a lot for different groups and organizations, which was never made public and he wanted it to stay that way. We all know he supported the Alton Boys and Girls Club, but he was more generous than I think people knew." 

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Those sentiments were shared by Sholar's son, Eddie Sholar Jr. Eddie Sholar Jr. said his father liked to "fly under the radar" regarding his work with local charities, stating there were not many causes to which his father did not give willingly and generously. 

"I think it was a great honor for him," he said. "It was nice of the guys who spearheaded it, Representative Beiser and Senator Haine. Some people don't get such recognition, and he wanted to fly under the radar. It was a very nice thing to do.

"I probably can't name a single cause he wasn't involved with, and there's a long list of ones he was. The Boys and Girls Club was kind of his main one, but he did work for several smaller ones. I guess they wanted to give back to somebody who did so much while he was here." 

 

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