Photo submitted 

Sullivan Dance Studio’s 2024-2025 Competition Team ended their year by attending “Positive Vibes” Nationals in Collinsville, Illinois. The team had earlier attended a “Positives Vibes” Dance Regional Competition held in Bloomington, Illinois.  

Positive Vibes Dance’s mission is to provide a dance haven for all of the performers with a positive and enthusiastic atmosphere. Besides the competition portion, most of the dancers participated in master classes, which were a great experience for all. On Saturday night, there was a Groovy Gala for the dancers and their guests to attend. On Sunday, special invitation dances based on rankings at the competition were invited to participate in the Showcase portion of the event, where, after their routine, they received verbal feedback from the judges.  

Members in attendance at Nationals included (in no particular photo order): Alayna Young, Zola Krieger, Tiffany Hostetler, Katie Plank, Sophie Elliott, Tinley Krieger, Abigail Plank, Caroline Hobbs, Emma Hostetler, Synthea Doss, Hadley Blakey, Vaeda Spencer, Alayna Ard, Elizabeth Plank, Aubrie Payne, Brinnley Hobbs, Blair Camp, Gianna Krieger, Knox Weakly, Aubrey Young, Mara Inman, Kaylee Hostetler, Lexi Yoder, Adalee Foster, Sophie Foster, Miah Voegel, and Zoe Lynch.  

•July 23, 2025•

On Saturday, July 19th, at approximately 11:18 a.m., CECOM dispatched the Moultrie County Sheriff’s Office to the Coal Shaft Bridge area of Lake Shelbyville for a report of an unoccupied boat. Moultrie County then requested assistance from the Moultrie County Dive Team, the Shelby County Dive Team, the Sullivan Fire Department, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Illinois Department of Conservation Police to locate a missing boater. 

The missing boater was Billy J. Briscoe of Hidalgo Illinois. He was recovered by divers at 9:16 p.m. and pronounced dead at the scene at 9:21 p.m. by Moultrie County Coroner Lynn Reed. The drowning is being investigated by the Illinois Department of Conservation Police, the Moultrie County Sheriff’s Office, and the Moultrie County Coroner.

Same Road, different view

•July 23, 2025•

by Janet Roney

I have a 180-year-old couch sitting in my basement. My great-great-grandparents brought it from Kentucky to Moultrie County in a covered wagon over the Charleston Road. It was in the parlor of their “Kentucky T” house, southeast of Sullivan, forty years, where they seated guests visiting their two sons who were home on leave from the Civil War, participants in their frequent neighborhood “sings”, and mourners at the wakes of four of their children.

It spent the next sixty years in the parlor of the great-grandparents’ big red brick house in Sullivan; then, it was sent to the garage where Grandpa used it for his afternoon naps. In the 60s, it was back at the old farm in my brother’s garage where the dog slept on it, and a decade of kittens were born in its springs. In the 1970s, my brother heard me say, “You can’t burn that!” …and it was mine.