Carroll “Sonny” Chaney
Carroll “Sonny” Chaney, 87, of Decatur, passed away Tuesday, September 20, 2022, at his home at Randall Residence in Decatur.
Funeral services were Monday, September 26, at Brintlinger and Earl Funeral Home in Decatur. Burial was in Marrowbone Township Cemetery in Bethany. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made in Sonny’s honor to American Legion in Bethany. Read More
•September 28, 2022•
Mary Hutchings and Marlene Wirth, both of Sullivan, attended the 77th Effingham/Shelby Zone Fall Rally of the LWML, at St. John’s Lutheran Church, Louisville, Illinois on September 21, 2022. The theme for the day was, “Light up the Word with Christ. Reverend Stephen Rutherford of the host church led the opening service and Reverend Martin Eden, pastor from Our Redeemer Lutheran Church of Quincy, Illinois, was the keynote speaker.
In 2020, Reverend Eden began corresponding with Reverend Peter Maganda who is the Dean of the Seminary in the Eastern Deanery for the Lutheran Church of Uganda. Area mission monies have since helped with food supplies for the people of this very poor eastern African nation. Local mission monies also helped to purchase two motorcycles so the vicars can travel to remote villages. Also, money has come to them to purchase six acres of land in Uganda to build a Lutheran church and a boarding school with dormitories. Read More
•September 28, 2022•
Lakeview College of Nursing recently held a White Coat Ceremony to recognize students who achieved the transition into clinical practice within their bachelor’s degree nursing program. Area students who were honored include the following:
Dakota Clayton of Sullivan. Clayton attends the College’s Charleston Campus and Zachary Lensink of Mattoon. Lensink attends the College’s Charleston Campus.
About 25 Lakeview students participated in the recently held event at the Paris Fine Arts Center in Paris, IL. Read More
•September 28, 2022•
by Ariana R. Cherry
NP Writer
Members of the ALAH School Board went into a closed session Wednesday, September 21, for a grievance hearing after opening their meeting and going over communication that was received. After a short time, the board returned and made a motion to deny the grievance.
Once again, a budget hearing was held for the tentative 2023 school district budget. Superintendent Shannon Cheek stated that nothing had changed with the budget, and it had been displayed publicly for the past 30 days. He reiterated what was mentioned at last month’s hearing.
“We tried to be as conservative as possible when we were building the budget and overestimated on expenses.” Last month Cheek informed the board that the ALAH District is considered a Tier 3 school and that it has been operating at 90% adequacy. Although he mentioned that the increase in funding received was pretty minimal as the district received only about $22,000 extra.
Some of the amounts calculated in the budget were as follows: the projected balances for 6/30/23 are as noted: Education Fund: $4,273,025; Operation and Maintenance: $1,738,757; Transportation: $375,056; Working Cash: 880,253 which makes the subtotal of operating funds at 7,267,091. Board members voted to approve the FY2023 Budget as presented. Read More
Pictured above are Sullivan High School cheerleaders and students in the early 1960’s. Please submit photos to the News Progress for future consideration. Originals will be saved for return or forwarded to Moultrie County Historical Society. If you have any other information, please contact the Moultrie County Historical Society at 217-728- 4085.
•September 28, 2022•
By Jim Baumann
NP Guest Writer
I was decluttering recently and happened upon my lab journals from some of the engineering courses I took in college.
I’ve always had it in my mind that I could be an inventor, whether they be things or words. I failed miserably at the former, so I’ve focused on the latter.
In one class, my lab partner, John Wayne (I kid you not), and I worked up a concept for a gizmo that would eject a cassette tape, flip the tape to the B side and play it, then eject it and load another tape from a carousel.
Think of a jukebox, but less sensible.
Sure, it would have been difficult to retrofit it for anything but my Sankyo stereo cassette deck, and it would have been about the size of a Costco shopping cart, but we thought we were onto something.
That was in 1982, just before Sony entered the market with the first commercially produced compact disc player.
That was the death knell for cassettes. And not long after that, I abandoned engineering for the word business.
Fast forward (pun unintended, but I’ll keep it) 40 years. My wife and I were planting a tree last weekend, and my buddy Kevin lent me a pair of shovels and a mattock. Read More
25 Years Ago This Week
Sullivan observed Homecoming and announced their attendants and queen candidates. Junior Jodi Pound; sophomore Georgia Rollins; freshman Amanda Martin; seniors Tiffany Bone, Erica Keown, Brooke Coy and Jennifer Sanner.
Phyllis Schultz of Arthur was selected as Moultrie County’s Outstanding Senior Volunteer.
The Arthur-Lovington Knights football team pounded Illiopolis 29-7 in Little Okaw Valley Conference play. Read More
Photo by Crystal Reed
Lane Richardson pours a cup of tea during the English tea that was held in Mrs. Kirby’s classroom last Monday at Sullivan High School in observance of the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.
•September 28, 2022•
by Crystal Reed
NP Writer
Marsha Kirby’s AP History class held a traditional English tea and viewed the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in their classroom Monday, September 19. Served was a variety of teas with sugar, honey and milk which could be added as well as three types of Danish, scones, brownie bites and lemon cookies. In preparation for this, the class spent a short amount of time looking up traditional English tea customs and recipes. Read More
Photo by Crystal Reed
Car Accident at Intersection
On Wednesday, September 21 at 1:30 pm there was a car accident at the intersection of South Hamilton and West Water. Due to a City of Sullivan vehicle being involved the Moultrie County Sheriff’s Office handled the investigation. There were no injuries. A ticket was issued to the driver of the car.
•September 28, 2022•
by Crystal Reed
NP Writer
The Sullivan City Council tabled an ordinance amendment during Monday’s meeting that would amend a zoning ordinance to establish a general commercial district on the square. Language in that ordinance would not allow apartments of residential living space on the ground floor or at street level. This item drew several people to the meeting to express their concerns.
Cathrine Craig who is in favor of the ordinance amendment spoke at the meeting. “As a business owner downtown, I appreciate the fact of those that have residences downtown but to add residences downtown makes the downtown a neighborhood and not a retail establishment for visitors to visit our community,” she said. A common statement from those commenting was that they were not informed by the council or the Sullivan Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development this was going to be discussed. Read More