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Five Tips for Grandparents Raising Grandchildren

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•April 13, 2022•
Cheri Burcham
Extension Educator
University of Illinois Extension

Often grandparenting means a weekend with grandchildren every now and then, an evening babysitting, a summer vacation, or chats on the phone and Facetime here and there. But when life circumstances change, grandparents often assume full- or part-time responsibility for their grandchildren. Here is another great article from Eastern Illinois University Graduate Student Kayli Worthey:
Many grandparents are now taking on the parenting role for their grandchildren, changing the traditional grandparent/grandchild relationship. According to the Pew Charitable Trusts, 2.5 million children were living with grandparents who were responsible for their care in 2005. In 2015, that number rose to 2.9 million (Wiltz, 2016).
There are many different reasons grandparents assume the primary parenting role, including family crises like disability of child or parent, death, divorce, deportation, incarceration, or military deployment. Others may raise their grandchildren due to state removal from parental care because of parental substance abuse, abuse, and neglect, unemployment, mental or physical illnesses, or child abandonment (Wiltz, 2016). Read More

Lake Shelbyville Fish Habitat Day 2022

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Photo furnished
Lake Shelbyville Fish Habitat Alliance Receives Award
An award was given to the Lake Shelbyville Fish Habitat Alliance (LSFHA) from The Corps Foundation in recognition of an outstanding and valuable partnership agreement between the LSFHA and the Corps of Engineers. This was a pretty big deal because this partnership between the Corps of Engineers at Lake Shelbyville and the LSFHA was selected out of all of the Corps Projects Nationwide, which number close to 460. The award was actually for the year 2019 but due to Covid-19 and finding a suitable time to present the award, it was just now formally presented to LSFHA. Approximately 650 Christmas trees and 160 artificial fish structures were dropped in the Lake on Sunday, March 27. From left: Mike Mounce - Former IDNR Fisheries Biologist, Bob Kearns - Lake Shelbyville Fish Habitat Alliance, Chip Christensen - Chip’s Marine & Lake Shelbyville Fish Habitat Alliance, Phil Manhart - Lake Shelbyville Assistant Operations Manager.

Photo furnished
Lake Shelbyville Fish Habitat Improvement Day
Lake Shelbyville cubes are prepared to load onto boats where they were taken into the lake and placed on Sunday, March 27. The cubes are 4 feet square and 5 feet tall and give small fish cover in the lake. The cubes were placed by the Lake Shelbyville Fish Habitat Alliance and volunteers.

State Fire Marshal Awards $2.5 Million in Grants to Illinois First Responders

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•April 13, 2022•
The Office of the Illinois State Fire Marshal (OSFM) has announced the recipients of the 2022 Small Equipment Grant Program. A total of $2.5 million was awarded to 104 fire departments/districts and EMS providers across the state. The program was established to provide grants of up to $26,000 each for the purchase of small firefighting and ambulance equipment.
Bethany Fire Protection District is a recipient of a $19,000 grant. “All communities deserve safety, and this program helps ensure our smaller and rural fire districts aren’t left behind when it comes to the tools they need to do their jobs,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “I’m proud to be able to provide more than 100 districts with new lifesaving equipment. It’s another way we can demonstrate our gratitude for all that they do to help their neighbors live safely.” Read More

Moultrie Moment of the Week

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Pictured is the Lovington High School baseball team. Team members pictured: front row left to right - Alan Sautelet, Kent Cole, Mike Reedy, Jerry Born, Jim Murphy, Ron Miller, John Mechling, and Joe Wm. Smith. Back row left to right - Chris Long, Manager, Allen Bell, Steve Wall, Jeff Simpson, Ed Webb, Steve Fleming, Dave Elliott, Phil Edrington, Allen Hall, Coach (not pictured are Sid Ferguson, Rick Phillips, Mitch Dawson, Bill Eads, and Dennis Woodard). 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.

On Punctuation and Perspective

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•April 13, 2022•
By Jim Baumann
NP Guest Writer

Many of you are kind enough to share with me multiple forwarded collections of embarrassing headlines from other newspapers, unfortunate misspellings or captions, punctuation puns and dirty limericks.
Even I’ve shared a few. And I’ve gone so far as to debunk some headlines that were doctored to look bad when they were perfectly fine.
Today, I rooted around for my own truffles. I found something on Facebook that for the briefest of moments made me believe the social media leviathan might be redeemable: a group called “The English Teacher’s Daughter.”
Check it out. It’s a bit like a grown-up version of this column.
There I found a well-worn bit that proves the power of punctuation as well as our inherent biases. Read More

Remember When? 4-13-2022

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25 Years Ago This Week

D. Joann Grove took her place at the center of the Bethany Village Board table replacing Bethany Village President Don Gibbons, who did not seek re-election. Punch Martin joined Grove at the table as a new village trustee. Incumbents Terry Muzzy, Norm Yoder and Village Clerk Shirley Underwood were also re-elected.
The Sullivan City Council adopted a new policy on overdue utility bills. The bill policy said that “all customers must pay their current month’s utility charges within the 20 days allowed. Any delinquent balance which has accumulated must also be paid.” Then it said they would also allow the customer until September to pay that delinquent balance in four equal installments. Read More

Easter Egg Hunt April 9, 2022

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Photo by Crystal Reed
Hunting for Easter eggs
The egg hunt was held at 1 pm on Saturday, April 9. Pictured are two ladies running towards the eggs while carrying their children and containers to gather the eggs.

Photo by Crystal Reed
Enjoying the Egg Hunt
The Cummings family came to the Sullivan egg hunt and enjoyed getting a close up look at a tractor. Pictured are Lane, Kenzlee, Lydia, Luke and Lylah Cummings.

Photo by Crystal Reed
Antique Fire Truck
At Courtyard Estates of Sullivan’s egg hunt, children and their families were able to get a closer look at fire trucks and emergency vehicles from Sullivan Fire Department, IDOT plows, a tractor and an antique fire truck. Trying out the antique fire truck were Raelynn and Zander Dyer.

Photo by Crystal Reed
Petting Zoo
One of the activities at Courtyard Estates for the Easter Egg Hunt was a petting zoo. Children and their families could interact with chickens, goats, llamas and other animals. Pictured is Jasper Rhodes with one of the goats.

Photo by Crystal Reed
Easter Eggstravaganza
Courtyard Estates of Sullivan hosted an Easter egg hunt and bicycle raffle on Saturday, April 9. Pictured with the Easter bunny are Keely Warren and Haleigh Nation.

Photo by Crystal Reed
Balloon Artist
Patti Woods (right), of Paddi’s Air Filled Fun, was making balloon creations for children at the Easter Egg Hunt in Sullivan. Pictured with Patti are Kyle and Elijah Gabbard.

Farm Credit Illinois makes $25,000 Donation to Illinois Amish Heritage Center

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Photo by Crystal Reed
Angi Carter,Vice President, Lending of Farm Credit Illinois (left), presents a check to Wilmer Otto, President of the Illinois Amish Heritage Center (right). Also pictured in back is local farmer Levi Yoder and Jim Fleming.

•April 13, 2022•
The 2022 season for the Illinois Amish Heritage Center (IAHC) began with a celebration lunch on April 5, during which Farm Credit Illinois presented a $25,000 check toward its $50,000 commitment. In recognition of their generosity, the Gathering Pavilion will soon have installed the Center’s first donor plaque on which Farm Credit Illinois will be honored. Read More

City Council Approves Net Metering Ordinance Amendment

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•April 13, 2022•
by Crystal Reed
NP Writer

The Sullivan City Council approved an ordinance amendment for net metering of the revised code of ordinances of the city of Sullivan during their meeting on Monday. The ordinance affects those who are producing solar energy in the city. There is currently one customer who does so, but they have had inquiries from other residents.
Mayor Richard Glazebrook noted that the ordinance has the city allowing solar with no caps. The intent is to put this in place. Commissioner Mike Fowler added that there are other parts of the ordinance which need to be cleaned up.
Commissioner Abbey Sherwood said the new ordinance is replacing the old ordinance. “There’s more to the solar than just the ordinance,” Fowler replied.
Glazebrook said they are going to net metering. Read More