•March 3, 2021•
By Jim Baumann
NP Guest Writer

When I was a lad, I thought “antidisestablishmentarianism” was the longest English word. I would wow people — or thought I wowed people — when I shared this tidbit with them in what must have been a series of random encounters.
I was impressed that it contains more letters than there are in the alphabet.
Of course, we didn’t have the internet then, so I figured that out by READING THE DICTIONARY.
I was a precocious and voracious reader. I think I might have just gotten bored midway through the A’s and figured that word was long enough for me. Read More

•March 3, 2021•
Lake Land College partnered with the online therapy platform BetterMynd to offer students access to online therapy sessions with a diverse network of licensed mental health counselors. Through the partnership, each Lake Land College student can access up to six free online therapy sessions each year on the BetterMynd platform. These live video sessions are private, confidential, and can take place from the convenience of a laptop or smartphone. Read More

•March 3, 2021•
Moultrie County has been issued a final property assessment equalization factor of 1.0000, according to David Harris, Director of the Illinois Department of Revenue.
The property assessment equalization factor, often called the “multiplier”, is the method used to achieve uniform property assessments among counties, as required by law. This equalization is particularly important because some of the state’s 6,600 local taxing districts overlap into two or more counties (e.g. school districts, junior college districts, fire protection districts). If there were no equalization among counties, substantial inequities among taxpayers with comparable properties would result.
Under a law passed in 1975, property in Illinois should be assessed at one-third (1/3) of its market value. Farm property is assessed differently, with farm homesites and dwellings subject to regular assessing and equalization procedures, but with farmland assessed at one-third of its agriculture economic value. Farmland is not subject to the state equalization factor.
Assessments in Moultrie County are at 33.24 percent of market value, based on sales of properties in 2017, 2018, and 2019. Read More

•March 3, 2021•
The Court Reporting Technology Degree program is a new special admission program at Lake Land College beginning Fall 2021. The introduction of the program follows the increased high demand for court reporting and closed-captioning professionals throughout the nation.
Lake Land College business faculty worked closely with area court reporters to create the degree program, which will train students for careers in the judicial setting as either official or freelance court reporters. The program also provides students with the option to attain a captioning specialization, which prepares students for careers providing captioning for broadcast television and internet programs and working with the deaf or hard-of-hearing population by providing an accurate word-for-word text translation in education, civic and corporate settings. Read More

25 Years Ago This Week

An estimated 1,500 people gathered to see Sullivan’s new $5.6 million elementary school for the first time. The ceremony was capped by the official presentation of the school by the builders-- Jim Graham of Graham, O’Shea & Hyde Architects and Tim Erickson of Williams Brothers Construction-- to Elementary Principal Rita Florey and six students representing the grade levels at the new school. The school district plans on moving into the new facility March 5, less than a year from the beginning of construction. The $5,650,000 total cost includes furniture, equipment, landscaping, site development, fees and all construction costs. The school contains 24 regular classrooms and seven specialized classrooms. Read More