•August 23, 2023•

by Ariana R. Cherry

The 2023-2024 FY Tentative Budget was approved at the school board meeting Wednesday, August 16. “We try to be as conservative as possible when we put these numbers together. It is a solid budget, and we fell into tier four this year,” Superintendent Shannon Cheek stated. The EAV dollars and enrollment are how the state decides how much funding the school district will receive and what tier it is put into. The ALAH district received an additional $890.

“Our EAV continues to grow each year, but when your enrollment is dropping, that is not such a good thing. But even with those two factors, I feel like we have built a pretty solid budget. We fell into the black this year, but the fund that we need to monitor the most is our transportation fund. Those rates continue to go up. We are projecting a deficit in that account and will have to monitor and see what happens. There is a chance that we might need to do a transfer of funds,” explained Cheek. Read More

•August 23, 2023•

On Friday, August 18, 2023, the Moultrie County Sheriff’s Office, with the assistance of Homeland Security Investigations and the Lovington Police Department, arrested Kaushal S. Patel, age 30, of Oaklawn, Illinois, for the felony offense of theft by deception.

The Moultrie County Sheriff’s Office received a complaint of a resident receiving multiple phone calls from an unknown caller. Read More

•August 16, 2023•

by Crystal Reed

The Moultrie County Board held a regular meeting Thursday, August 10. All board members except for Marsha Kirby were present. 

Alex Hansen of Liberty Systems, the supplier of the county’s voting equipment provider for the last 17 years, came to answer questions that county board member Scott Buxton had asked at last month’s meeting. The system they use is manufactured and developed in California. She said they are required to support voting systems for 10 years after purchase.

Hansen said the county’s current tabulators are in good condition, and they have not had any issues with them. The tabulators are stored in Moultrie County, and any work the company does on them to get ready for the election is done in county as well as maintenance, testing and audits. Read More

•July 12, 2023•
by Crystal Reed

The Sullivan City Council held a regular meeting Monday, July 10. Commissioner Doug Shook attended the meeting via phone.
Nancy Barker inquired about the possibility of a new restaurant going in by State Farm, and Mayor Mossman said he didn’t know anything about it.
Under the consent agenda passed by the council was the approval of minutes of the regular meeting held on June 26 and the special meeting held on June 30, approval of claims, approval of a project authorization with Milano and Grunloh for the design and construction engineering on the sanitary sewer extension to the lumber company, approval of banking resolution 23-R, approval of pay estimate #1 for $267,707.48 to Beniach Construction for the Industrial Way project, approval of pay estimated #8 for $33,250.00 to Grunloh Construction, Inc. for the Water Treatment Plant project and approval of pay estimate #12 for $483,754.58 to Grunloh Building for the Water Treatment Plant project.
Commissioner Abbey Sherwood thanked Theresa Poland for painting the dugouts. She noted that the splash pad equipment has been delivered, and it is hoped construction will start this fall and be finished in the spring. Read More