•March 3, 2016•
The Strasburg Lions Club will hold an all you can eat fish fry on Friday, March 11th. The Lions will be serving fried fish, scalloped potatoes, applesauce and slaw from 4:30 to 7 pm at the Strasburg Community Center (East of Marathon Gas Station). The AYCE fish fry will be free will donation. Donations go towards park improvements and upkeep.
Area Agencies Respond
•March 2, 2016•
By Mike Brothers
Moultrie County Emergency Services and Disaster is coordinating an Active Shooter Training exercise with Sullivan schools March 9.
Local ESDA Coordinator Jan Haegan said this full scale exercise will involve radio chatter during the time period.
“This is an active shooter attempting to enter the school,” Haegan said, explaining the radio conversations will be identified as a simulation, and the general public shouldn’t be alarmed.
Haegan also cautioned residents they shouldn’t try to come to the scene of the training exercise.
He explained that the area will be restricted with first responders from the police, sheriff, fire, paramedics, health department, coroner, the state police and District #10 Rapid Shooter response team all on hand along with ESDA coordinators.
School districts and emergency services are required periodic training with an operation of this scale required only every eight years.
March 9 is an inservice day with school dismissing at noon. The active shooter scenario will be conducted at the high school following dismissal with elementary and middle school teachers acting as students.
“A retired police officer will pose as the intruder,” Haegan said, noting each agency will go through established procedures as if the event were actually happening. Read More
•March 2, 2016•
Sullivan IGA and Agri-Fab are joining forces to help raise funds for the CEFS Food Pantry through March 12.
“When we found out Agri-Fab was planning a food pantry drive from Cindy, one of our cashiers, it just made sense to see if we could work together,” IGA manager Pat Stinson said of the new approach to helping the CEFS Food Pantry in Sullivan.
From March 6-12 the Sullivan grocer will give people a chance to round up their grocery bill to the next dollar. That amount will be donated toward purchasing food for the pantry.
Agri-Fab volunteers will be on the Sullivan IGA parking lot from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, March 12.
In addition to their own collection efforts among employees, Agri -Fab will provide reusable food bags for individuals to fill and donate to the food pantry. Read More
Photo by Mike Brothers
Who reached 21 first? C.J. Walker (right) actually turned 21 February 14, before great-grandfather Tom Florey turns 21 on February 29.
Finally Turns Twenty one
•February 24, 2016•
By Mike Brothers
Thomas Addison Florey is a Leap Year child, and February 29, 2016 is his 21st birthday.
That’s correct; the Bethany native was born February 29, 1932, and he is technically not old enough to drink.
Still living in Bethany and driving around in his recently purchased Chrysler Town and Country Caravan, Tom will be joined by his family 2-4 p.m. Sunday, February 28 for an open house at the Bethany Firehouse.
“You know I don’t get too excited about it anymore,” the soon to be 84 year old Florey said.
He explained his middle name Addison was shared by his father and grandfather.
“When I was a kid, my family always celebrated my birthday on March 1,” he said, recalling his great-aunt who lived in Flora was also a Leap Year child.
Florey said when he met Darlene Dick and they were married June 17, 1951, friends and family kidded her about robbing the cradle.
“Shoot, I didn’t turn four years old until February 1952,” he said with a laugh. Read More
Ray Reed at 23
•February 24, 2016•
Ray Reed of Sullivan is a Leap Year child, and this Monday, February 29, Ray will turn 23 years old.
“Or 92 if you’re counting,” Ray quipped. “You know I have done just about everything there is to do in life.”
He started reeling off some of the things he has done.
“I’ve sold about everything a person can sell from cars and real estate to appliances and paint.”
At one point Reed rebuilt carburetors and generators at the local auto dealership in Shelbyville. “You know cars don’t even have carburetors and generators any more,” he said of the changing times.
He spent 21 years working as an electrician for the railroad, but not before he got a serious lesson about electricity.
“I got hold of a saw with a short in it and grabbed a steel bar,” Ray recalled of his first experience.
“It almost killed me so I decided I better learn how to deal with this stuff.”
He even spent a few years as a television repair man, making house calls with a bag full of replacement tubes. Read More
New Health Courses from Lake Land Community College offered
•February 24, 2016•
By Ariana Cherry
For the News Progress
All funds are in the black, but the transportation fund is a concern, Superintendent Kenny Schwengel told board members at the last Arthur-Lovington/Atwood-Hammond meeting.
“We spend about $80,000 a month. I think we will at least get one more mandated payment. We have only received one so far,” informed Schwengel.
“In order to cover the transportation fund, we may have to transfer money from the education fund,” he added. It was also noted that the Douglas County sales tax is coming in at what the district expected, as well as Piatt County. Last October, the district received $60,000.
ALAH junior and senior students interested in health occupations will have a chance to take courses offered by Lake Land College at Sarah Bush Lincoln. They will earn high school and college credit. Students would attend every day by choosing a morning or afternoon session. They would complete their regular courses at school and then provide their own transportation to Sarah Bush for the health occupational classes. Read More
Photo by Mike Brothers
Best Moultrie County Spellers: front from left: Zach Kursell, Alternate Brett Johnson, Carson Gillis, Sophie Floyd; second row: Natalie Lambdin, County Champion Reagan Crouse, Josie Hale, Aastha Patel; back row: Kenli Nettles, Robby LeCates and Alyssa Thompson.
•February 17, 2016•
Xenophobic was the word Reagan Crouse spelled correctly to win the Moultrie County Spelling Bee February 10.
Crouse edged fellow Sullivan seventh grader Brett Johnson after his attempt at “Guttural”. Johnson is alternate when Crouse competes in the Regional Bee March 19 in Decatur.
The County Spelling Bee was held at the Little Theatre in Sullivan, with 4-8 grade students from Lovington and Sullivan schools competing, after each had proven themselves the best spellers at their respective schools.
Sullivan schools Nichole Hendry read and pronounced the words for each of the 12 participating students. The county bee championship was decide in the 11th round of elimination.
The first round eliminated half of the field: Tarmac -Carson Gillis of Lovington; camaraderie - Sophie Floyd of Lovington; philharmonic - Natalie Lambdin of Lovington; esoteric - Kenli Nettles of Lovington; molasses-Lara Herschberger; resilience-Robby LeCates of Lovington. Read More
Ballots available online
•February 17, 2016•
By Mike Brothers
Specimen ballots for the March 15, 2016 General Primary Election are published as a special insert with the Wednesday, February 17 edition of the News Progress.
Included are both the Republican and Democratic specimen ballots along with one property sale proposition affecting the voters of Arthur.
This is the first year for the Unisyn Optical Scan and Touch Screen tabulating equipment. There will be a public test of the new system at 10 a.m. March 7 in the Elections Counting Center Room on the first floor of the Moultrie County Courthouse.
The grace period for registration and voting is February 17-March 15. With two forms of identification a voter may register, change name, or change an address at the county clerk’s office.
Voters wishing to vote by mail may obtain an application from the Moultrie County Clerk’s website http://www/moultriecountyil.com Read More
•February 17, 2016•
By Derek Pope
for the News Progress
Bethany city council members have shown a renewed interest in renovating the village’s downtown buildings following a proposal by the four co-owners of Bethany’s newest business—The Publisher.
The new establishment, currently Bethany’s only operating bar, took the place of the beleaguered Hired Hand Winery and Saloon after opening up shop in the now closed business’s buildings and purchasing the liquor license originally granted to the previous owners.
Although it is a fresh start for the bar’s proprietors, Ron Martin, Mike Sweeney, Pam Barker, and Heidi Bruns, they will still have to face some of the same obstacles that the Hired Hand encountered when alcohol sales became legal in Bethany nearly four years ago.
Not the least of these challenges will be repairing the image of open alcohol serving businesses in the village, chiefly in the eyes of Bethany’s board of trustees.
Last May Bethany’s city council members soured to the idea of subsidizing tavern style businesses after a dispute with the Hired Hand’s owners led to the revocation of a $48,000 TIF (Township Investment Funding) loan to renovate the heating and cooling system of the downtown buildings that housed the business. The deal ended up costing Muzzy’s Hometown Heating and Cooling, a locally owned HVAC business originally contracted to do the work, a sizable injection of business. At the time, village officials expressed their dismay that the downtown buildings would not receive necessary repairs and that the botched deal would have various other ripple effects beyond that. Read More
Photo Submitted
New Voting Equipment: Liberty Systems LLC partner Ken Gibson, County Clerk Georgia England and Election Deputy Jamie Helton prepared the system for operation last week.
Storage Capacity Increased
•February 10, 2016•
Touch screen voting is coming to Moultrie County elections this spring, giving electronic or traditional as a voting option , all with updatedcentralized tabulation equipment.
County Clerk Georgia England explained election judges will learn the new system’s operations during a March 8 training session.
Ken Gibson, of Liberty Systems LLC, the vendor for the new voter tabulation system, explained the county’s equipment was 25 years old and was reaching maximum memory capacity.
The new tabulation system can hold the entire county’s tabulations on one piece of equipment.
“Plus there is the capacity for future growth,” Gibson said. Read More