Photo by RR Best
Pictured is the head of buildings and grounds Rick Matthews illustrating the damage done to the courthouse over time.

•August 19, 2015•

By Mike Brothers

Moultrie County is sprucing up the courthouse.

On Thursday, August 20 the Moultrie County Board proceeded with the restoration of the exterior of the courthouse with a unanimous vote, based on the recommendation of Building and Grounds Committee chair Gary Smith.

Low bid of $203,755 was awarded Masons Masonry Restoration of Brownstown, Ill.

At the bid opening earlier in the week Tim Raibley from Architercture & Design Group Ltd of Mt. Carmel explained the basic bid was for 200 feet of crack repair and 50 large stone patches needed for the building. Raibley noted that Masons had just completed a similar project on the Richland County courthouse in Olney.

Board chair Dave McCabe explained the county intends to pay for the project from surplus funds.

“We’ve been building reserves,” McCabe said, noting an extra $100,000 loan payment on the jail will be deferred to the tuck pointing project this year.

Potential funding from the city of Sullivan is also being sought.

The serious failure of the tuckpointing is allowing moisture into the building.

A moisture situation on the third floor is among interior issues the board hopes the restoration project will address. McCabe said loose stones and tuckpointing issues on the courthouse came to the board’s attention about a year ago.

Moultrie County Courthouse was built in 1904 and has been well-maintained over the years.  Read More

Photo Courtesy the News•Progress Archives
Pictured is Pauline Briney working inside the former Moultrie County News offices. Briney was not only an avid writer and reporter for area newspapers but also a serious public servant that always strove to represent Findlay.

Pauline Briney remembered as loyal public servant

•August 5, 2015•

by Keith Stewart
keith@newsprogress.com

This past Saturday morning, family members of the late Pauline Briney gathered at her residence on 304 E. Division St. in Findlay to go over the abundance of articles, poetry, and photos that the former Findlay mayor and unofficial historian had written and collected over her 90 years.

Just outside her home about a block west on the main drag, the Findlay Walleye Festival parade was beginning–emergency sirens sounding as residents sat in lawn chairs on the boulevard–a sight and sound Briney no doubt had taken in countless times before and would have again had it not been for her passing just a week earlier. More ironic yet, the very festival that was once again underway had at one point been established by a committee on which Briney had served.

Served.

A word, or verb rather, of which Briney was not only familiar, but one that these days is attributed to her more than ever.

Briney–Reporter and Writer

“She loved being around people,” described Brett Robinson, one of her five grandchildren. “She loved social interaction.”

For Briney, who was born in Sullivan in 1924, that also translated to a love for church-going, and in particular, her membership to Faith Covenenant Church, for which she was also responsible for writing the church bulletin up until being admitted to the hospital in late May. Read More

Reduction in funding causes change of summer maintenance, insurance policies

•July 22, 2015•

by Ariana Cherry
Arthur/Sullivan Reporter

At their meeting last Wednesday, the Arthur-Lovington/Atwood-Hammond school board discussed being denied a fourth state aid payment and how that looks to impact projects.
“We didn’t receive our fourth payment from the state which equaled about $80,000, ” said Superintendent Kenny Schwingel.
While the district didn’t expect to receive that missed payment from the state, it did still put them short for funding toward extra projects. The district had several projects for summer maintenance that were needing to be done, but because of funding issues, they had to be put on hold for the next school year. The total cost of the maintenance projects was over $105,000, but after taking a second look at the list, it was narrowed down to $70,000. Some of the projects that were put on hold include putting up a second hitching post, new storage shed and repairing/replacing the entrance at Arthur Grade School. Read More

Village also hears petition concerning rental utilities

July 8, 2015

by Derek Pope
Bethany Reporter

At the end of May, Bethany’s first bar in decades decided to close—at least temporarily. The Hired Hand Winery and Saloon, located in Bethany’s downtown district, formally announced the closure on their Facebook page on May 31, pledging to return to business in August. The reason they cited for the closure was an extended family summer vacation, but the announcement came unexpectedly following the approval of a sizable loan from the village’s township investment funds (TIF) intended to aid in the business’s summer operations.
Prior to the village board’s approval of the loan in April, the owners of the Hired Hand and its sister business Echoes Studio, Shane and Erin Weybright, approached the village’s TIF committee with an appeal for funds that they deemed necessary for keeping the two establishments operational throughout the summer and ultimately in the months and years to come. They requested the necessary money to install a new heating, and more importantly, air conditioning system in the outdated downtown buildings that housed the businesses. The Hired Hand’s ownership said that during their first year of operation, the complete lack of an air conditioning system so badly hurt their summer business that it may ultimately be impossible to financially endure another summer without one.
Bethany’s TIF committee and village board ultimately agreed, approving a recommendation to award the Weybrights a $48,000 five-year forgivable loan, in part to improve the downtown buildings themselves, which must be repaid in part should the business permanently close or be sold within that time frame.
The decision was not without objections, though. Read More

Organizers now looking for another site

July 1, 2015

by Keith Stewart
keith@newsprogress.com

A special use permit filed in May for a zoo near Arthur has been withdrawn.
According to the Moultrie County planning and zoning officer Jan Haegan, James Aikman’s application for a special use permit for his wildlife park was withdrawn Monday afternoon.
Shortly thereafter, a post on the Facebook page Aikman Wildlife Adventure, which James Aikman confirmed as the project’s official page, explained the decision to withdrawal the application, citing the last zoning board of appeals meeting, which concluded with its members not recommending a permit for the zoo.
“The last meeting made it very apparent by the objectors that no matter what we do, nothing will ever be good enough,” read the post. Read More