•September 7, 2022•
After five years of service as Board Chair of the Local Workforce Innovation Board 23, Pat Click handed over the role of Chairman of the Board to Gareld Bilyew.
The Local Workforce Innovation Board 23 is a business-led policy and oversight board for workforce development programs and services across the 13 counties of Local Workforce Innovation Area 23 (LWIA 23). The Board is selected and reviewed by the Consortium of Chief Elected Officials (CEO). On June 20, 2022, the Local Workforce Innovation Board 23 voted in favor of electing Gareld Bilyew as the new Board Chair. Bilyew, who joined the Board in 2013, succeeds Pat Click, of McKellar, Robertson, McCarty, & Click Insurance, Ltd., who served as Chair since 2017. Read More
Three Promoted at Kirby Foods in Sullivan
Photo by Crystal Reed
Three employees at Kirby Foods have been promoted. Jessica Weaver (left) is the new bakery/deli assistant manager, Darla Bridges (center) is the new bakery/deli manager and Angela Cuttill (right) has been promoted to Director of Bakery/Deli for Kirby Foods.
•September 7, 2022•
Angela Cuttill has been promoted to the Director of Bakery/Deli for Kirby Food effective September 11. Angela started her career with Sullivan IGA/Kirby Foods in 2007, was promoted to Bakery Manager in 2009, and then Bakery/Deli Manager in 2011. She has held that position since, and has done an outstanding job growing the business over time. Angela will now oversee all 13 bakery/delis of Kirby Foods owned IGA’s.
Angela and her husband Jeff have been married 32 years and have three boys: Larry, Alan and Wes.
Taking Angela’s place at Sullivan will be Darla Bridges. Darla has been with Sullivan IGA/Kirby Foods since 2016, when she started as a Deli Clerk, she was then promoted to Head Cook in 2018, and has been Angela’s assistant in the deli since 2020. Darla has made great strides in her time with Kirby Foods and will do a great job taking over for Angela to lead the bakery/deli moving forward.
Jessica Weaver will be taking Darla’s place as Bakery/Deli Assistant Manager. She has been with Sullivan IGA/ Kirby Foods since 2021 and is looking forward to learning under Darla to help lead the department moving forward.
At a Remote Mental Health Facility, a Culture of Cruelty Persists Despite Decades of Warnings
Federal and state officials have urged reforms at the rural facility for people with mental and developmental disabilities. But the state-run center still has more allegations of abuse and neglect than any other in Illinois.
•September 7, 2022•
By Molly Parker
Lee Enterprises Midwest
Beth Hundsdorfer
Capitol News Illinois
This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with Capitol News Illinois and Lee Enterprises.
Over a year ago, the security chief at Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center in southern Illinois sent an email to the head of the state agency that operates the facility, warning her of dangerous conditions inside.
“What I am presently seeing occur at Choate and hearing occur at other facilities concerns me more than it has my entire career,” Barry Smoot, a decades-long IDHS employee, wrote to Illinois Department of Human Services Secretary Grace Hou on May 26, 2021. Among the recommendations he wanted to make: that cameras be installed inside the facility.
Hou responded that same day, agreeing to meet. Read More
Former Moultrie County Clerk Receives Awards
•September 7, 2022•
Presenter Robin Harper-Whitehead stated on August 23, 2022, that the Illinois Association of County Clerks and Recorders has never had a tie for County Clerk of the Year - until this year, and it was an honor to present the award to former Moultrie County Clerk Georgia England and Warren County Clerk Tina Conard.
England assumed the Moultrie County Clerk and Recorder position in June 2001 when she was appointed following the death of the previous clerk, her husband, Gerald “Griz” England. She ran for re-election, unopposed, for five additional terms. England faithfully, dutifully, and timelessly served Moultrie County until her retirement in mid-July 2022. Read More
Senior Heifer Calf Champion
Photo by Cindy Cagwin-Johnston
Senior Heifer Calf Champion
Dameron Northern Miss 1201 won senior heifer calf champion at the 2022 Illinois State Fair Roll of Victory (ROV) Angus Show, Aug. 15 in Springfield, Ill. Quentin Day, Lovington, Ill., owns the winning heifer.
A New and Faster Way to Request a Social Security Card
•September 7, 2022•
By Ileana Saveley
Socoal Security District
Manager in Decatur, IL
Do you need an original or replacement Social Security Number card? We now have a new – and faster – way for you to start online. When you go to our Social Security Number and Card webpage at www.ssa.gov/ssnumber, we now ask you a series of questions to determine whether you can:
· Complete the application process online.
· Start the application process online, then bring any required documents to your local office to complete the application, typically in less time. Read More
Facts for Families: Monarchs, Milkweed and Mowing
•September 7, 2022•
By Cheri Burcham
Family Life Educator
Most people that know me know that I am very passionate about protecting monarch butterflies. Their numbers have been rapidly declining each year, primarily due to loss of habitat. So recently when I turned onto the country road leading to my house and saw that the ditches that had been full of milkweed were completely mowed down, I thought it would be appropriate to republish this article from 2018. Read More
Thank God for Our Uniqueness or Without Thomas Edison Where Would We Be?
•September 7, 2022•
by Sarah Hudson Pierce
NP Guest Writer
If Thomas Edison hadn’t been kicked out of school, after only three months in the first grade, and his mother taught him at home because his teacher said “he was addled and his mind wandered in class,” we might not have the light bulb today.
Thomas Edison was asked one time what he would have done if he hadn’t invented the light bulb and he replied “I would still be in there trying...”
Why is it that we often try to put everyone in the same mold? Why do we want to categorize what is important and what has value only with the grade placed on it by those in authority? Read More
Letter to the Editor: 9-7-2022
Dear Editor:
September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. As a volunteer advocate with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, I am calling on my members of Congress to pass legislation to prevent suicides and support crisis care. Read More
Remember When? 9-7-2022
25 Years Ago This Week
Workers completed basic construction on a new handicapped accessible fishing pier on Wyman Park Lake. Guard rails would also be added. The pier was constructed on the site where a swimming pier existed many years ago.
Moultrie County was one step close to having a new animal control facility. Read More