News Progress

Submitted photo
Avery and Oliver Florey leave the Okaw Valley Orchard with their Slushie and apple courtesy of the Orchard and Moultrie County Ag in the Classroom.

•October 7, 2020•
Submitted by Stephanie Naylor

Despite the many changes this year due to the Covid pandemic, Moultrie County Ag in the Classroom continues lessons for area elementary students. Coordinator Stephanie Naylor decided to think outside the box and provide a lesson to the students in September as well as partner with some area businesses this fall to promote education as well as business opportunities. Read More

•October 7, 2020•
By Ted Walk
Sullivan CUSD #300

As Sullivan Schools planned for the return of students during the summer, no one knew exactly what this fall would look like. While there are still a number of unknowns, it is clear that In-Person learning is going better than many people expected. We have approximately 90% of our students who have chosen In-Person instruction, with about 10% of students choosing our Remote Learning option.
After seven weeks of In-Person instruction, we have 0.07% of students and 0.00% of staff currently positive for Covid-19. There are also 0.87% of students and 0.00% of staff at home per Illinois Department of Public Health guidelines for possible exposure. Read More

•September 30, 2020•

On October 5 at 2:00 PM, Cheri Burcham, Family Life Educator for the University of Illinois Extension, will be facilitating “Wits Fitness Brain Exercise Class” virtually using the videoconferencing platform Zoom. Wits Fitness is designed to help participants exercise their brains to maintain and enhance cognitive function and memory. This class has been happening monthly in several locations for many years, but due to the pandemic, must be delivered virtually at this time. There is no cost to attend, but those interested must contact Burcham by e-mail at cburcham@illinois.edu to receive the instructions to log into the class. Read More

25 Years Ago This Week

According to a crime rate report, Moultrie was the safest of area counties.
A motorcycle and combine were involved in a traffic accident. A westbound motorcycle swerved in an attempt to pass a westbound combine on the right and crashed into a ditch on County Road 1350N.
Friends and neighbors pitched in to help with the harvest at the James A. Sharp farm near Bethany. Among those farmers who supplied equipment and helped were Jim Tipsword, Dale and Karen McKinney, Harry and Mark Bennett, Dale and Mike Bland, Daniel Cotner, John Bartimus, Bob Boyer, Bob Snyder, Gary Patterson. Additional drivers for the equipment included John Calhoun, John Monroe, Bill Ashley, Kevin McReynolds and the Rev. Dan Wright. Sharp was severely injured when his tractor was struck by a train in August.
Lovington had narrowed the field of candidates for police chief from ten to four. Read More

•September 30, 2020•
By Jim Baumann

The story pitch went a little something like this: “A new business is seeking permission from the village board to open an aqua-based crematorium. As proposed, human and animal remains would be cremated by a water-based solution, as opposed to the more commonly known flame-based method.”
Well, that’s a story I simply must read.
During my days at Prospect High School, I was unknown by most of the student body, except my cadre of nerds, a few sympathetic athletes and those who desperately wanted to copy my chemistry homework. I enjoyed surreptitious chemistry experiments in those days, when you could still get your hands on a bottle of mercury and didn’t worry about how dangerous it was. I knew that if you took a hunk of sodium out of its mineral oil bath and dropped it in a bucket of water, you would get a nasty exothermic reaction with fire and sparks and a lot of noise. I learned that day SODIUM BURNS IN WATER. I was not a bomb-maker, mind you. I was just curious about real-life reactions to that which I was reading about in class. It was stupid behavior that belied the A’s I was getting in class. Read More