C.E.F.S. Moultrie County Outreach Office Welcomes New Outreach Coordinator

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Photo by Crystal Reed.
Allison Garrett, the new Outreach Coordinator at C.E.F.S. Moultrie County Outreach Office stocks the shelves in the food pantry last week.

•February 10, 20201•
by Crystal Reed
NP Writer

The C.E.F.S. Moultrie County Outreach Office has added a new outreach coordinator to their staff. Allison Garrett works closely with the housing counselor, rent assistance, energy assistance and food pantry.
She holds a bachelor in human services and community leadership from Eastern Illinois University. Garrett is originally from the Kankakee area but currently resides in Charleston. Prior to working at C.E.F.S. she worked at the YMCA in Mattoon. Read More

City Council Hears Citizens Concerns About Utility Rates

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Photo by Crystal Reed.
Chase Eller (right) receives a certificate from Mayor Richard Glazebrook (left) during the city council meeting. Eller recently saved a baby from choking when he was dining at a restaurant in Decatur.

•February 10, 20201•
by Crystal Reed
NP Writer

Citizens expressed their concerns about utility rates during Monday’s meeting of the Sullivan City Council. Allison Beard addressed the council saying her utility bill this past month was almost $400.
“My boyfriend has recently started going to work early every day of the week just so we can afford to pay this extremely high utility bill,” she said. Beard added that she has had several people reach out to her saying their bills are high as well.
Mayor Richard Glazebrook said the staff has put a lot of time in this and received a lot of calls. He said that the usage is up and is a lot more than it was last year. Read More

Backyard Bird Count

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Photo by Crystal Reed.
Backyard Bird Count
The Elizabeth Titus Memorial Library held a program last Thursday and Friday afternoon to educate visitors on birds and draw attention to the Backyard Bird Count which is taking place February 12-15. The library had various bird themed activities including painting a birdhouse from a repurposed 2 liter bottle. There were also stations that had bird beak simulations of a variety of birds including sparrows, woodpeckers, hawks, shorebirds and hummingbirds. According to www.birdcount.org, participating in the Backyard Bird Count involves simply watching birds for 15 minutes or more once over the four day period and submitting your observation list online at the website. Pictured above is Sammie Davison painting a bird house during the program.

Five-Year-Old and His Mother Rescue Neighbor From Pond

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•February 3, 20201•
By Crystal Reed
NP Writer

Late last summer Richard Isaacs, 79, of Sullivan had a small garden and decided it would be better to water it from a pond on his property; so he got a bucket, and when he stepped down to fill it, he went face first into the pond.
He yelled for help for about 40 minutes, but no one was outside to hear his cries. Eventually, Ashlee Florey and her five-year-old son Oliver were letting their dog out and heard yelling from the other side of the subdivision, roughly 100 feet away. Read More

Our Elections Are Safeguarded From Fraud

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•February 3, 20201•
By Ellen Ferrara
NP Guest Writer
When America’s founding fathers envisioned this new nation, they were united in the pledge that it would be a democracy governed by the will of the people and never by a king, dictator or autocrat.
To ensure that government of the people, by the people and for the people would long endure they created an election process whereby every citizen should have a free and equal vote to decide who would govern them. Over 200 years later, we still struggle with ensuring equality in our voting system.
In the most recent 2020 election there was an unprecedented assault on the validity of our election process – the very cornerstone of our democracy. Even the integrity of our United States Postal Service was compromised. This happened in part, I believe, because people do not know or understand completely how our election process works. There is so much more to it than just completing a ballot and inserting it into a machine. Read More

Bates Takes Third in District Contest

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•February 3, 20201•
By Crystal Reed
NP Writer

Sullivan High School sophomore Paul Bates took third in the district contest for the Veterans of Foreign Wars’ Voice of Democracy competition. Bates said that the district competition included entrants from the five surrounding counties.
His essay won at the high school level which advanced him to the district level. This year’s essay theme was “Is This The Country That The Founders Envisioned?”
Bates said that his essay focused on how the founder of our country set out to make us a free and properous nation and how he thinks that has come to friution. In addition to writing the actual essay he had to record himself reading the essay and place the file on a flash drive to be submitted.
“I thought it was a good way to get my opinion out there and good practice to learn to write better,” Bates said.

2021 Windsor High School Homecoming Court

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2021 Windsor High School Homecoming Court
Friday, January 22nd Windsor High School held a Covid style Homecoming coronation. Pictured is this years’ homecoming court.
Left to right: Freshmen Attendants Talon Bridges and Claire Sims, Sophomore Attendants Dylan Curry and Abby Carey, Junior Attendants Jack Welsh and Maddy Pfeiffer, 2021 Homecoming Queen Marylee Orman, 2021 Homecoming King Morgan Greuel, King and Queen Candidates Toby Kemper and Jessica Rauch and Jacob McQueen and Trinity Shupe.

Sullivan HS Student Saves Baby’s Life

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•February 3, 20201•
By Crystal Reed
NP Writer

Chase Eller, 16, of Sullivan is being called a hero after he stepped in while a baby was choking and saved the baby’s life. Last Friday evening, Eller while at dinner in Decatur with his girlfriend heard a baby coughing and then choking.
He saw the mom of the baby trying to help her choking baby but doing so incorrectly. He remembered from his health class that sticking your fingers down a choking baby’s mouth will only make the situation worse. Instead, Eller knew the right thing to do was turn the baby upside down and try to dislodge whatever was stuck in the baby’s throat; so Eller jumped into action. He said that he approached the mother and immediately turned the baby upside down and whatever was dislodged in the baby’s throat came loose. Read More