News Progress

Now to compete for statewide honor

Photo by Keith Stewart
Moultrie County Clerk Georgia England was honored recently with clerk of the year for zone three, which comprises 21 counties in central Illinois. She will now have the chance of being selected as Illinois’ Clerk of the Year as one of four finalists. If selected, she could go on to be chosen as Illinois’ elected offical of the year.

by Barry Featheringill
Sullivan Reporter

Moultrie county clerk Georgia England was overwhelmed when at the zone three monthly meeting of Illinois Association of County Clerks & Recorders (IACCR) she was named “County Clerk of the Year”. So overwhelmed in fact, that upon returning to her office in Sullivan, she almost forgot to tell her staff.

England had no idea that she would even be nominated for the honor.

Zone 3 is made up of 21 counties (of the 102 counties in the state of Illinois) covering the east central counties from Clark to Christian then north to Woodford and then back to the state line at Kankakee.

In September all 102 county clerks will be voting on the county clerks of the year from all four zones of the state of Illinois. The county clerk selected as clerk of the year for the state will then compete for elected official for the year for the entire state competing against elected officials such as county treasurer, county coroner, and circuit clerk from all four zones

In 2001, when England’s husband Gerald, who was county clerk at the time, passed away, Georgia recalls her former boss Steve Wood telling her jokingly that she could do the job as he knew her work ethic and “if she didn’t take the county clerk position, she was fired”. Read More

ICC approval of transmission line, denial of parts, likely to be appealed

by Keith Stewart
keith@newsprogress.com

Courtesy of Ameren Transmission Company of Illinois
Moultrie County, show here, went largely unaffected by the Mt. Zion to Kansas portion of Ameren's Illinois Rivers Transmission Project that was approved, in part, Tuesday morning by the Illinois Commerce Commission.

In its expected order Tuesday morning, the Illinois Commerce Commission approved the Illinois Rivers Transmission Project, including the Mt. Zion to Kansas segment that largely detours around Moultrie. The approval came in the form of issuing a certificate of public convenience and necessity, but not without condemning the 150-day expedited procedure, though legally taken by Ameren Transmission Company of Illinois to complete this process.

At the open meeting held in Chicago, the commission voted 3-1 in favor of granting the certificate to ATXI, with chairman Doug Scott the lone opposition, while commissioner John Colgan was absent. Scott did begin the discussion by clarifying that his office had four edits to the order, all of which are inconsequential to the Mt. Zion-Kansas route itself. Read More