News Progress

•December 11, 2024•

by E. Scott England

The Sullivan CUSD #300 school board held its regularly scheduled December meeting this past Monday. Both Zachary Hughes and Joshue Green were absent. There were far fewer guests than the previous month as well as no volunteers to talk during the citizen non-agenda items.

The evening got started with updates from the Spanish Club. They have been quite busy collecting nonperishable items for families in need. The club then partnered with the organization Baby Talk to help get the collected items distributed to around five families. Club members also made cookies to deliver to various organizations around town as well as sing Christmas carols in Spanish.

•December 4, 2024•

Moultrie County has been issued a tentative property assessment equalization factor of 1.0000, according to David Harris, director of the Illinois Department of Revenue (IDOR). 

 The property assessment equalization factor, often called the “multiplier,” is the method used to achieve uniform property assessments among counties, as required by law. This equalization is particularly important because some of the state’s 6,600 local taxing districts overlap into two or more counties (e.g., school districts, junior college districts, fire protection districts). If there was no equalization among counties, substantial inequities among taxpayers with comparable properties would result. 

•November 27, 2024•

by Megan Russell  

Sullivan has officially started the festive season with the set-up and decorating of the very large Christmas tree on the square. The tree set-up, spanning over two to three days, is a hometown tradition of the season, marking a point of no return into the holiday. Groups of two to four people, two on the lift and two watching the ground, began day two of set-up for the tree. Filling the monstrous wire base with dark green leaves and a mixture of silver, red and green matte and glossy ornaments.  The set-up crew started to decorate from the top of the tree and had close to five plastic totes filled with decorations accompanied by two large bags filled with even more décor for the grandiose tree. While the weather warmed up for the decorating of the tree on Tuesday, November 19th, the workers tasked with setting the large tree rings up the day prior were subjected to chilling winds and rain while assembling the metal bits, securing the base for the heavy leaves and ornaments. The tree can be seen in full on the corner of East Harrison and South Washington, next to the Metro Communications building. The tree, now taller than the building stands to beautify the downtown area for the festive season as an opportunity to give back to the community of which Metro grew and gained support.