Photo by Crystal Reed
OVHS Senior Citizens Christmas Dinner
The 50th Annual Senior Citizens Christmas Dinner provided by the Okaw Valley School District was held on Friday, December 9 in the high school cafeteria. Music was provided by students who were accompanied on piano by Kathy Doty. Pictured in no order are Garrett Ferguson, Eli Peters, Sayj Jean, Kayla Fleshner and Lydia Webner.
Photo furnished
University of Illinois Extension Family Life Educator Cheri Burcham recently received team awards for her contributions in the Illinois Strong Couples program. She is pictured fifth from the left in the photo.
•December 14, 2022•
University of Illinois Extension Family Life Educator, Cheri Burcham, recently received team awards for her contributions in the Illinois Strong Couples program. She and the team received the second place Innovation in Programming award at the annual National Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences conference held in Raleigh, North Carolina in September, and a Team Excellence award at the annual University of Illinois Extension conference held in Champaign in November. Read More
Photo by Crystal Reed
Marsha Griffin, a Community Outreach Liaison for the Office of the Illinois Attorney General was the guest speaker at Dine with a Doc on Tuesday, December 6th and Mid-Illinois Senior Services, Inc. She spoke to seniors about different types of scams.
•December 14, 2022•
by Crystal Reed
Dine with a Doc, a free program for seniors to hear about an educational topic and enjoy a complimentary lunch, was held December 6 at Mid-Illinois Senior Services, Inc. in Sullivan. Senior Education Ministries offers the program in order to extend God’s grace. The program is a community effort by Senior Education Ministries, a doctor, a meal sponsor, area businesses, donated venue site and senior citizens.
Marsha Griffin, a community outreach liaison for the Office of the Illinois Attorney General, works in the Regional Office located in Carbondale. Prior to coming to the Office of the Illinois Attorney General, she was an elementary school teacher for 13 years.
Griffin said sometimes when people hear about the office, they think of their local state’s attorney’s office; however, their roles are very different. The Office of the Illinois Attorney General has three responsibilities--to advocate on behalf of all Illinoisians, litigate and sometimes file class action lawsuits and work with members of the Illinois General Assembly to pass laws which would benefit Illinoisians. They have more than 40 different divisions including the consumer protection division, their largest. Read More
•December 14, 2022•
by Crystal Reed
The Sullivan City Council meeting began with a public hearing on the levy and assessment of taxes for the fiscal year beginning May 1, 2022 and ending April 30, 2023. The total levy is $1,204,613 which is up from prior years because TIF 1 has expired. Treasurer Sarah Golden said the tax rate is no higher than it was 10 years ago and the public will not see their tax bills go up.
The council addressed several items in regard to TIF District 4. The first item authorized the execution of a Professional Services Agreement with Jacob and Klein, LTS, The Economic Development Group and city of Sullivan. The group will provide technical advice to assist the city with the TIF.
Another resolution was a third amendment to Sullivan Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District 4 Central Properties and Investments, LLC Redevelopment Project. Mayor Richard Glazebrook said the area is located on Hamilton Street on the east side across from Industrial Way Road and will be apartments. The third item was another proposed third amendment to TIF 4 Legacy Post Frame Home, LLC Redevelopment Project. Read More
Photo by Crystal Reed
Metro Communications Places Christmas Tree
A new Christmas Tree has been placed in Downtown Sullivan Illinois by Metro Communications. The tree was installed next to the Metro building on the corner of Harrison and Washington streets. Metro employees spent several days out in the chilly weather assembling and decorating the tree. Multiple motorized lifts had to be used to raise workers up to reach the highest of the branches. The artificial evergreen has been covered with silver, gold, red and green ornaments. The biggest size of the metallic spheres has a circumference of 24 inches. The Sullivan Chamber and Economic Development organization partnered on this project. Laurrie Minor, the Director of The S.C.E.D., said her organization is incredibly happy to be able to share Metro’s generosity with the community.
•December 7, 2022•
by Crystal Reed
On Friday, December 10, 2021, at about 9:50 p.m., a tornado touched down south of Windsor. Thankfully, no one was injured or killed that night. At that time the National Weather Service at Lincoln said when the tornado touched down, it caused the loss of roof panels to a farm outbuilding.
Then the tornado strengthened, causing total destruction of a farm outbuilding and breaking wood power poles southeast of Windsor. South Central FS saw significant damage west of Gays with numerous buildings damaged or destroyed, and three large tanker trucks were flipped. Read More
•December 7, 2022•
by Crystal Reed
The Windsor School Board made the decision to renovate the 1980 Addition of the Junior Senior High during their November 16 school board meeting. For four to five months, Windsor Superintendent Erik Van Hoveln and the board had been tossing around the idea of whether to renovate or build an addition onto the school. It was determined that it would be a better option to renovate.
Renovations will include upgrades to the ladies’ restroom near the gym making it ADA compliant, new flooring, new sinks, new stalls, new paint and ceiling. The gymnasium will get new bleachers, and the floor will be resurfaced, making it ADA compliant, and the new Hatchets logo will go on the floor. Van Hoveln said that in 2006 the volleyball lines were painted in the gym and that over the years they have blended into the floor due to fading and the oil-based seal of the gym floor. Read More
Photo by Crystal Reed
Singing Christmas Carols
This group of ladies came to the event and sang several Christmas carols. Other activities during the event included vendors, cookies and hot chocolate, a craft for children and visits with Santa.
Photo by Crystal Reed
Handmade Decorations
For this Christmas tree entry, the decorations were all handmade and included snowflakes, round plaid fabric ornaments and a large snowflake tree topper. In total there were ten trees decorated by schools, individuals and businesses that were auctioned off.
Photo by Crystal Reed
Tree Decorating Contest
During Christmas in the Park in Lovington there were ten trees that were decorated and auctioned off. Trees were decorated by residents, schools and businesses. The tree pictured was decorated by the Lovington Grade School Student Council and they were the school winner. Residential winner was a tree decorated by Tracy Garmon and Alexandria Poe. Winner in the business category was TGM. Themes included board games, Star Wars, angels, Willy Wonka, and others.
Photo by Crystal Reed
Santa Photo
Santa was at Christmas in the Park on Saturday, November 26 in Lovington posing for photos and hearing requests from children and adults. He arrived at the park in style on a Lovington Fire Department fire truck.
Photo by Crystal Reed
Listening to Christmas Wishes
Santa heard requests from children during Christmas in the Park in Lovington. Here he talks to one of the local children.
Photo by Crystal Reed
Creating a Snowman Ornament
A young child draws a carrot nose on her snowman ornament during Christmas in the Park in Lovington with assistance from her mother. This is one of several activities that was going on that day.
Photo furnished
ALAH Illinois State Scholars
Arthur-Lovington-Atwood-Hammond High School recently announced the Class of 2023 Illinois State Scholars. They are Josie Hale, Alisha Frederick, Kaylee Schrock, Emma Edwards, Connor Edmonds, Clay Seal, and Charley Condill (not pictured). Students are selected based on their outstanding academic achievement and SAT scores.
•November 30, 2022•
by Crystal Reed
The Sullivan City Council approved a Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Sullivan and Agri-Fab. The memorandum involves an unused three-phase pad mount 1500 KVA transformer that was previously provided by the city. The city has requested possession of the transformer for use in another location. Agri-Fab has agreed to this on the condition that the city provide Agri-Fab with an equivalent replacement transformer. Commissioner Mike Fowler said they need permission from the company to move the transformer.
In attendance was Bob Ingram who asked whether the replacement transformer would be new or refurbished. According to Commissioner Abbey Sherwood there are two different copies of the agreement. One that was in the packet and one on which the lawyer changed the verbiage which said that it should be a new transformer given to Agri-Fab as a replacement. The transformer sits at Agri-Fab because they have vendors who require them to keep one in place should the one being used have a breakdown or malfunction. Read More