•March 3, 2016• The Strasburg Lions Club will hold an all you can eat fish fry on Friday, March 11th. The Lions will be serving fried fish, scalloped potatoes, applesauce and slaw from 4:30 to 7 pm at the Strasburg Community Center (East of Marathon Gas Station). The AYCE fish fry will be free will donation. Donations go towards park improvements and upkeep. … Read More
•March 2, 2016• Millikin University’s Symphonic Wind Ensemble will collaborate with the O’Fallon High School Wind Ensemble for an exclusive concert performance, free and open to the public, on Sunday, March 6, in Kirkland Fine Arts Center beginning at 4 p.m. Millikin’s Symphonic Wind Ensemble will perform a variety of musical selections on March 6 including: Copland’s “Hoe Down,” Mackey’s “Redline Tango,” and Arturo Marquez’s “Danzon.” The O’Fallon High School Wind Ensemble, under the direction of Dr. Melissa Gustavson-Hinds, will perform David Delle Cese’s “Inglesina,” Persichetti’s “Divertimento for Band,” Gillingham’s “The Song Shall Never End,” and David Maslanka’s “Symphony No.2.” … Read More
Chopper Mechling Gregory Lynn “Chopper” Mechling, 66, of Lovington passed away at 5:38 a.m. Tuesday, February 23, 2016 in St. Mary’s Hospital in Decatur surrounded by his loving family. Funeral services were held at 2 p.m. Saturday, February 27 in McMullin-Young Funeral Home in Lovington. Burial with military rites by Lovington American Legion Post #429 was in Keller Cemetery in Lovington. … Read More
•March 2, 2016• By Trudy Lieberman, Rural Health News Service What would make your medicines cheaper? That’s a question Americans are asking every time they go to the pharmacy and find the price of a maintenance drug they’ve been taking has doubled or tripled, or that a new medicine, like one of the new diabetes drugs, their doctors have prescribed is beyond their means. Increasingly the answer from the drug industry, which pretty much can charge whatever it wishes, is more patient assistance programs that come in the form of coupons, co-pay cards, or vouchers to help people buy their … Read More
•March 2, 2016• The Lake Land College Community Choir invites the community to attend its annual spring concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 20 in the Lake Land College Theater. The program will open with “How Can I Keep from Singing” by Robert Lowry/Rollo Dilworth, arr., followed by the craft of Greg Gilpin, with “And the Night Shall Be Filled with Music” bringing Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poetry to life. The choir will also perform additional songs from Greg Gilpin’s concert selections. … Read More
Compiled by Bekki Ferguson-Stevens 25 Years Ago This Week Steven Young, son of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Young of Bethany, received his first lieutenant bars Jan. 18. He is currently assistant operations officer for the support battalion at the National Training Center in Ft. Irwin, Cal. Bethany’s Brad Orris recently lettered and played as a defensive lineman for the Eureka College Red Devils. Orris is presently working in the weight room in preparation for next season. A team composed of Bill Kidwell, Lee Griesemer, Maude Dunscomb and Bill Lancaster won the annual Sullivan Open Golf Tournament Feb. 14 at the Six … Read More
Area Agencies Respond •March 2, 2016• By Mike Brothers Moultrie County Emergency Services and Disaster is coordinating an Active Shooter Training exercise with Sullivan schools March 9. Local ESDA Coordinator Jan Haegan said this full scale exercise will involve radio chatter during the time period. “This is an active shooter attempting to enter the school,” Haegan said, explaining the radio conversations will be identified as a simulation, and the general public shouldn’t be alarmed. Haegan also cautioned residents they shouldn’t try to come to the scene of the training exercise. He explained that the area will be restricted with first … Read More
•March 2, 2016• By Jim Nowlan NP Guest Columnist Illinois residents are paying significantly more in taxes and getting less in spending for public schools and state colleges than four decades ago. How does that compute? The answer is that health care costs for the low income (and state workers), pension appropriations and debt service have skyrocketed since 1978, squeezing other government programs. From the pie charts here, readers can see that the slices of the budget spending from all funds for Medicaid and pensions have expanded while those for education and state colleges have shrunk dramatically. Ouch. We must … Read More
Arnold Briscoe Charles ‘Arnold’ Briscoe, 84, of Sullivan, formerly of Findlay, died at 9:45 p.m. Thursday, February 25, 2016 in Sullivan Rehabilitation and Health Care Center. Funeral services were held at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday in Reed Funeral Home in Sullivan. Burial was in Findlay Cemetery. Mr. Briscoe was born May 18, 1931 in Moultrie County, Illinois, a son of Durward and Maurine Wheeler Briscoe. Arnold was a welder and enjoyed woodworking. He married Jean Evelyn Biedert June 9, 1951 in Sullivan, and she preceded him in death November 5, 1997. … Read More