No human remains were found yesterday as fire officials combed the remains at the former Land of Lincoln Goodwill building in Springfield.

The site was the location of the largest fire in Springfield in over 40 years, and firefighters were worried there were remains of homeless people squatting in the building left inside after it burned to the ground.

The State Journal Register reports that four cadaver dogs from the McLean County Emergency Management Agency and the St. Clair Task Force spent shifts traversing the rubble and remaining buildings on Enos Street between 10th and 11th streets yesterday. Springfield Fire Chief Brandon Blough told the SJR that crews were on the scene of the fire yesterday for a little over 5 hours and turned up nothing definitive.

On Tuesday, fire officials told the Springfield media that they had located the last of the people that they believed to be in the building at the time of the fire.

A joint criminal investigation by authorities in Pike and Calhoun counties yielded the arrest of two individuals on Tuesday.

According to a press release from the Pike County Sheriff’s office, on Tuesday, he Pleasant Hill Police Department, Pike County Sheriff’s Department, and Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office conducted a criminal investigation in Pleasant Hill.

As law enforcement officials were conducting surveillance on a residence in Pleasant Hill, they observed the suspect leave the residence and drive-off. Law enforcement officials followed the suspect to a local establishment.

Subsequent to the investigation, authorities arrested 43 year old Conel H. Rogers III of Pleasant Hill for unlawful possession of a stolen firearm, possession of a firearm by a felon, possession of ammunition by a felon, possession of methamphetamine, and possession of drug paraphernalia. Rogers was further cited by the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Department for felony theft of a firearm and unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon. Pike County Sheriff David Greenwood says the Calhoun charges are unrelated to the Pike County incident.

A passenger in Roger’s vehicle, 29 year old Heather A. Shoemaker of Pleasant Hill was also arrested for possession of a stolen firearm, possession of a firearm without a valid FOID Card, possession of methamphetamine, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Following their arrest, law enforcement officials followed up with the investigation and executed a court-authorized search warrant at a residence in the 600 block of Brant Street in Pleasant Hill. During execution of the warrant, Greenwood says 3 additional firearms were seized along with ammunition.

Rogers was further charged with the possession of the firearms located in his residence.

Both Rogers and Shoemaker are lodged in the Pike County Jail. Both are due for first appearances in court on January 3^rd.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources Conversation Police and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services are also said to have assisted in the investigation.

Morgan County State’s Attorney Gray Noll will have an additional post in the upcoming year.

Noll says his colleagues in the Illinois State’s Attorneys Association have named him the president of the association for the upcoming year: “It’s definitely an honor. The Illinois State’s Attorneys Association Conference was held two weeks ago in Oak Brook, Illinois. My colleagues around the state were kind enough to bestow upon me the honor of being president of that association for the next year. I look forward to taking on that responsibility. Like I said, it’s very much an honor that my colleagues think that highly of me.”

The association is a bipartisan organization comprised of all elected state’s attorneys in Illinois whose purpose is to promote the orderly administration of justice and enforcement of the law. Noll will also direct the association’s legislative committee, which reviews and initiates legislation designed to effectively prosecute criminals and prevent crime.

Noll has been the Morgan County State’s Attorney since his appointment in 2016. Noll will succeed Champaign County State’s Attorney Julia Rietz to the position of president of the association.

The new 15^th District Congresswoman says she will ask for the impeachment of President Joe Biden over concerns about the nation’s border security.

Republican Congresswoman Mary Miller said in a tweet on Wednesday that President Biden must be impeached for “erasing our nation’s borders and allowing our country to be invaded by human traffickers and drug cartels.”

She says that Biden has betrayed his oath of office by failing to enforce immigration laws passed by Congress.

This is not new territory for Miller as she co-sponsored a resolution in October for articles of impeachment put forth by Georgia Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene that was introduced in January 2021 saying Biden had abused the power of the office of President through enabling bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors by allowing his son Hunter Biden to influence the domestic policy of a foreign nation and accept benefits from foreign nationals in exchange for favors. That resolution was referred to a House subcommittee last March and has seen no movement since.

House Republicans have introduced 9 separate impeachment resolutions since Biden took office that have all stalled in committees.

Miller will become part of the Republican majority in the U.S. House when the new Congress is seated next month.

There was no opposition filed against the special service area for EMS services in southern Scott County.

The Scott County Times reports that no petitions were filed in the 60-day filing period after the Scott County Commissioners moved forward with the creation of the area. The special service area passed as an advisory referendum during the November General Election.

The Scott County Commissioners were supposed to set up the tax levy in a special meeting yesterday afternoon, but due to discrepancies and boundary questions, was not able to get it completed. The levy question now will bring into question if the special service area will receive tax money for funding in 2023.

The Scott County Times also reports that Scott County Supervisor of Assessments Julie Moore will need to get the levy prior to January 13th so she can mail property assessments to property owners in the county. The assessments will be published on January 17th.

The special service area will serve everything south of the North Scott Fire Protection District, which covers Bluffs and the northern portion of the county.

Springfield Fire Department authorities say that everyone they know about has been accounted for in one of the largest structure fires in Springfield seen since 1979.

The Springfield Fire Department was alerted to heavy fire at 815 North 11th Street in Springfield at about 4:45AM on Christmas Eve. The site was the former home of the International Shoe Company and a Goodwill Outlet store before going vacant in 2013.

Springfield Fire Chief Brandon Blough says that his department spent most of Monday going through rubble in search of any possible human remains: “We did a lot of excavation. We had some heavy equipment brought in on Christmas Eve. The public works did a great job of getting that out there so that we could do some rudimentary search. We did have 3 people during the fire that had been staying in the building that came out and told us that they thought there were some individuals inside. We took that information to our investigators to track those people down. They gave us 8 or 9 names of people who may have been inside.”

WMAY in Springfield reported yesterday that two people that had gone unaccounted for from that 9-person list had finally been found safe. The Springfield Fire Department is still working to bring in a cadaver dog team from the Metro East area to search the debris for signs of any possible victims. Blough says that due to the condition of the building and the size of the fire upon arrival, firefighters were unable to do search and rescue inside the building at the time.

Firefighters faced multiple challenges in battling the blaze on Christmas Eve, including extreme cold and simply the size of the structure, which covered nearly a full city block. Blough says this was a once-in-a-generation fire: “This building was over 40,000 square feet. It was an entire short block from 10th Street to 11th Street, so you’re talking about a big area. We hope that this is a once-in-a-generation fire because they are not something that is easy on our fire department, especially in the conditions that we were dealing with. We have one 33-year veteran that sits on the fire department still with us and he said that in his time that this fire was both the coldest and the largest fire that he’s seen since the 1980s.”

Blough says the handful of firefighters who received frostbite from the fire fight on Christmas Eve are expected to make a full recovery.

According to Blough, based on the building’s size, the city’s biggest fire was the blaze the destroyed the Weaver Manufacturing Company in the 2200 block of South 9th Street in 1979, a fire that Blough’s father was called to at the time.

A cause of the Christmas Eve fire has yet to be determined and remains under investigation. Blough says its reasonable that one of the people who were sheltering in the building were attempting to keep warm in the frigid temperatures and a fire got out of control in the process.

The fire has roiled some Springfield officials. WMAY reports that Springfield Airport Authority chair Frank Vala, who has clashed with Mayor Jim Langfelder in the past, issued an open letter this week questioning why Langfelder didn’t do more to secure the property and relocate squatters before the fire. Springfield City officials say it’s not possible to police every vacant building, and note that some people simply won’t make use of available shelter services. WMAY says that the Heartland Continuum of Care plans a presentation to the City Council next week on its five-year plan to address homelessness in the community in hopes of preventing a similar situation in the future.

Jacksonville School District 117 School Board members said they learned a lot about how other school boards in the state operate and sometimes don’t at the Joint Annual Conference of the Illinois Association of School Boards, the Illinois Association of School Business Officials, and the Illinois Association of School Administrators that took place in mid-November.

Teresa Wilson says the conference was a bit eye-opening when it comes to some boards having dysfunction: “I always find it fascinating that no matter what session you go to, it’s listening to other school board members and the issues that they all have that we do not have; such as public comment time could last an hour and there are people lined up waiting to speak, nasty e-mails and text messages. It just makes me feel very fortunate for the district that we’re in. We have our issues but they are not a constant battleground. We have a pretty cohesive group here.”

Board President Noel Beard says he was amazed to hear about outside political money entering into school board races elsewhere: “This year and last year I did a large-unit district round table, which we are the smallest large-unit district, everybody else was suburbs, collar counties. It was the same thing listening to them talk about their issues that they have – the political money coming in from out of state, from PACs, and from everything on their school board candidates running for elections.”

Wilson says she also attended other presentations about how to be a good mentor to newly elected board members. She says she felt that was extremely important with at least one new board member being voted in during the upcoming April consolidated election.

Beard says the delegate assembly did pass a resolution to ask for legislation from the General Assembly to prohibit outside money from entering into non-partisan school board races in the state.

Recognized as one of the nation’s largest state education conferences, the Joint Annual Conference is a training event for school board members, administrators, and business officials held annually in November in Chicago.

The Morgan County Commissioners are getting the process ready to begin renovations at the Morgan County Courthouse.

The commissioners unanimously passed an ordinance Tuesday morning to authorize over $23,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funding to pay White & Borgognoni Architects of Carbondale for assessment of the windows that occurred this summer at the Morgan County Courthouse.

Commissioner Chair Ginny Fanning says they’ll now begin seeking bids to get the windows replaced: “Mr. White was on the lift with another gentleman this summer taking pictures of all of the windows, and now has all of the plans ready so that we can proceed with finding some possible vendors.”

Fanning says the window replacement is sorely needed. A few of the offices reported during the most recent winter weather snow coming in around the windows into offices. Fanning says the project will help save money: “The [new windows] will be more energy efficient and they will help to keep the courthouse looking good.”

Fanning says the new year will have a few more capital improvement projects from the county’s allocation of ARPA money: “We are thinking that our ARPA funds will have some go towards the Morgan County Jail’s security and lock system’s replacement, and the HVAC system updates over there. We’re hoping sooner than later that there will be some new courtroom lighting upstairs on the second floor.”

In other county business on Tuesday morning, the commissioners passed other general fund bills coming in just over $92,000. They also passed appropriation of funds for the payment of County Engineer Matt Coultas’ salary. The county fits into a special annual program where half of the county’s obligation to the county engineer’s salary can be paid through the county’s motor fuel tax fund. Morgan County is responsible for $70,560 of the county engineer’s salary which totals $117,600. Scott County is responsible for the rest in a memorandum of understanding between the two counties as they share Coultas as their highway engineer.

The MacMurray Foundation and Alumni Association says a historical marker for the college is coming in the new year.

Mac Foundation and Alumni Association Chair David Ekin says that in conjunction with the Illinois State Historical Society, a marker commemorating the college will be placed at the corner of South Clay Avenue and East College Avenue. Ekin says as a result of the generosity of the foundation and the college’s alumni, they will pay to have the marker installed.

Ekin says an online alumni directory will be coming to the foundation’s website some time in 2023. He says that information on how to participate in the portal will be sent out early next year.

Two arrests have been made in connection to a Christmas night shooting in Jerseyville.

At 8:15 p.m. on December 25th, Jerseyville Police officers responded to a report of a shooting at a residence located in the 700 block of North Liberty Street, approximately 3 block west of Jerseyville High School. Upon arrival, officers located a victim who had been shot one time while inside his residence.

Jerseyville Police Chief Brad Blackorby told Riverbender today that the victim was transported from the scene by EMS. The bullet was fired from outside the rear of a residence where it traveled through a window striking the victim. Blackorby says that over the last two days, officers from the Jerseyville Police conducted multiple interviews and a thorough investigation which led to the arrest of two suspects.

29 year old Donald R. Jones, Jr. of Jerseyville was arrested on Tuesday evening on a charge of attempted murder. Jones is currently incarcerated at the Jersey County Jail awaiting a first appearance in court.

Also arrested on Tuesday evening in connection to the case was 19 year old Tyler E. Howland for obstructing justice. Howland also remains lodged at the Jersey County Jail. 

Blackorby told Riverbender that the case remains ongoing and additional charges are pending on both subjects. Jersey County State’s Attorney Ben Goetten issued a statement this evening to Riverbender commending the Jerseyville Police Department for their swift action and “excellent police work in the case.” Goetten says the police presented evidence “to make this an overwhelmingly strong case for prosecution” and Goetten says he “intends to dispatch an attempted murder conviction in this case with the same vigor displayed by the Jerseyville Police Department.”