A Jacksonville man has pled guilty to two drug charges stemming from separate arrests over the last year.

48 year old Perry Handy of the 1100 block of East Morton Avenue pled guilty to two counts of possession of methamphetamine less than 5 grams in Morgan County Circuit Court yesterday afternoon.

One charge stemmed from a March 25^th arrest by Jacksonville Police. The second charge stems from an arrest after a traffic crash near Country Club Road on September 20^th.

In the September 20^th incident, Handy crashed a vehicle into 3 mailboxes, blew a tire, and ended up in a ditch in the 900 block of East Morton Avenue.

Handy was sentenced to a stayed sentence of 180 days in the Morgan County Jail with credit for 73 days served concurrent with the March 25^th arrest.

Handy was then placed on 2 years of drug court probation, fined $500, and ordered to pay fees, court costs, and $13.59 in restitution to Jiffi Stop. A third arrest for possession of methamphetamine from July 11^th for possession of methamphetamine along with traffic charges were dropped per the plea.

The Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs announced first quarter 2023 grants today. One West Central Illinois event is on the list.

IDVA announced nearly $350,000 awarded to organizations that provide vital services to veterans including homelessness, and post-traumatic stress treatment, health insurance costs, long-term care, disability benefits, and employment and employment training. The grant is funded by the Winter Winnings Illinois Lottery ticket.

Quincy’s Fishing for Freedom event was awarded $25,000 to support the annual veteran’s fishing tournament. The weekend fishing tournament is centered around veterans and active-duty military affected by serving during wartime. The weekend event covers all expenses for veterans lodging and food. The event is designed to calm the effects of PTSD and/or TBI by getting them into the outdoors for a weekend of relaxation and friendship with others who have served.

Illinois is the first state in the United States to designate 100 percent of net proceeds of a lottery ticket to veterans. Launched in 2006, more than $20 million in grants have been awarded to approximately 400 veterans organizations statewide. The Winter Winnings $2 lottery tickets are sold between November through February and applications are accepted throughout the year. IDVA awards the funds on a quarterly basis in the form of Veterans’ Cash Grants. IDVA’s committee reviews applications and awards grants to groups that have demonstrated proven need. Eligibility is open to government agencies, not-for-profits, veterans’ organizations, and tax-exempt entities currently providing veterans’ assistance or wishing to expand to veterans’ assistance.

Jacksonville School District 117 Superintendent Steve Ptacek is unhappy with the pace of the general contractor on the Washington School renovation project.

Ptacek says that Johnco Construction, based out of Mackinaw, has slowed down its pace on the project since the District 117 school board voted last month to wait on having students return to the building: “We are stressing to the general contractor Johnco that the pace of the school right now needs to be picked up. We only made a decision about a month ago that we were not going to be able to put the kids into the school for this January based upon the delay in the electrical panel that isn’t going to come in until May. Since then, I haven’t seen anywhere near the progress on the school that would have happened with the rest of the school if we were going to have kids in there in January. I’m having to stress to them that us not putting the kids in the building for second semester doesn’t mean pull off the throttle and slow the pace down. That’s something that I’m doing my diligence and stressing the necessity that they need to get the pace back up.”

Ptacek says that the slowing of the pace isn’t the only problem that the project is currently facing: “The electrical panel, they are saying, is right on track to come in May. We do have a back-up plan for the minute we hear about any delays. We would go with two smaller panels and a rental fee to replace that, so we have a back-up plan in place if there are any delays on that. I’m really concerned right now. We’ve got a big issue going on with the bricks that are going up around the gym. If you drive by, you’ll see that one side of the brick is a darker color than the other side of the brick. The brick supplier sent two different lots, and it’s something that I’ve stressed to the company is not acceptable. From my stance and the board’s stance is that the wrong-colored lot is going to have to come down and the proper brick that we signed the contract and the agreement for needs to go up.”

Ptacek didn’t provide a timeline last Thursday on when the correct-color brick is expected to arrive on the site and go up.

Two Greene County fire departments had to fight a fire in a crawl space of a home near Walkerville during overnight hours Sunday.

The White Hall Fire Department was paged out to a structure fire at a 11:22PM Sunday to a residence in the 500 block of Walkerville Road, approximately one mile south of the hamlet of Walkerville in rural Greene County.

White Hall Fire Chief Garry Sheppard says the fire was located and contained to a single room on the ground floor of the home: “It was a structure fire. What had happened was the homeowner had kind of a wood stove fireplace in their front room, and somehow that caught the floor on fire and then got underneath the house in the crawl space. It caught all of the floor joists on fire underneath the house. We had to basically cut out a large section of their floor and remove it so we could get to the fire to put it out. We checked with our infrared cameras and got the temperature down to about 75 degrees and felt safe then. We had to remove a large portion of their front room floor, but nobody got hurt. Basically, the house is still safe except for where he had to cut open the floor.”

Sheppard says when the initial emergency call was paged, the Carrollton Fire Department was dispatched for automatic mutual aid. Fire crews were able to leave the scene at 2:03AM Monday. Sheppard says one of his firemen remained on scene until 3:30AM to monitor for any possible rekindling. No damage amount to the home or contents was reported.

The Pittsfield Police Department announced the arrest of two individuals in a recent drug investigation.

Pittsfield Police Chief Michael Starman says his department requested Pike County State’s Attorney Zachary Boren issue warrants for two individuals as a part of an ongoing investigation into the illegal sales of methamphetamine and controlled substances in Pittsfield.

On December 6^th, Boren’s Office issued warrants for the following suspects:

26 year old Taylor M. Hicks of Liberty was arrested on December 6^th following the issuance of the warrant for two counts of delivery of methamphetamine less than 5 grams. Starman says the charges stem from an ongoing investigation by Pittsfield Police starting in September. The charges allege that Hicks delivered methamphetamine to a subject in Pittsfield. Hicks pled guilty to a single count on December 20^th and was sentenced to 120 days in county jail, 3 years of adult probation, a county fine and restitution. Hicks was given credit for 15 days served in the Pike County Jail. The second charge was dropped per the plea agreement.

44 year old Lisa D. Guthrie of Pittsfield was arrested by Pike County Sheriff’s Deputies on December 16^th for one count of illegal use of property stemming from the same ongoing drug investigation, and failure to appear in Pike County Court for an arraignment for an October arrest for possession of methamphetamine less than 5 grams. The new charge alleges that Guthrie allowed the use of her property to facilitate meth use and distribution in September. Guthrie remains held at the Pike County Jail on bond for both charges. She is next due in Pike County Court on January 3^rd.

Homeowners in Illinois have a new law when it comes to buying a fire alarm on January 1st.

Jacksonville Fire Chief Doug Sills says the General Assembly updated the law in 2017: “The state legislature, beginning the first of January 2023, has change the smoke detector law affecting residents within the State of Illinois. On the first, any smoke detector purchased in the State of Illinois must be a sealed unit that has a 10-year lifespan.”

Sills says there are a couple of reasons for the needed changes to the smoke detector law: “There are two reasons for [the changes]. One, the removal of batteries from smoke detectors has been an ongoing problem for a lot of years – people removing the batteries because, either, the detector is sounding or they need the battery for another device; so therefore, they have made it a sealed unit. The 10-year lifespan on that is also the recommendation for the overall lifespan of a smoke detector. Even if you have the older, battery replacement unit, it is still recommended that the smoke detectors be replaced every 10 years due to dirt, dust, and things like that which builds up in the unit causing it to be less sensitive.”

Sills says if you still have a good working battery-operated fire alarm, you don’t have to take it down and find a replacement on January 1^st. He says that when you are ready to replace the unit, it will be with the new 10-year sealed battery units.

The law does have some exemptions for homes built after 1988 that already have hardwired smoke alarms and homes with wireless-integrated (Bluetooth linked) alarms.

Sills recommends that if you are in the market for a new fire alarm for your home, buy a combined carbon monoxide and fire detection unit.

Members of the Winchester Ministerial Association recently presented members of the Winchester EMS with a $1,500 check.

The check was the proceeds from the first annual Scott County First Responders Day held on October 15^th. The celebration of the county’s first responders was the brainchild of Winchester Assembly of God Pastor Cindy Colbert.

Colbert says the appreciation of the county’s first responders was well-received and was successful due to many partners. She says there are hopes of expanding the event next year: “We hope to [do it again]. We’ll know more as time draws closer, and we’ll see which different branch of the first responders needs the funds. We will for sure raise funds for one branch or the [event], but the event itself will be free. It’s the plan as long as we have the sponsors. We had many people kick in and sponsor this year’s event and make it possible. We had a lot of volunteer help. It was very much appreciated from what I’ve been told directly.”

Colbert says that they will talk with all the county first responder groups in the fall next year to set a date for the next appreciation day so that as many members can attend: “This is a farming community. Many other cities can schedule a particular date for an event like this each year. Around here you got to work around schedules and work with our farmers. May of our EMS volunteers and our fire department volunteers are farmers, so we will work to find a date that works for their schedule.”

This year’s celebration featured several donations from the surrounding Scott County community organizations, businesses, and churches. First responders got a free meal and a free Bible thanking them for their service to Scott County.

The Jerseyville Police Department is investigating an overnight shooting.

The shooting occurred in the 700 block of North Liberty Street, approximately 3 blocks west of the high school, according to a press release.

Jerseyville Police officials said in the press release that they believe the incident was isolated. The incident remains under investigation, and Jerseyville Police say no further information is available at this time.

Anyone with any information about the incident is asked to contact the Jerseyville Police Department at (618) 498-21-31.